General Music Chat

I'm finally getting around to setting up a reverbnation account, so got busy MP3ing my older songs and put the opener for my 2011 CD on my BM profile - it's the first tune, When The Bomb Falls, written in 1983, performed for a few years, then in mothballs until I started recording about 2 years ago.

I liked it Mike, I'll listen to the start again
later(kinda slow start), glad to see the song
takeoff after the intro. While listening I thought
you sounded a little like the Kinks from the 70s,
it's good, I love listening to people play lead
guitar, and there interpretations and voicings
of the various scales and notes.

One question, you say you wrote it in 1983, is it
too old. I have a backlog of at least 50 songs that
I wrote back in the late 70s and early 80s, but have
stayed away from performing or recording most of these
songs cause I feel they're to old, and I'm wanting to
capture my new music. Lord knows I've been wrong
before, but what's your take on old music you've
wrote in the past?

Interesting question regarding 'old songs' - considering that my 2011 CD was just that - a history of my playing/writing over the last 40 years, including the first complete song I ever wrote up through a couple of songs written in late 2010.
No doubt, some old songs can sound dated, but then people still listen to 60s Beatles, Stones and Kinks records, don't they? But how many people still listen to the Bee Gees's Saturday Night Fever?

Back to 'When The Bomb Falls' - the intro is meant to sound mellow - to contrast with the body of the song. Here's what an amazon review said about it:
think you're about to be lullaby'd into a hypnotic state of tranquilized fairy-folk bliss? well, don't let the first minute or so fool ya cuz this mother gets into your face from the word GO and rarely, if ever, lets up. If the 1st track doesn't blow you away (joke there), then most likely you've been trapped in a bomb shelter most of your life and probably need to surface for a breath of 'fresh' air, much of which abounds here!

I've got so many songs now that I want to record I've
stayed away from the older songs. They're there if I
ever hit a lull and need something to record,( I eventually
plan to record and publish all my music), for now I'll just
record the songs the way the Gods hand it down to me.

What type of studio did you record your CD in, home or
pro, digital or analog, did you play all the instruments or
higher others?

I used a Boss BR600 stand-alone recorder for that CD - it was definitely a 'learn while you go' thing - the only other recording I had done in the past was the old '2 cassette deck' bouncing method. All done in my 'everything' room - computer, library, practice, mixing room.
All vocals, instruments by me, percussion was the built-in rhythm machine in the Boss and 'live playing' on a keyboard with samples.
As I wrapped up that one and sent it off for mastering I 'graduated' to recording on the computer, using Reaper DAW. What a great step up! Almost wishing I could go back and redo all the songs on the CD, but it would be self-defeating at this point.

I liked it, but I would lose the intro and cheesy bomb effect. The lyrics are a bit dated, talking about "the bomb" was a popular subject in the 60's and 70's. Your voice has potential, listen to a lot of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, they should be your vocal guides. Good job!

As far as digging out old songs and "updating" them - guilty! Usually they do turn out better, but really it's a time waster, those songs belong to a different time and will always sound "old" at least to me. I think if you have new songs they should be the focus.

You should have heard my first attempt at the intro - it was about 5 minutes long, adding an instrument at a time for I-don't- know-how-many repeats!
I know my vocals are limited - I'll choose back-up singing any day, which is yet another reason for searching out some musical compatriots.