A catch-all category for all my music: commercial, production, and otherwise
My newest single “Morning Walk In The Sunshine” is out now. It’s a nice jaunty little groove with some electronics, some percussion and a little improv going on.
Find it at Google Play/You Tube
Find it at Spotify
Find it at iTunes/Apple Music
Find it at Amazon Music
Find it on Deezer
New in the pipeline for Christmas season is my arrangement of the classic Christmas carol “It Came Upon The Midnight Clear.” This simple, clean arrangement for harmonica, acoustic guitars, string bass and sleigh bells adds a touch of upbeat country/Americana to your holiday media projects.
Download or stream at these fine outlets:
On July 10, 2020 I released a new digital-only New Age/Ambient album, Extasis. This post provides a track-by-track overview of the new release.
My new release Extasis will be available to download/stream in most music outlets July 10. Stylistically speaking, the new album is a follow-up to Circadia, and goes further down the ambient/new age path.
Here’s a track list for the new album:
I’m releasing Extasis through DistroKid, and you can follow it (and me) here.
Please take a few minutes to check out my new single, “COVID Mosh Pit.” It’s sort of a nightmare scenario with a rocking beat.
For Asia-based podcasters looking for professional-sounding music for their podcasts, I’ve just added a set of my corporate podcast intros to my collection at MotionElements. These include Corporate Podcast Intros 1-6; each has its own short theme, loop and logo/bumper. You can find my ME artist page here.
I’ve also created collections of my corporate podcast intros, for those who want to use related music or who produce more than one podcast and would like a price break for buying multiple items. The price points range from US$59 to US$139 and the collections include one, two or three intros, loops and logo/bumpers. You can check them out at the links below.
I’ve reissued my EP Aquarian Eyes. It’s now available for sale exclusively at Bandcamp.
Warts And All, my five-track singer-songwriter EP, is now available exclusively at Bandcamp. Sample and buy here.
The song “Counting To A Million” is the rocker of the EP. It’s also a very personal expression of acceptance and hope. When you’re in a certain place in life, like trying to overcome some obstacle or recover from an illness or addiction, it seems like the struggle will never end. In the song “If I Let It” I wrote a line “some days each minute feels like an endless climb.” “Counting To A Million” is sort of the flip side of that. It’s about learning to embrace the process and not worry so much about results.
Once I figured out the analogy of trying to survive, heal or whatever being like counting to a million, the lyrics came very quickly. The came the melody and chords. After that, it was a matter of arranging everything. I was almost finished with the recording and mixdown before I came up, as an afterthought, with the idea of counting while the song was going.
The bottom line is, this was my way of saying it’s about the process. The Eagles sang about “The Long Run,” but according to economists in the long run we’re all dead. “Counting To A Million” is all about learning to love the process of living, and re-learning that process each day if the day before got messed up. Even if you don’t know how you’ll ‘get there,’ may all your journeys be fun.
Check out this track and the other ones on the EP at my Bandcamp site. (Opens in a new tab/window.)
Back around 2006 or so, I was fooling around with this old Alvarez folk-classical guitar I used to own and got the idea to write and record some instrumental demos featuring the guitar. I had been working entirely with electronics and keyboards and wanted to change things up a bit.
The first thing I came up with for this little tune was the three-note figure at the beginning. Two notes were harmonics and the third on the fretboard. It’s possible to do that third note as a harmonic up the neck as well, but I was having too much trouble hitting accurately up the neck, so I played it further down on the fretboard. I fit chords with those three notes and then messed around some until I came up with a melody to fit the chords.
To change things up a bit I came up with a key change and a contrasting section to act almost like a chorus. Other than that, the tune has a really simple form: Intro, A, A, B, Repeat intro, A, B. I laid down a rhythm guitar track without a metronome to guide me. It sounded really organic (which is to say I messed up the tempo), but I was able to work around it laying down two more tracks. I put a shaker in there to give it a little more rhythm, and then tracked the lead.
Before I mixed down I put in a little digital delay on the lead. The sound reminded me of the effect of a cascading waterfall and that’s where I got the idea to call it “Cascades.”
I don’t have that guitar anymore. I gave it to my son Alex, who still has it out in Utah. I’m thinking about getting another one though.
Please check out the Warts And All EP, which includes this track, on my Bandcamp site. (Opens in a new window/tab.)
