Rock guitar instrumental: “Here And Now (2008)”

Worked on this for a few weeks. My attempt at an angsty rock guitar instrumental. After about 14 versions, I came up with this:

HERE AND NOW - 2008

Download/ listen at ARCHIVE.ORG

Chords: Em/ D/ A + C/ G
Tempo: 90 bps

I’m not 100% satisfied with it. The sound engineering can be improved. The playback volume is not as loud as I want it to be, and I think the overall bass frequency can be adjusted better. But since I’ve reached the limits of what I know, this will have to do.

Started with a distortion guitar track (rhythm part), which expanded to include more guitars (lead and rhythms), then synth, bass, drums etc.

Then I let Adrian listen to this version (#10):

Overall got his thumbs-up, although he didn’t like the lead (I didn’t like it either, ‘cos I half-heartedly recorded the lead to hear how the overall arrangement sounded).

So I took his comments and continued working on the piece, especially the lead. In the end, I decided to retain the initial lead melody, but I revised the middle part completely. You’ll probably hear a marked difference between version #10 and the final one.

This piece has 19 layers (my Macbook Pro’s 2GB memory wasn’t enough to cope, so I had to lock some tracks).

~ Ivan

Singaporean musician: Faith Yang

Learned about this Singaporean artist, Faith Yang (via Jerron, who posted to the folks at Songcraft).

Jerron added that Faith Yang was formerly from “2Gals” (”两个女生”) that did quite well in Taiwan & Singapore in the late 1990s. I found this article from Channelnewsasia.

Faith Yang (not to be confused with another “Faith Yang” who’s implicated in a drug scandal) was interviewed on Podcast.sg recently (if you’re confused why the DJ started by talking about jewelery, Cavemen and Christmas trees, you’re not alone. But listen on).

In the audio interview, Faith explains more about Rebirth (www.rebirth.sg), a collaboration/ production house.

From this post:

And I am happy to have founded this audio production house. Other than that, we hunger for our own creation freedom and space as well. We invite other talents to work with us on the visuals side of things. We call ourselves, the ‘Rebirth’.

This page says “We love to work with others”.

Um… Adrian, you think Faith will consider singing for one of our songs? LOL

Faith just launched her first single titled “Simple Living” (you can hear samples here).

She’s got a nice voice.

And marketable looks.

Recipes for success.

I like the track that is featured in this post (starts off with a piano piece, and then the distortion guitars coming in). It doesn’t seem to be featured in the samples though.

The CD retails at SGD$11.90 and can be purchased online

Will I buy the album?

Let’s put it this way… it’s like some of our reviewers saying they like our SeaStars album on the whole, but they probably won’t buy it ‘cos New Age isn’t really their thing. Ah, but to compare SeaStars and Faith Yang would be to compare two proven amateurs with one proven singer/ composer!

In my rambling way, I’m not saying it’s a flat no. I may not be ordering the CD right this instant but l’ve subscribe to her blog. If her blog posts make a connection with me, and if her songs continue to be as good, then I’m sure it’s a matter of time that I make that purchase.

Anyway, good luck with the CD sales, Faith Yang. I’m happy to see a Singaporean artiste creating her own opportunities, and making her own brand of music.

~ Ivan

Guitar Instrumental - “Just Wanna Be With You”

This is an instrumental version of this song (published in my personal Art blog). I’m releasing this as part of the Starfish Stories collection.

JUST WANNA BE WITH YOU - GUITAR INSTRUMENTAL

Listen/ download MP3 at ARCHIVE.ORG

I’d stripped away the vocals from the earlier song. Then added “live” guitar tracks, drums, bass, incidentals like Piano and Phased Sitar.

I feel that this song is quite complete. But maybe Adrian or listeners here might think otherwise (I’m open to suggestions!)

~ Ivan

John Doan: Harp-guitarist

Yo Adrian, check him out!

I have his album from years back. But first time I’ve seen his 20-string Harp-guitar up close and seeing him play “live”. More of his music at Last.fm.

~ Ivan

David Greer

My friend, Ollie, pointed me to this musician, David Greer, at www.davidgreer.net. Says he’s a singer/songwriter from Montgomery, Alabama.

One of his songs automatically loaded and started playing when his website loaded. Normally I hated that but this time was an exception. It was his singing, the arrangement, the sound of the instruments, the sound engineering… whatever.

It was excellent stuff.

I downloaded all the songs. Took quite a bit of time but it was worth it.

Being a free-thinker, I’m not into any particular religious-inspired music of any kind. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that I enjoy all sorts of music if the melody and tune gets to me.

David Greer’s music does get to me.

He’s got a new fan.

Subscribed to his mailing list.

Can’t wait for more.

~ Ivan

SeaStars blog has been hacked

Sanitised version of our SMS conversation around 8am this morning:

Adrian: The seastars blog has been hacked into…

Ivan: Really? Wat it look like now? We must change all wordpress passwords then. Hacked using either of our accounts? [As Ivan was replying to Adrian, he's thinking, "Alamak, this Adrian must have left his password lying around in school"]

Adrian: how do i know this sort of thing? wah piang there’s lots of crap in there lah… some of the music is still there.

Ivan: Can only look at it at home later. Hope the hack is only to seastars and not our other blogs. Must check if still got (my) RSS feed as backup.

Adrian: what day is today lah?

Ivan: [Pauses for a split second. Breaks out in a grin in mid step while walking to a meeting venue and giving others the impression he's one card short of a full house. Replies:] Somebody is too free. Thks for the laugh though. U realise ur credibilty has taken a dive, don’t u? heh heh

Adrian: hee hee hee… The world is too serious… Glad I made your morning. What credibility?

Ivan: Dude. What would Gandhi say?

Adrian: He’d laugh out loud

Yeah, I really think Gandhi would
But Adrian, try it again and well… remember the Cry Wolf story!

~ Ivan

Octopus’ Garden

I was reading Sea Stories (Classic Illustrated Edition) Compiled by Cooper Edens. Its a really nice compilation of stories inspired by the sea. Like the 20,000 Leagues under the sea, Captain Blackbeard, The Old Man and the Sea, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner…

What attracted me to book was the front cover.. it was a nice painting

One of the entries for the book was this Poem by Richard Starkey. Turns out to be Ringo Starr from the Beatles.

Octopus’s Garden

“I’d like to be under the sea
In an octopus’ garden in the shade
He’d let us in, knows where we’ve been
In his octopus’ garden in the shade

I’d ask my friends to come and see
An octopus’ garden with me
I’d like to be under the sea
In an octopus’ garden in the shade.

We would be warm below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head on the sea bed
In an octopus’ garden near a cave”

(these are just 3 stanzas>
“The idea for the song came about when Starr was on a boating trip with his family in Sardinia in 1968. He was offered an octopus lunch, but turned it down. Then the boat’s captain told Starr about how octopuses travel along the sea bed picking up stones and shiny objects with which to build gardens. Starr said that hearing about octopuses spending their days collecting shiny objects at the bottom of the sea was one of the happiest things he had ever heard, inspiring him to write this song.”

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus’s_Garden

Here are the Beatles fiddling with the song.

Here’s a Sesame Street version…

-Adrian

Walking On Air 2008 - with Friends from Songcraft

This is a remix of “Walking On Air” composed in 2007. Unfortunately, as much as I’ve tried to re-engineer the sound, the playback volume is still too low for my liking.

Anyway… here’s the song:

“Walking On Air 2008, with Friends from Songcraft”

Download/ listen at ARCHIVE.ORG
Music: Ivan Chew
Voices: Betty, Chris, Jerron, Lingfeng, Huiling, Daniel, Ginn, Marcel, the lady next to Marcel Carol, and Jeremy.

Last year, I’d planned to make a music video for it. I was quite ambitious in terms of ideas, with video footage and all that (including footage of the airplane taking off, from inside the plane). But didn’t have time to produce the video.

In late January this year, I decided to try something less complicated. I emailed the folks at Songcraft if they wanted to add their voices to the song. Requested that they record a few words or phrases on what Happiness meant to them (e.g. “Happiness is… reading a book”). Record it as an MP3 and email to me.

Only Betty responded (thanks!). She’d recorded three or four phrases. I did a trial version by adding her recording as a voice over. But clearly the three-minute song needed more voices.

So at the Songcraft meetup in March, I asked the participants to record their voices on the spot. Jeremy gamely lent me his MP3 recorder and almost everyone took part.

Or in Jeremy’s words, it was a “Ivan-making-everyone-do-this-right-here-right-now” thing. But he listened to the voice recordings and said he was glad the recording happened, and that the voices “actually sound pretty good”. You had doubts, Jeremy? LOL

Walk on air, folks!

Song dedication: Surfing On Solar Winds

A few days ago, I received a Facebook invite to a surprise birthday party for Alice (who so kindly reviewed our SeaStars album last year). I didn’t attend the party but I emailed Alice to wish her happy birthday.

And I dedicated this song to her, in lieu of a birthday present. Plus an apology for being a “cheapo”.

Alice replied: “Thank you. The song is wonderful. Hope you don’t mind, I downloaded it for keeping.“

Mind? Absolutely not!

Since you liked it, it’s yours. Literally. I’m extending the rights to the song to you. For what it’s worth, you’re a copyright co-owner now.

Happy belated birthday!

p.s. Apparently Jean (the person behind the Simply Jean group blog) organised the surprise party and kept Alice in the dark about the Facebook invite. What a pal. Incidentally, Jean might be blogging under a different blog.

Surfing On Solar Winds

This song was completed in 2007, and was a candidate for the SeaStars 2007 album (hence the astronomical reference in the title). But it didn’t make the grade, ‘cos Adrian didn’t think the part with the “metallic bass” riff worked for him.

In a way, he’s right. I think I’ll probably retain the Rock Bass riff but add a layer of a deeper bass, so that the “metal” sound isn’t too distracting.

SURFING ON SOLAR WINDS

Listen/ download at ARCHIVE.ORG

I wanted the song to convey a sense of drifting and moving through the stars: A child of the stars surfing on solar winds.

This is definitely a work-in-progress. Will need to re-engineering the bass riff a little, and also expand on the song.