Jody Whitesides

Category: News

Life Of The Party By Shawn Mendes

A couple of weeks ago I was tooling around in my car running an errand when over the iTunes Radio comes this tune called Life of the Party. I immediately thought to myself, dang this guy nailed it. Not from a lyric standpoint but from a musical standpoint. Then comes a little more research to find out that it was co-written. I still haven’t gone far enough to figure out who actually recorded, produced and mixed it. But said producer did a masterful job at making this guy Shawn Mendes whom I think is about 15 years old, sound like a long time pro. That’s not an easy task.

The real trick is the production on the track. It’s laden with tons of sounds that flow one to another and work extremely well. Shawn’s vocal over the top of it sounds like a great set of takes edited together with the right amount of emotion. The verses are little bit on the lax side, but the chorus kicks it so hard that the verses don’t matter.

Hopefully this kid will get more practice in on his writing and really make an awesome career in music.

Life of the Party

I love it when you just don’t care
I love it when you dance like there’s nobody there
So when it gets hard, don’t be afraid
We don’t care what them people say
I love it when you don’t take no
I love it when you do what you want cause you just said so
Let them all go home, we out late
We don’t care what them people say

We don’t have to be ordinary
Make your best mistakes
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
I’m telling you to take your shot it might be scary
Hearts are gonna break
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party

Together we can just let go
Pretend like there’s no one else here that we know
Slow dance fall in love as the club track plays
We don’t care what them people say

We don’t have to be ordinary
Make your best mistakes
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
I’m telling you to take your shot it might be scary
Hearts are gonna break
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party

Come out tonight, come out tonight
There’s no one standing in your way
Come out tonight, come out tonight
We don’t care what them people say
We don’t care what them people say

We don’t have to be ordinary
Make your best mistakes
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party
I’m telling you to take your shot it might be scary
Hearts are gonna break
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Life of the party
So don’t let them keep you down
Oh you know you can’t give up
‘Cause we don’t have the time to be sorry
So baby be the life of the party

2014-08-07
Capos And Recording

Not long ago I came across a new form of capos. In galaxy very close by. Actually it was this galaxy. More specifically it was in a town known as Anaheim. The Anaheim that sits in the California region of the planet earth. Capos are a funny business. Lots of musicians use the cheapest products they can find without thinking about how they affect the sound. I always look for the thing that will get the great sound. Oddly enough capos and the kind you use can make a difference. Which is why on such a faithful day where I found out about a company called G7th and their capos, I instantly made the switch. Why? Because they’re awesome. Actually it had a couple of better reasons. First their weight. They have a good solid weight to them. Second, their ease of use. They work on some kind of engineering magic where you can set the tension as simply as closing your fingers. That way it doesn’t clamp down too hard on the strings and push them out of tune. It’s a love thing.

Today I’d taking you into the studio for a little clip about my upcoming song “Till We Meet Again” wherein you see me making use of the G7th’s awesomeness. Click on that video and realize I too use capos to get the proper key and sound for a guitar and my voice.

So if you’re looking for badass capos, especially the one I use – then you need a G7th. You won’t regret it!

Capos And Recording

http://youtu.be/N0tsHT0g0oU

Yeehaw baby.

I think we’re ready. Let me double check my tuning real quick.

technically with the panning you don’t need to pan the microphones in my headphones

as we’re recording. That’s what I’m saying you can turn them back to center.

Alright. Let’s see if we’re

all set to go. That sounds beautiful my
head.

There’s a little drum pattern that starts at what? Bar 3? You can set the record button to

the song position line to start there

‘Cause that’s a two bar count in for me and I start at 5. Do what? A one bar pre-roll? That’s fine. As long as I know it’s two bars.

We were in love…

and it was magic.

happy

2014-08-05
Big Name Players In The Studio

We all like to talk shop in the studio, especially if it involves name players. Talking about amazing musicians we’ve had the pleasure or displeasure of working with, playing with, or meeting. Come on inside Utopia Parkway as George Leger III, Jesse Stern and I talk about some people we’ve met. Ok, mostly George talking about some amazing players. But still step inside, walk this way, you and me…

It starts with talking about Barry Manilow’s guitarist knowing about guitar playing from over 100 years ago and then progresses into the more modern instrument of electric bass. It then quickly swings into a little chat about a very famous female bassist (big name players type) that both George and I have met, but Jesse had not.

Big Name Players In The Studio

http://youtu.be/QxCiDwpoc-I

Transcript:

Because the song was done in the 1800’s.

He wanted to play it, like they played guitar in the 1800’s. He knew enough about the history of music and guitar playing, to know what kind of chords they would have played. How they would have played the part. I was like. I talked to him after. I asked him, you know that stuff?

Yeah, I have to know that stuff.

How do you know.

Research.

I mean, do you?!?

Some. Yeah, I studied, I studied guitar for many years.

But I mean like…

And and classical and and history for different parts of the world.

That’s where I started too. So I could technically say the same thing, but I don’t go around spitting that kind of information out.

Well and I also…

He, but he, I mean this guy, I mean I couldn’t believe what he’s played. How complex it was and there’s no little fret “icks” or nothing. I mean the guy is just like a fucking machine, what he was playing was unbelievable.

The history of bass, of electric bass is a lot shorter.

Yeah.

Than history of guitars. So.

But boy is it ever cool.

The first guy that I studied, like that I really studied not just learning the notes, but learning how the notes were played and how the tone came and all that stuff was Roger Waters.

Oh, well there you go.

And so, and then, you know from there I kinda learned, I kinda went back.

Do you know who I met and talked to for about a half hour?

Ah.

Carol Kaye.

Oh really?

Yeah, at NAMM two or three years ago. She was sitting there all by herself.

Was she nice.

But was she nice?!?

She was awesome.

You know why we both ask that question?

Why?

Because she’s not known to be nice. She’s known to be very very mean.

Really?!?

She has a reputation for being very very bitter and having a chip on her shoulder.

Yeah.

Not with me. She was so cool.

I’m glad to hear that.

We talked about making records an’ shit and everything.

She’s a, I mean, obviously a phenomenal.

And I have pictures of her and me, from the NAMM show. She was so… Really?!? She’s like that?

Yeah.

Oh yeah yeah.

That’s what people say. I’ve never met her.

I’ve met her.

She wasn’t like that with me man. She was just like, be just like I’m talking to you. So tell me ya know, I know you played with so and so, can you tell me what was it like when you guys first started playing. I mean you’re a girl, you were playing. You know and she was like, yeah, you know I was there sometimes, just taking care of my family is really what I was doing. You know and I was really grateful to be doing that stuff. But yeah she was just like yeah I’d show up in a dresses and sessions and stuff like that and people would look at me and then I’d play my instrument and then they would look at me totally different.

Well, it could…

She was just such a sweetheart.

Well, it could very well be that maybe she’s mellowing a little bit now. Because when I met her…

It could also be me. Cause I’m pretty respectful of people like that. And I’m also really, respectful of their experience.

2014-07-22

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