Me and Julio – Cover
This is one my favourite Simon and Garfunkel songs. I sang it in this style for some people blues-dancing the other night and thought I’d like to share it. The magic isn’t quite there anymore but it’s still quite fun to play anyway…
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
Serenity
New song that I wrote a few months ago, and refined for a while in singing lessons. This is the third take and I kind of did some extra work on the fly (which is where some tuning issues arise) but overall I’m happy with the song. Plus, I’m just happy to have this recorded after all the technical issues I had trying to get my new M-Audio Delta 1010LT soundcard to work with my X3 Live SPDIF…
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
‘Cause I was Broke
I came up with an infectious beat and just started singing at random. So yeah, a bit of a strange song but hey, I had fun 
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
Vivi Thumb Blues
This song kind of came about by accident due to a conversation I can’t even remember. Anyway, I had a bit of fun with this one and decided to try recording it all in one take without a click track for once.
Ignore the obvious mistakes, it’s late in the evening and I need to work tomorrow m’kay!?
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
More and more I can hear how my electric guitar is just so trashy compared to my acoustic. But not much I can do until I get a better pickup for my acoustic…
Groove Blues
After a lengthy time just getting my website business up and running successfully in Melbourne I’m finally back on my feet and have a bit more time to do some recordings! Not to mention that this is the first week I haven’t felt like death, or haven’t been dancing.
I decided that I’d try doing a bit of an ‘easier’ approach and put up some recordings of music by Jim Snidero released in his Jazz Conception book. This track is the very first one in the book and while very simple took me a surprisingly long time to get running. I think the more I do of this the better/faster I’ll get at the whole recording process so that when I do actually sit down to record something original I’ve got the process down pat.
Anyway, here’s Groove Blues, instrumentation/arrangement by myself, etude by Jim Snidero.
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
Trombone: Wah wah mute (Jo-ral)
Guitar: Acoustic recorded via mic
Drums: Ableton Live Impulse kit. Can I just say I really *hate* how tinny any software drum kit sounds?
In related news I’ve been getting singing lessons (finally!) and next time I do some vocals there should hopefully be a marked improvement!
Zombie Hunter
This new song is the culmination of a year’s worth of work since I released the previous three tracks.
In that time I have put a lot of practice into the guitar, learned a lot about blues from the greats (such as Albert Collins, Robert Cray, Johnny Copeland, Albert King), worked really really hard on my musicality and composition, and have managed to equip myself with the amazing Line 6 Pod X3 Live.
If it wasn’t for the X3 I’d still be stuck wondering if I’ll ever be able to afford an electric guitar amp, a bass guitar amp, a PA box, and a CAB line-up! You can hear it on this track in all its glory. The only major problem with the X3 is its lack of support for Ubuntu Linux otherwise I’d be using it as my sound card everywhere! Where is it Line 6?
The inspiration for this piece came from playing (you guessed it) Left 4 Dead, a co-op zombie survival game. I thought it would be quite fun to try and capture some of the anguish that a lone protagonist would feel as a result of being caught up in such a dreadful situation. And, I thought that the blues was uniquely suited to giving this song the proper feel also.
I learned slap bass just for this song, and managed to record the final tracks today despite a congested head and consistent coughing fits! Maybe a head cold is all you need to try and get a convincing blues sound
So without further ado I give you Zombie Hunter, the culmination of a month’s hard work. Click on the sidebar player or listen to it here!
Awesomeness in a Bucket
I had a bit of fun with this one. Thought I’d add some falsetto, a bit of guitar solo-ing finally (!) and a bit of emotion through the voice…
What You Wish For
The following song was one that just popped into my head this afternoon!
It is also the debut of my new guitar – it makes a fantastic sound 
Of course there are the usual problems (my guitar playing is not fantastic yet), and it feels like it could go longer, but it’s 10 PM and I need to start work tomorrow… It’s for this reason I didn’t include my trombone but eh, them’s the breaks.
Kickin’ Back
This track is my very first attempt at a full recording. I just completed it today with a sore throat, so if you notice the high notes are a little flat, that’s probably why
Everything was produced in FL Studio. I recently kitted out my office/studio with a new Shure SM58 mic and stand so it has really helped with the quality of voice and trombone recording! My Edirol UA-4FX USB soundcard is also excellent as it gives me all the inputs I need – this is the first time I’ve really done anything more than play back music with it!
This song is the first full-length track I have composed (though I have done some mini jam tracks which were quite frankly very bad a few years ago).
Derek de Sousa of Guitar Player Studios has offered to cover the bass part for this song so there may be an additional version up here soon. Enjoy!
