Books Of Blood (Ode To Clive Barker)

This piece was written and recorded over the last two days. It came together very quickly and I am as pleased as I can be, when I don't hear it's little sonic imperfections jump out at me. So I try to listen to it as a nonchalant listener would and appreciate it for what it is. But you want hear the back story, right?

When I was a teenager, I found the graphic novel of "The Yattering & Jack" by Clive Barker in the local library. I fell in love with it immediately. The premise was simple but fun. Idiotic man, Jack Polo (a gherkin salesman, how colourful) is tormented by a demon. Said man is too stupid (or is he) to recognise there is a malevolent presence in his house and this leads to the demon being pushed to the edge of it's own sanity. No spoilers, I promise! But I noted the piece came from "Books Of Blood" and added it to my must read list. Long list that it is.

I've always admired Barker's work be it writing, films or art. There's a beauty to it. In a brutal way, but it's always there beneath the visceral, sexual imagery. It's rooted in the Gothic style but it's equal parts fantasy as well as horror. "Hellraiser" is probably his best known film. But there are many others based on his short stories. "The Forbidden" became "Candyman" for example. Back to the point though. Speed forward a couple of years, I secured a copy of "The Hellbound Heart" and "Books Of  Blood 1-3" from a guy in my local. True story. It's had several name changes over the years, I believe it's now called "The Funky Monkey". (One used to be able to smoke weed without bother in the smoking area. But that was a long time ago, not that I'd know...)

I fell in love with the books, I kept them for a long time. But eventually returned them, it broke my heart. A few years ahead and I met my beautiful soulmate. We would occasionally take random day trips, mostly to Dublin. We still do. But we love to take random shops, think old vinyl and books, the smell alone is perfect. Old paper. (Some people get it, some people don't). I approached a corner in one of these shops and there it was: "Books Of Blood 1-3". It was almost smiling at me. I snatched it up and ran. Well, after paying for it. 

I love this book. It helped me grow up. This piece is inspired by my 3 favourite stories: "The Yattering & Jack", "New Murders In The Rue Morgue" and "Skins Of The Fathers". I called on a few influences for this - Stravinsky, Jarre and Elfman are the most obvious ones. I worked my arse off to get this piece perfect. I'm rightly proud of it and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed writing and producing it. Thanks for reading. For any music tech heads, I'll write how I did it in my next blog.

Moonlight, Murder and Roses Part. I: Gypsy's Kiss

A man sits in an old burlesque gentleman's club. He watches a woman perform for him. She has a shock of red hair, pale skin and green eyes. The lingerie she wears is an unusual mix of burgundy red and green.

He knows the woman. Her name is Selena and she is born of a gypsy linage. Unknown to the punters around him, the man is a priest. And he is in love with the gypsy girl. What's more - she is in love with him. The man is drowsy on whiskey. His eyes grow heavy.

Selena leans in for a forbidden kiss when suddenly the priest finds himself awake in a hall of mirrors. Lightning flashes and thunder rumbles, the frame of the hall resembles the inside of an animal's ribcage. Every so often flashes of the dead appear clawing at the mirrors from the opposite side. Then he spots one with Selena. She appears stuck in the very second their lips were about to  meet. He approaches the mirror. Suddenly she begins to move. Her hands reach up to meet her face. She places a finger in either side of her mouth and proceeds to tear her mouth into a grotesque, bloody smile. She then smashes her hands through the mirror, grabbing his face and plunging her thumbs into his eye sockets....

He awakes outside the club. Dazed, soaked, confused and terrified. His only comfort is the sound of the rain in the night as a vixen screams in the distance.

Moonlight, Murder and Roses Part. I: Gypsy's Kiss

Gypsy's Kiss

So am prepping myself into jumping headlong into my upcoming sound and production course by making myself familiar with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), namely REAPER. Pro Tools is the industry standard, but I'm not rich.

It's pretty much how all music is produced these days and it's about time I got with the programme.
I've learned how to employ virtual instrument plugins and am therefore able to create pieces of music by playing my midi keyboard and using the sampled instruments on EASTWEST Quantum Leap Gypsy & Silk. I've not done anything too extreme to begin with as I've started learning the basics such as panning, reverb and track reversal, but here is a new piece to keep me ticking over. It's made entirely using sampled instruments from EW Gypsy and edited and published through Reaper.

1. Percussion
2. Flamenco Guitar
3. Lead Violin
4. Dulcimer (listed as Cimbalom, but I'm too used to the other word)

I reversed the track halfway to give it a creepy, dreamy feel and segued back in to give it a measured ending.

Click here for a listen -> GYPSY'S KISS  

Thanks for listening.

END OF DAYS Part I: The Witching Hour.

So, a rundown on the new piece. Well, I finally finished it and it's a first for me too, using computer software to create some of the instrument voicings. I didn't use a DAW though. I merely played the midi keyboard in real time plugged directly into the multitrack. The software I used was the stunning "Quantum Leap SILK" from Eastwest Studios.

 It contains genuine live instruments, painstakingly recorded note for note and in various styles. The instruments focused on are from China, India and The Persian Empire. I incorporated the keyboard, the actual duduk (this was interwoven with the SILK interpretation) and the ravish sitar pedal played with "Selena" - my home made strat. It was recorded in this order:

1: Persian 30 Piece Strings - Bass (Silk)

2: Warm Strings (Keyboard)

3: Sitar Drone: (Guitar & Pedal)

4: Sitar Lead: (Guitar & Pedal)

5: Duduk: (Silk)

6: Duduk: (My lungs!)

They were then bounced to a stereo track to make room for:

1:Timpani (Keyboard)

2: Persian 30 Piece Strings - Lead (Silk)

3: Persian 30 Piece Strings - Harmony (Silk)

4: Sarod - (Silk)

5: Sequenced Bass (Keyboard)

6: Distorted Guitar (Guitar & Pedal)

Just looking at the above list reminds me of the effort it to to create such a relatively short piece of music. I may hire out an orchestra one of these days, lottery jackpot win pending!

You can listen on the link below. Thanks for taking the time to read this and listen.

END OF DAYS Part I: The Witching Hour

Old Path, New Journey.

Wow, been away from here for a while! Well it's been a whirlwind few months with weddings, honeymoons and the like. But this is a music blog and as such, this is my main topic.

A while ago, I announced a sequel / prequel / unsure to "HERESY" and then unceremoniously postponed it on account of being in the wrong frame of mind and so damn busy. The problem was I was also far too happy, I still am by the way. But the world isn't.

 Yesterday I was pottering around with my sitar FX pedal and played around with an old theme that I had come up with about 12 years ago whilst in the young, creative duo (The FOG) who were still learning how to tune a guitar, never mind how to play one. It was called "The Witching Hour". It was essentially me trying to be a guitar hero. Essentially a showpiece for me to show off (to myself, it impressed nobody else) and I recently found The Fog's first CD which contains this treasure. It may sound a little childish and was clearly recorded in our best amateur capacity, but those songs laid the foundations into what I do now. Also, they were a lot of fun to record. But I found this piece on it and thought "This needs an airing."

So recently, I managed to get Quantum Leap "Silk" in working order. This is a collection of studio sampled instruments from the fabled Silk Road (China, India, Persian Empire) which the user can employ to their liking with the aid of a midi keyboard. I love the Persian string orchestra, so imposing and dramatic. And of course, the duduk. It sounds great and I don't have to spend hours positioning a microphone to get the ambiance I want. Don't worry, technology has not completely distracted me. I have created a new piece using both organic and tech driven instruments that will be the opening to "Faith". The title is "END OF DAYS Part I - The Witching Hour". I know, understated as always. I will be uploading it in the next day or so for your critique. I'm genuinely thrilled with it's progress and I hope it's as pleasing to your ears as it is to mine. The above picture hints at what this story will tell so plenty to mull over there. Thanks for reading.

Songs that made me: No.1 "(It's hard) letting you go" - Bon Jovi

Growing up is ridiculous. The teenage years, in particular seem the hardest. Clearly that is not the case, as we all learn. But the angst that accompanies the hormones during this time tries to convince us otherwise. Mainly because we haven't learned to harness our emotions.

I was a very angry, sensitive kid.At least, this is what an impersonal person with an impersonal view would have made of me. I would have argued that I was, in fact - a passionate kid. I love music (obviously) and I tend to gravitate towards highly emotive music, particularly that of the lyrical variety.

I wasn't born into the most blessed family, financially, (like many people - this is no sob story). Not that we were ever left wanting, by the way, I'm confident my mother would have sold the clothes off her back for us if the need had ever arose! But I saw so many kids grossly spoilt in school that I used to get privately pissed off in my own self important teenage thoughts. So the library was my kingdom, my own personal paradise, a refuge even. Because they lent out.... cassettes. Cassettes, I could never afford to buy!

It was circa 1995/1996. I was on the verge of secondary school and a tape caught my eye. It was pretty new: These Days by Bon Jovi. They weren't cool to the Oasis / Blur heads of the day. But I was never one for following the crowd and I thought "those boys aren't too bad" and borrowed it. I recorded it to keep and fell in love with the album. I couldn't stop listening to it, but I always fast forwarded past number 8. I barely made it five seconds into it before I'd had enough. One night I was out walking with my walkman (no pun intended) and I listened to the song and I was hooked. Never had a song hooked me as it did. It was so visceral, so honest. A cry from the depths of the soul. And all this from a man who couldn't pass a mirror without appreciating his own reflection, as all music critics agreed. And let's face it, critics are always right....

Nowadays I still love this song. The opening verse sounds like a man in mourning for the death of someone, more than love lost - the subject of the song. So I tend to associate the song with any type of loss and it's good to listen to when I'm feeling sad. I've always enjoyed saying "any man can write a song about love, but it takes a real man to mean it." Who knows maybe it'll be my epitaph!

My favourite lines are "Now some tarot card shark said I'll draw you a heart, we'll find you somebody else new. Well I made my last trip to those carnival lips, when I bet all that I had on you." Even the great Tom Waits would struggle to write a line like that. So here it is. Just a great, honest to goodness lament about lost love. Part 1 in my "Songs that made me" list,

GOTHAMITE Part II: Rebirth

So, I'm back. I've been very busy with part 3 over the last couple of days that I almost forgot to upload this. It's mainly driven by violins, a pinch of piano and a high frequency bass, which is not programmed but was recorded note for note on the keyboard, which I sped up in time with the music. It owes a lot to modern film music due to this but I don't deny it. It adds momentum and tension. Which is exactly what I was aiming for.

0.00 The Wayne's funeral. Stuttering violins portray the difficulty of the boy as he follows his parent's coffins towards the family crypt which has not been opened for many years.

0.11 A large crowd follows, signifying how popular the family are. Alfred places a supportive hand on the child's shoulder before he heads to open the crypt.

0.31 The crypt is opened and a huge swarm of bats fly out, people scream and bat at the air or cover their faces, except Bruce. He is paralysed with shock.....or awe..... His heart beats and his mind races.

GOTHAMITE Part I: Prelude

So here is the first part of my musical tribute. I tried to add a recognisable melody that I can allude to in the pieces to follow, should the feeling arise. The music box melody is actually an old piece of music I created to help improve my rhythm on the keys when I first started messing with them circa 2004 and it's been used and abused in various ideas but never seemed to find a proper home, until now.

I wrote this piece of music as if from a child's eyes and feel that it is a success in respect of that. I added a keyboard choir, introduced by a a choir pad effect and threw in some moody strings, just to add weight to it. It sounds majestic and unsettling at the same time.

The melody changes slightly and from the right a macabre, stardust jingling effect signifies a tense mood change as it's introduced by a timpani drum. I flicked nonchalantly on the detune dial at various times to add a unsteady vinyl wobble to it.

The dual guitars slash like a razorblade, twice to signify each bullet whilst a driving bass adds tension between each strike of the guitars and then suddenly, a bell tolls.

We return to the music box but the melody is softer, less certain. Every so often the stardust effect elaborates on certain notes, whilst two warm violin lines harmonise with each other, and all is still again.

GOTHAMITE

Okay then. I'm not getting a lot of time to do much musical stuff as of late due to LIFE. But witnessing circumstances ongoing in my job, I like many others realised exactly how disposable I am to the company. So I've promised myself some big changes after all the other big changes on the horizon this year.

I want to pursue a career in sound and vision (even if it means sweeping up a studio) as I am starting to realise that I am wasting my talents walking a shop floor and counting items. Every. Single. Crushing. Day.

 But I need some references as regards to the work I'm capable of. Obviously I have a reference in the "FRESH START" short movie covered in the this BLOG from last year but as a young musician who was still learning how to tune a guitar at the time, it's hardly a good reference. So I have decided to work on a piece called "GOTHAMITE" about, you guessed it - himself with the pointy ears above there.

We're inspired by things we appreciate in life - big and small, and since childhood this particular character has resonated with me. The piece will be instrumental (at the minute) and will be made up by a half dozen other pieces. I am planning on getting a synth with an arpeggiator to use in parts so this will take time but I will upload pieces here as they are created. It's my tribute to the origins of the character and I will explain the story of each piece as I share it. I must go. The piano is calling me. Thanks for reading.

GIRLS WANNA ROCK!

Today I recorded someone else's song, It was awesome.

I am always scared of messing with someone else's work but I was given the blessing of free reign on production, so I cut loose on certain elements. The person in question is a lady I've known nearly 12 years, who is prctically a sister to me. We met through her husband - one of my oldest and dearest friends, and the three of us are obsessed with music. Suffice to say, we hit it off from the start.

We were always saying we should record something together, but the opportunity seemed to slip us by. Never in a bad way. There was always alcohol or some other vice that always interrupted our train of thought. Not that the three of us ever complained! One evening I received a random text telling me to check my email, so I did and what a wonderful surprise. it was 2 minutes and 26 seconds of a song, performed wonderfully, courtesy of this lady and her guitar.

I was immediately inspired. I set to work on mapping out the instruments, moving chords around and trying not to defile the original creation. I had a chorus type thing that I'd not yet used but thought it would fit seamlessly into the song. With her blessing I went nuts, even giving myself a guitar solo spot. Why? Because "Rock 'n Roll" that's why! She arrived excited and a little nervous. I was nervous myself. I'd not really recorded anyone else's song to such a degree and had been working blind on it to such a point that I could only describe it in sounds. But today, she would hear it. And she was pleased with it.

The hard part was about to happen. We had a number of runs through it, just to get the form of the song. I was conscious to make her at ease. This was her song, it would be done on her terms. The nerves were apparent on the first couple of runs! I called her a mouse. She then took the challenge and fucking nailed it to the wall. We then tried the old school vocal double tracking. I never copy and paste, it's soulless in my opinion. So she sang it all over again and it sounded awesome. We then tackled the new part, which was done in baby steps. We just needed to "FEEL" it in the song.

I was thrilled by the end of it, so much so, that I spent the entire evening adding the fairy dust to it.
The biggest issue for me was a phantom buzzing from the microphone which at times is still audible but is not a huge issue for me, as I freely admit that I'm an amateur producer! Thank you for an awesome recording experience, Tiffany. Already looking forward to the next time!

Here is the song: FAITH (Hear Me Calling) feat. Tiffany Cruickshank

No guitar hero....

Wow, I've been away for some time! I hadn't forgotten this place. More neglected it, really. I treat it like a sanctuary to give the hamster in my head some well needed R&R and he's well overdue. I've just been quite busy as of late, juggling weddings and jobs......

I haven't had much time to do anything musical until I revisited "MAMA". I won't go over the subject matter, as it's all contained in that particular post. I originally envisioned it as a simple guitar over an ambient backing. But then I added drums and the rest followed naturally.

Now, I'm no guitar hero, my style is more fluid than technical and the only scales I recognise are found in the marine world or a bathroom. I leave the shred type stuff to the cosmic guitarist disciples of Steve Vai et al, and do my thing. Kind of like taking the line for a walk.

This recording was a little different for me. I rolled back on the treble for a change. I always feared the tone was less expressive without treble and over compensated with it - which in hindsight, left the guitar sounding quite shrill. So this time, I rolled the tone pots all the way back and left the volume up full. Also, I plugged straight into the board and with exception to some reverb, there is absolutely no processing done to the signal at the finish line. It was simply my Burns pick-ups equipped Strat - BSM Silicone Treble Booster pedal - Tech 21 Liverpool V2 pedal - Boss CE 5 pedal - 8 track. My vibrato is something I've worked on a lot recently and I am particularly pleased with it in the upper registers. So just in time to celebrate Mother's Day - Here's "Mama":