Recording - April 2015 - 32

To Be Or Not To Be?
So a new journey had begun. First you
learn the main open chords, and write in all
sorts of combinations. D G A. A G D. Oh,
here's a good one: G D A... and backwards again! Play and practice. No, not
your dance moves. Practice your chords,
scales, pitch, study melodies, memorize The
Beatles catalogue to learn what songwriting
is, as playing "Twist and Shout" and "A
Hard Day's Night" is an easy way to start.
I had nothing more than an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, a Fender transistor
amp, an SM58 microphone, and whatever I could find around the house to beat on
and borrow from friends. To this day, I
don't like making demos, or spending too
much time on tracks. I would just write and
play as I recorded. I'd fill up 4 tracks, then
bounce the 4-track mix onto a DAT tape,
and back to the 4-track. Sometimes I'd do
this four or five times on the same track,
but most importantly, I learned to play the
guitar during the process.
All guitar playing and vocals were
recorded through the transistor amp's
headphone jack, so that reverb on voice
and instruments could be used, as I could
not afford more than two pedals: a BOSS
tremolo and flanger. You know, the green
and purple ones. Oh, and two synths I
got at a garage sale for $3 each.

There are sound effects from royalty-free
CDs, ducks quacking, morse code, police
sirens, guitar noises, backwards tape noises... and of course my favorite, banging
on one of those popcorn canisters. You
know those big aluminum cans that have
like 3 different types of popcorn in them?
It makes a wicked sound when you turn it
upside down, put a mic over it into an
amp, crank the distortion and bang on it
like a snare drum. All bass lines were
played on my Telecaster's low E string.
I focused on playing skills and writing
skills together, not spacebar and Undo
skills. When it was completed, I called the
11-track CD 9 Demos On A 4 Track. (Why
9? Why not?)
Upon its completion, an English bass
player by the name of John Taylor, whose
local band from Birmingham in the UK had
done quite well (anyone heard of Duran
Duran?), embraced my spontaneous collection of late-night distorted tunes. Many of
these songs were licensed to television
shows, and are still generating performance
royalties today. It cost more to create the
album art than to make the album. Oddly
enough, none of the lyrics really make
sense, as they were written in "code". (For
a long time, I never felt comfortable exposing my personal thoughts and feelings.
Now it's a free-for-all.) It was mainly the
musical ideas and sonics that attracted the

listeners. One song a night, recorded on the
fly, on a 4-track... and voilà.
The point? Very little "actual gear" was
used to make these tunes, and yet they
launched a career in television music
because my true focus was on songwriting
and "feeling". Now, I am well aware that
it's easier said than done. Like every opportunity, a lot of it is timing, and not everyone
can create something unique that touches
some nerve.
With that in mind, though, I've said it
before in these pages and I'll say it again...
if you try hard at whatever you do, study,
play, write, practice, network and persevere, the laws of nature and physics will-
in some form or another-provide some
kind of path. These opportunities continued
for me, and continue onwards today. I've
just wrapped up a soundtrack I produced
for a multimedia project with director/photographer Sandro and actor/director John
Malkovich. We collaborated with all sorts
of cool people, but more on that in a future
article.
Curious about what that CD ended up
sounding like? Here you go. Have a listen
at this link, which has sections of each of
the songs quickly spliced together
(http://bit.do/RecordingMagEA9Demos
), and see if you can hear the following:
~ banging on a distorted popcorn canister
~ royalty free sound effects CDs

http://www.bit.do/RecordingMagEA9Demos

Recording - April 2015

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