Miossec...

I did those 2 around May 2005, back to back.
It's 2 songs from Miossec, that I had played for years when I was playing on my father's accoustic guitar.
Here I had the opportunity to go a bit more electric like the originals...

The good thing with Miossec is that I have (kind of) the same range with my voice and he doesn't really sing anyway (it's the lyrics that matter here). So that's one weak point dodged for me... (^_^;

I'm quite happy with those actually.
I even got to change the arrangement a bit on Le Celibat, by adding a track with arpeggeos using a quite heavy (and phased) sound. I think it works.

Une bonne Carcasse (Miossec)

Le celibat (Miossec)

Old Woman.

This is my 2nd song, recorded in March 2005.
It's a song from an excellent (and quite famous in Europe) Belgian rock band called K's Choice.
Again it's something we used to play with my former band.

I wanted to make something simple that rocked a bit. I tried.

This one I'm not too happy with. The voice is a bit painfull to listen to (although I find sometimes that you can get used to it) and the guitar sounds are a bit flat.
I had to raise the key quite a lot to be able to sing the 1st voice and that made the 2nd harmony "a bit" too high... (^_^;
Still I did it!

Old Woman (K's Choice)

1st song!

Good, I finally seem to have sorted my problems trying to host my files.

That's the 1st song I've ever done on my recorder, in February 2005.
That was the song I most enjoyed when playing with my former band and I just wanted to keep it as a souvenir...

It's from a band called Boa (from their album "Twilight"). I've got to know them because this song is featured in an anime called Serial Experiment Lain. Great song.

1st thing is I have to admit my voice is a bit rubbish. To start, originally it's sang by a girl. More importantly, the key isn't right for my voice (which isn't great anyway). That's a problem I have. I'm more a guitarist, so I tend to let how I play on the guitar dictate the key of the song. Which is wrong, I know. But I wanted to play it "right" on the guitar...
And I think it's still "audible"...

On the guitar section, I'm quite happy with myself. I quite like the spacy sound I got for the 2nd part of the solo (I don't think it's played with a guitar in the original song).
Actually I think it still stands as one of my better songs so far. Not bad for a 1st song... ;)

The rythm section is quite standard, I didn't know how to program the drum machine very well, so I kept it simple...

Duvet (Boa)

Where it all started.

Why did it come to this?
Which is basically a man playing with himself...

Well I used to be in a band from which I got sacked due to (genuine!) artistic differences. I knew that finding a new one would be difficult so I decided that to keep me working I should get some kind of 4-track recorder, to do somthing more than just playing by myself, which can be boring at times...
I got a cassette one off eBay, tried that for a few month and decided that I should get a "proper" one. Which I did.

So here I am.
I try not to spend to much time on 1 song and not to work on too much at the same time (2 max). To keep focused and interested. There's no point in trying to aim for a perfection I couldn't get anyway. Especially since I've been doing only covers so far. The original stands for itself... Who would I be to try to top the pros?
But that way I get to practice...

And it gives some satisfactions as well. That riff that gets right where it should be or this tricky bit of solo that you get right after the 24th take... But also you sometimes manage to catch "on tape" those tiny "seconds of genius". Taken by the song you get to improvise something on top of it. Probably nothing to anybody else, but it makes it all worthwhile...
It gives this "you know, that's not really great but at THAT particular moment I loved myself!"... ;)

Maybe later I'll try writing my own stuff. I'll take the time for that. For now I'm still learning... And having fun.

Post 2.

While I'm geting the hosting sorted, let's show off my gear.

So far I've been using a Washburn Nuno Bettencourt model. I've played on that for the past 6years. It's got a good sound, but is pretty limited (only 1 volume control). So I got myself an Epiphone G-400 Custom. That's sweet, I love it! (^_^)

I then go through a Whammy pedal (great for spacey sounds, I'm a great fan of Tom Morello), a Boss PW-10 Wah (a very versatile Wah pedal) and a Korg AX100g (for the rest and amp modellings).
End of the line in a Peavy Bandit 112. 80W of joy.
I love my set up.

I record on a Boss BR-864. It gives quite a lot of possibilities (drum machine, bass simulation, effects...). I'm not using it to its full potential, but it still serves its purpose.

1st post.

OK, the blog's ready, I need to find some host for my files...