New Remix - This Is Too Easy

A couple weeks ago I recorded a new progressive rock remix and entered it in the People's Remix Competition. By some stroke of fate it managed to win 1st place.

The creation of the remix was actually a lot of fun. The source tune was a very rocking and energetic piece with some fun melodies and plenty of syncopation. Accordingly, I wanted my remix both to interpret the melodies in a couple of different ways. I wanted some sections to really rock out, and some sections to be very mellow and beautiful. Given that I've been playing a lot of lately, I also wanted to included some jazz-flavored sections and several solos. Happily enough, I was able to include all those elements. So, this is a piece that:
-Has several different time signatures
-Has my first heavy guitar wah solo
-Has some pretty jazz sections
-Utilizes the glockenspiel as a lead for a few measures

I am quite happy! I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed arranging and recording it. You can download it from the Remixes section of my Music page.

Song - Little Bit Crazy

Little Bit Crazy - I wrote and recorded this song in 2007, but I was never quite happy with the mixing and mastering. Last night I was in a mood to work on some mixing, so I decided to pull this one out and finish it.

I am very happy with the final sound!

This is one of my favorite songs (with lyrics) that I've actually recorded. I definitely want to do a few more with a similar musical style at some point in the future.

Check it out on my Music Page under Original Compositions.

Lots of New Music Added

It has been quite a while since I updated the site. For a while I was having some issues with my web host, but now everything seems to working better.

This week I uploaded a lot of pieces of music that I've done in 2007 and 2008. 

-That's a Firm No: I recorded this piece as assignment for my college course, Music & Recording Technology. This piece was sequenced and mixed in GarageBand. Overall, I felt quite limited by the lack of high-quality programs and plugins that our school had--it's quite inferior to my own studio. Yet, I was happy to be able to make something decent. This is my first and last piece with GarageBand.

-Out of Control: I wrote this song for my band. At the time we had a guitarist who didn't have a lot of fancy skills, so I kept the guitar parts as simple as I could, while writing some fun drums parts, backing vocals and a fun breakdown. The vocals are performed by the talented Andrew Cheshire.

-Ominous Tidings: This is my first completely original, completely orchestral piece. I wanted to develop my part-writing and mood-setting skills, so I didn't use guitars, a drum kit or any of my standard instruments. Overall, I'm quite happy with how it turned out!



Then, I also posted a whole bunch of assorted remixes that I've done for various competitions. Check them all out on the music page!

New Music Posted

Life and music have been keeping me happily occupied, so I haven't had the chance to post any of my recent music on this site for quite a while. This evening I uploaded 4 pieces I've done. Three of them are remixes that I entered in various music competitions. One of them is a song I wrote for my girlfriend back in June. You can download them on the music page.

More and More - Song for Katie Legge
Open Mic Night - People's Remix Competition - 2nd Place
What a Run! - Dwelling of Duels - 3rd Place
Thexder's Crusade - People's Remix Competition - 1st Place

Steam Palace - New Remix Released

The deadline was rapidly approaching for March's Dwelling of Duels music competition. I was planning on spending a lot of time working on a really fun and creative rock entry, but needless to say I quickly found that the deadline (3/26) was right in front of me, and I had made almost no progress. Not wanting to give up, I decided to see if I could remix another piece, so Sunday night (3/25) I began looking through my library of video game music, looking for a good piece to remix. I finally decided on a piece by around 11:30, and worked as hard as I could on learning the piece, arranging my remix and recording as much of the guitar tracks as I could. Skipping sleep, and working hard all afternoon gave me just enough time to finish my remix and turn it in. Though it wasn't very well received, I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's got a nice raw energy and a guitar solo that I had a lot of fun writing and performing. For only having 10 hours to work on it, I am extremely pleased with the result.

You can listen to Steam Palace on my music page.

New Original Composition

This past Monday I had a little time to kill, so I was trying out some different chord progressions on my piano and a melody started to emerge. After playing around with it for a bit, I knew I was onto something good, so I started trying to arrange it as an actual piece. In the evening, I was talking to a friend on the phone, and she was having a really hard time. After chatting with her I went back to writing the piece, and I decided to dedicate it to her. The piece is called "As The Tears Flow" and it's about the times in life when things just seem too painful. The melody is what I use to express those emotions, but there are a couple places in the piece where a ray of hope shines through, since in the end, everything is going to be alright. Musically, it's pretty minimalistic, and I hope you enjoy it.

The piece is available for listening and download on my music page.

Emergence Released!

Finally, nearly a month and a half later than my original target date, Emergence is finished and printed. Yesterday a box with 100 CDs arrived and is now sitting in my room. Although things took a little bit longer than I expected, I am very pleased with the results, and I feel very confident about the quality of this release. If you haven't heard any of my tracks yet, do yourself a favor and listen to the 3 preview tracks that are available for download on my Music page. If you like what you hear, make sure you buy a CD for yourself and maybe 1 for a friend. If you don't like the music, then buy a whole bunch of CDs and give them to your enemies. Enjoy!