So... Things are a bit nuts since my last entry. Everyone is sequestered in their homes. People are dying at an increased rate. The president is a racist, sexist, xenophobic, narcissistic jackass who will get tens-of-thousands more people killed with his idiocy than if someone else were president at this moment. 

Work from home has been crazy. I am in a spot where I have people, who work for people, who work for people, who work for people, who work for me. I support a business that creates money each year to the tune of a blockbuster film. Thousands of products roll under me... but my people are great, they work hard, and I miss them.

On top of that, I am not 100% certain that I didn't have Coronavirus already. I came home from NYC about 3 weeks ago to find myself floored 3 days later with an upper  respiratory infection. I actually had a conversation with my doctor about it, but there were no tests available. I was fairly ill with some of the symptoms for a while, and eventually recovered, with my wife coming down with similar symptoms two weeks later, still unable to get tested.

And through all of that, I still want to make music, in my specific hacky way. This mindless challenge has created a parameter that has been a great antidote to the madness of the past month.

My goal this year is to record a song each month. I finished and published the March song, just under the wire, even everything going on. This song continues my journey into the realm sampling from public domain films as sample sources. these old films are wonderfully strange, and this one is stranger than the average strange film. "Bloody Pit of Horror" is a film from 1965 that is every bit of 1965 Technicolor vivid reds mixed with bizarre sadomasochistic shenanigans. It's a terrible film that becomes fairly surreal to the point of being more interesting than it really is. I love sampling from films old enough that people speak in peculiar old-fashion colloquialisms and accents. 

So, for your listening pleasure, check out "Homesick Creeps"... here, on Apple Music, Soundcloud, and on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Google Play before the end of the week... and stay safe!

Several months have past, and I've completed three songs since my last blog-post: ":No Ghost Ships", "Luna Three" and "Loup Garou", which means "werewolf" in French. It is December 27th, and I am off work for the rest of the year. I believe I will squeak one more song out before January 1st. That will put the song tally for 2019 at 8 songs, and 29:38 of music (not including the length of the currently unwritten 8th song... so the total will be more like 34:00 minutes of music).

I'm very happy with not only the continuation of my music-making in general, but I am also delighted with my continued progress. Looking (and listening) back, I feel that I am coming into my own as a drum programer and sampler (thanks Akai MPC-X!). I feel that my evolution to public domain samples took a little bit of time for me to find my voice, but I got there. I changed my technique for mining samples. Now I watch the entire movie, and sometimes construct a truncated abstraction of the actual narrative of the film. Even though the source material is often virtually unknown in pop culture, I find the samples to be pretty compelling.

I am also quite pleased with my guitar-playing on this year's recordings. I definitely have some ruts that I could stand to work harder to avoid... but in general, I  am not my least favorite guitarist. I also picked up a few really nice guitars, and they have all seated nicely into my style.

Lastly, I started mining some of my own artwork for covers lately. The last four singles have covers constructed this way. I think it brings an additional layer of  creativity to the works. I might have to start painting a bit more moving forward.

 

...soo... in general, pretty solid year for MechaniCrash. Let's see how song #8 turns out!

I finished a new song today called "It's Called For...". It features a lot of samples of Audrey Hepburn, in the film "Charade".

I've written often about my struggles with sampling. I am no singer. I can create the whole song, but have no vocals to provide. I grew up in the 1980's where Hip Hop artists used samples as a palate of pop-culture references that furthered the meaning of the song. Since then, the world has clamped down on sampling from obviously owned works. I used samples to fill in the gaps left by my lack of vocal ability. It took me a while to realize that sampling was a non-starter if I intended to release the song. In the mean time, I sampled a lot, making pop-culture references, and developing a style dependent on samples. It wasn't until I tried to press a vinyl single that I realized that I had hit a wall. I couldn't sign the wavers necessary to release my songs with the samples I used. I didn't have the legal right. I was at a stalemate. Then I had an epiphany. Many films and TV shows are in the public domain. I could use these.

I rehash this story because one of my earlier songs was a song called "Own Me". In it I heavily sampled Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". It was an early song. It was a rough song... but it was a good song. It has fallen into a category of songs I shouldn't publish because of its sampling of works I do not have rights to use. It wasn't even making much of a pop-culture reference, as it isn't a famous line or anything... except for the pop-culture reference of her distinctive voice. 

The new song, "It's Called For..." is using Audrey Hepburn again, sampled from a movie called "Charade", which is in the public domain, and thus free to use. I was able to sample her being every bit of Audrey hepburn, with a little bit of cary grant for good measure... and I can release it...

 

It's been more than a year since my last entry, or my last recording. I was back in the studio this weekend, and blew off the cobwebs with a new track. 

This song is called "Stay Away From Wasps", and it is a funky little guitar-driven song with samples from a 1959 public domain film called "The Wasp Woman". There isn't anyone particularly famous in it. I was more sucked in by the subject matter. It is about a woman who heads up a cosmetic company. She was formerly a model, and as she approaches 40, is disappointed by the effect her aging is having on her appearance. She is approached by a guy who convinces her that the key to returning her youth is injections of royal jelly from wasps. Needless to say, mayhem ensues, culminating with her in a full wasp-head (Think Vincent Price in "the Fly"), eating her friends. the samples I chose aren't nearly as dramatic, but everyone speaks in that droll sort of cadence that people in the 50's used to use.

Also of note is that all of the guitar work on this track was done on a new guitar that I haven't had a chance to record with until now. It is a Fender Limited Edition guitar called the "Meteora". Its a strange Telecaster with a radically different body. It's a pretty high-spec guitar, and played every-bit like one. It was really fantastic... and it kinda looks like a wasp...

The song "Stay Away From Wasps" can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube, or here on this site!

It is the end of February, and I have participated in my third RPM Challenge, finishing an entire album during the month of February. For my friends who draw, it is sort of the music-version of "Inktober". February is usually a rough month for me. Typically I have at least one week-long business trip. This shortens the already-short month to a down and dirty 21 days to write and record ten songs OR thirty-five minutes of music. 

It has been four years since the first time I participated , and I have recorded roughly 30 songs between that batch and this batch. The difference in my knowledge, abilities and confidence made this version of the challenge much more about creative choices than technical execution. This is a nice piece of evolution on which to reflect.

I solved my technical issue of copyrights-on-samples by using only public domain sample-sources. I fully implemented my new AKAI MPCX as both a sampler and a drum machine, the latter really upping my beat-game. And... I have progressed as a guitarist, doing more competent solos, and guitar work in general. 

Most importantly, I like the results. One wants to think one is getting better at one's hobbies, but when the attempt is to create something with some artistic merit, It is very satisfying to catch myself humming some of these songs. Music is so visceral... the technical details often don't add up to a song someone actually likes.

So... check out the album "The Witness". You can get it here, listen on Soundcloud, or buy it on iTunes today, or it should be up on Spotify in a couple of days.

It is New Year's Day, 2018. It's a good day to reflect. 

I'm approaching 50 recordings in the four years since taking on the "MechaniCrash" project. I'm still having fun, and pushing myself creatively. I'm incrementally a better musician and producer than I was a year ago... at least a little bit.

I had a moment of moral enlightenment last year, and moved from sampling anything to only sampling things in the public domain. Even the images I use for album-art are of my own creation, or in the public domain.

My trusty old Roland SP-808 Zip-disk-driven sampler finally shit the bed, and was replaced by the magnificent Akai MPC-X, a machine that I am absolutely not worthy of. I can already do everything I was doing on the old Roland, and seem to only be using 0.05% of the machine's ability.

Yesterday I finished the 12th recording of 2017. Besides recording, I expanded distribution. You can now find some MechaniCrash songs on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, and Pandora. I pressed a vinyl single that can be ordered here.

Two of this year's songs ("20th Century Regrets", and "I'll Try It") included donated drum-tracks from my friend Krister Friday, from Chicago. Thanks Krister! Keep sending me beats!

All in all, not a bad year. Now what?

Hear all of the 2017 MechaniCrash songs here, or on a SoundCloud playlist here:

MechaniCrash 2017 Soundcloud playlist

Look for MechaniCrash songs on iTunes, Spotify, and wherever-else...

Happy new year!

 

 

 

 

Today I post/publish another song, "Like To Pick", after what feels like a bit of a drought, but in actuality isn't. This is the tenth song I've recorded this year... not too bad for it not being my day-job, and not too droughty.

It feels like a drought because eight of those songs were recorded in February. I recorded one in August/September, and that song, "Kathleen" is the culprit. It was a tough song. I just couldn't get it to a place where I loved it. It took three times as long to record as a typical MechaniCrash song, and even after all of that, I was left unsatisfied with it. I forced my way through it, to finish it, and posted it anyway. I really believe that the way forward in any creative endeavor is to finish things. There is so much to gain by even finishing work you are less than satisfied with, to gain the experience. I have also learned, especially when applying this to my much-more-dominant visual art skills, that the ones that I loathed the most were often ones that others loved... so I finished and published "Kathleen".

Starting "Like To Pick", with "Kathleen" finally birthed, was absolutely refreshing. It went quickly, and I like it a lot. So, here, for your listening pleasure (...possibly) is "Like To Pick". It has a lot of recently acquired guitars ( a 70's Greco Bass, a Korean Danelectro reissue, and a project guitar I made from parts...) on it, and has samples from the 1958 film "The Screaming Skull". I only sample from public domain sources these days... lol.

 

I got my first vinyl single pressed ("The Strong" b/w "Fez"), and delivered in a rainbow of colored vinyl. It is a truly satisfying thing. I plan to send some out as a promotional device. I printed up some cards to help turn the vinyl single into the centerpiece of a promo kit. I also added a "DPK (Digital Press kit) page to the site. Why? MARKETING! My friend hooked me up with some logos and stuff, and it all looks way more pro than the effort deserves.

My trusty Roland SP808 sampler (powered by Zip Discs) died in February after nearly 20 years of service. Its place in my studio has finally been filled by the mighty Akai MPCX Professional. Fucking-hell this thing a beast. It seems to do a bit of everything, and thus might take a minute to wrap my head around. 

With the addition of the Akai, which, despite it's depth, is proving to be rather intuitive and yielding some immediate results, I am back in the studio and getting back to a regular recording cadence. I was off for a few months, and am feeling fresh and ready. It might take a bit longer to get the first few songs out, but I have no deadline. Full speed ahead.

...looks like fucking NASA in that room...

It's been about a month since my last post, and my last recording. The past six months have been an intense period of recording. I initially started recording, and sharing recordings online, as a creative exercise. The purpose was to become better at it by forcing myself to finish recordings, and to make them available to be heard. This would also make them available to be critiqued too, but that would be part of the process. 40 songs later, I decided that I should evolve to more challenges. I decided that my next big thing would be to actually create a physical product. No band I have ever played with has ever produced a physical offering (record, CD, etc...) of a song that I participated in its recording. After finishing my last recording in February, I decided to piece together an album, and press it!

Well... long story short... I prepared the files, designed the album at, and was all ready to go. I uploaded everything to the record-presser's site. The last stage was a form to  certify ownership of the materials uploaded. Then it hits me right in the face. I use samples heavily. Samples from recognizable pop-culture references. I never cared if they were others intellectual property because I wasn't selling or distributing anything. I thought of it as found pieces in collage hanging in my home that only my friends would see. Because pressing a record was a bit of an afterthought, I had prepared a work that wasn't mine to reproduce, even if intended just to give away. I stopped. The image above is the in-progres art for the unreleasable album.

An interesting sidebar is that my beloved Roland sampler, mainstay of my recording arsenal for 20 years fatally broke down before I finished my February recording project. The situation forced me to complete several songs without samples. To my surprise, they turned out quite well. I realized I was probably using recognizable samples, and the cultural frames of reference they contained, as a bit of a crutch to distract from too much attention on my actual playing. These sample-free songs forced me to rethink my sampling approach.

In the end, I decided to only press a vinyl single of two songs that have no intellectual property issues. Those files have been sent, and the order delivered!

I also decided to move forward with a new sampling mandate. Creating the next block of songs would be done in a manner that only samples public domain sounds, or sounds I created myself, or otherwise own. The goal would be to create a body of work that I own enough to reproduce, distribute, and even sell, if I want. This is a meaningful evolution of my process, and I look forward to the challenge.