I've been up to my eyeballs in production of an album over the last four weeks culminating in some extremely long weeks of editing and mixing. The album is called Cool Worship with Deborah Rosenkranz, to be released by 3:16 Media on Oct. 20th, 2010. Because of the musical backgrounds of the German singer, British producer, and American engineer, we wanted to see if we could move some of this stuff into the realm of progressive or art rock. I think perhaps we have. I've been given permission to post a few clips of my work on the album. The unmastered versions have been normalized to make comparisons possible. The mastered clips feature mastering by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road.
Okay, the first clip:
I Will Not Fear the Fire Mastered
I Will Not Fear the Fire Unmastered
Copyright 3:16 Media
I was asked to contribute three lap steel solos for this song as well as an electric chordal transition. The clip contains the intro solo and the chordal transition as well as a verse. Once it was finished, it was promoted to cut one on the CD!
Second clip:
Heart of Worship Mastered
Heart of Worship Unmastered
Copyright 3:16 Media
I was asked to come up with an arpeggiated rhythm figure for the intro and in answer to verses. Given the slow tempo, it would want to be pretty precise and have an interesting sound. That's where the Leslie guitar idea came from. While overdubbing parts (there are three playing at a time) I suddenly looked up at the monitor speakers and said, "Oh my gosh, I am channeling Joe Walsh (from The James Gang Rides Again) here." What do you think? This is the intro. At the end of the song, the label asked for a solo from a young up and coming guitarist they represent.
Third clip:
I Can Only Imagine Mastered
I Can Only Imagine Unmastered
Copyright 3:16 Media
While working on this one, I offered to create a "soundscape" for the intro and outtro because it just screamed for one. My inspiration was the a-tempo section from YES' Close to the Edge - I Get Up I Get Down, as any progger will probably be able to detect from the water sounds. The "mechanical" inspiration for chordal background sounds came when I saw a clip of David Gilmour working on his latest and creating a soundscape with an Ebow and a Baby Taylor. You'll hear that and me scratching and mandolin picking slowly on the strings of the baby way in the background here.
Last clip:
I Belong to You Mastered
I Belong to You Unmastered
Copyright 3:16 Media
I was asked to bring in my guitar synth and work out a synth lead at the first release in this track. For some reason, that figure reminds me of late-'70s Genesis. You can hear that figure copied under the solo in the coda after the release featured here. The producer also wanted a synth lead for the end. I tried several sounds and approaches to the synth solo over the repeat at the end and didn't find one I liked, so I ran the guitar straight into the board and trotted out an absolutely clean solo. The producer was thrilled with it so we kept it.
So there's a little view into some of my guitar work on some of the songs. I played on eight of the eleven songs. My album credit will also include recording engineer and mixer.
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