Published on Monday November 19, 2007 .
My friend Brett and I have begun doing some collaborations– well it’s a little unfair to call them collaborations, actually, since he does most of the work and I just put some bass tracks on top of his compositions, but it’s turning out to be fun so far.
Brett is an amazing metal guitarist and guitar teacher in Poughkiepsie, NY, who has always had a tendency towards ambient, new classical, and new age music. Some of the music he has been writing has more of his classical influence in (though not this one so much). He was a composition major in college so it is extremely difficult to pigeonhole him as simply a metal guitarist or even a “Berklee-shredder.” He does whatever he wants whenever he feels like, and I really respect that.
This is the first track we’ve done together, called Time Theorist, but I suspect that Brett put my bass track in two bars too early. We’re still working out the kinks on how we send stuff back and forth to each other. I actually like how it sounds in some places, but not others (mostly the way it sounds like I flub a note in the beginning).
So the bass is me, any live guitar you hear is Brett, the drums are programmed, with the keyboard and orchestrated parts composed and sequenced by Brett (maybe he plays some of the keyboard live? I’m not sure).
I am pleased with my performance on this track, simply because I had to play very simply or otherwise ruin the vibe of the track, but I had to do something more than just whole notes to make it worthwhile for Brett to send the song to me. He could have sequenced a part, he could have even played a part himself, but I feel like I improved on the song just by doing things only a live bass player can do. I think I succeeded.
Published on Wednesday March 8, 2006 .
I’ve been a bad blogger lately. The trip to Nashville followed by getting sick in the midst of finishing up my second five week term at ECPI left me with little time for blogging. In fact, I should be doing work for my final presentation in Computer Applications right now.
Anyway, in case you haven’t noticed, a band I play with, “The Jay Rakes Band,” will be opening up for King’s X on April 7th, so that’s pretty cool. Jay, Tripp and I don’t agree on much of anything but we all like King’s X so we’re excited about that.
I’ve been a really crappy musician lately as well. Can’t seem to make myself practice. I’m just so bored with bass sometimes. It’s fun to play with people, but getting the thing out of it’s case while it is at home has become quite a chore. I don’t know what my problem is, but I am afraid that once I get out of ECPI and start working more that it will always be like this and I won’t want to play music at all. I hope it doesn’t work out that way. It was never my intention to become a “weekend warrior.” I think I need another band project.
My friend, Brett Miller, sent me a CD of tunes he wants me to write and record bass lines for. That should keep me on my toes. Brett is a metal guy, and I haven’t played metal in awhile. He’s not your typical metal guy, though. Brett is simultaneously one of the oddest and most intelligent people I know, in addition to being a great guitarist and composer. I think we spent more time talking about alien abductions in college than music, but thats probably for the better. I tend to think of Brett simply as a good friend who happens to play an instrument, which has become the way I see the majority of my musician friends. We don’t have a professional relationship necessarily, we don’t talk only about music, but we have that common thread and, even if we don’t talk about it, we know it is ultimately what keeps us connected.
