Island

When the going gets tough the tough go hide in their home studio. The pure mechanics of playing especially doing route things like scales can help sooth a racing mind. For me it is good to let my fingers do my thinking from time to time and give my brain a rest.

Link to download the entire Island project in zip archive

C me the invisible man (click on arrow for detail) Electric Guitar, Bass
Every once in a while when I get on an electric guitar I fantasize about being a rock star. This is pretty funny for someone as uncomfortable as I am playing in front of people but there you go. I know I can only do what I can but this song really makes me regret I do not know any drummers. No drum machine or simulated timpani on the Korg is ever going to give this song what it needs. I often am inspired when I hear heavy metal guitarists shredding on their axes. This is me trying to be grown up like them.
mp3 (listen to song online)

At Twilight (click on arrow for detail) Solo Acoustic Guitar
A folk song inspired by that feeling I get when the diminishing sun creates an unreal light at the end of a day.
mp3 (listen to song online)

Bassics (click on arrow for detail) Bass and Electric Guitar
The bass is a blast! In all my compositions I try and give this instrument its due. Every time I pick mine up to compose a bass line I remember Bob Cooper telling me many years ago (when Gord and I were squatting at Candice and his place) that he always listened to the bass line not the guitar. At the time I thought he was crazy. As the years passed I have begun to realize he may be crazy but not for that reason. Even when I did not think anyone would ever hear what I did when I composed a bass line I would always think what would Bob think. In this song I composed the bass line first the guitar is just an add on.
mp3 (listen to song online)

Island (click on arrow for detail) Acoustic Guitar, Bass Vocal Lyrics
OK, I got some shit to work out.
mp3 (listen to song online)

Lost (click on arrow for detail) Electric Guitar, Korg MS-20 through Super Looper and Hydrogen Drum Machine
I injured my hand in the early part of 2014 by doing too many scales. It was a hard time for me as playing is my safe place and my life was a little out of control. Thank goodness for the old Korg MS-20 and Ubuntu Studio. I distracted myself playing with patches and the high-pass/low-pass filters on the Korg and the Super Looper on Ubuntu studio against a electronic drum beat(Hydrogen Drum, Ubuntu Studio). It was both a blast and a great distraction. I later added a guitar track cause, I'm me.
mp3 (listen to song online)

lOST in sPACE (click on arrow for detail) Korg MS-20 (space patch) Hydrogen Drum Machine
This is experimentation with weird patches on a Korg MS-20 pushed through distortion and echo guitar pedals. I had lots of plans for this but in the end decided just not to interfere with its simplistic weirdness. If I was smart I might raise the level of the drum track and try to pass it off as dance music but I'm not smart and many may not agree that it is music.
mp3 (listen to song online)

A Verse in Your Song (click on arrow for detail) Electric Guitar, Korg MS-20 and Vocal Lyrics
This was a painful song to write. In someways I did not want to write it and did not even know what to do with it if I did. Early 2014 the husband of a old friend was diagnosed with brain cancer and the prognosis was he most likely had 6 months to live. The pain they were suffering made me think that this was the outcome of all love. Romantic, familial or the love of a dear friend we all have to face the prospect of abandonment by or abandoning those we cherish. It is the price of love. It is a price we all pay willingly as love is worth any cost. In what might be considered arrogance I tried to write in the words of Tiny a kind man who was worried about his wife but in the end I think I'm trying to talk for all of us. It was my hope the song might give them comfort even though I would probably not have had the nerve to give it to them. In fact Tiny died before I finished the song and I will probably never actually finish it now (as witnessed by absence of the bass). I did share it with my friend as it was because what else could I do?
mp3 (listen to song online)

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