Porchdroid - Ears Wide Open

Quickie

2010-04-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

Just a very quick one... here are two new songs.
Hope you enjoy them.

Cheers.
White Lines.

Cookies and Lemonade.

First for 2010

2010-02-03T02:08:00.001-08:00

My goodness, I looked at the date on my last post the other day and thought, Crikey ! was it really that long ago that I rambled on this old dusty digital chalkboard. Sure its been Holidays and New years and all, but it's already February, and I haven't posted a single thing... shame.

I guess it might have something to do with being struck down by hooping cough or bronchitis or something similar for the last month or so, not pleasant, getting very staggered sleep and constantly feeling light headed, but the worst of it is the passing out, the coughs get so severe as to at times cause me to pass out resulting in coming to finding yourself slumped on the floor without having any idea how you got there, very weird sensation indeed. The last passing out incident must have been quite severe as I broke a rib and was left with a fat lip and face that looked like I was involved in a brawl.

Anyways, the result is feeling quite sore whilst having to take numerous medication for the cough and now also for the pain.

Ok enough about my injuries.

Have not been doing much over the last month writing music, though have played a few gigs with various bands. A new band called the Jitterbuggers have had their debut show which went down real well, we mainly do swing and dance numbers which seems to have quite a following especially with beginners and professional dancers.

I have also been doing a Johnny O'Keefe and Elvis show which once again draws quite an audience.

The cover band Only Human is also gearing up with gigs and such with a new website which I threw together (very basic,nothing flash) which can be seen at http://www.onlyhumanlive.com/ The main improvement is that it now has a decent sound sample available for streaming which we recorded in the studio here one afternoon a week or two back.

Apart from music, After having experienced the magic of Avatar and its 3D effects, I have been chasing up 3D movies to watch, needless to say that none have come up to par. though I have become a somewhat 3D addict.

As the doc has ordered me to take it easy for this rib to heal up, i will be spending some major time in the studio doing some recording, so maybe expect something new soon.

Cheers.

Where's ya funny bone Harry?

2009-10-13T21:13:00.001-07:00

Seems like when it rains it pours, lately i have been kept busy with a number of old time music gigs in nursing homes, Hell you don't get young screamers moshing and running the stage but hell these guys appreciate their hour of entertainment.

Barry and Speedy are guitarists, great blokes, who dress up in Mexican gear and play the oldies their favorite tunes whilst I follow along on the keys. In addition to this, they add a touch of corny humour to the act with jokes and witty interchange between members.

One show last Friday gave me a moment of joy as I saw a elderly lady holding on to her walker, and dancing along to the music. It's so good to see an audience enjoying what you have to offer.

Just before the show, I got a call from an old drummer mate, who was asking whether I was interested in joining a swing / jazz band. The word Jazz always fills me with fear, though I thought it would be a good opportunity to improve my technique and learn some songs that I would otherwise shy away from, we have had one rehearsal since then, and the band made me feel real comfortable, and there was really no problem, I coped well (jazzphobia and all).

Last Saturday night was Johnny O'Keefe night at Fingle Bay RSL on the North Coast of NSW, and I got a call late Friday afternoon as to whether I would be interested in joining the band for the night on Keys, though it was a 4 hour trip there and back, I agreed, and enjoyed a night of playing 50's-60's rock for a appreciative audience, once again it was great to see people dancing and enjoying the music.

I was outside in the beer garden having a drink before the show dressed in full black attire, and one of the patrons asked me if I was part of the band. I replied no, and that I was a member of a cult called the "Connicks" who went around in all black except for our faces. Not sure if she got the joke or thought I was serious.

The year is quickly filling up with gig bookings, as it usually does around this time, so I will be quite busy performing, and probably will not have much time to compose stuff, but then again, I
might just surprise you all.

Cheers

Ecca

Club Silencio

2009-10-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I was privileged to be invited to a friend's birthday, it was a huge event with great people, food and music. One particular artist that played was a friend of mine, who has a mutual interest in songwriting and recording his original material. He was keen to pull me aside and play me some of his latest songs.

After having played a few of his songs to me in a quiet spare room of the host's house, he began to explain some of the spiritual aspects of his songs. He began by explaining to me that he often felt threatened to expose real meaning of his songs for fear of ridicule, and felt that he had to be somewhat cryptic in his lyrics to hide their true message.

He continued to explain how his belief had changed his life dramatically and how he felt so strongly about this truth he had discovered, yet felt uncomfortable in openly displaying in his songs. Whilst feeling somewhat empathetic to his situation, I also felt somewhat the opposite as often I would try and delve deep into my musical innards to express my beliefs yet all that would come out was dark brooding music.

The reason I mention this at this stage is that I have just had a listen to the new Mountain Goats release "The Life Of The World To Come" which is a collection of songs based on biblical verses. There is no hiding this fact, as each song is titled after the verse which it is inspired by.

Though the Mountain Goats are not a Christian band and have never presented themselves as such in their earlier 13 or so recordings, they have obviously taken a risk with their fan base to release a collection of songs based on biblical verses, yet must have felt the impulse to do so openly and beautifully.

I have provided a download link for the album below which isn't something I normally do in this blog, so if you do download the album and like it , I'd encourage you to go out and buy it.

Cheers,

Ecca.

The Life of the World To Come

Primeval Instinct

2009-10-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I have posted any new tunes to this space, so I thought I would add something recent. When I say recent, I have been steadily getting back into the recording process after a major computer malfunction and restoring my Virtual instruments, This has taken time.

I have been completed a few tunes, one which I cannot post here due to copyright issues using unauthorised sample (hopefully these will be cleared), and the others still in refining stages (which isn't quite like me, I normally won't spent too long on the refining process, more of a spontaneous hit and run with it style so you may actually see it posted here soon).

I have been listening to a long awaited new release and have been inspired by some of the sounds of the new Flaming Lipps CD - Embryonic, so if some of the new stuff sounds rather psychedelic and experimental, that's probably the reason. Having been listening to the Lipps, I am currently experimenting with delay effects on distorted drum loops to get a raw industrial type of rhythm section happening, whilst also playing around with unconventional bass sounds, so ready your ears for some new sounds.

Meanwhile, I have attached below a soundtrack style tune I called "Creature Journey". Reminds me of the birth of some massive prehistoric creature and it's steps toward discovery of its leafy surroundings.

Would love to hear what imagery it concocts in your little twisted minds :)

Creature Journey

Enjoy.
Ecca.

Time Sponges

2009-09-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

My, computers are time sponges. My main system started toying with me a few weeks ago doing all sorts of strange stuff acting like it was possessed by some evil code which pulls its heads in on the slightest sniff of a virus scan. First my cd rom began to play up, only writing to a disk if a written disk was previously inserted (what the?), then my secondary hard drive packed it it, my ethernet card decided to start hanging up my system, and then as if to taunt me where it would injure me the most, my audio drivers refused to load on start up intermittently.

Now I'm one for a good puzzle, and a bit of problem solving, otherwise every computer I've ever owned would meet it's timely end traveling through a pane of glass to a resting place outside my window, but alas I am overall a patient man with enough spare time, and a yearning for discovery.

I managed to solve all these issues, but lost track of how much time this has taken. As soon as I tackle another quirk, as soon as the (permanently unscrewed) side panel is removed from the computer case, time seems to accelerate beyond belief. Note that this acceleration is exponentially multiplied during the hours of 9pm and 6am often only to be pulled into reality by the appearance of daylight though the aforementioned window.

Apart from the trouble shooting and quirk eliminating, the amount time spent downloading current software and updates to keep the systems running smoothly ironically devours time which would rather be spent utilizing the very same applications, how much music making time has been spent installing drivers, updating recording software, gathering samples, setting up hardware devices etc. We all need the right tools to work with, though a line needs to be drawn where we say, 'lets work with what we got' otherwise end up spending three days sharpening the axe to chop down a tree.

Cheers.
Ecca.

Bring out yer Dead

2009-09-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

Ahhh Heath, what memories you have conjoured from the dark pit of my musical past As it scrapes against the lid of its coffin awoken by the sounds of the Beasts of Bourbon. I rememebr seeing Tex in my teenage years, larger than life, almost godlike performing at the Commercial Hotel in Paramatta, ahh the memories. Thanks for the brutal reminder of a past life long retired and decaying giving off the stench of moshpits and stale beer. As a momento I here present my own little BOB jewel.

Funk Nut

2009-08-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

Billy loves his funk, and when we got together the other week, he wanted to put down a funky sounding track.

We started off with a knightrider sort of intro sequence, even looked for some knightrider samples to put on top, but decided against it. We then started with recording a funky guitar loop and adding a cool bass line.

We added some horns and some changes to the theme. A lead guitar section and some other bits and pieces.

For me this one is a little too repetitive and need something to keep it interesting though has some nice moments (including my synth solo).

Have a listen and hope you enjoy.

Cheers.

Funkadelic (Shoulders of Giants)

KG comes alive

2009-08-05T04:11:00.000-07:00

Its not often when the boys get together that we know exactly what we want, and how to tackle it, and even less often that when we do, the result is what we were after. Continue on dear reader and you will hear of the rare exception.

Dave arrived with a clear idea in his head for a song genre, it was his mum's birthday on the weekend and he was telling us that whenever he went over his folk's place, that his mum would slap on some Kenny G as background music. He felt it was his obligation as and duty as a respectful son to create a classic KennyGesque style track to impress her with on her birthday.

We started with a smooth enough progression, with a floating / wafting guitar playing a delicate melody over a straight rhythm. We added as close as we could get to a saxophone using a suitable VST instrument and that's when it sank in that we were onto something.. particularly something we were after.

After adding a bridge section which basically flew off on a tangent from the theme we had set, we recorded a delicate meltdown back into the main theme.

That night, I rearranged some sections, added some effects to the guitars and such, and added some drum loops and fills.

We're still waiting to hear what Dave's mum thought of it.

Enjoy,
Cheers.
Ecca

KG's Whale Song

From Parties to Snakes.

2009-06-16T17:46:00.001-07:00

G'day all, just a entry to post up a recording done yesterday by myself and Billy.
We got together mid morning and after some repairs to billy's recording software on his laptop, got straight into creating something new.

Thought we would take a different approach today, well different for Billy maybe it is the usual approach that I take, but I don't think Billy was familiar with the process I use, so he seemed a little skeptical at first.

We put down a few drum and bass loops that we were happy with, and then recorded a few loops to arrange throughout the song, mainly guitar riffs etc. This was our basic structure for the arrangement, and from there we added sections as needed.

As you can hear it is a cross between the soundscapes I would normally create on my own, and what we would normally do as a collective, so... enjoy !

Cheers
Ecca

Path of the Snakeman

More Party

2009-06-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

Last few days have been rather quiet, had been looking forward to a quiet weekend, and in some regards it was. On Saturday, got together with Wayne and the crew at his place for a band jam/rehearsal, looks like the Wayne and Billy's MIDI band may have evolved into a full blown production with no MIDI at all. Which is always a good thing I guess.

The guys wanted to come over during the week to put down a new tune, Jen suggested they did this on holiday Monday as she would be home and be able to experience the whole process. (Normally she is at work when the guys pop over so doesn't really get to see what we get up to).

Billy wasn't feeling too well on the morning and was trying to pike out of the day, but we convinced him to rock up with headache and all.

We played around with another of Wayne's tunes, added a few bits to it, took a few bits out, and soon we had another little ditty to play around with. That night I mixed and rearranged some of the sections, added some keys (which I usually do once the guys leave), and also added a bass guitar part.

The idea for lyrics came fairly easily, the song gave me a old time lounge / jazz feel and reminded me of a Tom Waits style tune. I kept on thinking of his song 'Underground' off the album "Swordfishtrombones", but adapted the theme a little, so I soon got down to writing about how all the insects and vermin play around the house once the humans go to sleep. The lyrics are included below.

I recorded the vocals and may still add some party noises over the instrumental section as this seems to go for a little too long without something to hold it together, but anyway take a listen to it from the link below. Cheers.

Theres a bat wing shadow on my screen door
theres a six legged shuffle on my kitchen floor
the faint sounds of transistor jazz
theres a party when the lights go out.

arachnids all groove in their webs
Jitterbugs jivin under the bed
the night's lights a mirror ball
The house is thier stage
Theres a party when the lights go out.

The rodents are smoking them fat cigars
like their hanging in some mobster club
in their cocktail dresses and ratail suits
swinging from the rafters to a rhythm guitar
or just taking in the moon on a clear dark night
The skylight's a window to million stars

Ferret face freddy shakin on them bones
Frank blowin hard on the saxaphone
the nights not over till the rat lady sings
theres a party when the lights go out

Outside their watching for the crack of dawn
theres an owl on a branch and crow on the lawn
Hootin and crowing when its all over
They only party when the lights go out.

Party when the lights go out

Party on dudes

2009-05-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

have had parties on my mind recently, went to a great one last weekend for Billy's 49th, was a fantastic night, all the usual muso friends were there, was great to see them all and have a jam with many of them.

On Tuesday Billy and Wayne popped over to put some sounds down, and there was a tune Wayne played me some time ago which I was impressed with, so we decided to work on it, we needed to write a chorus and bridge, but the basic verse riff was great and inspiring, so the rest wasn't too hard.

We managed to get the guitar bass and keys down by the arvo, and the song was left with me to add some additional instruments (drums, flute), and to tidy up and produce a little.
4am the next morning this was all done.

Wednesday, morning I started writing some lyrics and the agreed title of the song Afterparty sort of left an impression. I played around with the idea that when you are young and full of energy you tend to party hard not really caring about much but it all affects your later life (the afterparty).

So you can gather what the song is about, no need to give you the lyrics.

Check it out below.

Cheers !

Afterparty

Ecca the slacker

2009-05-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

I've been accused of being a slacko and not updating this blog.

Well stay tuned...some suprises on their way.

By the way Bryzy, I know who you are and where you live, and the school your children go to.... :)

Musical Lunch

2009-03-31T02:52:00.000-07:00

Recently I have had the pleasure of coming across a sort of audiobook of one of my favorite novels (and movies for that matter) being William S Burroughs' Naked Lunch.

I was desperately hoping that the recording was by Burroughs himself which to my excitement it turned out to be.

The recording ended up being only excerpts from the book, though one of the first things which popped into my head was to use some of the readings for spoken word pieces, so I immediately started working on some tunes to back the legendary Burroughs voice.

I was very tempted to do something weird and abstract but then decided that something melodious and rhythmical would also be nice. I remember hearing a few years back the album that he did with a hip hop band (Disposable Disciples of Hiphopracy I think it was), called Spare Ass Annie, and how it suited his voice well.

The only drawback with the voice recording is the quality, it's not great.

Enjoy the Links below.

Cheers
Ecca

The Black Meat

Meeting of International Conference

Tubby Fear.

2009-02-27T05:42:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how someone's offhanded comment can inspire you when you play them a song before you put lyrics to it, The guys got together and recorded a song last Tuesday and I hadn't recorded the vocals to it yet ( Wayne had written them).

Upon playing it to Jen she shook her head and commented what provoked us to write a kids song and that it should be the new teletubby's theme as it was all jangly and ska like

It inspired me to put alternate lyrics to it (after I recorded Wayne's written ones as to not disappoint him), yet I couldn't resist the temptation to record the alternate version as well. Upon mentioning this to Billy he liked the idea and encouraged me to do the deed, so posted below is a tune called 'Teletubby Nightmare' with the lyrics so you can all sing along....

Just for reference, Ragdoll productions are the Teletubby Production Company, Tele tustard is preferred Teletubby food, and Linda Blair starred in the Exorcist movie for the uninitiated.

Enjoy !

Cheers
Ecca

When I lay myself to sleep
Freddie Kruger he don't bother me
My tormentors come from my TV
Ragdoll productions and the BBC

Teletubby nightmare

Well Alice Cooper welcomed me to his
Now I know just what evil is
Just like he told me, there is no escape
Baby talk and colored suits
Take me to my darkest place.

Watching Linda Blair seems like a comedy
It doesn't seem to strike any fear in me
But when you mention the names of tele crew
It makes me projectile vomit tele tustard spew

Teletubby Nightmare

Have a musical weekend

2009-02-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

What a great weekend I've had.
Basically all I did was play music and hang out with Jen, perfect as far as I can tell.

Thursday night was a great night as usual at Jake's Jam, with some regulars and old friends turning up and having a good ole play together. Yes it can get loud and messy at times, but what the hey, we're all having a great time.

Friday night, I was asked to play with a local 50's - 60's rock and roll outfit. Great band, tight, all fine musicians, and as expected I had a ball. First time I had played with them, it felt so natural and after a few apprehensive numbers, I felt totally comfortable. I was actually asked to join them the following night at another gig, but i had a daytime gig to do, so unfortunately had to decline.

Saturday, Jen and I joined a group of musicians offering an afternoon of entertainment for a charity function. We had a great time and were well received.

Sunday Jen and I sang and played at a local market, which went really well, we had a friend of mine with us playing guitar, and banjo, and it sounded great. Looks like it is a regular gig every 6 weeks or so. looking forward to it again in April.

The guys were around again yesterday, we worked on a new song of Wayne's (which I hope we didn't mess around with too much as it ended up sounding quite Ska), i put some vocals on it today from Lyrics Wayne game me, but I thing I will rewrite them to suit the style more, it will be a surprise post in the not too distant future.

Today I will leave you with another tune I did on the new keyboard, it is a Prince style number, take a listen if you want, and feel free to comment.

Cheers.
Ecca

Suzie's Emancipation

Bit of Everything

2009-02-17T04:20:00.000-08:00

Welcome back lovelies... thought I'd post a short entry today to let you know what's been happenin'.

Musically Ive been doing quite a bit of composing, I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I received a great keyboard for Christmas that has some quite impressive sounds and musical accompaniment styles. Basically in an effort to be as varied as possible I'm going through the styles and trying to write something from each genre, it's been getting quite interesting. I've so far covered, Disco, Guitar Rock, Trance and a few others. It's a bit like giving a child all these different ice cream flavours to try out. :). I am currently putting vocals on the Guitar rock track, so expect to see it posted here fairly soon.

It looks like this week is a going to be a busy one for performing, starting on Thursday night at the regular Jam ( If i make it..) , Friday night at a local RSL with a 50-60's rock and roll band, Saturday at a regular Charity Gig Jen and I play at and finally on Sunday at a Blues Gig with a friend of mine at one of the day markets up here on the Central Coast. I think by Sunday afternoon my fingers may need a little rest.

I've been checking out some cool stuff on the web of late.
Managed to find the complete Cremaster Cycle series which I am slowly getting through ( its difficult at times). If you are not aware of Micheal Barney's Cremaster work, do some googling, it's quite interesting stuff. Very artistic and symbolic, and beautifully filmed. Don't try to watch it without some background knowledge as it will come across very disjointed and weird. Winkipedia has some great background material on the project.

I have also come across some Charles Bukowski recordings of him reading his poetry and short stories. A friend of mine introduced me to his work a few years back (gave me a listen to a spoken word recording) and I found it quite interesting. This latest one though still interesting needs some editing, because you can clearly tell he is pretty drunk and it is a little hard to tell where his ranting ends and his poetry recital begins. Also it sounds like it was recorded outside of a studio, because some of the production (especially microphone feedback) is pretty poor.

I have given a provided a link below. Be prepared though if you are unfamiliar with his work, it can be quite hard hitting and brutal. Maybe another googling job for yaz.

The boyz have been getting together to do some more collaborative recordings, and to finish work on some older numbers, we managed to get one of our favoured vocalists to come over and put vocals down to a tune we recorded some time back, it seems to have turned out OK though I had major hassles with my setup, I think I must have had some system tray programs running which seemed to have been interfering with my sound card, anyway we managed to rectify the problem after many false starts.

Link is provided below.

Hope you enjoy your homework if you wish to accept it, and see you next time...

Ecca

Bukowski

Prison

Catch Up

2009-02-06T01:16:00.000-08:00

Wow it's been a while, I haven't posted here since way before the holidays, don't ask me what I have been up to, i cant remember back that far.

I had a good break though, and spent New Year watching the obligatory fireworks, and making a few of my own with some of my nephews. Jen was off work for 8 weeks, so we spent a fair bit of time together and did some handy stuff around the house / yard.

Musically, the end of the year was fairly hectic, though the beginning of 2009 has been rather slow on the gig front, but I'm working on that.

The boys have been around a number of times and we have dabbles around with some new tunes and such. One of which I have posted below, so check it out if you want, if you don't then 'boo to you' who cares...

I got a great new keyboard for Christmas from my folks, one of them auto everything jobs, so I'm using it quite creatively to explore as many music genres as i possibly can. i even whipped up a disco tune the other day which I am in the process of throwing some vocals onto, so listen out for that one soon.

Oh I also managed to pick up a cheap 35mm SLR camera off ebay over the last few weeks, so I will be adding some of my weird shots to the blog posts.

There you go, a quick update. hope the next one doesn't quite take so long.

Cheers.
Ecca

Nothin'

A little Ambience

2008-12-03T14:05:00.000-08:00

Though i enjoy collaborating with my musician friends and creating improvised pieces which usually end up sounding quite rough, I still enjoy sitting back with a nice sounding vsti and layering up a tune. one such piece called 'Sultan's Funeral' which was written a short time ago.

I didn't think too much of it when I wrote it, but listening back to it now, it seems to have a solemn feel and a strange appeal. Anyway I've linked it below so dim the lights or turn them off completely, sit back in your favorite recliner and enjoy the ride. maybe you can let me know where it takes you in the comments.

Cheers
Ecca.

Sultan's Funeral

How do you Feel?

2008-12-02T03:49:00.000-08:00

Been a little quiet on the collaboration front lately, but yesterday my mate Wayne broke the drought by saying he'll pop over and make some music , so after a quick call to Billy, we had a trio set up to lay down some tracks to a new song.

Wayne has a rough demo recording of a song he had come up with which we listened to and thought we could redo with a few more instruments and some solid arrangement, so we got down to it.

Wayne laid down his rhythm guitar track (which was initially done in Acid, though then we changed our mind and decided to record in Audition as a straight recording rather than loops, so we had a bit of a slow start). I then added some bendy steel guitar bits in the intro, whilst Billy added some fancy pants guitar bits in the intro and instrumental sections.

Wayne was ready to add his golden voice, and recorded the first verse, and then decided it would be great if each of us wrote and sang the lyrics to each subsequent verse. Because the song was called 'I Feel', I could be forgiven into thinking I was in the middle of a Music Therapy songwriting session, as I would often do something similar with teenage clients as a songwriting exercise.

Anyways, we each put down our vocals, and we thought of putting down some fretless bass, but then opted for the orchestral feel of a deep cello for verses and strings for refrain. We put these down in a few takes.

We then decided some backing harmonies would be appropriate in certain refrain parts, and huddled around the rodes mic to add these. They turned out nice, though Billy reckons they should be louder (may make some subtle changes later).

Billy then came up with a tail part to end the song on the guitar, and we recorded this on the end of my pedal steel track, and amazingly the echo on the p/s track worked great with this tail run.

There are still some additions to be made, like a phasing on the rhythm guitar, and adding of some piano, but the song stands pretty solidly as it is.

This one's for you Wayne mate, hope you like it.

Take a listen from the link below, and let us know what you think. Enjoy !

I feel

I feel tired.. off to bed.
Cheers Ecca

back for a while

2008-11-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

Hey there, remember me, it's been a while.
It's good to post here again after a period of absence, I've had a few minor crisis moments which are a little too personal to share on this otherwise rambling blog, but I'm back.
Unfortunately I cannot say that I'm back with any new music I've written because I've had to put all that aside for the last month or so to sort stuff out.

The next few weeks approaching Christmas are looking quite busy for me at the moment, with a number of corporate gigs booked between Shoal Bay and Sydney (for the New South Wales locals).

I am also involved with a number of charity gigs around this time of year, including one for a fundraiser for a kid that needs an insulin pump and a Christmas party for a disability group that I do music therapy with. I am looking forward to both of them very much as these groups really enjoy having live music at their functions, and if they have fun, it is more fun for the performers.

Jen and I have also been asked to play at the annual Christmas party for the Spencer community. Spencer is a small town between the Central Coast and Sydney, which is basically a country town, they have their Chrtismas party at the community hall, the whole town turns up, so it is quite a night. We normally so some easy listening stuff and dance stuff for the adults, and then do some Christmas songs for the kids. It's a fun time for everyone including ourselves.

Jen and I are still playing every Friday afternoon at Donnisons cafe on Kibble park at Gosford, though we don't get a huge crowd at the cafe, we get regular listeners who sit in the park, and enjoy the entertainment which makes it a pleasant afternoon for all.

Last Friday my mate Wayne asked me to join him for a gig at a local pub at West Gosford which ended up being a farewell party for one of the regulars who was moving up north to Kempsey, most of the locals turned up, and we had a great night playing music for them and watching them kick up their heels.

Other than the music side, Jen and I are still working on the gardens here, removing retaining walls, and putting heaps of plants (and removing a few as well), it seems like there is always something to do in the yard.

I hope to get back into the regular posts as soon as I can fit them in at this stage, until the next one, stay safe and have fun !

Ecca

The Week That's Bean

2008-10-07T06:16:00.001-07:00

Whoa what a hectic time I've had since last posting, it wasn't planned to be but stuff just kept popping up. I'm sorry it's taken so long to post an update, but I have been rather busy (compared to my normal laid back lifestyle).

Firstly I blew a PA speaker at one of the Thursday night Jam sessions. Looks like these muso's are a destructive and loud bunch. Apparently J who normally uses his PA system has also blown a number of PA speakers on Thursday Jam nights, so while I'm not surprised. It was a bit of a shock when I went to use the speaker on Friday night for our usual cafe' elevator music gig, and a strange buzzing sound came through the PA.

Luckily, a good muso friend who lives only a few minutes away was able to lend us a PA speaker for the gig after a desperate phone call.

I later sourced a replacement, removed the blown speaker, and put the new one in, but as sure as the sky is blue, I had to re drill the PA box as the mounting holes didn't line up. I know it doesn't sound like a huge job, but for a dodgy handyman like me, I was sure I was going to stuff it up, but all turned out OK.

I also had a bit of bad luck on Monday night, I normally leave assorted pieces of music gear in my car to save me from carting stuff back and forth, I'm talking keyboard stand, power supply and leads bag, another music therapy bag with percussion instruments in it etc. Upon waking on Tuesday morning, the next door neighbour was at the front door letting me know that someone had broken into my car. Obviously they just wanted the music gear as nothing else was touched, so most of Tuesday was spent replacing the stuff taken and getting a smashed car window replaced.

Luckily I scraped up enough gear to still do the open mic on Thursday night, music therapy session and gig on Friday. One of the items I really miss though and will find it hard to replace was a Tibetan singing bowl, which I simply loved. I used to use it for meditation and also in music therapy for centering the group either at the beginning or end of the session. I am really going to miss it.

The rest of the week was quite uneventful, so I got back to my planned activities. We are in the first few weeks of spring in Australia, so I decided to do some pottering in the garden and enjoy the glorious weather we have been having. Mugsy (the cat) was surprised to see me spending time in the garden rather than spending it behind the computer desk, he hung around me investigating what I was doing to his precious habitat.

I also noticed that the broad beans I had planted earlier in the year were beginning to sprout beans, I was surprised to see this as most of my efforts to grow stuff end up in disaster as I usually look after them for the first few weeks, and then lose interest and they end up experiencing a slow and painful death. But not this time, the beans were coming out and the few that I sampled tasted great ! Yipee.

As far as music goes, I have probably started work on around five pieces of music which I intend to finish at some stage, but at the moment I am practicing for a gig which I have next week. As I don't get asked to do the Karaoke gigs that often (outside of Xmas period), I often have to relearn or refresh all the songs each time I have a gig, and of course they are always adding new songs to the list, so it is an ongoing task so to speak. Meanwhile I am also learning new stuff for our cafe' gig so as to provide some variation rather than playing the same old every week.

Well I hope I have something more interesting to post next time, but for now It's adios...

Cheers Ecca

Welcome to my weekend

2008-09-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Ah the weekend is over and I'm back to my recording space to stir the musical cauldron. The weekend was an enjoyable run of gigging and relaxing. The gigging actually started on Thursday night at the regular open mic jam, I have some great times here, you just don't know who is going to turn up and offer their musical talents and last Thursday night was a great one.

Jake runs the night ( and has been for the last 6 or so years) , and it was is birthday, so a heap of people rocked up to rock it out and celebrate with him, and that they did, musicians as well as punters.

Unfortunately I couldn't hang around after midnight as I had my Friday morning music therapy session to run, the clients were great, they were in a singing dancing, participating mood, so it was really enjoyable seeing them have such a great time and hopefully (fingers crossed) there is another respite organization interested in employing my services for some midweek sessions which would work out really well at the moment.

Friday afternoon Jennifer and I did our now regular cafe gig, and this time instead of playing to a spattering of clientele, there were two full groups booked plus a few friends which we invited to pop in, so it turned out to be a good night. The highlight was that a friend of ours Col turned up with his fiddle, and played along with us, it really sounded great. so I hope that he decides to join us more often, it was really great to have him there, he is an awesome musician.

On Saturday, Jen and I were asked to play at a charity gig for a cancer group who were organising a fundraiser to buy a transport bus, we weren't too sure what to expect, but it was a good function with a really good audience. There were a few other musicians asked as well so we had a little impromptu band happening, so it worked out real well.

The fundraiser was held in a private backyard with stage, dance area and seating, so it was a good little set up, and the weather was absolutely magnificent. The function was booked ticket sales only, so I was surprised when Dave and Robina (a few muso friends who regularly turn up here for a jam and recording sessions), showed up. Funny thing was they were walking down the side of the house and recognised my keyboard playing... well there you go, they were quite surprised when he saw Jennifer and myself on stage.

After around 5 hours of playing and singing, both Jen and I had pretty well had it, but we still had one more thing to attend to, Jake had his official party at 'the farm' where he lives, so were rocked up there for a few hours, caught up with some friends we had not seen for some time, but unfortunately had to leave early as he were totally buggered.

Jen spent Sunday relaxing whilst I spent it making wall plaques of some of my musician friends from photo's I had taken to put up on the studio wall. I ended up with around 25 plaques, and am now I just need to put the rest of them them up.

Today I had the gang over for a improv session, Wayne, Billy, Dave, Robina and Col all rocked up with instruments in hand, we had a great time, but unfortunately no finished product. We started on a tune Dave and Robina had been working on over the last few days, but got bogged down a bit with the technicalities of it and ran out of time. But it will definitely be an ongoing project.

Well that just about wraps up this interzone report but I am going to leave you with something real special, Dave told me about a TV special that Alice Cooper had filmed back in 1975 for the release of Welcome to my Nightmare, apparently it has never been released on DVD. I Love the Nightmare album, so I searched the web for this TV special, and it was well worth it. The links for the are below... enjoy, I did.

Cheers Ecca.

Part 1: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5T93X2VW
Part 2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VZ1DQZV5
Part 3: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G6VL5G75

Merlin's demise

2008-09-17T02:44:00.000-07:00

I've had a rather frustrating few days for Merlin my treasured media player looks like he has committed the electronic equivalent of a infant death. I had only held him in my hands for a few short days before the screen went blank and then there was nothing. Im afraid it's everyready heart stopped beating. I may be able to salvage the 120G hard drive and use it as an external (as far as I can see it is just a small laptop hard drive). Overall though I'm quite disappointed as it was a gift from my folks and also as it seemed like a great unit if it had continued to function. Unfortunately I didn't get to know it long enough to give it a proper Eulogy.

My second dealing with material possessions also happened this morning. I do get attached to my toys, instruments, equipment etc. I'm not one that looks after my gear really well I'm afraid. Luckily I have a certificate in electronics and communication and have a go at fixing things, but this mornings proceedings felt like the end of an era.

We were having a Junk collection in a few hours, so I had to make a rash decision, I was ready to sell my old Atari ST computer (2 of them) and assorted peripherals including genuine Atari color monitor, though upon setting the gear up and testing it, the monitor was stuffed, and each of the computers had particular faults ( been in storage for around 10 years ). These were my first real music computers, initially I had a trs80 but sound capabilities were a squeaky old buzzer, a stranger to the meaning of hi-fi.

The Atari's had MIDI ports (the Amiga 500 probably it's nearest rival didn't) and they made some great sounds, so I bought one, as I was working in the service department of a retailer who sold them, I was later able to purchase a second unit for a very low price. These computers were my training wheels into computer music, I struggled for years with Stienberg12 sequencing software.

The PC of course has improved on the Atari's performance by leaps and bounds, but they were dear to my heart. I solemnly carried them out to the front yard and placed them tenderly upon the pile of old timber furniture, a sink and numerous boxes of junk. A few McDonalds happy meal toys had spilled over and were playing merrily on the grass.

I myself was a little saddened I was, as I started to walk away but eventually turned around and took one last look at my musical beginnings and said a soft goodbye.

I am still working on my new song, it still need vocals, and I'm struggling with it, so be patient it will arrive soon.

Cheers Ecca

There's a kinda hush...

2008-09-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty quiet week on the Studio front this week, so I've been spending some time sitting in my fat controller's chair updating this and installing that and fiddling with a new GPS I purchased through EBAY. I definitely need to be told where to go and how to get there, a poor stumbling, wandering being such as myself often needs a little clear concise direction.

I also received a new hi tech gadget from my parents who just returned from their overseas holiday. They brought me back a Merlin which is a media player/recorder with an internal 120g hard drive, awesome little gadget, they managed to pick this up in Dubai, so I have been sorting through some of my favorite movies, and dumping them onto the media player. I had to include Naked Lunch, The man who wasn't there, Blade Runner and I am considering transferring my David Lynch and Woody Allen collection to the device as well, after that I will probably start on my favorite albums.

It was also a week of good news, I received confirmation this week that J and I have a permanent weekly gig at a local restaurant, we did our first one last Friday, and it went well, though could have been a few more diners to hear us. The management were quite impressed and I believe there could be additional work if they have a booked function. J and I haven't had the duo going since my medical problems about a year back, so it was good to be a musical team again.

I also played a gig last night with a few musician friends (some I had never played with before) for an organization called merry makers, who are a social group for adults with disabilities. It was a fun night, they really knew how to kick up their heels and get into the spirit of things. We played mainly standard country and rock songs, and they (and we) absolutely had a ball. It was so great to see an audience enjoying themselves that much. I even spotted a few of my music therapy clients, they were quite surprised to see me on stage with a band.

In the next few days I hope to finish off a song I've been working on, and we might even see something new from the collaborative group ( I think Dave will be back from interstate this week ). So keep your ears wide open.

Ecca.

Lost Weekend

2008-09-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

I've been toying about this next entry over the last few days, but each time I poise my eager fingers over an awaiting keyboard, something screws up or comes up, one of the two.

On Thursday I was frustrated to discover that this computer had suffered a virus attack ( the one where your wallpaper gets changed to a fake spy ware detected warning message). I actually had the same virus some months ago and managed to get rid of it with a little research on the net, so this time, I simply took the same action (or what I could remember I did last time) and it seemed to have disappeared but basically just pulled it's head in to reveal itself with greater impact a few hours later ( I think they call them Trojans because they disguise themselves but maybe they should be called turtles).

I spent most of Friday in town in the rain, doing music therapy, visiting the library, and spending 2 1/2 hours at the doctor (that not waiting, that's actually seeing the doctor). Nothing major, just getting some paperwork filled so as I can complete my music therapy degree.
At the library I was reading a book about the making of the Pink Floyd movie 'The Wall', one of my favorite albums. I was surprised to discover that when Bob Geldof was offered the lead role by his manager in the back of a cab, he turned it down because he was never into Floyd, and thought they sucked badly. Little did he know that the cab driver was up being Roger Water's brother, so this soon got back to him. Well he got the part anyway. Freaky stuff.

Later in the afternoon, I was to play at a cafe in Gosford with one of my good mates, though the owner pulled the pin on the night when they didn't have any patrons ( as I was packing up, group of fifteen arrived ).

Later on Friday evening when I got home, my partner reported that the computer locked up, so I rebooted and ran my antivirus software. I left this running overnight as you do, and the next morning I could tell something wasn't right, the antivirus software had locked up. This time after rebooting I was locked in a logging on logging off cycle without actually getting to my desktop to do anything (even in safe mode), so I saw this as a perfect opportunity to reinstall windows on a different partition, and copy important data to the non windows hard drive, and then zap the windows hard drive (format), and reinstall windows.

After the above process I was presented with an unusual blank desktop, where I am used to icons everywhere, so I had a big task ahead of me getting my most used programs back up and running. Come Saturday afternoon I was adequately functional again.

Fortunately, I run three computers here, with only this one connected to the net, both my main music computers are Internet free to prevent this very scenario, so no music or musical utilities were lost or harmed in this process.

On Saturday evening I had a dinner appointment with my old band members at a restaurant we frequently visited in our glory days (maybe glory hours), which ended up being a very pleasant evening. I caught up with all the Zubrick gossip, my partner J also enjoyed some intelligent conversation (which she definately doesn't really get too much of from me).

Tools (our aptly named bass player), J and I enjoyed a few hours at the local club testing out the payout capabilities of the pokies ( not the best results I'm afraid, but an entertaining few hours ). The selection process was all in J's hands so we obviously played the cutest, noisiest machines to be found. J is into all the bells and whistles even if the payout is minuscule as long as the machine sings and the animation is good, she's happy. A payout is just an unexpected bonus.

Sunday morning was spent sleeping, sitting lazily with J, rebuilding my email address book, installing a few additional applications, and finally going over to J's folks place for Father's Day. I spent a few hours there watching 'Down Periscope', and parts of various war DVDs whilst enjoying J's mum's delicious rock cakes.

My folks are still on their Mediterranean escape, probably in Dubai now doing some major shopping deals with the Arabs. They are back later this week, and I am sure they will have some great stories to tell. I would like to do some more overseas travel myself soon , I'd like to visit Thailand, maybe do a spiritual quest in India or something along those lines.

I'll probably spend this coming week tweaking this computer back it's former self and going through some material for some upcoming gigs. The next few weekends are booked with a country gig, a charity gig, and a corporate gig a few weeks after that with a fair bit of new material.

I may get a chance to do some recording with the guys this week, so if anything new gets finished you'll be able to hear it here first.

That should bring you all pretty well up to date, so enjoy your week ahead, and stay happy !

Ecca

Everything but the sync

2008-08-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

It is always interesting talking to other musicians and learning how they approach their music. Yesterday I spent most of the day with the guitarist from my covers band going over our live material.

After some time, the subject got onto sequencing and such, as we both are into using computer technology to record and produce music. He was explaining to me methods of syncing computers and sequencers and effects units so as they all share the same timing source. Now this was something I have toyed with, though due to my unconventional nature of doing things, have decided to stay right away from.

My approach always has been to play my VST instruments live. In fact, none of my works are sequenced using a sequencer program, rather I just load them into a VST host software as needed, and record them live layer upon layer. I guess the results of this approach are that I am getting a human feel to my recording rather than a sequenced machine feel. I know sometimes the timing can be out, but working with loop recording software this can be easily rectified if it is too much of an issue, and as mentioned in previous posts, plugins such as melodyne are great for setting major timing issues straight (even if Acid does tend to crash on contact with melodyne).

If I need to use a instrument which is rhythmical in nature, ( such as an evolving sound or beat based sound ), setting the tempo of the VST host to the recording software tempo usually brings them into sync well enough (even though these are two different computers).

I have also been studying scale structures and jazz chords lately, so some of my new work may seem more inclined to using strange chord shapes . This is an area I have looked into a number of times, but was overwhelmed by the vast possibilities, though this time I think some valuable and usable information has sunk in (even though I may have used these chords and scales previously, now I can actually figure out what I am doing, and hopefully embellish it).

I don't think I'm going to instantly turn Zappaesque, but I might actually achieve some of the strangeness and odd feel that I am looking for in my composing, so lets hope it all works out. Meanwhile I will keep delving into this most interesting area.

Well that's enough rambling for now, I hope I should be able to leave you with something new on my next post.

Ecca

Gotta Boogie

2008-08-27T03:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome all, today's audio installment involves a little swing, a little dance, a little moonlight romance. Our latest recording is a bit of a dancy swing number, (for those who thought that all we could come up with were stalking songs..)

Yes, firstly I should mention the feedback that I got from Man on a mission, most was fairly positive, though the guitarist's flatmate found the lyrics a rather creepy. Well I agree they don't make a great bedtime story, but I cant see anything too scary about them, they just describe what is inside everyone of us either on the giving or receiving end.

This latest recording though has turned to the bright side. Billy and I got together and tidied up some previous recordings earlier in the morning before Dave and Wayne turned up. We wanted to start something fresh, Wayne had an old bass run which sounded quite groovy which he showed Dave who quickly embellished it with his own style and quick finger action. We needed drums, so as is becoming quite a chore now, I sifted through some of my loops, and found nothing that was swingy enough, so we settled for a pattern from one of my VSTI's, addictive drums, which worked well.

With drums and bass down, we could see this was going to be a groover. we added some nice acoustic rhythm guitar and then a lead solo which was emphasised by a key change (always works a wonder). Vaughn was our guest lead guitar god for this one hopefully he will join the team for regular recording sessions, as he is quite an incredible guitar player.

We deliberated over lyrics, and we soon agreed that the theme was about a guy who takes his girl out dancing, gets all exited, gets tired and worn out yet all his girl wants to do is keep dancing. Typical scenario hey guys? I am a bit of a dictator when it comes to lyrics ( as the guys are probably well aware now ), but we were all happy with the results.

Billy was chosen to sing the song, we recorded his vocals without too many problems, and then added our group vocals later (I decided to remove these the next day and redo them myself and adding a few clones to get the same effect, only in tune and in time).

I also played around with an effect called Melodyne which I used to tidy up the timing of the guitar solo, but found that I need to be careful with this one as it tends to crash my recording software at times.

I also added some piano parts to the song today, which filled it out a little.

As usual you can download or stream it from the link below, and please leave your comments.

Put on your dancing shoes and enjoy !

Ecca

Boogie With Me

Cistern of the Down

2008-08-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

Hi folks, welcome back to the blog that just keeps on giving....
Not much has been going on over here over the last few days, which is sort of good because I need some time to organise this little space of mine. The tidying up has been going well, the places looks half decent now that I've found a spot for most things.

As I have nothing new to post up of my material, I thought I would share a tune with you which I put together about 2 months ago. The idea for the song came to me as I was travelling home from a party for a Friend of mine who had moved bush some years back and was doing a week back on the Coast visiting friends and such. As I was travelling back from this party, the phrase 'Never leave a nugget in your sandbox' came to me. I love bemusing little lines like that one of favorites has to be 'Never butter your toast with a feather' but that's another song yet to be written.

I started thinking around this Nugget in the sandbox phrase, and surprisingly enough, the lyrics started to flow. as soon as I got home I wrote them down as I knew there was no was I was going to remember them the next morning.

It took me few days before i got back to the lyrics, and attempted to put some music to them, I had a basic idea of what I wanted, I knew the chorus would be a repetition of the inspired phrase, and I felt that the rest of the song deserved a hard hitting riff or anthem to keep it pumping. I sorted through my sample CD's for some metal crunching guitar sounds and hard hitting drum loops and before too long I came up good.

The vocals were recorded, and as always were mixed with a pitched octave down version. The chorus vocals were processed through a 4k filter to give a phone voice sound. I should also note that the amazing guitar solo was produced using liquid instruments VSTI (guitar library). In fact no live instruments were used to product this song other than my keys, a host of VSTi's and samples.

Download or stream the song from the link below, and Enjoy!

Cistern of the Down

Missionary man

2008-08-18T00:40:00.000-07:00

I have been rather busy over the last few days, Friday was a disaster for one, after finishing my morning music therapy session, I thought I would get a usual weekend task out of the way, and do my weekly Mannering Park surveillance duties where I am currently looking after my parent's place while they are holidaying in Malta and the Greek islands, I am desperately trying to keep their garden alive unsure of whether it is suffering from lack of water or the cold winter w( as I am most comfortable with items which have keyboards attached to them be it music or computers, gardening and plants leave me bewildered, like goldfish, most plants eventually die on me).

I didn't quite get there though... halfway there, my car started shaking and convulsing as it if it had been suddenly possessed by the fiercest of automotive demons, so I turned around and headed back toward home and to my local mechanic who changed a coil block and a few spark plugs, chanted a few mantras, sprayed some holy water on the engine block, charged me what I had made from my last two gigs, all in the space of about 3 hours and I was on my not so merry way.

Now some people are paranoid about their health, whether the doctors have given the correct diagnosis and carried out the right tests and such, well I am pretty OK with all that, but when it comes to my car, I fret like a new mother listening for the smallest irregularity which might indicate another problem.

Saturday morning was band rehearsals, so my partner and I packed up the Jeep (her car), and made our merry way to five hours of band rehearsals only to zip off to her father's place afterward to help clear up a house which he was selling. Trailer attached, we returned in the evening with a few extra pieces of furniture, 3 big ceramic pots, a antique chest of drawers, and assorted oddments. We both crashed out after a tiring day.

Sunday morning I managed to get up early and re-attempt my surveillance duties. Being the first trip back in the car after it's exorcism, I was a little a little paranoid thinking that some possibly related overseen fault would manifest itself and leave me stranded in the nether regions of Mannering Park (about half an hour from home). I am pleased to say that this time the trip was incident free. After getting home, I spent most of the afternoon just quietly vegging out, whilst my partner revisited her father's emporium of material delights.

Monday arrives with an early morning visit to the pathology department for regular blood tests and such, which don't really bother me too much (though still listening carefully to the sounds my car is making),

I return home and get a call from my mates who had planned to come over and finish off a song we had been working on last week saying they will be around soon, so I tidied up a little, prepared the baby room ( as they have a 2 month year old newborn ), and set up the baby monitor.

They arrive, Billy, David, and mother Robina start working on vocals for the chorus of the unfinished track. ( I managed to put down some vocals to the verses previously with my usual octave down pitch shifted effect which all were pretty pleased with and made it easier to come up with a chorus as a subject had been established ). We decided that with four singers on board, that harmonies were the way to go, so we figured our parts, laid out tracks and soon had a chorus which sounded pretty OK.

Now Dave is a huge Frank Zappa fan so he felt obliged to include the zappesque 'yeah' and 'mmm' exclamations you can hear within the first verse section, he was pretty chuffed with his work too may I add.

We made a group decision to remove the firecracker recording and subsequent giggles we had added to end the song during the previous week ( agreeing that a cracker going off had really nothing to do with the subject of stalking, and submissiveness) and decided to end the song in a more conventional way.

All of us were pretty happy with the finished product ( and started working on a new track).

That just about ends my last few days activities, my studio looks no cleaner or organised, so that is my attempted project for the next few days.

You can have a listen to the new tune from the link below.. enjoy.

Ecca.

Man on a Mission

Final Studio Update

2008-08-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

Ok the new area is functional yet not totally set up. I still have lots of stuff lying around, but over the last few days, I have had a number of new projects started so I am waiting for some time to clean up.

On Tuesday, my mate Wayne came over for a jam and chat, and we got started on a song which has been in his head for some time, so we wiped away the cobwebs, and started work on it. He said it was a piece inspired by a Sophia Loren movie he had seen some time back which has haunted him since. It sounds promising from what we have so far, yet is in no way complete.

Tuesday night I wanted to try something new out with my partner, we have been talking about having a go at writing some country rock songs (which is quite strange because neither of us are huge country music fans but J has a great voice for country music). I managed to get together a tune, and record it and J has written some lyrics which mention living in the bush and the problems associated with the current drought situation in the Australian outback. Our next step is to put the lyrics down. This should happen quite soon so as soon as it is ready, I will post it on this blog.

Today (Wednesday) two of my good friends (Billie and Dave) popped in with their guitars to put something down. After a rather slow start getting drums recorded, we entered hyper drive. The tracks were being layered down thick and fast, and before we knew it we had a complete song (without vocals as yet). I played around with the production side of it for an hour or two after they left, and am quite pleased with the results, even with the firecracker we recorded going off at the end of the track, which was Dave's great idea after spotting my collection of bungers. 'Let's end the song with a bunger going off' he laughed, and sometimes I just give in to his crazy ideas.

So as you can imagine, the area is not totally organised as yet, there are still leads, amps, and all sorts of stuff lying around though we already a hive of activity. I will probably down the instruments, and get to doing some more cleaning up this weekend ( but there is no guarantee).

And of course my cat Mugsy likes the area, he has taken up the habit of hanging out with me in here especially during the middle of the day when the sun streams full strength through the window.

Ecca

Studio Update

2008-08-08T09:18:00.001-07:00

I just finished watching the Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony and was astonished at the visual effects, the precision of the performers and of course the pyrotechnics. What an immense amount of planning organising and logistics must have gone into this event...almost as much as has gone into the transferring of my studio from matchbox sized bedroom to garage.

Currently the instrument shelf is in place (which spans almost all the way across the garage), the area is also now carpeted, with a large red and gold Persian like design piece of carpet which matches the gold velvet David Lynch style curtains which currently cover the window, but will eventually wrap around the room. The whole decor of the room is starting to look rather Buddhist. The leather lounge and two rocking single seater matching chairs (which also double as great reading chairs) are also in place. But my greatest (though most torturous) achievement award of the week goes to the large shelf I managed to construct.

Now I must establish that I am no carpenter, though enjoy building stuff, or more honestly seeing a good looking finished product which I know I built. This week though it was not to be. Firstly I had trouble with drilling into the brick wall. After melting the tips of a number of masonry drill bits and sheering numerous screws, I had my shelf brackets up. As I placed wooden shelf on them, I noticed that there should probably be another bracket in the middle (due to the slight bow in the centre of the shelf ) whilst also noticing that the shelving was quite lot deeper than what the bracket arms extended, but it'll do. I was proud of my half arsed job, and started loading up the gear. Needless to say, a few hours later, i heard an almighty crash from the other end of the house. I didn't need to ask myself what has made that god awful sound, my keen sense of intuition and the inevitable (though against all hope) was spot on. I spent the rest of the afternoon clearing up the debris of a shelf and contents that (as much as they struggled) could not hang on to the wall. I slept on it that night to return to the scene of the crime the next day.

With my next attempt, I decided to use ramset plugs which were supposed to carry greater weight, but as I tested the bracket, once again it pulled out of the wall. I was frustrated and confused. I spent the rest of the afternoon testing different wall plugs and screw lengths until I had a combination which seemed successful, so I went with it, changed all the plugs, used longer screws, added two centre supports, and finally placed the shelf on the brackets. So far the monolith still stands, and I feel confident about loading it up without a repeat collapse.
This little experience (in addition to many similar botched construction attempts) convinces me that my tendency to do things my way, then the right way is still alive and well in my nature. Good to see I haven't changed.

This coming week I will move my computers and other music gear into their new home and sort out and organize my mess of leads and various bits and pieces (hopefully I will have room for everything). I should be up and running around mid week. After that the only sounds I expect to hear from the room are musical ones.

I will leave you with an apt soundrack to the week

Cheers.
Ecca (the shelf erecta)

Soundtrack for the week.

Beatle juice.

2008-08-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

Today, I have chosen to bestow upon my loyal blog readers, one of my favorite Beatles Songs.
I am far from a Beatles nut, I like their work and appreciate their talents and that of producer George Martin who in my view was the fifth Beatle.

This posting is especially for a friend of mine, who plays a great version of this song for me on his six string during his set on Thursday night jam sessions.

Enjoy...Ecca

Happiness is a Warm Gun

The happy sound of crying chidren.

2008-08-03T03:20:00.001-07:00

Something you may not know about me is how I like to torment and tease little children, like eating an ice cream in front of them without giving them one, or asking them if they want something then saying 'well you cant have it'... all good fun in my eyes.

There is nothing like a bit of healthy disappointment to prepare the young spirit for a world that doesn't give them everything they want, and often lets you down. If they get to deal with this at a young age, then I believe they are able to cope with this much better as they grow up.

I therefore found myself in a perfect position on the weekend having been selected to be on the judging panel for a junior talent quest. I began preparing some of my responses like 'give up on your dreams of being a performer, and take up accountancy' or 'I've heard better sounds coming from a howling dog' all that sort of degrading, spirit shattering, mean, devastating stuff.

Fortunately for the performers, the judges did not comment on each or the acts, but simply marked them on a number of criteria and totalled the scores at the end of the night and i must say that the level of talent on the night was exceptional (so I would have felt rather guilty about shattering the dreams of someone who was truly talented), most of the acts received encouraging scores from me, and having peeked at some of the other judges scores, i was being rather generous.

Apart from the 12 year old bagpipe player and his 7 year old brother who kept a beat for him on a snare drum, or the under 10 year old brother and sister team who sang terribly out of tune, though oozed of confidence, most of the acts were really quite good.

I was quite impressed with a few acts which had attained quite a high level of performance at such a young age, and of course there was also the cute factor when one 5 year old sang Jet's 'are you gonna be my girl' with such flair and perfect timing (though a slightly out of tune voice), only to return later in the night and perform 'Eye of the tiger' in hooded red boxing gown and boxing gloves punching the air with the musical accents. (The cuteness factor actually got this little fella into the grand final).

So by the end of the night, I didn't get to tear anyone's dreams apart mainly because no one really deserved it, and I wasn't really given the opportunity. In retrospect it probably ended up being a good thing as I really wouldn't have wanted to deal with angry parents and relatives of a bawling child. That's not to say that the temptation wasn't there with some of the lower quality acts.

Gosh if I sounded crap, I wouldn't want to be told that I sounded great just so that I don't embarrass myself on one of those tacky Idol competitions.

Ecca (the childhood dream wrecka)

On The Move

2008-07-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks, sorry I haven't posted here with my usual regularity lately, my wonderful partner is on holidays, and I am spending some valuable time with her, and also sorting out the switching over to a new server, which is now all done. I've more than quadrupled my previous download speeds, so I feel very free and liberated.

On my last post I made emphasis on my subsized studio area. In all my previous abodes, I made particular note to choose a reasonable sized room to set up a recording and composing space, So when we bought this place, my Partner and I planned to convert a large walk though garage to a soundproof studio which can be used for jamming with my friends, recording, and also doing some tuition work where needed.

Well we moved into this place now around two years ago, and due to some serious health issues (affecting both of us) and the fact that we both had quite a bit of gear to move, most of the garage is still filled with boxes and unpacked belongings....Until today.

As mentioned earlier, my partner is on a week's break, and decided that this was a great time to sort the garage out. Now most people would take holidays and want to have a break and relax and do nothing, but nope my wonderful girl wants to clean out the garage so as I can have a decent studio space. What a gal !

So.... soon, I will be moving into a larger studio area (which will be able to fit a drummer, and a few extra muso's), allowing me to have a decent setup once again. This week we will be painting walls, moving furniture, unpacking boxes, putting up my treasured velvet curtains ( which look like they came right out of a David Lynch movie ), and will start setting up my music gear in the new space, so I cannot guarantee when the next post will be, though I can guarantee that when all the shifting is done, I will be more motivated and inspired than ever, so my file server better be ready for an onslaught :) Until then, I will leave you with a song that my beautiful partner and I recorded a little while back... enjoy and Take care.

Eric.

Born to Earth

PS. I have linked my partner's Blog called 'Mind Writer'. There isn't too much to read there at the moment, but keep an eye on it for updates.

The most twisted twist.

2008-07-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Introducing the Residents....

The Residents is an American avant-garde music and visual arts collective who have created over sixty albums, created numerous musical short films, designed three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs, and undertaken six major world tours. Throughout their career, spanning nearly four decades, they have maintained complete anonymity. All public relations, interviews and promotions are handled by their spokesgroup, The Cryptic Corporation.

This is Wikipedia's summary of the Residents. mine is so much shorter and succinct...one Twisted Act !

I have been a fan of the residents since the 'Meet the Residents' release in 1972..so I've been listening to this..often described as torture by some of my closest friends even after brain scrabbling efforts to open our ears and minds to the weird and utterly insane...since I was around 14.

It may have something to do with the constant flattened 5ths harmony which always gives a twisted feel, but I find it chllenging and just that little bit novel.

Anyways here is a link to a little known Prince cover.

Enjoy the aural assault !

Words and all that Jazz

2008-07-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

For many years I've been attracted to words. Maybe old William S Burroughs with his junk needle and croaky sandbox of a voice still knew a thing or two when he stated that 'Language is a virus' and practiced his cut up techniques. And there is so much material available these days in the digital revolution with piles and piles of text on any conceivable topic being available at my fingertips. A sad fact probably is that I spend so much time behind this machine communicating with others that I am sure that I ( and many others ) have lost the art of face to face communication.
Having said that though, If I was to verbalise most of what I write here in an everyday conversation, most people would turn away in disinterest. So we would rather pick and choose our conversations with those who understand and identify with us, even if it does mean that the face I am conversing with throws a phosphorus glow on mine,and can be silenced and instigated at the flick of a switch.
But I digress...
These words..I've been seeing them more as an art form than as simply a communication device. There is a precious gift in articulation, imagery, emotion, rhyme, and not to forget the sound, tone, and inflictions of the human voice.
The early beat poets knew it, standing on a stage with a single microphone and a wailing jazz music behind them , talking nonsensically at times simply relying on the relationship of words on each other filling the aural palette with hues and strokes as would a master painter.
Burroughs cut up method provided a rich landscape of words disjointed yet connected, possibly the reflection of his scattered thoughts and disjointed thought processes, though when read or spoken weave a magical winding road with beautiful curves and turns which takes us on a challenging journey. Challenging because it often leaves us trying to explain what we have read or heard rationally which the mind tends to want to do.
Though not all spoken word need be like this. The best of what I have heard comes from a
gentleman who goes by the name of Ken Nordine. Now Ken Nordine is a master of the voice and words. His thoughts run deeper than the deepest murkiest waters often dismembering the human psyche and walking us through as our expert tour guide. He leaves us thinking, he proposes offbeat situations, he brings the inanimate alive. If you ever get a chance to hear his material, ( his voice is likely to be recognisable and you will ponder upon where you have heard it before) I strongly suggest you take a large dose of his wordy concoctions.
One particularly engaging series that Ken Nordine produced was a radio show called "Word Jazz" which was an installment of Ken's rantings backed up by mostly esoteric music and sound effects to suit. The link will take you to his site where you can sample some of his great works ( Unfortunately the site no longer provides downloads of the radio show, but look hard enough and you might just find some...)
Another wordsmith I have enjoyed over the years (though lately she has begun singing more than speaking) is Laurie Anderson. I guess that hearing her 'Oh Superman ' piece at 3 am while I was in half sleep was a religious experience for me. Though simple, yet profound I continued to enjoy many many more of her works over the years following especially when she joined forces with William S on one of her tracks (Sharkey's day).
Of course MC 900 FT. Jesus is another crafty constructor of the wordly kind. Readers of my previous posts should be familiar with him by now and hopefully appreciated his style of work. sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, sometimes bewildering .
In closing, I would like to acknowledge something which I cannot explain though I know certainly exists. Take a number of mediums, (in our case voice and music) alone they may stand pretty much on their own, but place them together and something extra beyond the individual elements is created, maybe it has to do with the combination of the senses or brain receptors. Speaking of which , mine is just about fried for the day.... my next post will probably take this topic further but you will just have to wait patiently my dearies...

Cheers Eric...

The story behind the Zubes

2008-07-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

It is time for me to reveal the story behind the great and almighty Zubricks.
Having moved to the Central Coast of New South Wales back in 1999 from the big smoke of Sydney, due to my girlfriend at the time wanting to open her own Hair Salon, I embarked upon getting myself involved in a rock band. I had been in bands previously in Sydney though gigs mainly consisted of Bikie gigs, small clubs, and charity benefits and it felt more like work than it did fun.
I decided that the best tact to take was in the form of a 'keyboard player looking for band' sign at my now local music store. As I pinned my sign up, I was amongst a collage of metalheads, jazz nuts, blues freaks, all wanting to reach their band Nivana. I was feeling a little lost within the pool of talented muso's, so I went on my merry way and soon forgot all about my little advert not expecting too much of a reply.
Some weeks later, I received a call from a guitarist whose girlfriend had seen the sign, and suddenly realized that what her boyfriend's band needed was keyboards, and lo and behold I was asked to turn at their next rehearsal.
The band ended up being a bunch of cricket mates who, having said that, were great musicians ( I personally am not into Cricket so I subsequently endured many a conversation regarding the current tour, best players, latest controversy etc.)
The Bass player (who was tenderly known as tooly Jeff) had obviously listened to too much new order and the cure (which resulted in a great solid bass technique), whilst the drummer (known as dazzla) was quite technical and tight. The guitarist though seemed a little lost in the 70's and hadn't realized we were on the brink of a new millennium.
Initially, he didn't say much too me, and I felt he sort of didn't approve of having a keyboard player in the band ( where the others seemed quite keen),this apprehension seemed to last only for about an hour as during our first rehearsal break, I pulled out a muso's cigarette. Well that was the end of the guitarist's complacency, his eyes made like light bulbs that had just been applied 240 Volts. Unfortunately the old fella couldn't handle his weed too well, and soon totally lost the plot, and several personal possessions, and was forced to leave the band.
So we ended up being a three piece and an occasional percussionist when he felt the need to join us. I ended up being affectionately known a Bundy Zubrick as they felt I reminded them of the Bundy Rum Bear. hmmm...
The music soon took a sudden turn from the old 70's covers which the ex guitarist had the band play, to originals, which I had started writing and playing to the band. Overall fun was had by all, we became great friends.
We soon recorded our first CD, titled 'The Bistro Witch Project', and then a second entitled 'Dognuts'. This happened over a period of about 3-4 years and many jam's, Guinness's, and Muso cigarettes.
As things happen, on the brink of our third band recording, I fell ill, the drummer found a partner and had a kid, and the Bass player well he was going through tough times financially after a bitter divorce and felt he had to dedicate his life to non musical cash generating activities.
The band still gets together sporadically, periods between getting together are becoming increasingly longer.
I have moved on to other things, joining a Sydney and local corporate band, a local 70's band (ironic I know), and two acoustic duo's.
Enjoy the photo's and the band link below :)

Listen to the Zubricks

Take a listen

2008-07-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

Its halfway through the week, and I don't really have too much to report.
So i decided I'd share a little gem with you all, a fiery red hot gem which I discovered some years back.
If you have read my previous posts, you would be aware of my attachment to Triple J, Australia's youth radio network. Now whilst these days I'm not totally wrapped in everything they play, but often many independent bands or artists starting out will only get played on the j's, and I am still discovering new artists which I would otherwise never hear from.
A few years back, one such artist was a guy by the name of Mark Griffin, or better know as MC900FT Jesus hailing from Dallas, Texas.
I remember material from his first recording 'Hell with the lid off' which was recorded with a guy named DJ Zero in 1990. I recall one particular track on the album scared the hell out of me but I still loved it. it was experimental hip hop using assorted samples and showed real musicality ( Mark was a classically trained musician).
A little while later (1991) MC 900FT Jesus released what I considered his classic album (and the one that I instantly took a severe liking to) 'Welcome to my dream'. The imagery and story telling on this recording were just brilliant. One particular track 'The city sleeps' has MC900FT Jesus adopting the persona of an serial arsonist. Most of the album reflects a demented psycotic nature. I have provided a link below of 'The City Sleeps' for your listening pleasure.
The MC's last release was 'One step ahead of the spider' (1994), once again a great album.
Unfortunately a 4th album was attempted, but he felt that his style was growing stale, and he had taken it as far as he could.
Mark Griffin became disillusioned with the music industry, decided to become a commercial pilot trainer, received his licence, but ended up working in a large Dallas bookstore, and frequently DJ's at a local venue.
I can hear a little of MC900FT Jesus in my material...enjoy the song link.

...and remember kids...dont play with matches !

MC900FT Jesus - The City Sleeps

Friday Night.

2008-06-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

Its Friday night, and I'e been gearing up for this night for the last few weeks or so. I am involved in a band that plays corporate functions where the staff get up and sing and we back them up. quite fun really. The last time I did one of these gigs was about a 18 months ago, so as you can imagine I was quite rusty.
It's now 2.20am I just got back and thought I'd share the experience.
Firstly I must thank my father's GPS which I borrowed for the trip into Sydney, which helped considerably. I am normally a good navigator and quite good with maps, but not when I'm driving at the same time :)
So I found the place quite easily. Quite a nice function room on one of the wharfs on Sydney Harbour, very nice views, nice setting, well presented.
The rest of the band were already there (even though I was quite early), and I suddenly recognised some familiar faces of which some I had not seen for over two years.
The stage reminded me of a matchstick, quite long but stuff all wide, so instead of the usual triangle formation, we all had to set up in a line with the drummer in the middle.
I set up my 88 key keyboard which weighs a ton, and even more when it is in it's road case which I tenderly refer to as a child's coffin as it would probably be of the same dimensions, hooked up my Laney amp which weighs another ton and I was ready to go. well not quite, with these functions the musicians normally turn up before everyone else to set up and then wait a number of hours until it is time for them to play, so it was now the waiting game after a quick sound check.
We all chatted amongst ourselves, caught up on the last 2 years, talked muso talk, met a few celebrities which were judging some of the acts for the night, drank a few ales, had our meal, watched the clients arrive in their crazy costumes ( it was a theme night ), and smoked way too many cigarettes.
OK we were ready to go, ( the schedule was running around 45 mins late as usual for these type of functions). The acts were made up of different department members from this firm, some were listenable, others were average, most were awful, but still entertaining in sadistic sort of way. Most singing way beyond their range, others fighting over microphones, some even falling off the back of the stage. Everyone had fun including the band.
The strangest thing about the night was that the musicians on either end of the stage, couldn't hear each other, so I couldn't hear the guitarist, and he couldn't hear the keys. We got through it OK though.
The night ended on a great rendition of 'Hey Jude' with the crowd coming in on the 'na na na' bit with a choir of slurring voices not wanting the song to end.
We then watched the slow exodus of partiers shuffling through the exit doors wondering if many of them would actually make it home without incident, and of course there were those who decided to stay and continue the revelry even though the lights had come on, the exit doors open, and the function centre staff have started clearing the tables and begun packing them away. These are the same that play chicken with you as you are trying to carry a ton of amp back to your car, or try engage you in conversation during the same.
Anyway, after having successfully packed away the gear and gave my farewells to the band members, I slumped into my car ready for a long drive...no GPS this time...I knew my way home.

I am what I hear.

2008-06-24T23:02:00.001-07:00

One of the greatest rewards to come from the act of creation, whether it be an art form or a physical object, is being aware of the effect it has on others. Unfortunately often the artist has a general idea whether their creation is accepted or viewed in a positive light, though is not aware of more personal impacts.
Today I thought I would offer a list of my top 3 bands or artists who have changed my life of influenced me greatly.

Firstly I need to mention the influence of a radio station which is a national youth network in Australia called JJJ (pronounced Triple J). Without them I would have never heard many of my favorite artists. During my teenage years, they provided me with a wealth of quality music and commentry. These days I still enjoy listening to them (as opposed to the top 40 stations) , though as I am older their impact is not quite as strong but I still certainly enjoy their content.

So on with the list:

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - St Nick is truly magic, his music simple, his lyrics poetic his presentation preacher like. His Old testament style language combined with a passionate presence and detailed imagery really conveyed his subject matter totally. Albums like 'Tender Prey' and 'The Good Son' literally didn't leave my car CD player for months.
Having experienced Nick and the Bad Seeds live a number of times, the intensity and passion generated by each performance was unlike anything else I have experienced.

Tom Waits - A true master of musical genres. This man can do anything from a touching ballad to skeleton music and pull it off brilliantly. Detailed imagery, the husky voice, the sometimes quirky subject matter, the original concepts all combine to make the perfect troubadour. He reminds me of a Tenor that has lost his way. All of his releases have been consistently great, but my favorites are 'Swordfishtrombones' and 'Frank's Wild Years', I recall being totally blown away upon hearing both these albums. 'Frank's Wild Tears' was especially close to my heart as at that time I had left my full time job to take up a music career, and related to much of its content.

TISM (This is serious mum) - If you are not an Aussie you are not likely to know the likes of TISM. They were a Band that basically didn't take themselves or the music industry very seriously, though managed through their mockery of the industry to become quite popular. Their early material was raw and poignant, sometimes cryptic lyrics were incredibly well written. Law suits came at them like wildfire as they parodied and sometimes shamed popular artists, celebrities and bands in their songs. Their identities were always hidden by balaclavas or similar face covering headgear. Their concerts were a creative theatrical event often with something goofy going on behind the band. Hitler Ron Barassi ( the bands voice) often broke into spoken word diatribe attacking the evils of the music industry and Aussie culture. Tism fans were loyal, dedicated, fun loving yobbos who would often slag the band as much as the Band slagged them as being mindless sheep.
Unfortunately the band did their final gig a few years back, there was always hope for a reunion, but their lead guitarist (Token Blackman) passed away earlier this year. ( most of the band were in their 40-50's). Tism were pure energy.

The Mysterious Box.

2008-06-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sure by now you may have noticed there is a mysterious box at the bottom of this page. This contains many of my own composition for your listening pleasure. These tunes were recorded by myself over the last 5-6 years in either my Wamberal beach studio between 2001 and 2006 or my Wyong Studio from 2006 onwards, Both on the Central coast of New South Wales, Australia.
I have been been involved with bands and a great network of musicians since I moved up to the coast from Sydney, and have never looked back, though have found that musicians are no different to normal people (well generally speaking) they have their own lives, and cannot always be available when you are, and may not share the passion for music at the same level as you do, so eventually whilst still enjoying making music with my greatly talented friends, I stepped over to the dark side of sequencers, workstations, VST's and VSTI's to be able to create music on a computer which sounds half decent.
Let me say from the beginning that one type of music making does not replace the other and this works either way. With a real live musician situation, you feel the connection of working with another human being, appreciating their interpretations, styles and influences, which you would not get from a machine, whereas on the other hand, working with a machine, you have the freedom of putting in exactly what you want and how you want it, which I would never dictate to a musician as that would be a disregard of their artistic interpretations and feel.
Each have their distinct advantages.
The material which you can listen to below is mainly computer stuff, some may include live overlays by myself or a musician friend, but mostly sequenced.
Have a listen to it, leave your comments if you feel inclined, I'd love to hear them. though please understand I am not an engineer or producer, so please don't analyse the production techniques, I know these could have been produced a lot better.
So sit back in your favorite comfy chair, turn the lights down, light one up if that is how you like your music, and hit the button. Enjoy !!!

Cheers.
Eric

Initial Ramblings

2008-06-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well folks, here I am, fingers poised, ready to offer my first nuggests of thought and wisdom to a world which I know is just starving needlessly for them.
Unfortunately, all I can do is stare at my Simpsons coffee cup and search my deepest innards for something I need to say, somthing that gripes me amuses, annoys me or elates me.
Nothing... I have nothing. When I lay down to sleep of a night my mind races for hours with sporadic thoughts, situations, schemes... though as soon as I sit humbly before this great machine with its infinite possibilities for mass communication and expression, my brain scampers into a hidden corner of my scull, (I can feel it somewhere behind my left ear).
In fact, the exact same process occurs when I am faced with social interaction.. after the standard pleasantries and 'how ya doins', Im lost for words. There is plenty I could say, but sifting through what would be appropriate and relevant to the conversation takes time, Im a thinking man, not one to be able to spew out words on call, or come up with the witty one liners.
More so in the presence of beauty, it is as if a weight is suddenly placed upon my upper lip causing it to remain clasped shut, and a trigger is sent to the nerve centre of my brain telling it to go into meltdown other than dispatching freakish facial expressions or the code for my skin pores to suddenly open and allow a flood of persiration to cover me.
No. I am one most comfortable with silence, the silence which allows us to listen and hear the utterings of the heart and soul.
As esteemed author Kahil Gibran most elequently puts it: 'Beauty has its own language, loftier than the voices of tongues and lips, it is a timeless language common to all humanity, a calm lake that attracts the singing rivulets to its depths and makes them silent' .
Upon those words, I shall become silent once again, until the next time I have absolutely nothing to say.

Take Care...Ecca

Welcome

2008-02-24T04:33:00.000-08:00