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Favorite song, and the opening track on "One Zillion Guitars". This one was written in one day, and is the most current tune as well. The first (fast) solo was put down while I was chewing on lunch... I just wanted to quickly fill that space in the song with anything, to signify there would be a little guitar solo there. At first I gawked at what I heard, but I started to really like it. After that, I was tweeking more guitar licks on the recorder, and ended up with half-erased guitar solo stuff, which sounds even stranger, and as weird as it sounded, I liked it also! No microphones used on this recording; just one VS-1680 and the Roland keyboard for drums/bass.
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Along with "Door Of Fire", these were the most recent additions to the CD. Written about 2 months before the CD release. I played around with acoustic guitars for the basic rhythm track, and I really wanted that to work. But the song didn’t seem to accept the sound of acoustics in place of the electric rhythm tracks. But this kind of thing is exactly what I like about music: it is always a mystery. There are few analytical anecdotes with reliable predictive value. The best songwriters and players do not “crack the code". Rather, they learn to live in the midst of what they cannot control or understand. By developing the ability to withstand the fire of unknowing, they are able to bring jewels from the oven of creation. My head hurts.
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Recorded with one Roland VS-1680, one Roland keyboard along with Cakewalk for MIDI. No microphones used. The chorus is all right-hand tapping, moving between the high E string and the B string. The hard part wasn`t playing it; but deciding what melody to play. "Mysterious Leaving" is a remembrance of a place I visit often; above the 9 to 5 job and rent and mowing the lawn. From the place where this music was written, everything in life looks small, and if you can believe it, beautiful too. After visiting this `other place` (thru the trance of this song), I began referring to reality as the "hilarious perfect world." But when we are here, believing this is all there is, life seems anything but hilarious or perfect. When the show is over, we will discuss this more.
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Recorded and produced using one Roland keyboard and a single Roland VS-1680. I really wanted to go over top with multiple tracks of acoustic guitar melodies here. The beginning part was taking me to a strange feeling, (which is why it reoccurs many times in the song). It reminded me of the beginning of a classic Who song. The electric guitar is actually a cheap Jackson beginner electric guitar with it`s original pickups. Somehow, it seems to sounds really cool (it "crackles"). No microphones were used on ANY instruments on this song. I used VS-1680 guitar preamps for the loud Marshall guitar sounds.
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This is a favorite of mine. Produced using one Roland VS-1680 and a single Roland keyboard, and Cakewalk for MIDI. Absolutely no microphones used in the recording of song. The beginning almost has a southern flavor, but I like it... and one evening the chorus melody just got played; more accidentally than anything else. For me the challenge isn`t so much finding the melody, as in recognizing it when it knocks on your door. When I heard this one, I knew that there was something there in terms of a `chorus.` Once that was developed, it was sounding Santana-like (at that time, I had never owned a Santana CD. Coincidently, I ended up doing the final mix the night Santana won 239 Oscars for his incredible new CD. I wanted to make it not a Santana song, so at the end I let loose with some stuff that is not his style at all. Most of the guitar leads on the song are first-takes. Not by choice; I tried to `perfect` them later, but could not duplicate the original tone. All for the better, as it forces me to accept the imperfections of my playing.
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24-track recording. The idea for the main (intro) lick came to me while driving. I really like this particular solo; we began calling it the "angry solo" when mixing, because it sounds sort of vicious/angry. The fast parts during the verse are actually doubled-up an octave lower, to get that Al Di Meola sound. For some reason, guitar licks sound faster if you double them up with octaves. The bridge worried me a little... it did have drums when we recorded the track in Los Angeles, but it was sounding cool during mixdown when we took the drums out of the bridge. I thought maybe it was too much like falling off a cliff without the drums. I opted to take a chance, and leave it with a bit more of a dramatic approach (no drums in bridge).
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Another song recorded in my bedroom/living room using Roland VS-1680 technology. This tune was written while living in Los Angeles about 5 years ago. It was originally a straight ahead hard-rock tune. I recently rearranged it, and gave it a "unplugged" sort of sound, which seemed to give the song a frontal lobotomy. So I added a more up-to-date rhythm sound, and played with lots of more detailed embellishments. I love the way this one turned out. Lots of the bridge (with the acoustic guitars) is pretty much note-for-note of the first version from years ago. I have done very little wah-wah peddel work on this new CD, but I am excited about doing more in the future.
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This 24-track recording illustrates the massive amount of brain damage that can result from high doses of AC/DC in your growing-up years... the entire world and all of life becomes an excuse to pound power chords. Cool. I was imagining what it would sound like if Jeff Beck played lead on the tune. The final solo at the end was fun to put down. Using the Roland VG-8, I found a cool 12-string rock guitar sound. The solo was originally more the typical rock-blues rip-it-up butt-rock style, but that was feeling too predictable. The opening lick is done with hammer-ons on the A-string. It`s actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it.
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This is a 24-track recording which began in Los Angeles and ended up here in Seattle. It is pretty much a straightforward balls-to-the-wall melodic guitar song. Maybe the most major-key melody I have written. I could have added embellishments in the studio, but it seemed to `hold it`s own` without extra polish and parts. The drums are mixed very `in your face.` We used a harmonizer on the lead guitar tracks. This is the only hard-rock track featuring my own bass playing, played on my ugly pink Carvin bass, which everyone makes fun of. I tell them I got a fantastic deal on it. They believe me. "Secret City" features Peter G on drums and was mixed by Mike Foss at Stepping Stone Recording in Seattle.
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Features basically one guitar part which is doubled. I plugged my Washburn EA-26 acoustic-electric directly into the VS-1680, and added some simple percussion via MIDI.
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For me, this is a strange way to strum the guitar (I make it look difficult). I actually was checking out a guitar for a student, and my hands just started playing this as I was babbling. I realized it was weird, and liked it. So I taped it (always have a cheap cassette recorder around). After the basic rhythm tracks were down in my studio, and I hadn`t found a melody I liked, I was sort-of daydreaming and listening... and started playing the melody, which is the first melody you hear at the top of the song. I wish the tunes that came out of me were one style, it wouldn`t confuse the music industry people. But for now, I will just listen to, and record what I hear in my head. Recorded with one VS-1680, one Roland keyboard along with Cakewalk for MIDI. No microphones used in this recording.
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I have been playing this song on vacations and at parks (when I have only one acoustic guitar) for years. So a few days before the CD was to be mastered, I recorded it to see what it would sound like in the studio. I then added a second guitar to the composition. Some of the second guitar parts to the first guitar, but most of it is different in some way.
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I don`t use drugs, but I guess I am guilty of using music to take me places. And when I am constructing my portal to the other world, my one goal, like that of any respectable addict, is to go there as far and as deep as possible. If you can believe it, it took about 3 months to mix that song (adjust volumes, effect settings etc, partly because I was having some equipment challenges). It was basically recorded in my bedroom/living room with a Roland VS 1680. People say they keep hearing new things every time they hear it (listen for the sound of the modem and also the child laughter). I love that, and was going for that kind of experience, like the older Pink Floyd stuff. No microphones were used on any instruments on this song.
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CD Information
