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Rocker
One of the things, I realized in my days of playing music, that there were 3 entities. 1) playing out live 2) playing together in a practice environment 3) recording in a studio. One and two, did not seem to be a problem for me, but not having the experience, in the studio, was. So, my goal, was to try and get more experience. I did do an awful lot of recording. Once, I went through the motions with different groups, I did not seem, to get, the attention span of my fellow musicians. so, I embarked on a different journey. I thought I would try to move ahead, by keep writing songs, with different people. When the time was right, or I had enough songs, I would then move forward to go into the studio. There were a couple of incidents, that left there mark. At this time, I don’t care to go into detail. Well, after, my episodes with “WIRED’ and “DEMON WITCH”, I realized, that me in a band, wasn’t going to work. I just did not want to play games anymore. I wanted to move forward at a rapid pace. I bought a 4 track machine and started doing half-assed demos. My vision, was to get a bunch of songs together, hire musicians, and record it all, in a real studio. A lot of the stuff, I did in studios, I never got full fledged mixes, ready for consumer consumption. I am a picky bastard, in some ways. I want things to be truly right. The project, I really got to see my vision, was ‘WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD’. I did sixteen songs during that session and I wanted to do more. It was a trying time, I fired an individual, and saw the project take on new life. My father passed away, and after all the hard work, I was drained and walked away. One day, I was driving down the road, and I decided to listen to all sixteen songs, that was transferred on to cassette. I had cleaned out my car and came across the tapes. So, when I started to drive, on the highway, I drove and drove and drove, listening to the magic that was coming out of the speakers. I fell in love, all over again. I believed, what I had was gold. At that point, I made my move to put it out on cassette. At the time, cd was not available. The company, I chose was “DISCMAKERS”. They were having a special, so I had to trim down the music. Only 10 songs, 5 per side. The 10 songs that appeared on the cassette were. 1) TAKE NO PRISONERS 2) LIES IN YOUR EYES 3) RUNNING ON EMPTY 4) NO CROSS TO BEAR 5) TILL DEATH DO WE PART 6) CAN’T WAIT (TILL IT’S OVER) 7) BAD LUCK 8) LIFE IS A TWO WAY STREET 9) READY FOR THE TAKIN’ 10) I GIVE MY ALL (BUT YOU WANT MORE) After, fighting different demons, I was still doing music, but pretty much, writing and being in the studio. After disappearing it was time to go back in time and revisit, all the music, I had done. Which brought us, to “WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD” on cd. When the smoke had cleared it had been 20 years. A lot of things had happened to get to this stage. I was involved with joint projects, but I’m getting ahead of myself. When I decided to put the cd out. I wanted to put the full version out. 16 songs. At the time, I was still involved with “DISCMAKERS” , according to their by laws the cd couldn’t be more than 75 minutes, the running time for “WTTRW” was 79:44. Flashback, before “WTTRW”, I worked on 8 songs, at “IGUANA”, this was called the “HOT AND SWEATY” sessions, I decided, that I wanted to pull two songs from that project. “CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT’ being the first. This song, was near and dear to my heart because of the subject matter, “CHILD ABUSE”. Not that I ever had problems in that department, coming from loving parents. It was the song by “PAT BENATAR”, “HELL IS FOR CHILDREN”, that inspired me, to try and incorporate, my imagination, on this morbid idea. So, I wanted this to be put on the cd. At the same session, I did a song called “ALONE & AFRAID”, I did not like the way it came out, so I went into a studio around the corner from my house, in Pembroke, run by “DAVID COATE”. I presented the song to “DAVE”, he came up with a new verse rhythm, and put a keyboard pad, underneath. I wrote new lyrics, which seemed to disappear. “DAVE”, digitally extended the bass and drums. We kept the chorus section, and the solo section. I remember the day, I was suppose to go into the studio, I had been trying to find, my new and improved lyrics, but was unable to find them. I remember bringing my car to a mechanic in Rockland, sitting inside, while he fixed my breaks. I sat in there, writing new lyrics. After he was done, I went home, typed up my new words, because, I can never read my chicken scratch. I jumped back into my car, drove to the studio around the corner. Got there in time, and started to sing the new lyrics to “ALONE & AFRAID”. That was a Friday afternoon. I listened to the song a bunch of times. I had scheduled to go into the studio late Saturday morning, because of work. I did not like my singing, I had a small window to redo vocals. I sang it over, mixed it and went to work. Viola, that is the version you hear. In music there are do’s and don’ts, besides the business end and how you treat people, there is what you do when you record. in this day and age of technology, you can record a song and not everybody in the band be there. You can actually piece mail it together. but fast forward into the future, you can be continents away, and still record together. But, I am getting ahead of myself. When, technology, became super advanced, recording became a different animal. When bands play together, they usually record the drums to tape or computer, the rest of the guys, will do a scratch track. Then one by one, the different musicians would do there parts over. Until, you get a final product, usually the vocals would be the last thing recorded. Before, I did “WTTRW”, I went into a studio in Hanover, Mass. called Ultra-Sound, I started what was to become the “CAT’S EYE” sessions. During that recording, I did 8 songs. 5 of which were done over for “WTTRW”. The 3 songs, not done over were “Cat’s Eye”, Rock all Day, Roll all Nite” “Cry of the Wolf”, which are going to be on the cd “One Man’s Heaven is another Man’s Hell The cd which became “UP FROM THE ASHES”, meant what it was called, I actually, put songs together from various studio projects. The songs, that were on the “HOT AND SWEATY” sessions and “WTTRW” sessions, made up this disc. I compiled songs that were leftover over from all the projects that I did, hence the name. After I did “ALONE & AFRAID” , I brought an old song to “MR. COATE”, called “BAD RAIN”. The original version had rain and thunder, acoustic guitars, and of course me. It was striped down. I asked myself, “WHAT IF?”. I decided to give it the full monty, and “MR. COATE” was the man for the job. He took the song, made a new version, also with rain & thunder, drums, piano, acoustic guitars, guitars, you get the idea. Some people like the original version of “ALONE & AFRAID”, so I made it available. When I was doing “WTTRW”, at “IGUANA”, I approached “ROSS RAMSAY”, about doing a souped up version of “HIGHWAY TO HELL”. Yes I did the song, but we incorporated various “AC/DC” songs in it. A medley in the middle . I wanted to do this, because “MTV” was having a contest. You had to do a video for the song and send it in, unfortunately, they got it a day late, the story of my life. there is a link so you can see the video. A few years ago, I went to one of my friends “DAVE LUSSIER”, to his studio in “EASTON” , I wanted to do a Christmas song, one that would have a little of this and a little of that. You can actually see the cartoon video for it, there is a link. So there is the long version and the radio edit, on the disc as well. Now, I’m going to take you way back in time, down memory lane. I have to because, this will lead to my next cd. Third installment “ONE MAN’S HEAVEN IS ANOTHER MAN’S HELL” I bought a house in Pembroke, Mass. late 80′s. I set up my living room, with a drum set, p.a., guitars, bass etc., it was a glorified recording studio. I tried. I had a 4-track machine, and every weekend, I would have individual guitar players come over to the house, to jam and work on songs. So, once I had enough songs, I searched for a studio. I found one, in “BRAINTREE” called “HARP STUDIOS’ run by “JIM HARP”. I had come in contact with a guitar player named “MARK RAPPLES” . He would be my go to guy, he would do the rhythms, leads and bass. I had 11 songs, that I wanted to record. Now earlier, I was talking about the do’s and don’ts of recording, so here is the part, where I tell you, about the don’ts, which I did. Let me explain, “MARK” was planning to get married, he needed money, but he was also under time constraints. We did not have a drummer, so “MARK”, played to a drum machine. Usually, the drums, are the first thing to get recorded. Like I said due to the time element, we did it backwards. “MARK”, had a small window, to get the job done, but I found out, the engineer, “JIM HARP” could play drums, so he was going to play them after “MARK” was done. We decided on this, because, “JIM” didn’t know the songs. So a drum machine was used to get all the music done, with me doing scratch vocal tracks. I would do my vocals better once the drums were done. As they say, things don’t always go according to plan. One day “JIM” got a call to play drums in the orchestra pit, in “EUROPE” for “CATS”. So, I had quite an unfinished mess. the songs sounded good, but no drums. So after that the studio closed up, I had to run around and find a studio, that was compatible, with my reel to reels, and to also find drummer to do the job. I did, find a studio, there is where “IGUANA” came in to play. This would come to be my home for many projects. Once, I got settled in, I did some of my vocals, but, I really wanted to find a drummer to do the parts. I went to a practice facility called “STUDIO 15″, in “ROCKLAND” . I found a guy “TODD ANDERSON”, he agreed to play on the project. When we got to the studio, “ROSS” was not happy with the drum sound he was getting, so he put, what you call “TRIGGERS”, on them to enhance the sound. “TRIGGERS’, were a brand new form of technology to the industry at that time. The way they work, is the drums are miked, the mikes go to a sound source, which in turn, will enhance the sound of the drums. The drums could sound like shxt, which they did, but by using the “TRIGGERS”, you could have the drums sound like drums from a cd made from another band, like “LED ZEPPELIN’S JOHN BONAHAM”. so, “TODD”, was not a drummer of usual practices. His style, was unique, and I could only compare his erratic beating to that of the “THE WHO’S KEITH MOON”. If the drummer does not play a regular style of drumming, “TRIGGERS’, can actually hurt you. Back in the day, they were so sensitive, and there is where my dilemma laid. I did not get a true good mix, when the smoke cleared. “TODD” did a good job, but the “TRIGGERS” made him sound like a drummer with no skills. Because of his erratic style, there appeared to be ghost notes, that just sounded like he was late or early on the beat. One of my projects, fast forward to the future, was to look into this project with a microscope. which, I did, this would be the project for my third cd, called “ONE MAN’S HEAVEN IS ANOTHER MAN’S HELL” I’m going to continue telling you the story about “OMHIAMH”, but I have to divert a little. All the projects that, I had recorded on to reel to reel. Which encompassed 13 reels. Mold, was growing on them, “DAVID LUSSIER”, got me the number of a place in “NEW JERSEY” called “SONICRAFT’. I sent them the reels, in turn, they transferred the music on to “DVD”. This would enable me to go into any studio, and add to the tracks that were already there, or I could mix them. Which, I did both. So now the music, that I never mixed, is mixed. What is funny is the “TRIGGERS”, never made the grade on the transfer, there was no need. With technology, being what it is, or the transfer, who knows, but the original drums are there and “TODD”, sounds great. I thought in a lot of ways his innovative style, is what the doctor ordered. The tapes that I gave “TODD” were just the basic demos, with a basic drum machine beat. The 11 songs for this project, are done and sound great. I did some of the singing over, change a few things for the best. What I also decided to do, was add the 3 songs from the “CAT’S EYE’ sessions, as bonus tracks, they sound good as well. Real good. The bonus tracks are 1) ROCK ALL DAY, ROLL ALL NITE 2) CRY OF THE WOLF 3) CAT’S EYE. I should tell you, that the studio, that I did this project was “IGUANA” with a new face lift. Same place, different owner, “BILL EAGAN” and a different name “CD WORKSHOP”. All the music was put into the computer and there were 50 songs, so I will be going back in time, to get all this out to the masses. The 11 songs, that were mixed are as follows, 1) SAVE ME FROM THIS HELL 2) IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT 3) GAMBLIN’ WITH DEATH 4) BAD RAIN (original version) 5) YOU’LL GET (WHAT’S COMING TO YOU) 6) MR. BONES 7) LOVE ON THE LINE AITING IN THE WINGS 9) BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT (Eric Carmen cover) 10) TEMPTRESS OF THE NIGHT 11) WE DON’T TALK ANYMORE |
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