Tools of the trade

Hello all you die-hard fans. Just thought I'd post some pics of the gear and instruments that make all that sweet Chroma Specter music shine.

Get some music

BTW, would you like to listen to some Chroma Specter music?

http://www.macjams.com/artist/Kicbal

Enjoy, thanks for listening.

2012

Long time no post. Lots happened in the interim, new addition to the family, new job, new recording studio location, new shoes—the usual. I actually finished a song too. Check it out!

http://www.macjams.com/song/69882

What else, happy 2012!!! Working on a new song that I was hoping to finish last november before the new baby came 4 weeks early, so things were delayed a couple months. The picture below is of me recording some sax parts for the tune.

Thanks for listening.

Puree

Life still retains the upper hand throughout 2011 and continues to mix things up. Hopefully that will change soon. In the meantime, a new song is almost finished. This one will feature Gabe my good friend and former guitarist for LoveSeat Daredevil. It's cool working with him again. Anyway, not much news or thoughts today as my mind is pre-occupied with surviving our current financial/un-employed disaster.

Yippee, music rushes in and saves the day! . . . Doubtful.

Arizona blue skies take me away.
Thanks for listening.

2011, Lighten Up—please?

Hello to no one who is reading this. It's been awhile, thanks for being patient.

Since I've been gone much has happenend Chroma Specter. I've written 3 songs since "If I Ran The Circus" (mentioned in an earlier post). I also have about 5 more tunes at various stages of completion. One of the 3 new songs is a cool work that was co-wrote by myself and my great new guitarist friend Edward Berriman living in southern England. It was an amazing process working with someone half-way around the world, exclusively by email and sending music files back and forth, somehow creating a lively and energetic performance and a cohesive song. A fully formed sound without all the band drama– I like this! Oh, BTW the song is called "Always Surrender". Check it out: http://www.macjams.com/song/62945

The two other completed songs are "Lighten Up", a catchy little jazzy tune featuring some of my best sax work. I also play bass guitar on this. The other song is called "1000 years", a total experiment and brain twister for me that grazes the ambient/world music genres. I don't really remember how it all came about but there it is in all its cryptic, bizarre glory. Multiple time signatures, creepy chanting and whispering, blazing synth guitars, Chinese bells, saxes, synths, lightening and wind. I'll be honest, it's not an easy listen, not something that you'd dance to or crank in the car on a long drive. It's music for a fever dream, a nightmare, or the Apocalypse. Anyway, not to worry, the other material that I'm working on is more inline with Chroma Specters musical mission statement (lighter more poppy fair).

Oh, my old guitarist buddy from "LoveSeat Daredevil", Gabe Ulibarri has finally made the smart switch to mac computers and has his own home studio up and running. It's great to hear his stuff again and I hope to have his killer guitar on some of my songs in the future. . .the future . . .the future. . .2011 . . .2011 . . .2011. . .

I've put my foot down and drawn a line in the sand. After 2 years of being at the mercy of this toilet bowl recession, 2011 is the year that I take it all back. The year that I finally bring myself and my family back to the land of the living and the reasonably prosperous. You have no idea how tired I am from the stress of the past 2 years, and it stops now!

No sooner do I make this statement and square my shoulders than Lola, who has been the champion holding our family together financially gets a notice today that her department at the greedy, unscrupulous bank where she works is getting shut down, and laying off the entire department . . .seriously what the $#@%!!!

Apparently 2011 is going to put up a fight and be a pain in the a$$ for a bit. We've been living in this economic limbo for so long now that in some ways we are not that shocked. Like what the hell else can happen to us? Apparently the shit bucket is deep and ever flowing.
Well, we are blessed with our health, our amazing kids, each other and our music.

I spit in disgust and determination, re-square my shoulders and try again. Thanks for listening.

Idea begets Idea

Since I seem to be at a temporary pause with my current song, the creative juices are flowing, just not in the direction that they need to be from my point of view. So a new song is in the works while the other new song sits and thinks about what its trying to prove.

Coolness, that this new groove comes together so fast. The challenge is to create a somewhat viable electric guitar sound out of a synth. It needs some teeth and edge and groove to work. Again we'll see. This whole Chroma Specter project is really one big experiment, carefully intended, but ultimately trying to be something new yet approachable to the casual and serious listener alike.

Anyway, the new tunes working title is "If I Ran The Circus"; taken from an obscure Dr. Seuss book, but also a phrase that means "I have an opinion!"

In other news: My young son and daughter attended a "Rodeo Party" today and rode horses (real cowboy work horses) for the first time. Quite a thrilling experience though my daughter who is almost 3 was also amazed at the manure on the ground and couldn't stop talking about that too. It's the simple things in life I guess.

Thanks for listening.

Lyric Block

It usually takes a bit of time to get the rust out of familiar tasks or skills that have laid dormant for a while. Such is the case with writing the lyrics to the current song that I am working on. I really had no idea where to begin. I knew the subject matter that I wanted to write about but was at a loss as to where to start.

In the past, my lyrics have usually come in fits and starts as they were tipped off by whatever muse worked the process. But again this time. . . nothing.

As you may recall from my first post, there has been a year of total inactivity in the music department of my life, due to a job layoff, major move and all sorts of recession scrambling. After some time thinking about trying to write some words to the music, I remembered one of my unusual methods that seems to work.

The steps are as follows: Begin listening to some music and lyrics that may or may not have a similar feel to my own song. Then I start to write phrases or sentences that seem to flow together and begin to create some coherent stanzas. At this point usually my mind takes over and the words start flowing freely.

I think that by listening to other lyrics and more importantly the flow and rhyme and meter of the words, my brain is able to start piecing the word puzzle together. For that is how I think of poetry, as word puzzle, phrases and words and couplets that fit together, referencing each other, forming interrelated symbolic phrases and an overall feel to the song. The amazing thing is that the finished product sounds nothing like the lyrics that I was listening to that get the juices flowing, but flow they do.

Now I just have to let the words sit for a little while. I'll re-read them in a few days and see if a fresh mind still thinks they work. There will be some tweaks and word changes, but by this point the song is pretty much complete from the lyrics point.

I'll leave you with a small snippet of my latest song lyrics that I particularly like. This section also came in a mad rush and was on the paper less than a minute after the idea came to me.

So here is a possible 2nd verse:

Hey Hey Little Dancer
Float On The Music In the Air
Let Us Ride The Rhythm
Take Away All Sadness & Cares

Next, to try and find a vocal melody that works with the lyrics and the song—I feel another creative block coming on.