Audio & Podcast

New Years Greetings

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 17:45:26 -0800

Happy New Years to all our family, friends and colleagues. Looking forward to a joyous, prosperous peaceful 2010 with you all.

The track was created with guitar, ebow and an iPhone using the RjDj app and the Scene “Eargasm”.

Right-Click the link below to download our audio best wishes to you and yours:

New Years Greetings.mp3

Guitar Tracks Commercial Use

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:38:37 -0700

One of the biggest perks of doing commercial work is randomly blowing through the orbit of some folks you wouldn’t normally run into in the musical social universe. One of my most faithful clients has done the Jack In The Box music for years now. Initially it was like showing up for any session with an advertising component, but then one day I walked into the Village Recorders in Santa Monica and heard a voice that I’d been hearing coming out of an antenna bobble head on television coming out of the mouth of a real guy, sitting in the control room.

It turned out to be the man behind the voice and the entire Jack In The Box ad campaigns and he was just there to hang. Great guy, hilarious stories (one of which involved describing shopping for his first yacht in wide eyed wonder, complete with sound effects of slurping complementary Mai Tais while trying to process the trust fund emptying sales blather of the company rep).

Not all ad sessions are that cool, but there have been enough others with some great clients through the years to make it a large component of the session work I’ve done along with Film Scores, Television Soundtracks, Video Games, Theme Parks, Sports Marketing and a broad list of etceteras. Here you’ll find a sampler of tracks from jingle, film, television and video game guitar sessions. Artist Album sessions can be found in the Guitar Album Tracks episode of the podcast.

In order of appearance:

Industrial Soundtrack: Tim Heintz, Disney
Slicer guitar

TV Ad Campaign: Damien Heartwell, Volkswagen
Electric, 7 String Electric, Electric Effects

TV Ad Campaign: Wojahn Brothers
Thrash guitar
Curt Bisquera, drums

TV Ad Campaign: Wojahn Brothers
Acoustic Guitar
Scott Wojahn, Vox

Film Score: Michael Pichton, Little Chenier
Acoustic, Dobro, Electric Vibrato, Electric Screams

TV Ad Campaign: Wojahn Brothers
Electric guitar
Curt Bisquera, drums, John Pierce, Bass

Video Game Score: Garry Schyman, Destroy All Humans
Electrics, Bass, Electric Effects, Guitar Recording Engineer

TV Ad Campaign: DMI Music
Electric Guitars

TV Ad Campaign: Wojahn Brothers, Budwieser
Dobro

TV Series Theme: Joel Goldsmith, Marshall Law
Bass, Electrics

TV Ad Campaign: PJ Hanke, Sports Authority
Guitars

TV Ad Campaign: Wojahn Brothers, Nike
Electrics
Dave Owens, Drums

Industrial Soundtrack: Tim Heintz, NASCAR
Guitars, Guitar Recording Engineer

TV Ad Campaign: DMI, Cheverolet
Guitars, Guitar Recording Engineer

TV Ad Campaign: Wojahn Brothers, General Foods
Acoustic Slide Guitar
James Harrah, Electric, Dave Carpenter Bass

Film Score: Joel Goldsmith, Diamonds
Electric Sitar, Reversed Sitar, Electric Guitar

TV Ad Campaign: Wojahn Brothers
Talk Box Guitar

TV Ad Campaign: PJ Hanke, Carl’s Jr.
Electric Guitar

TV Ad Campaign: DMI, Revlon
Electrics

Film Score: Joel Goldsmith
Electrics, Electric Effects, Bass

Film Score: Joel Goldsmith, Diamonds
Electrics, Electric Effects, Bass

TV Ad Campaign: Wojahn Brothers
Electric Guitar

TV Ad Campaign: Wojahn Brothers
Acoustic Slide Guitar

Songwriting

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:12:24 -0700

Google “Songwriter Cartoon” and this is what you get. Tells a tail doesn’t it? It’s the rare writer who learns how to express their frustrations with the human experience in a manor that draws an audience into their perspective in a compelling fashion. All that fancy BS to say, “have a hit”. All so you can be featured on a Starbucks compilation 20 years later called “Hits Are For Squares”.

I never had one although I brushed up next to it often enough to make BMG Publishing believe I was on the verge of one for 4 years. There was the John Farnham lead off single that got me signed which eventually got pushed back to the 5th single by the time it was all said and done; the Stevie Nicks cowrite to a track I wrote with Jennifer Condos that was apparently cut once for a Stevie duet with Tom Petty, scrapped and then cut for a Fleetwood Mac record and scrapped. I’ve heard the lyrics on a ruff ghetto blaster demo. They were brilliant in typical Stevie fashion. I still haven’t heard a track with her vocal on it.

After Vinnie James won song writer of the year at the LA Songwriter Associations awards over Tom Petty and a host of LAs biggest, best and brightest, there was great expectation for his 2nd album. My publishers also had great expectations for my 3 co-writes, but that album was recorded, mixed and then canned after Vinnie bitch slapped Joe Gilante via trans continental phone call over in-store displays (or the lack there-of) of his 1st record in Sweden.

And lastly and not remotely leastly, there’s the Chicago single “Hearts In Trouble”, written and cut originally for a Bill Champlin solo album that got placed in a Tom Cruise film because Tom and Dennis Hopper loved the track (and because our co-writer, Dennis Matkosky had had a very big hit in a previous Don Simpson film). That was before the Chicago horns got shoe horned into the mix and radio completely rejected it because it sounded nothing like Chicago. The Chicago tour mounted to take advantage of the expected, but never materializing top 10 success of the single was re-dubbed the “Bill’s In Trouble” tour.

In spite of all of the above, I had a great time during my stint in the trenches as a staff writer. I’ve been very blessed to have worked with some great folks including my agents John Baldi and Debi Dill and a cast of great co-writers that also included Darrel Brown, Jimmy Davis, Meredith Brooks and Jennifer Page.

The montage is a selection of favs from back in the day through recent cuts and demos. I’m a co writer on all, additional credits as noted:

Have Some Fun: Jonathan Clark, Scott Plunkett. Demo

It Don’t Get Better: Meredith Brooks. Blurring The Edges

Still: Dustin Kline. Demo

Raise Your Hands: Marsha Skidmore. Unreleased Master

Hearts In Trouble: Bill Champlin, Dennis Matkosky. Chicago

We Are Not Ashamed: Marsha Skidmore. Tommy Coomes Band

Fija: Jorge Llarana. Unreleased Master

Dancing On The Levee: Ed Tree, John Walmsley. Zydeco Party Band

Summer Breeze: Jennifer Paige Demo

Believe: Dustin Kline. Unreleased Master

Rock and Roll Tragedy: Tamara Champlin. Nicky Hopkins on Piano

Like Eagles: Marsha Skidmore. Demo

Somebody, Somewhere: Dennis Matkosky, Bill Champlin. Chicago

Cheap Whiskey: Scott Plunkett. Demo

My Heart Sings: Dustin Kline. Demo

Walking With My Baby: Scott Plunkett. Demo

Never Do That: Meredith Brooks. Demo

As Good As You: Scott Plunkett, Jonathan Clark. Demo

Guitar Album Tracks

Wed, 28 May 2008 18:43:36 -0700

I never thought I’d long for the day when you could walk into a music store, or now at least a Guitar Center, and hear some young turk or turkette determinedly flailing away at Stairway to Heaven or Smells Like Teen Spirit. I walked into the local Apple Store recently and saw a hoard of yutes ganged around a big screen monitor and found them engrossed in Guitar Hero and I got a little misty eyed.

I was thrilled they were at least freeing up the display Macbooks from their constant PhotoBooth-ing and MySpace updating, then I fell back into despair as it hit me that this would be as close to playing a guitar as they’d ever get. It would be comparable to me not understanding the vast experiential chasm between playing Space Invaders between the sound check and the gig at The Bla Bla Cafe and piloting the Lunar Module to an actual landing on the Moon.

OK, that’s a freakin old fart mouthful if there ever was one, but I think most of you reading this get the gist and probably agree. Mothers, hide the X Box. Fathers, get those kids a freaking real guitar. They may never make a dime playing it, but just as my kids never played professional sports, they got a whole lot more out of learning the techniques and strategies of the real game than they ever would have sitting on their asses twirling a joy stick while some animated character played the game for them in some half baked virtual reality.

Per the above comic art social commentary, I was blessed to play in some very cool rock bands and as a result, got to play with a lot of iconic artists and musicians on some great tunes. Hopefully I didn’t flail to excess and wasn’t too much of an asshole in the process. Here’s some tracks from major label and indy releases, played on an actual guitar, with actual living breathing musicians.

In order of appearance, additional credits where noted:

Breathing Room: Grace
Guitars, Engineer, Mix, Producer

Fuse: All You Need
Guitars, Engineer, Co Producer

Billy Joel: Allen Town
Electric Guitar

Vinnie James: Black Money
Slide Guitar
Waddy Wachtel, Acoustic, Kenny Aronoff, Drums

Jennifer Paige: Crush
Acoustics, Electrics
Alex Acuna, Percussion

Breathing Room: North Star
Electrics, Acoustics, Bass, Keys, Engineer, Mix, Producer

Marsha Skidmore: Raise Your Hands
Electrics, Acoustics, Slicer, Bass, Keys, Engineer, Co Producer

Mitch Malloy: Anything At All
Electrics
Mickey Curry, Drums

Sara Evans: Three Chords and The Truth
Acoustics
Pete Anderson, Electrics and Producer

Richard Page: Gotta Believe
Electrics

Fuse: Fija
Electrics, Bass, Engineer, Co Producer

First Call: Evidence Of Love
Acoustic
Chad Cromwell, Drums, Jackie Street, Bass

Don Henley: Through Your Hands
Acoustic, Electrics
Timothy B. Schmit, Bass

Tim Heintz: Record, Korean Market
Electric

DiamondBack: Cheap Whiskey
Electric, Acoustics, Engineer, Co Producer

Breathing Room: Bless Your Name
Electrics, Slicer, Reverse Echo Guitar, Acoustics, Bass, Keys, Engineer, Mix, Producer

Dolly Parton: The River Unbroken
Electrics
Waddy Wachtel, Acoustics, Bob Glaub, Bass, Darrel Brown, Writer

Richard Page: Gotta Believe
As above

David Mullen: Faded Blue
Electrics, Solo
Kenny Greenburg, Electric, Mickey Curry, Drums, Dennis Matkosky, Writer

Breathing Room: Whatcha Waiting For
Per above and Drums

Jennifer Paige: Make Me
Per above

Casey Hands: Love Can’t Find A Home
Electrics, Acoustics, Drums, Engineer, Mix, Producer

Jackson Browne: World In Motion
Electrics
Bonnie Raitt, Vocals, Bob Glaub, Bass, Scott Thurston, Keys, Mike Jochum, Drums, Craig Doerge, Keys, James Gedes, Engineer

Comic image from xkcd.com/70/

Production Work

Fri, 2 May 2008 10:09:22 -0700

So, the Phil-Kev connection turns out not to be too musical, but one of proximity. I lived in beautiful Alhambra, CA for 20 years. Three of which, it turns out, within just a couple of miles of the legend himself, and unfortunately, the site of Phil’s last and most tragic display of why gun ownership should be regulated more stringently.

You can’t argue against his artistic prowess in the studio though. Bob Glaub has a great story about his first major session as a young bassist in LA. It turned out to be a John Lennon record at A&M with Phil at the helm. Check it out in this episode of Kevin McCormick’s Musician’s Radio.

Unlike Bob’s experience, I can safely assure you that none of the tracks featured here were recorded in the presence of Sonny & Cher, no participants were forced to wear name tags and none of the performances were coerced in the presence of fire arms.