Tagged: guitar

August 2, 2010

New Music & Some Progress

In my latest attempt at genre-smashing, I’m heading south for some country flavor. I’m admittedly not a big country music fan and I’m not sure how this country song came out of me, but it did and so I’m releasing it into the wild today as part of the Workin’ Progress record. It’s called “Secrets” and you can check it out in the player on the site or on my other music pages listed under links.

I want to note that the Pedal Steel Guitar was played by a really great guy aptly named PJ Steelman. You can hear his work on ReverbNation or you can check him out on Facebook as well. Drop by and let him know how you like his songs. He’s a great player and I’m honored he played on the track for me. Thanks PJ!

The other song I’m releasing today is not going to be part of the Workin’ Progress record because it’s technically a cover song. When my wife and I were first married we used to drive around and make up our own Weird Al versions of songs in the car. One that comes to mind was Chic’s “Good Times” which I turned into a song called “Good Fries”. We had just finished eating. Fast food can be inspirational, I guess.

Anyhow, this song is called “Elmo & Grover” and it’s a Weird Al version of Tommy James’ “Crimson & Clover”. It’ll be a free download on my sites, just like my cover of McCartney’s “Every Night” because who wants to deal with all those legal tangles, right? As long as I’m not making money from it, no one cares. So head over to ReverbNation or one of my other links and feel free to download this comedic parody. You can hear it on this page as well. That’s right, it’s a joke, folks. Fun. Does anyone remember laughter?

There will be more music coming. I’m always working on more songs but for now I’m trying to focus on a live band because while some of the recordings you hear on the site aren’t amazing quality, I think they’re going to be fun and really pop live. I’ve got one old friend of mine playing bass for me and yet another old friend who is going to be the lead guitarist and double on keyboards until I find a keyboard player. We’re going to start trying out drummers in the next two weeks and hopefully I’ll be able to start announcing some gigs. That’s where the fun is!

So enjoy the new songs and the older ones and hopefully I’ll see you out there in the fall!

Lou's News / Music

July 13, 2010

Every Song Tells A Story: Hello Blue Sky

The Story

Genre-smashing is something I like to do. I don’t like being put into a box. I like many styles of music. I like diversity. When writing a song, this concept is always floating around in the back of my mind. I try not to sit down and say, “I’m going to write a ________ song today.” That usually leads me nowhere and what does come out of me sounds very forced. When I “genre-smash” it has to come naturally. This song is a good example of how that can happen.

“Hello Blue Sky” was inspired by positivity, plain and simple. I was in a good mood after being in a bad one the day before and wanted to reflect that positive vibe by mirroring it in a song. Many positive images started to dance around in my head as I started getting my thoughts together but the whole notion of a clear blue sky took over. There’s nothing like a good sleep and a brand new day to get you motivated sometimes. I liked the idea and ran with it.

I suppose this is when the genre-smashing thing reared its head. Lyrics started to flow almost immediately, starting with the title and chorus. As soon as that first group of words stuck, I heard the song in my head. It sounded a lot like a 1960’s song by someone like Herman’s Hermits (“I’m Into Something Good”) or maybe The Turtles (“Happy Together”) or something like that. It was most definitely sounding a lot like The Beatles (“Getting Better”) in my head, though, and so that took precedence. I was writing some heavier guitar rock around this time so it was a nice change of direction.

The lyrics came quite quickly after that and I was able to hear the whole song in my head, pretty much. They’re simple and don’t say much more than, “Hey, yesterday sucked but now it’s gone. Make the most of today.” I also employed a little “days of the week” nonsense in there. As the song progresses, so do the days of the week.

There’s not much else to the story, really. It’s one of those songs that just came out of nowhere after the words “hello blue sky” popped into my head. It’s not about a particular person, place or thing. It’s just about not letting things get you down. Is it the antithesis to Pink Floyd’s “Goodbye Blue Sky”? Maybe it is! The thought had crossed my mind, but only after I wrote it.

The Recording

As I often do, I recorded the drum track for this song first. By this time, I was wholly aware of the Beatles/McCartney influence and I knew what I wanted it to sound like. I did my best Ringo Starr imitation. There was little trouble.

So I then went through that little process I find myself going through at this stage of recording where I sing the notes out loud and try to match them on the instrument to see if they sound good. I had already worked out that the opening “hits” on guitar would consist of a chord up the neck somewhere, very similar to The Beatles’ “Getting Better” as I mentioned. Everything in the opening and chorus parts is fairly staccato.

Bass is always fun for me, especially right after I record a drum track. I don’t give the key of a song much thought until this point. When you record drums, you’re not really committed to a key yet. Once that bass is laid down, however, you’re all in unless you decide you want to re-record the whole song in another key. I’m referring to live bass and not taking into account all the ways you can do these things technologically. I’m a recording simpleton that way.

So, like I said, bass is really important to me while recording. It may sound strange but sometimes, with the way I write songs, this is where a lot of the “incidental” writing happens. By this, I mean I may have the song in my head but I may also be missing bits and pieces, connecting parts, or even entire bridges. I’ll say to myself, “I’ll fill in the blanks later on.” Later on usually ends up being while I’m recording bass. This song was no different.

As you can hear, the beginning is just those staccato hits but the real change is when the verse kicks in. Now we’re doing a walking, bluesy sort of thing that has a little walk down at the end (D-C-B-A) which leads nicely back down to the G, which ended up being the key. I found the key by simply trying different chord variations up the neck until I found something I liked.

The bridge was actually created during recording of both the drum and bass tracks. The drums provided the framework and the bass provided the notes. I had no lyrics for a bridge. Nothing came to me that I thought sounded good. I toyed with putting AAAHHHH’s in there or something but in the end, I kept it simple with some horn builds. In essence, I just reversed the little walk-down from the end of the verses. I slowed it down a little and used the horns to build it up a bit. It reminds me of the little pre-chorus in the song “Heat Wave” from Martha Reeves and the Vandellas: simple, yet effective.

A little electric piano helped fill out the sound nicely. I didn’t want to over-do things too much. Sometimes too much layering of instruments can muddle the sound (especially if they’re all playing the same thing). After keys, I found a nice guitar sound with some vibrato that sounded a little 60’s to me and used that for a guitar solo that basically just repeats the verse melody and is harmonized on the second pass.

The builds at the end are just horn hits following the thumping quarter notes. I would just add more notes (lower or higher) to the hits as the build progressed. The vocal “hellos” and “yeah yeahs” assisted, as did completing the “days of the week” thing.

It was an easy one to record. I enjoy the positive vibe.

The Lyrics

Hello blue sky
Fresh start, another try
Maybe I can get it right today

Hello big sun
Telling me the day’s begun
Monday’s gone and Tuesday’s looking great

Went to bed with a tear in my eye and a sandbag on my heart
Woke up this morning and I’m ready to make a new start

Hello blue sky
Fresh start, another try
Maybe I can get it right today

Hello big sun
Telling me the day’s begun
Tuesday’s gone and Wednesday’s looking great

My sister told me that her man done her wrong and she can’t get no relief
I told her, “Baby – you just need a good night’s sleep.” (then you’ll say…)

Hello blue sky
Fresh start, another try
Maybe I can get it right today

Hello big sun
Telling me the day’s begun
Wednesday’s gone and Thursday’s looking great

Hello blue sky
Fresh start, another try
Maybe I can get it right today

Hello big sun
Telling me the day’s begun
Thursday’s gone and Friday’s looking great

Hello Hello Hello Hello
Friday’s gone and Saturday’s looking great
Yea yea
Saturday’s gone and Sunday’s looking great
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea

Lou's News / Music

June 17, 2010

Every Song Tells A Story: This May Be Something

The Story

This song is a very important one for me, but not because of its content or its meaning. It’s important to me because of what it represents, or represented at the time it was written. Let me explain.

I can’t say I’ve had too many regrets in life thus far. On a side note, I also think that people who say they have “no regrets” are pretty much full of shit. It’s a device that makes people feel good about themselves or helps them rationalize things, which is cool I guess…but I still think they’re full of shit. You mean to tell me you wouldn’t call for just ONE do-over for that one thing that happened that time…?

Anyway, like I said. I haven’t had too many regrets in life, but the one that always came back and bothered me, and the one I always feel guilty about is the one where I retreated from music for many years. The last band I was in before my little hiatus broke up in the mid 1990’s. After that, I wandered a little bit, did some acoustic gigs, and wrote the occasional song. Nothing felt right or complete.

It was around this time in the mid-late 1990’s that things started to move into high gear as far as life went. Work was not going well, I was training for a new career, I was in the middle of getting married and all that goes along with that, I lost my father and grandfather in the space of two years, I relocated from New Jersey to the Boston area for two years, had a son, moved back to Jersey, bought a house, landed a new job, and so on. In the blink of an eye, more than ten years flew past me before I could even realize what had happened.

Many good things happened during that period but one thing was for certain. I had drifted away from music almost completely. In 2004, I found myself looking for jobs again and having another child; a daughter this time. I contracted here and there and finally landed a solid job in 2006 (where I am presently).

Now, I won’t kid you. I had the bug in my ear every now and then. I kept telling myself I’d fall into a band or do something musical when it came along. Trouble is, nothing ever came along. I was so far removed from the circuit that no one even thought to call me. So at some point in 2006, I looked around and realized that while I was still pretty busy, things had at least settled down a bit. My daughter was two and my son was around seven. I could probably do something musical. The question was: what?

I had always been involved in original music. I thought, however, that putting a cover band together would be pretty easy. I mean, all the songs are written. How hard could it be? It would be a good way for me to ease back into things. Long story short, while there were gigs and many line up changes, the band didn’t last. I did, however, make a few very good friends along the way and had some fun. I got more confident in my abilities and got re-adjusted to performing once again.

During those few years, I also decided to start playing drums again in another local cover band to see if I had any chops left. I found I could still play and I’m still moonlighting in a few bands on drums, which is fun. All those years away from playing did affect my ability, however. That I regret. I can still play well but I can tell that I’m not as good as I used to be. Time and practice…

Back to the song. I had written a few songs in the past with various bands and I had been in a few bands that released material now and then. It occurred to me one day, however, that I had never released my own album: a collection of songs written by me. I guess you’d call it a solo effort? So, while doing my cover band stints, I decided it was high time to just suck it up and start writing songs again. I would noodle here and there on the guitar and see what happened.

One particular night, I remember being quite depressed for some reason that escapes me now. I was on the couch watching something on TV and I looked across the room to where my computer is. Next to it, I keep my old Yamaha acoustic on a stand for noodling purposes. It looked tempting so I went with the vibe and picked it up. I sat in front of the computer and just started strumming a progression that suited my mood. A few minutes later, it dawned on me that I had just written a song. This is something I hadn’t done in years. I opened up a text file and jotted down the chords. At the same time, words started to pop into my head. Ideas were forming. I just rode the wave until it stopped. When it did, I had almost a full song. I just needed a bridge.

I don’t remember the exact inspiration for the song and the lyrics. I remember a friend of mine had recently opened up to me about some personal things she was going through. I remember that I was down in the dumps the night it was written. There’s a reason I’m connecting these two things but other than a subconscious awareness of that connection, I can’t recall the specific inspiration, if there was one. Sometimes when you’re writing, you write a line and then you write a second line which takes you to a third and the next thing you know, you’re a mile away from your original story. These lyrics were something like a stream of consciousness. They just came out. I changed tense or person here and there but that’s about it. The lines just sounded good when I placed them in the chord progression.

So to sum things up, that one night of writing represented my “return” to original music and from there, I just kept going. So that song really means a lot to me. It was the first real song I had written in years and it served as the watershed for what came next, which was a year full of writing and recording. I get a lot of compliments on the song and I’m quite happy with it. It’ll always be a fond memory for me.

The Recording

The song was written fairly quickly, but recording it was quite the ordeal. I was at a disadvantage at the time, because the last time I had ever recorded a song there was no computer involvement. The Internet was still pretty young, actually. I use a PC mostly. It’s a family PC that I usually dominate but we all can use it. I did not have any recording software or input devices, however. I used some gig money (from the drumming I still do on the side) to pick up a Presonus Firebox, which allowed me to plug instruments and/or microphones directly into it. This box carries the signal from the instrument or voice from its source to the computer. I tried using a PC based software package for a while. In the end, I was able to get a version of the song recorded but only after many failed attempts. There were level issues and I lost the entire song (multiple tracks) more than once.

This, of course, drove me to drink…and to the Apple store. I didn’t replace my home PC, but I knew I needed a dedicated media machine. I grabbed a refurbished MacBook Pro and an external drive. I’m using Garageband now, basically because I can’t afford Logic Pro or something better. However, Garageband is surprisingly versatile and suits my needs just fine. Within a few hours of taking it out of the box, I had just about recorded the whole song again.

By the time I got to recording the song on the Mac, I had already played these parts many times so recording it was a breeze. I recorded the drum track first, as I usually try to do. Then I laid down the bass and the other guitar parts. After recording the vocals, I toyed with the notion of adding some backing vocals but I wasn’t feeling it. I was enjoying the visual of a guy singing alone.

The bridge was a funny thing. When I originally penned the lyrics, I had three verses and no bridge. I told myself I’d write something later. While trying to record the PC demo, I realized I had nothing to play for the bridge and just sort of winged it. After a couple of tries, I came up with what’s on the song now. I didn’t have lyrics though. I took the third verse and adapted it to the bridge. Simple.

The mellow guitar solo was nice but I felt it needed to do something other than repeat the phrase so I harmonized it the second time around. That was another first for me, simple as it was. I thought it sounded nice.

So as my first foray into digital recording, I ran into a few bumps but in the end came out with a decent song that put me on a path to many others. The process is so much simpler now than it was 10 or 20 years ago. That, plus the ease of using the Mac have been key for me over the past year. I’ve learned a lot and hope to learn more as time goes on.

The Lyrics

I swore I wouldn’t let it eat me up inside
I said I wouldn’t let it win
But here I am right back where I started
Here I am… again

It’s times like these you’ll tell me it’s gonna be all right
And I might believe you too
But if I did would it just be a lie
Would I be a fool

I’ve been here too many times
I think I know my way around by now

It’s times like these where the darkness seems to break
With a light inside your soul
It’s time like these I run the other way
I make you let me go

I don’t expect you to try and understand
I don’t expect you to try to make me see

This may be something – This may be something, good
This may be something – This may be something, something good

I got all this stuff now
Not sure what to do
I need someone to kick me in the right direction
Kick me right to you

I know you weren’t trying to scare me
You just tried to be a friend

And maybe that’s something – Maybe that’s something, good
Maybe that’s something – Maybe that’s something, something good

Lou's News / Music

May 27, 2010

Every Song Tells A Story: Mall Girl

The Story

“Mall Girl” has a long history. It was written in 1994 when I was a spry twenty-four year old. At that point, I had already been working in retail, usually in malls, for a number of years. I mainly worked in record stores or music stores. I was still single and in a band called “The Automatics”. It was a fun era that seems so distant now.

Friends always ask me if there was a real “Mall Girl” and the answer is yes. This song was written about a girl who worked in the same mall I was working in (Garden State Plaza – Paramus, NJ), upstairs at one of those clothing stores like The Limited. I don’t remember too much about her other than the fact that she was blonde and her eyes had a yellowish tint to them. She was friendly and pretty. I was a little intimidated for whatever reason. She was a regular customer for a while and I’d see her a few times a week usually. Her name was Doris. I thought that was pretty cool.

At some point I alluded to going out for a date and she agreed. We had one date. We saw a really bad film called Threesome. It had a Baldwin brother in it. It was awful. She liked it. I found out later that she was actually nineteen so I guess that makes sense. In any case, she didn’t seem too interested in following up so I let it go but for some reason the whole affair stuck in my head and one creative day, I sat and wrote this song about the whole thing – which really wasn’t that big of a thing but it was enough for a song, right?

The song was important for me because while I had been in bands before and had written things here and there, this song marked the first time I had done everything myself. I wrote it and recorded it alone, all in one day. I had just gotten a Yamaha 4-track recorder. I wrote down the lyrics, miked up the drums and played the song through based on what I felt the structure would be. From there, I added the rest of the instruments and voices. I used this funky Fender Fuzz/Wah pedal and the song came out quite well for a demo.

I played it for the guys in my band and we instantly added it to the set list. The song went over well and we played it until the band split. After that, I played a bluesy acoustic version (which I’ll record one day) for a bit but the song was put aside when I put music aside for a number of years, along with a few other songs.

I recorded it again in my friend Brian’s basement one time along with another song when I thought I’d make a real record of my own. The demos were finished but the album never made it past those two songs. The other song we recorded down there was “One Step Closer”.

One thing I don’t like to do is throw songs away or disregard them. If I’ve put the time and energy into writing and/or recording a song, I want to keep it around. So when it came time to start writing music again and think about putting out a full album of original material, I thought back to songs like “Mall Girl” and thought it might be time to finally put them out there as part of a record.

As far as the lyrics go, I was just out to have fun. I wanted it to be funny but still tell a story of a guy who likes this girl who prances around the mall like she owns it (“…high class manager flair”). Many of the lines are honest. The whole upstairs/downstairs thing is true. She was upstairs selling clothes while I was downstairs selling music. She did have these big round eyes. I used to say hi to her every time when she passed by to open the store or whatever. So it’s authentic, in a way, but generic enough to be enjoyable to most people.

The song was always fun for me and I have fond memories of writing it and playing it live with the old band and at some acoustic gigs. People seemed to like it, probably because it gave them a chuckle, and that makes it worth keeping around.

The Recording

While I was in the middle of recording some other songs for what would become the album I eventually called Damaged Goods, I found myself thinking about “Mall Girl” again. I had already recorded it a few times and remembered the main parts so I figured I’d re-record it one more time and see what happened. The old demos weren’t bad but they were final mixes and the quality was a bit low.

When I record live drums, I usually make sure I have at least two songs to play. Another older song, “One Step Closer” was also waiting in the wings, so I put those two on the list and recorded the drum tracks on the same day.

After drums, I usually lay down a bass track so I can have a full rhythm section to play along with. Again, I was able to lay that track down in a short amount of time. The song just came right back to me, not that it’s anything all that complicated.

With those tracks in the can, I moved on to guitar. This is where things got a little hairy. I play a Fender Telecaster, which can sometimes be noisy. For the older demos, I used the aforementioned huge, vintage Fender Fuzz/Wah pedal to create a certain effect without which the song would lose much of its flavor. This thing is also a noisy beast but so much fun. I plan on using it live, if I can.

All that noise on multiple tracks made for a noisy recording. To be honest, though, one of the things I enjoy about the song (and the original demo) is that it’s noisy and boisterous. So, the fact that there was all this noise all over the tracks was something I could easily overlook. It did make mixing the thing a little hairy, however.

After laying down the main guitar parts, I added a solo track, piece by piece, until I had something I was happy with. I’m not very good at lead guitar so I usually have to record solos a phrase at a time, unless I get lucky.

I didn’t go all out on the vocals this time. I did three part harmonies on some bits for the old demos but stuck to two this time. I’m not sure why, really. Sometimes the song just says, “Hey, don’t need it.” Perhaps live, I’ll do something else. The songs are going to sound a little different live, I’m sure.

I’ll admit, I was a little impatient with mixing the song at first. It’s a simple song so it shouldn’t be difficult, right? I still hadn’t gotten a handle on compression and things like that, so I was having trouble getting the drums to stand out. They sounded buried. I resorted to EQ for a lot of these issues and as a result, the first mix of the song that I released sounded a bit washed out and way too bright. I released it anyhow, just so I could move on to other songs and keep the forward momentum going.

Move on, I did. Still, every time I happened to hear the track it always bothered me. So recently, I revisited the mix, stripped off a lot of the EQ and effects, and played with the compression some more, bringing things out and pushing things back. By this time, I had had a little more practice and played around with the settings. I felt a little more confident. The resulting mix was a definite improvement and I replaced the old mix with the new mix everywhere I could. Because of all the noise and stuff, however, it’s still not the best mix in the world, but it works for me. At least it won’t make me cringe anymore.

Looking back, it was always a fun song to play live, but I was usually on drums or playing the acoustic version. I’m really looking forward to playing this song live, fuzz/wah and all. I hope people still get a kick out of it.

The Lyrics

Now when I’m downstairs at my store I wait for her to pass my door
Cuz she’s the one that lights up my day
She’s got big round yellow eyes, her hair is blonde, need I say more?
I’m always her first stop of the day

Mall Girl strutting down the aisle with her high class manager flair
Mall Girl oooh she flash a smile, make my heart and soul beware

She’s too cool for conversation, fills me with elation every day
when she opens her store
Upstairs she sells the clothes, body suits and panty hose
She got everything you need and more more more, cuz she’s my…

Mall Girl strutting down the aisle with her high class manager flair
Mall Girl, oooh she flash a smile, make my heart and soul beware

Hey baby what do you say me and you go down to the food court and uh…get some food?

I’m happy that I’m there in that record store downstairs
Cuz she buys all her music from me
She never is defensive and though the music is expensive
She knows that my love is free – yea!

Mall Girl strutting down the aisle with her high class manager flair
Mall Girl, oooh she flash a smile, make my heart and soul beware – yea!

Mall Girl – Mall Girl – Mall Girl – Mall Girl…

Lou's News / Music

April 23, 2010

Every Song Tells A Story: Corporate Robot

The Story

I enjoy humor in music. There are times to be cerebral and there are times to be just plain funny. I like making people laugh with a goofy lyric or idea. This song was meant to be humorous, of course, but underneath it all lies a thinly veiled satirical commentary on corporate America.

The underlying theme in “Corporate Robot” is of conflict. I’ve been working in corporate America now for a long time but I’m not a fan of the corporate mentality that you find in some places. I’ve worked for many companies; some of them big giants and some smaller. In each, I’ve found a different “company culture” statement (written behind closed doors in some HR department) which in most cases totally contradicts what goes on in the hallways and at the water coolers.

Some companies I’ve worked for were so rigid and quiet that there was hardly any communication at all except via computer or at meetings. In other places, there were definitely cliques of people and if you were not in that group, you lost out. At some jobs you didn’t dare talk to someone who had an office unless they came to speak to you (which was rare). At other jobs, the top dogs were the friendliest people, while the mid-level managers were micromanaging, power hungry ego maniacs who basically did nothing all day, much like Lumbergh from Office Space.

In fact, Mike Judge hit the nail so hard on the head with that film that it’s a wonder that film didn’t change the company culture of corporate America as a whole. Like a wake-up call. But I digress.

I’ve also had some good experiences in corporate America but to be honest, it’s just not a fun place. Depending on where you are, you have to basically sit around for a year or two and just observe people before you know who you can talk to and who you can’t. There are walls everywhere.

There’s also this false sense of what they call “professionalism” which apparently means you can’t be human. Everything has to be sterile and controlled. Mechanized. By the book. Robotic.

So after a few years out there, I realized that I don’t really work with people, for the most part. I work with robots. Corporate Robots. At times, I’d notice that as you went up the ladder, this applied more and more. It seems that folks got phonier the higher they climbed the company ladder. They became more clueless and detached somehow, like celebrities who have lived so long in their little bubbles that they can’t be real people anymore when they go out into crowds. They have an alternate sense of reality and can’t adapt.

Now, I’ll admit that the place I’m at now is not really like this. There are definitely walls and some rigid people but for the most part everyone’s cool, all the way up the ladder. The project I’m working on, actually, is going to try to break down some of those walls. So that makes me excited.

Still, all these years in corporate America (especially jobs I had before this one) have affected me and my thinking. I’ve seen some strange stuff and some really odd behavior from people who were paid very well and claimed to be “professionals”.

So that’s basically what this song is about. It’s about having to pay the bills and being stuck in corporate America doing so. Let’s face it. We all have dream jobs and for a high percentage of us, what we’re currently doing is not what we’d like to be doing. I’d sure like to be able to make music all day long, whether it be scoring films, making records, writing for other people, and so on. That’s just not going to happen for me at this point (without being able to dedicate 100% of my time to it), so here I am doing web design and managing portals. It’s decent work but not as fun as playing guitar. Hence the lyric, “I’m stuck in this world.”

The song is also about the creepy people you sometimes see in the hallways that pretend not to see you, the bosses who can never leave their work at the office and enjoy life, and the feeling like you’re slowly becoming one of these people; part of the machine.

Again, it’s meant to be humorous and I got a little serious while writing this. It’s not that I’m feeling all of this at the moment. I actually just liked the term “Corporate Robot” (I had been using it for years) and the rest of the song just sort of flowed from there. Maybe I was having a bad day at work. Who knows.

I tried to throw in some “corporate speak”, as it’s called. Offices have this strange little bit of vernacular that they like to make use of. Phrases like “low hanging fruit” (the goals easiest to achieve in a shorter time) are heard regularly. Of course, I had to throw a Starbucks reference in there. Corporate America basically keeps that place in business and Starbucks itself is pretty much the IBM of coffee.

The bits about the admins and conference rooms are all based on real events that got stuck in my head. People will walk past you in the office, look you in the eye, and not acknowledge you. It’s like they have to have a reason to say hello. Usually that reason is that they need something from you. I could go on all day.

Sometimes you just have to laugh. Or write a song.

The Recording

“Corporate Robot” was actually a fun song to record. I knew from the start that I did not want cymbals on it, outside of hi-hat. I wanted it to be stiff and robotic but I did not want to use a sample of myself or a loop. The song is more about the conflict and trying not to become a robot than about the existing robots themselves. So I wanted the drum track to be stiff and robotic but still somewhat human. Besides, I’m not really that into drum loops. I’d rather just play a drum track than sit there and edit fills for days.

I recorded the drum track, fighting the urge to hit the crashes on the one or wherever my gut would tell me to. I already had the beat in my head so it was easy to bang it out. I just sang along to myself in my head to keep track of where I was. I had a guide chart on a stand to help me.

I added the bass shortly after, which I also had in my head. I wanted the bass to drive the song because I knew there wasn’t going to be much guitar on it. I wanted a funky guitar chord that I would bang on the two with a little variation here and there. I worked out some chord that sounded right and fired up the tele with a nice clean sound. Before I knew it, the basic tracks were done.

It felt like it needed something else, though. Enter the Rhodes. I had purchased a used 1970’s Fender Rhodes some time in the early 1990’s and had been lugging this thing from home to home for years. If you’ve ever seen one of these beautiful monsters, you know they’re big and heavy. I even had a huge road case with wheels for it. Well, at that point in time I had been trying to sell it and had it set up to take a few pictures. It was almost as if it were saying to me, “Hey, I know you don’t want me any more but why not use me one last time?”

So I plugged the thing directly into my Mac and it sounded beautiful. I had fun coming up with some little parts for the song. The bridge is just straight chords. The little solo piece after that really added some life to the song, but not too much life. I even harmonized it a little for fun. Then there’s a different section for the outro based off some E chord. It all just fell together.

Of course, a few days later the Rhodes and the road case were sold and shipped off to Romania. Wild! I used most of the money to pay off some of the Mac and with the rest I picked up a midi controller so I could add things like pianos, horns and strings to anything I wanted to record. One door closes, another opens.

When it came to vocals, I had two ways I could go. I could have sung it normally or robotic. I opted for the latter but I had this issue where I wasn’t sure if people would get the idea. I knew it would sound very “monotonic” and I had hoped that people would know this was on purpose. I didn’t want people to hear it and think, “Does he really sing that poorly?”

So after a good 30 seconds of deliberation (I don’t like wasting time with decisions like that), I just went and sang it like a robot. I even added a little deep robot backing vocal here and there. Tons of fun, really.

“Where’s the plug? Come on pull it,” came out of my subconscious while I was ad-libbing at the end, but I guess it really does sum things up in a way. Unplug the robot. Be human.

Lyrics

Don’t wanna be no corporate robot
Don’t wanna hear about low hanging fruit
Don’t wanna kiss up to a bitchy admin
So I can get the better conference room

Walk past you in the hallway
Look you right in the eye
You look anywhere but my way
Would it kill you to say HI?

Corporate Robot – you’re lifeless and cold
Corporate Robot – you do what you’re told
Corporate Robot – you live by the code
Corporate Robot – it’s old old old

Every day that I’m here
I feel a piece of me slipping away
Replaced by wires and machinery
Transformation is taking place

When you go home to your dependents
Do you know how to be human at all
Do you forget you’re not in the office
Schedule some kid-time to throw around a ball

Got a meeting
Got a voice mail
Got a budget to pass
Got a new hire
Got a new tie
Got a stick up my ass

Got no time
Got no humor
Got no changing moods
Got no patience
Got no guts
Got no idea what I do

The corporate robots line up every day
They get their Starbucks and they pay pay pay
Corporate robots talk in dull corporate speak
Corporate robots think they’re smarter than me

There’s no humanity
There’s no reality
It’s like a B-Movie
It’s killing me

I’m stuck in this world
Gotta find me a corporate girl
Where’s the plug?
Come on pull it

He wants to change music!http://newjersey.craigslist.org/muc/1706390997.html

Don’t let him.
HAHAHAH

Lou's News / Music

April 13, 2010

Time for a New Band

I’ve been a musician in some form or another since I was in my late teens. This year I turned 40 and I thought it was about time for a solo effort after playing in many bands and taking an extended hiatus from music in the late 1990’s. I’ve been in original and cover bands before, and I’m still drumming in a few now but I’ve never really had a solo thing with songs written and recorded by myself. I have a large backlog of lyrics plus lots of new ideas so material is definitely not in short supply. Now’s the time to move.

So, I’m looking for some people to back me up in the band. I have a friend willing to play bass but that’s about it for now. I’m going to need a solid lead guitarist, a good drummer, and a versatile keyboard player. I’m in the northern NJ area so if you know anyone who might want to play my original songs with me, please have them listen to the songs here on the site and if they like them, contact me. Some of the recordings aren’t the best but I think they’re going to pop live once the band gets in the groove.

I’m pretty excited about this so hopefully it won’t be too long before there are some gigs on the calendar. In the meantime, I’ll continue recording new material and seeing what other trouble I can get myself into. Stay tuned to the site for updates on the band situation and lots more.

Wish me luck!