When a Song is a Movie

I haven't heard a new song for a while that has affected me as much as "Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967".  Putting aside being a parochial John Mayer fan for a moment, if you are a student of music and songwriting this song should be in your textbook.  Its from the latest John Mayer album "Born and Raised".  There are many great tracks on this album and tomorrow I may just as easily have a new favourite. Today it is 'Walt Grace' especially because to listen closely and study this song you can learn so much about good songwriting. Walt Grace is home-made submarine pilot. He's a fictional character Mayer created who against the odds and mocking of his friends and family, designs and builds a submarine in his basement to travel under the sea to Japan.

The Greatest Love Song?

I received a message from someone who follows this blog asking me what I thought was the best "love song" of all time?  Wow that's a really subjective question and as with everything to do with music also a question of taste. But when I thought about it, something still worth looking into.  So how do you evaluate what makes a great love song and let alone even pick which is the greatest love song?  Where do I start. Should it be based on popularity, sales? I can pretty much tell you straight out what a shit love song is.  If its been on Grey's Anatomy that's a dead give away!  Then what about music genre or decade even. Importantly, should a love song generate mostly  "happy" or mostly a "sad" feelings to make it great?  Something glowingly happy like Stevie Wonder's "You are the Sunshine of My Life"  Or sad and heartbroken leading to the point of anger and destruction in "Somebody Kill Me" from 'The Wedding Singer' movie?  

Drum Tracking with SK-Drums

 

Carlo tracking drums for a song off the up and coming new Stellas Kitchen EP, recorded at Harpoon Productions.

Twirly-Whirly Tremelo

Jon Romeo from Stellas Kitchen demos the Cusack Tap-A-Whirl V3 Tremlo. He's using an '87 strat into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (white edition).

Recording Crazy Makes You A Little

 

Hours of recording in studios does send you a little stir crazy. Not that Dave Grohl needs any extra help! The Foo Fighters decided to record their latest album with as much analogue recording equipment as possible. 

Review: Moon Looks Pretty Tonight

 

Danni Stefanetti's new single "Moon Looks Pretty Tonight" has been also released with a video clip. Directed and produced by Duane Orris it is also from what I understand Danni's first music video.

2011 - An EP Odyssey

classified experimental drum setup

Its 2011 and I haven't posted for a while, but its been a fairly productive Xmas and holiday break. We've been able to make a big dent into the recording of our new EP (Stellas Kitchen).  In June last year we formally sat down and mapped out the production of our 2nd EP.  Its been too long really since our debut EP release "Fundamentals". 

More Recording

With a lot of recording work to go for our new Stellas Kitchen EP it was back to Harpoon Studios to record bass for our track "Satellite".  Having learned a fair bit from the our last session for "Steal Your Mind" we were able to reduce tone set up brain damage.  Although true to form by the end of the session I wasn't so sure what my name was.  I think maybe it was Jon's "accidental" feedback spikes into my cans which was most responsible.  So the bass set up for this song..

Bass Brain Damage

Its now my turn in the studio to put down the bass parts for "Steal Your Mind". We're recording our 2nd EP at Stellas Kitchen and Steal Your Mind is probably going to be the lead track.  Recording for me is a love hate type of thing. Every musician has their insecurities and doubts about their ability and for me its recording which is where these feelings surface the most. For bass every pop or string clack in your playing stays forever on the track.  

Sportz Radio Star Recording

At Stellas Kitchen land we're recording our new EP.  So far we've completed the drum tracking and some guitar parts for two of the four songs and to be released on the EP. We've taken  extra time and effort to prepare how each instrument will sound this time through and have done a heap more experimenting.  Once we had the tempo, we recorded basic scratch tracks of guitar and vocals for each song. After they were down, we started trying to get some good sounds for the drums.  Jon is blogging the process here on the Gear Page forum. The aim of that thread to create a bunch of advice and sound samples/reference material etc, for anyone interested in recording and music in general.  Its a little bit into the inside of SK too.