Digital Empire
Digital Empire
[verse 1]
Behind the clicks behind the whirs lies another open face
Searching data and mental firsts taking confines over open space
He’s a runner but not the kind
That we all know
[verse 2]
Hooked in and online he can throughput to other lands
Travel as cheap as phone time far in foreign affairs without dirty hands
He’s a thief but not the kind
That we all know
[Chorus]
Bits and bytes build this
Digital Empire
Worlds and space spawn this
Digital Empire
Welcome to my information age
Digital Empire
[Chorus]
Bits and bytes build this
Digital Empire
Worlds and space spawn this
Digital Empire
Welcome to my information age
Digital Empire
[bridge]
Acts of enormity
Get swallowed in this pit
Facts of reality
Get twisted by this shit
So he keeps in check
With a flick of a switch
[Chorus]
Bits and bytes build this
Digital Empire
Worlds and space spawn this
Digital Empire
Welcome to my information age
Digital Empire
[Chorus]
Bits and bytes build this
Digital Empire
Worlds and space spawn this
Song Length: 3:42
Writer: Jody Whitesides IPI/CAE 00196306650
Publisher: Too Much Music IPI/CAE 00456952518
Admin Publisher (Outside U.S.): Bluewater Music
Bob Roberts: Drums
Jody Whitesides: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Additional Drum Programming
Recording Info:
Recording Notes 2025:
Cover Art: Jody Whitesides
Recording Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Mixing Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Mastering Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Vocal Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Producer: Jody Whitesides
Remixed at: Snow Park Studio in Park City UT
Mixed in LUNA with Apollo interfaces
Mastered in LUNA with Apollo interfaces
Monitor Speakers: KRK V4 mkII
Original CD Version released in 2000 info:
Cover Art: Omar Cano
Recording Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Mixing Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Mixing Engineer: Rokk Lattanzio
Mastering Engineer: Rokk Lattanzio
Vocal Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Producer: Jody Whitesides
Recorded at: El Padden Studio Jr in Porter Ranch CA
Audio Interface: Emagic Audiowerk8
Also recorded at: Das Poolside Studio in Tujunga CA
Audio Interface: Emagic Audiowerk8
The rhythm guitars for the right side of the song were El Padden Jr.
The rhythm guitars for the left side of the song were recorded at Das Poolside Studio.
Mixed in Logic Audio Platinum
Mastered in Logic Audio
Monitor Speakers: Custom Built by Rock Lattanzio and Jody Whitesides
Guitar(s): Joe’s Guitar Whitesides Viper 7 Redwood: This is a custom 7-string guitar that Justin built for me to specifications for the neck. The body is two different woods, the back of the body is alder with a redwood top. The neck is maple with a Bocate fingerboard, jumbo frets. Strung with Dean Markley Blue Steels. The bridge pickup is a custom built Seymour Duncan Custom Custom, made specifically for me prior to 7-string guitar pickups becoming an actual line. Thus it’s pieced together by Seymour’s custom pickup department. The neck is a stacked humbucker, also created by Seymour Duncan’s custom pickup department. This was voiced to be more like a custom.
Ibanez Universe 7 string guitar: This is number 96 off the assembly line. I got it for $400 with the case, about 6 months before Korn hit it big time. Then the value shot up to over $2000. Seymour Duncan Custom Custom 7 string model – custom wound. Plus my middle pickup was custom wound by a guy in Canada, sounds ok, but I don’t have his name. Neck pickup wasn’t used on this disc but is the stock pickup. Tremolo was useless with strings this heavy – so I blocked it off. This guitar was strung with Dean Markley Blue Steels medium gauge.
The amp setups:
Fender VibroChamp. It was re-tubed by Aspen Pittman of GrooveTubes. The distortion pedal I used was a re-issue Ibanez Tube Screamer.
GrooveTubes Trio: GrooveTubes Soul-O 150. GrooveTubes Dual 75 loaded with KT88’s. GrooveTubes 2 x 10″ cabs.
Bass(s): Hohner B Bass V. At the time of this recording it was strung with GHS Boomers bass strings. The bass was recorded direct into a tube screamer, and a Peavey Backstage plus amp. Mic’d with a Shure SM-57Beta.
Drums: Live drums were tracked as MIDI via the Roland TD-10 (with expansion kit) and later dumped into Logic as MIDI (with a very complex environment page that allowed for all the parts to be separated and associated with their control data) and audio sounds.
Additional drums and percussion were from Spectrasonics loop libraries. Meticulously edited by Jody to loop perfectly without hiccups.
Vocal: All vocals in this were recorded using a GrooveTubes MD1a.
Song Story:
Ah, the power of the Internet. I wrote the lyrics at the initial boom of the Internet, prior to broadband. I was a really early adopter back in the day of the tilde sign in your URL’s. Heh. Movies were being released about hackers and privacy paranoia was really beginning to take shape.
This my glorious look at a person / hacker who is interested in information and being able to manipulate it. The Dot Com boom carried a lot of money with it. Brought a lot of ideas to the limelight. Many of which were absolutely nuts. It brought with it, the age of the virtual thief and virtual millionaires.
The Internet is still growing every day but isn’t the full-on pirate haven that was predicted. What was once free has become a way to do actual business. The Dot Com’s that were way too nutty failed. Those without real business plans in place tanked and in its wake has been the fighting for domination. Thus the building of Digital Empires.
Factoids:
1. Intro vocal is Digital Empire backwards.
2. Written before high speed fiber internet came into reality.
This album was my first foray into computer recording. At the time, the El Padden Studio was no longer at my beck and call and I had to make arrangements with recording with my own gear. I was using a Mac 9500 with an Emagic audio card (yes, the people/company that created Logic Audio).
I had a super simple setup. The guitars and vocals were all mic’d and played live. The drums were also played live on an electronic kit and thus recorded as MIDI. The bass was recorded direct. It was a massive learning experience at a time when digital was very much in its infancy. There weren’t a lot of plugins available and things were stupid expensive compared to today’s digital recording.
The intro was an experiment in creating the backwards recording that people used to do with tape-based recording. In case you’re wondering that intro is the chorus vocal turned in reverse and slowed down. Digital can certainly do some crazy stuff.
I had met Rokk who was a great teacher on getting me info about EQ and where to listen for things to modify in sound. He was great. Built me a nice set of speakers to mix with and listen to. Taught me an awful lot about mixing for a better production sound.
Additional rhythm guitar tracks were inspired by Mark Jackson. I knew Mark from Musician’s Institute and he was working for A&R at Columbia records. He felt if I beefed up the guitars I’d get signed. It did flesh out the sound, but didn’t get me signed.
Copyright: 2000/04/11
ISRC: USONR0010002
ISRC: USONR2400112
ISRC: USONR2400102
ISWC: T0709688129
SESAC Song ID: 700293
Harry Fox ID: D9120H
Harry Fox Publisher ID: P8938Q
UPC: 654433000221
UPC: 656465413772
UPC: 656465413802
UPC: 656465417992
UPC: 656465428103