Dusty Instruments
I’m back from my usual 100 year creative hiatus.
I’m working on remastering the first two releases face:the.music (2008) and King Friday (2010). Some songs will be re-done, while the others will be fine-tuned, and King Friday gets a brand new 11th song as a bonus track.
The new song is titled “Midnight Smile”, (a roadhouse-rock song I had partially written during the 2010 recordings, but never finished) and should fit stylistically and chronologically with the overall concept album as it continues with the 3rd upcoming record, “Destiny”.
I feel a little weird ‘George-Lucasing’ my earlier works, but whatever… I feel like some songs could sound better, and that King Friday definitely needed one more sexy, party track.
So, the new record “Destiny” cleans up the mess from the story told in King Friday, and will be a book-end/story arc that started with face:the.music. Again, loosely based on personal accounts, and… yea. Overall, it’s a musical trilogy. I’m trying to not be the pop-punk version of Taylor Swift or Adele about this, writing about more break-ups and heartache, but instead looking those from another angle… The challenge now is telling that same break up story, but leaving the adolescent emo-style behind… been there, done that.
“A Night on the Town” music video!
Filmed and edited at studio923, here’s the newest video from the album King Friday:
This was filmed with Sony’s Bloggie Duo and edited with Apple iMovie HD 6.
“Her Name Here” Video!
Here it is! World premiere of my latest music video!
From the new album King Friday, here’s “Her Name Here”
Filmed with a Sony bloggie HD pocket camcorder, at Studio923 in Manhattan.
Originally, the video was supposed to open with a 1960’s talk show host introducing the band known as “Richy and the 923’s” and I was going to play the part of the host, but I didn’t want to overkill the fact I was doing multiple roles. (also I ran out of disguises).
So instead of getting too crazy with the cuts, angles and edits, I wanted to keep it simple. I figured I should get a little stylistic with some good coloring and film grain filters instead.
And through my “band” I get to present my geeky/creative side which is the singer, along with the mild/chilled side with the bassist and my goofy/hyper side with the drummer.
Video Shoots
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been preparing to shoot two music videos for the King Friday album, “Her Name Here” and “It’s Not Karma If It Doesn’t Hurt”.
I’ve gotten a hold of a new HD pocket camera, some tripods/monopods/misc camera mounts (to get some pretty cool high angle shots), FINALLY some lighting equipment, as well as a couple of camera-happy friends who are willing to help me out.
“Her Name Here” is gonna take a classic 50-60’s ‘Ed Sullivan Show’ kind of approach, while “It’s Not Karma…” will have more of a conventional style with a narrative intercutting with the “band” performing.
Now… the past few music videos I’ve done, it’s always been: fast cuts of different angles of me in different outfits, playing the different instruments to kinda create the feel that it’s a full band. I’ve always thought getting a ‘mock band’ together might be a good idea (with actors playing the other members) but then I feel like I should promote the fact that I am a one man band. So I’ll be doing the same for these music
videos.
Video production starts after the weekend.
And on the music production side of things, I kinda put my “Fast Food” mini-album-made-on-an-iPad side project on the back-burner to focus on writing my 3rd official record. But with the new GarageBand app coming soon for iPad, I will definitely be going back to that side project.
Fast Food
FYI: Saturday afternoon, King Friday returned to iTunes… Everything sounds as it should. Support a starving artist please at $9.90 🙂 Buy: King Friday
Speaking of starving, I have a new project in the works:
Richy923 Presents: Fast Food
1) Unrequited Love
2) Dream Girl
3) Glory Days
4) Faded Fortune From A Cookie
5) The Day We Cried
Five new renditions of classic songs from my high school years recorded entirely on an iPad and an iPhone.
I’ll be cutting the record using:
iRig (device):
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/irig/iphone/
AmpliTube (app):
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/irig/moreinfo/moreinfo3.php
Multitrack DAW (app):
http://www.harmonicdog.com
Also, I’ll be using the iPad Camera Connection Kit that adds a USB port that I can plug my M-Audio Interface into:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC531ZM/A
Let’s see how this goes! It’ll be a free download at the end of the month.
Final Product
Since the wrap up of recording and mixing this past Thursday, I had to fix two tracks: I added an instrumental to the voicemail track “One New Message”. It adds an epic feel to the album and a better lead-in to “A Night on the Town”. Gotta love those rock beats in 6/8… Also, I re-tweaked “Payday”. I didn’t like my original vocal take during the chorus.
I handed the final version of King Friday to a few friends and family. The general consensus was positive, but the thing that was brought up often was the use of the phone/megaphone voice filter on a majority of the tracks. I’ll admit, I’m addicted to that filter, but the reason is simple: I’m recording these vocals in my room in my apartment, and the acoustics aren’t the best. In the solo-ed tracks, you can hear AC units running, as well as cars and sirens in the background. Had to help it out a bit.
So now that the album is final final final final, it’s time to design the artwork and plan out how to market it.
You can listen to the full album here:
kingfriday.richy923.com
923
In honor of the numerical alignment of “923” that graces calendars once a year, I present to you the new album King Friday, streaming in its entirety for FREE on SoundCloud:
http://soundcloud.com/richy923/sets/king-friday
10 tracks, 9 songs. Story complete.
A bonus track or two coming soon when the album hits iTunes in a few weeks, to justify it’s $10 price tag.
A few production notes:
A song I wrote titled “101 Days” was supposed to introduce the album, but it was scrapped during the recording process… I realized the lyrics and the theme were a little juvenile and didn’t fit the album too much without compromising it’s point-of-view for late “20-somethings” crowd. It was a “Mom and Dad, I’m moving out” kind of a song and threw it off balance compared to the rest of the songs, in my opinion. Perhaps it’ll be a bonus track in the future.
Last night, I recorded the finale, “Payday”. A perfect ending, reflecting the whole album both musically and lyrically. I give a credit to John.M.Thirteen of The Backpackers, who suggested that I drop the drums during the verses of the song, to give spotlight to the lyrics. Thanks dude.
Also thanks to my parents for lending their voicemail as an intro to the album.
So, I spent a majority of the night doing some final tweaks to songs that needed it. Everything is to perfection.
Now what? Additional photoshoots and work on the album artwork with graphic designer RozLilia Friend of The Branding Iron, LLC… and live performances 🙂
Thanks for listening!
Can’t Rush Art
New song up for streaming: “A Night on the Town” !
http://soundcloud.com/richy923/A-Night-on-the-Town
I had originally posted the song on Thursday night, but pulled it down on the following evening after it gained 14 listens on Soundcloud. It just didn’t sound right. The vocals REALLY sounded like shit, to the point where I would cringe when I played it back. Everything from my tone to my annunciation was just off.
I guess it was one of those moments where it all sounded right at the time. Perhaps I was just burnt out when I was cutting this track and by the end of it all, my perception was all skewed. Plus I was eager to release it on a Friday, given the lyrical content of the song.
I spent Sunday afternoon retooling “A Night on the Town”. I fixed the lyrics up to make a little more sense, re-recorded the vocals and played a new lead guitar section so it gives a little more context to the melody of the chorus and the key of the verse that follows it. I also did more of the random adlibs between the verse and chorus… I feel like the little “uh! yea! ooh!” gives the song a little more UMPH during the chord changes.
Another song in the can and I got two, maybe three more to go. The infamous date of 9/23 is four days away, so I don’t think I can reach my goal of completing the album before then. After this weekend’s lesson, you can’t rush art.
The Home Stretch
First off, I love how Myspace’s “custom wallpaper” looks absolutely NOTHING like the album artwork for face:the.music.
Coincidence? Hardly.
Now as for the production for King Friday, I have 4 more tracks to go before I can start the mastering process for the CD.
-(untitled Intro)
-101 Days (Away From Home)
-A Night on the Town
-(untitled Outro)
Hopefully I can cut two a week, master by the third week and be ready for the release by the infamous date of Sept. 23 (9/23)! Not likely, since there’s more to be done after the mastering; new distribution methods, marketing, etc.
But in the event I am done before then, I’ll have it available for a free download for Facebook friends on 9/23 and plan a US release through iTunes, Amazon, Napster and Rhapsody by Mid-October.
In the meantime, I’ve been doing the typical “check out this song” posting on Facebook and Twitter. I’m sure it’s probably annoying to some of my friends on there (maybe they consider it spam or whatever) but shameless plugs are part of the gig being a one-man band. It’s just gotta be done. Some of my “friends” either don’t know that I make music or they’re checking their Facebook on mobile devices, so my music posts are pretty much hit or miss. But I do wanna say thanks for those who have given feedback, through FB Likes and retweets, your feedback lets me know I’m doing the right thing.
Two Brand New Songs!
I spent the day sick in bed Friday, so I decided to not be a total chump and work on some final mixes of some songs I’ve been working on. And now… two new songs!
“Her Name Here”
and
“Losing Myself”
Photo courtesy of Raphael Salgado.
Get funky.
Last night, I started work on a new track called “Losing Myself”. It’s one of the more funky sounding songs on the King Friday album, trying to steer away from the heavy bar chords.
Without giving too much away lyric-wise, the setting for the song is intimacy in a club, so it’s only appropriate to build the song with some groovy bass and drums to create the vibe.
Again, it’s been one of those recordings where I dive in with a certain idea, but then the end result is surprising. I laid down a bass line, supported it with a steady drum groove, then added some guitar licks. Now it sounds like some kinda weird Chili Peppers hybrid.
Pretty dope stuff so far.
Broke-Ass
Last night, I got a good amount done for King Friday. I re-recorded a few parts to “It’s Not Karma”: opening guitars and the surf/western type melody in the chorus. Finalized for mastering. But the bigger accomplishment is the completed ‘working’ instrumental to a new piece titled “Broke-Ass”. Song meaning is pretty self-explanatory.
It’s one of those pieces that was envisioned one way, but turned into something completely different once laid down. To give you an idea about how the song sounds, it’s a steady, rolling beat (Think: “Pork and Beans” by Weezer) and the chorus gets heavy and is something you can jump around to. Lyrics and vocals will be less emo for this one.
I started off with my weakest area: bass guitar. I need more songs that focus on bass. Anyways, things were fine after I laid down drums and a couple of guitars… then came trying to rearrange parts for verse 2. The first verse was carried by the bass melody with rhythm guitar lightly mimicking it… With the second, I just played the rhythm a little heavier. Meh. I tried rhythm again, this time a little more harsh and scratchy. Played around with this “Super Flange” plug-in: weird. Totally weird. I like it. You know what would sound cool over this? A rap. Not me though.
I immediately texted E.dot Fresco of The Backpackers and said he’s gotta get on this. It’s not a typical beat to spit over, but I know he’ll pull it off nicely. We’ll get together Thursday night and put something together. On top of that, I’m adding a ‘call and response’ after the bridge… featuring some hoochie-mama vocals shouting “You’re a broke-ass!” and some crowd shouting “Hey! Hey!” Any females out there care to contribute?
This should be one of the lighter tracks on this record.
For real. Fall 2010.
Enough bullshitting. It’s go time. Fall 2010. Pop-punk. Synths. Beats. Alcohol. King Friday.
This week, I’ll be working on two new songs. “Her Name Here” (a 50’s-ish bop) and “Broke-Ass” (a gritty, rolling punk-jam).
Song Premiere: “It’s Not Karma If It Doesn’t Hurt”
Sunday morning was another release from the King Friday album; the first official single “It’s Not Karma If It Doesn’t Hurt”. You can download it FREE here: www.richy923.com/_music/itsnotkarma.mp3
Listen on YouTube:
———-
“It’s Not Karma If It Doesn’t Hurt”
(Written, Performed and Produced by R. Salgado)
from the album King Friday
I’m gonna lie and say that I don’t think about it
Was it that long ago?
Maybe it has to come and bite me in the ass
Just to come full circle
Answer a question with another
Delay inevitability
I don’t know if it’s pretend
Anti-Love, she thinks about me
It was never really worth it, I’m sure
A familiar taste in her kiss
And it came back to haunt me today
Anti-Love to make you sick
The grass was always greener
If you had only seen her
I need to take a breather
Anti-Love made me a believer
———–
King on the Horizon
Getting back on track (for like the 4th time) I started production of 2 new tracks this past week: “It’s Not Karma If It Doesn’t Hurt” and the intro “The Breaking”.
‘Karma’ breaks from the traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus lyrical structure, it’s an upbeat punk style with a little bit of rapcore for some of the breaks… and a tad of surf-style guitar. the vocals can be comparable to “Rush” from face:the.music.
‘Breaking’ is somewhat of an epic introduction to the album. it’ll be in 3/4, mainly instrumental, following these lyrics:
—–
“The Breaking”
by Richy923
I’ve smashed the fourth wall long ago
This time the whole house goes
I’ve got battlescars
From the age of desperado
They’re underneath my clothes
But it shows on my face
This is life in song
With a pre-chorus far too long
I am waiting
I am waiting
For the unknown?
For I don’t know…
——
eh? short and sweet.
More to come in the next week.
And the show continues
I finished two of the four tracks that I’ve been working on since last week and decided to release them online, a trend that I’ll be following every couple weeks or so. You can check out the following two songs on YouTube and richy923.com.
Califormula:
Insomnia In Song:
“Insomnia In Song” turned out EXACTLY how I wanted it to be; dark, heavy, slow… and I feel it was fitting to release it along with the bright, perky-punky, fast tune of “Califormula”.
For “Califormula”, between the new version and the demo version I released back in September, I modified the lead guitar to be a little more catchy, redid the bass, fixed some vocals and did an overall remaster of the song.
For both songs (and pretty much the whole record), the real challenge for me has been playing more lead guitar. Punk power chords can only get you so far. I try to sit with my guitar for an hour or so everyday just messing around trying my hand at playing solos and shit. I definitely need more practice.
Also on the front, besides finishing the recordings “A Night On The Town” and “Her Name Here”, I’ll be going back to face:the.music to shoot a couple videos for “The Diffusion” and “Running With Roses”. It may be a little ass-backwards, but I’ve been dying to see those songs translated on screen.
Um, Delays?
Okay, so maybe I was overly ambitious setting the release date for 11/13. Fact of the matter is, I kinda got tied up with work, paying some bills… ::ahem:: the social scene… and recovering from a cold.
During the last two weeks of September, I was heavily concentrated on this record and ended up kinda stressing after that from some more studio/technological issues. But after a few weeks getting my head clear, I’m ready to dive back in to my King Friday project. So the new release date? Not gonna get too specific, but I’ll say mid December.
This week, I’ll be laying down 3 tracks (sans vocals, until my voice is 100%) “A Night On The Town” “Insomnia In Song” and a newly written piece called “Her Name Here”.
In the meantime, I’ve re-uploaded “Promise Me This” on to my Myspace Music page http://www.richy923.com in light of my brother’s new freestyle project he’s working on. Check it out 🙂
Planning Ahead
After long and careful consideration, I’ve set the release date for King Friday: November 13, 2009. And yes, it’s a Friday… the 13th. dun-dun-DUN!
Now, of course I’m talking about hardcopy availability. Once the completed album is sent to TuneCore (my independent middleman distributor), it’s out of my hands when it will be approved on the iTunes and Amazon music stores, so I can’t get you an exact release date for the online availability. I’ll say late November, early December.
As for production, so far so good. I was able to get a helping hand from an old friend who was able to lend me a spare interface. Now I’m back in the recording game… Just waiting until I get my new permanent hardware too.
Similar to face:the.music, this album will feature 2 to 3 hip-hop tracks along with the different rock styles I’ve got going here, but more avant-garde hip-hop. Not too sure if you’ll hear a club banger on this one, except the infamous Rush remix that John.M.Thirteen and I let leak a couple of months ago.
The first official single “A Night On The Town” should be out in the middle of October… and again, hopefully with a video.
Stay tuned in the next few weeks with production updates and new album artwork!
9/23
It’s 9/23… (also the one year anniversary for this blog!) That being said, I’m proud to share a new song: the demo version of “Califormula” at richy923.com ! I kinda busted my ass trying to get this released for today… Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Note that it still is a demo version. And along with a new song, (if you’re on my facebook) enjoy the brand new webisode 43!
Desperate Rhymes Call For Desperate Measures
So… it’s official. My studio is kaput since my Alesis Multimix croaked. Corrupted firmware, restoring didn’t work, sledgehammers are expensive…
I got a hold of an old interface to borrow (M-Audio Fast Track USB) and I’m gonna have to say ‘screw it’ to the fact my neighbors are gonna hear my emo singing. I’m not gonna let anything get in the way of me finishing this record. I just hope the quality of the M-Audio is decent enough to match the Alesis or else I’ll have to re-track the drums and guitars all over again… just so it ALL sounds shitty. Meh.
In the meantime, I’ll try to save up $250 towards a new interface. Any suggestions or perhaps one can sell me something they’re not using?
This blows.
So I go home yesterday, all amped up to fix up a final version of Califormula …and my mixer goes on strike.
I troubleshooted (troubleshot?) the situation for about an hour and I’ve come to the conclusion… that it’s not working anymore and it’s a year past it’s warranty.
Basically I have no way to record any audio to my computer. Maybe it’s got a bad power supply or something, but the damn thing is like a big paper weight and buying a new one isn’t an option right now.
I wanted to at least re-record the vocals last night, but now I’m stuck listening to this shitty version until I find a cost effective alternative.
I’m pretty crushed right now.
Now what?
Should’ve Seen That One Coming…
So I finished putting together the rough version of the emo track “Califormula” together over the weekend… So far, so good except for one thing: the vocals. I was recording the first verse and did a couple of takes… only to realize that my neighbors can pretty much hear me wailing and screaming through the vents of my AC, totally making me self conscious after the fact… and you can hear it in this demo.
I recorded a majority of it an octave down from what I wanted it to be and in the end, I get a half assed demo. The energy level I was trying to get wasn’t achieved… It sounds kind of boring.
So now I have to find a new place to do these vocals. I might have to go back to my parents house upstate and record it all in the basement, but that’s gonna be a lot of equipment to bring back and forth. I don’t wanna spend on renting out a studio either…
I would really love to share what I have so far. I feel I tackled those drum fills I wanted and hopefully my guitar playing got a little more melodic, but those vocals just make me cringe.
Also this past weekend, I’ve started recording for this other track “Insomnia In Song”. It sounds kinda old school… like some of those Weezer slow jams and a little bit of “Popular” by Nada Surf… haha. I’m aiming for something that sounds a little disillusioned and mellow.
Anywhoos, enough rambling. “Califormula” should be up by the weekend.
First recording sessions
For the past week, aside from writing out lyrics, I’ve set up my own personal jam sessions, pumping out some nice chord progressions, drum beats and working on my drum fills… but last night I started the tracking for a new song I’ve been working on, Califormula. It’s one of the few straight-up emo songs on the record, so expect some crazy rhythm changes and more of my pre-chorus/chorus screaming.
My challenges for this song are pretty much tackling drum fills (I tend to stutter when playing too fast…) and trying my hand at finally playing some lead guitar.
I’ll have a decent cut of it ready for streaming by this time next week, hopefully with a video as well.
Also, as for artwork, I’ll be teaming up again with Roz Friend from The Branding Iron LLC as well as Lion and Rooster co-founder Leonard Salgado for some awesome photography and design. Distribution this time will be mainly online sales with very limited hard copy availability.
————
“Califormula”
Kicked it to the curb again
The winter didn’t end like it’s supposed to
Though the snow started to melt
I had reminded myself that I hate these times
And now I stand here freezing
Arms folded and dreaming
of the warmth that I deserve
Oh yes, I do
Take me away
to the place where the days are longer
I wanna fly
to a high where the sky is clearer
I’ve been lonesome way too long
But don’t get me wrong, I’m not the lonely one
And now I stand here freezing
Heart open and beating
But am I the passerby
just standing still?
Take me away
To the place where the days are longer
I wanna fly
To a high where the sky is clearer
I’ve seen the sun
And it smells like roses
Oh no, it’s happening again
I swear this time
That it will be different
I just need another minute
Let me catch my breath
—————–
All Hail, King Friday
With the writing process almost complete, I’ve taken a step back and looked at the picture that I’ve painted so far and have decided to rename the album: King Friday.
——
“It’s Not Karma If It Doesn’t Hurt”
I’m gonna lie and say I don’t think about it
Was it that long ago?
Maybe it has to bite me in the ass
And come full circle
Answer a question with a question
Or just delay inevitability
I don’t know if it’s pretend
Anti-Love, she thinks about me
It was never really worth it, I’m sure
It was a familiar taste in her kiss
And it came back to haunt me today
Anti-Love to make you sick
The grass was always greener
If you had only seen her
I need to take a breather
Anti-Love made me a believer
———
(album artwork in progress)
Richy923: Published! 