I whipped this little instrumental up one day in early 2000. In my head I thought I came up with a masterpiece like Eddie Van Halen’s “Respect The Wind”, but it didn’t quite come out that way. Instead, it’s a spacey sounding piece that I find quite soothing.
I used my Kramer Pacer Deluxe American, Zoom effects processor, Ovation electric/acoustic, and Marshall VS265 amp.
Here is an original song that I wrote in 1995. Having been influenced by Dream Theater for 3 years at this point, my own music started to take on a more progressive feel… more complicated chord progressions, more intricate drum tracks, and I was breaking away from the old “verse, chorus, verse chorus, solo, chorus, fade out” paradigm of songs I grew up with.
While the guitars and vocals were performed by myself, my friend Mike Fermer played the keyboards and programmed the drum tracks. Yes, that is a drum machine. Mike is amazing at programming drum tracks!
Another thing to note: I was much more of a guitarist at this time of my life than a vocalist, so… 😛
Vocals recorded with my Shure SM-58 mic. I was playing my 1988 Charvel Model 3 strat guitar through a portable Zoom effects processor. The keyboard is an Ensoniq SQ-1.
Anyone that knows me is aware that I’ve been a Dream Theater fanatic since the first time I heard “Pull Me Under” in 1992. While the guitarist in me is most impressed by the the guitar god John Petrucci, I also appreciate the phenomenal skill and talent the other members (past and present) possess.
“The Silent Man” has easy to sing vocals since it doesn’t use James LaBrie’s wide vocal range, and it’s just such a beautiful song. Now, as a guitarist I can actually play this song quite well, but as a fairly lazy musician it is much easier to find a backing track on the Internet that somebody else has already created… so I did that instead.
These vocals were recorded with my Neumann TLM-103 mic.
I wrote this song for my uncle Wayne in 1995 after hearing that he had taken his own life. The words and music flowed through me that night, as if he was telling me to sing this song to let everyone know he was in a better place now and at peace.
That’s me at age 2 in the photo above, with my first guitar.
Sometimes I write sad songs when I’m thinking about a lost loved one. This song, “Lately” was written and recorded in 1999 about a girl (of course).
Writing out and singing my emotions is incredibly therapeutic.
Vocals recorded with my Shure SM-58 mic, played with my Ovation acoustic that had a very “thin” sound.
I recorded this in 2 tracks: 1st take was playing the rhythm guitar and singing simultaneously; 2nd take was the added guitar licks/lead.