Category: News

  • The Dark Harmony That Gave Egoman Its Edge

    The Dark Harmony That Gave Egoman Its Edge

    Feverishly working on a backend system that will not only simplify my life, but will also improve your experience as a part of my Jody Army. There’s a good chance I can still get it fully working before Friday when Egoman releases. The first song I ever used a vocal tritone harmony on.

    For the system, I put the pieces together correctly, but for some reason it isn’t sending the email. Somewhere in the system I mussed up a setting or the information in a variable. Once I find it, it should work flawlessly. Which will allow me to get out weekly emails with much less effort. Or to send them bi-weekly or monthly based on your choice. The page/part where you can choose how often, that works.

    Power to the listener!

    With this week’s release it was power to me when I took a concept from my then roommate, Jeff Scott Soto. He had recently recorded a track for a situation where he’d asked me to do some gang vocals on. Then he did a bit of a volume ride to bring in a vocal harmony. I’m pretty sure he lifted it from Prince, and I lifted the idea from Jeff.

    The impetus of the song itself came from a mutual friend of Jeff and I. We were all given a shot at writing some songs for an actor who had joined a hit TV show (Melrose Place) and somehow also got a record deal. A small group of us wrote songs for him and I was asked if I’d be his touring guitar player if things took off.

    Egoman was my contribution. It was heavier than the selections the rest of us had submitted, but he was looking for something heavy with a grunge vibe. Yeah – it was during the grunge era. In the end, the situation fizzled despite some cool songs and all the demos.

    I took the song as my own and de-grunged it as I didn’t see myself as a grunge artist. Though I did keep it more simplistic by not going with a flat out guitar solo.

    The part in question in terms of the vocal harmony and a volume right happens in the chorus. There’s a dark harmony that rides in every other time the title is sung. It coincides with the dark nature of narcissism and the dark corners of fame that come from it.

    To say that I enjoy singing and playing this song live is an understatement. Mainly because it reminds me of a time when a fair amount of action was happening around me and it seemed like the world was going to be my oyster.

    Stay tuned for more coming next week.

  • How Creative Setbacks Shape a Musician’s Emotional Growth

    How Creative Setbacks Shape a Musician’s Emotional Growth

    Little steps backwards are sometimes a great way to get a big jump forward. I’ve experienced a good deal creative setbacks; not only with music and technology but also with food. Yesterday started with the bigger steps forward and it makes me giddy when that happens. Plus there’s another new release, Barricades of Hate, coming this Friday.

    As mentioned last week, I started shifting some technical things away from 3rd parties in regards to emails. It has more to do with removing the middle-men between you and I. The less outside prying eyes about your information you allow me to have, the better.

    Last night, that connection became 1 degree. Meaning, your info when it comes to my contact list for my web store or my email list for updates no longer has a 3rd degree of distance. If you’re already on my email list, you’ll only notice that it no longer has a 3rd party name on it.

    For anyone who is new to my musical world, you’ll be getting the best of the upcoming world when you join my musical army.

    It took a lot of little steps backwards and forwards getting it to actually work. Then last night, BAM! I finally got it doing what it should to send the emails. It’s exciting. And what I’m putting on the roadmap is even more exciting.

    Musically, I had some little steps go wrong with getting some of my updates to work right in the web store, not any more. Those updates are up and available as well. Whew.

    On the side I’ve learned to make bread, the kind you eat. What is crazy is that I grind my own wheat berries for the flour to make said bread. Generally it goes quite well. Unfortunately the last loaf did not rise correctly on Sunday. But Monday, I made a different loaf that worked splendidly. Odd how fresh flour can be so finicky.

    Which now brings me to this week’s upcoming release, Barricades of Hate. New artwork, new mix, and an animated cover. More nice steps forward and it makes me giddy. The timeliness of this song’s message can’t be better. Especially with the current state of affairs.

    I have hope that we’ll stop having the your side, my side spats and get back to the truth!

    More coming…

  • Ties Are Truly Bound – New Mix, Story, and Fan Connection

    Ties Are Truly Bound – New Mix, Story, and Fan Connection

    It’s gonna be an exciting week. Yesterday kicked it off with some audio sample work that I’ve been helping a company with. New shirt designs were created and uploaded to the store for the next several releases. The real bright light was the email software for my Jody Army finally got to a running state! More good things are afoot.

    Yes, my production skills are coming in handy to help out some friends with a new VI (for those who don’t know, a VI is a virtual instrument). There’s a lot of things going on with this new instrument and I’m not at liberty to say what it is. There will be more from me on it, when I’m allowed to speak on it.

    As the parade of releases continues, there are several new t-shirts that were added to the store in the last 24 hours. Particularly for this week’s release, Ties Are Truly Bound. I’ve opted to run 2 different versions. One is of the cover art, because it looks cool. The other is for lyrics, because we as a people, a country, a world, need to come back together as a species.

    Ties Are Truly Bound Cover Art

    If you want to find a discount on something prior to release and during the first week release, it’s at the store and you can find it with a little digging.

    My day/evening got kinda exciting yesterday when a project I’ve been working on for the Jody Army finally started standing up. It’s on about 2.5 legs, so it’s not public facing and it’s still a little wobbly in terms of what it’s doing. However, it is running and I’m in process of getting it set up. The initial test runs have worked and that has me fairly giddy.

    Crazy that an email system is something a musician can get giddy over. As I’ve mentioned previously, this is a giant step in a long-view direction that I’ve been working toward. The Jody Army will not be housed on a 3rd party server. This is a major thing for me as I’m someone who values my personal information being only for those who I want to give it to and not being spied on.

    I should have it ready to rock n roll with new features within a week. Or at least sending emails within the week. The really cool features are likely to take me another week or two. It will allow me to create a member’s only section to the website. I’ll also be able to connect with your streaming service of choice to do some really nifty things. Cutting edge stuff for you and I.

    Not just boring email updates like everyone else.

    I have the feeling it will be pretty darn epic. And as someone who likes to push boundaries in a good way, it’s gonna be something I will want to share far and wide. Much like the upcoming release on Friday – Ties Are Truly Bound. The updated mix and master sounds great!