So, skipping the style issue for the time being (I mean, it’s not too bad is it? At least its pretty minimal, mainly white and grey with a bit of red. The irony wanting to get rid of rounded corners and gradients…) Anyway, I thought I’d jump in to some actual *content*. I have some new songs I’ve recorded, in period of November – December 2006. I put up a page about it, but it’s a deep link, so you’d never know unless you had something like, well, this blog to point you there.
By way of background, I play saxophone, piano, synthesizers and other instruments, and have been in many bands and musical projects over the years, doing live performances and studio recordings. Over the last few years I’ve been mainly focused on writing and recording in my home studio. This effort culminated in the release of the CD Buzzy Tonic by the Brothers Zing in summer 2006. You can get it on iTunes, CDBaby, or directly from us via PayPal. Check it out.
Since then, I’ve begun work on a new set of tracks. It’s early in the process and the nature of the follow-up is still taking shape. Maybe it will be a solo project, or another collaboration with my brother, or it might involve other musicians. I’m developing new material but that takes a while. I’ve begun recording a new original called Heat Wave, so watch this space. Meanwhile I am working on a series of covers to investigate specific issues with the recording process. Maybe they’ll end up as bonus tracks or an EP someday.
The first of these is Martha My Dear, a Beatles song off the White Album. It’s a quirky Paul song, very studio-ish in style, with a brass and string orchestra accompanying basically a piano arrangement. I wanted to see if I could map the orchestra to sounds in my own sonic palette, and I re-interpreted it as a bit more electric and synth-y. I was also interested in capturing that “natural chorus” multitrack vocal sound that the Beatles used to such great effect.
As a companion, a B-side if you will, I did a version of Letter From Home by Pat Metheny. I picked this song for a few reasons. Like Martha it’s pretty short, about 2 and a half minutes, but that’s about there the similarity ends. It’s an jazz ballad, ethereal, yearning, and melancholy. I used to play a few Metheny tunes back in the day with Event Horizon, my jazz group, so this is also a bit of a nod to that. On a technical level, I wanted to see how proTools handled a tune that was completely rubato, and with meter changes, with it’s automatic beat tracking tools. It turned out to work OK, but a fair amount of manual assist was required. Now that I have the gist of it, the next one will go quicker.
Enjoy!