There’s a new look coming to the world of jodywhitesides.com. A fresh and different approach to the “dot com” is coming. Its got me a bit excited. Mostly because its going to be way more mobile oriented – yet still look really good on a full size desktop computer.
New Look
New look of more simplistic lines. Easier way to get to the music. Plus a little animation here and there. And the better part – an easier menu with less options. And a nice Easter egg to look at for those that hit a wrong link. All in good fun. Plus we’ll start tying all branding to each new single when they launch.
Stay tuned, more good things to come. Check back March 10th for the new look at my digs.
If you’re like me, you caught FourFiveSeconds as a live performance on the GRAMMYS a few days ago. Its the new single by Rihanna that’s co-written by Sir Paul McCartney and Kanye West.
I really enjoyed the live performance by Rihanna and Paul along with Nuno Bettancourt (Rihanna’s Guitarist). So much so that I decided to learn the song. Took about all of 15 minutes to commit it to memory. I posed the question on Twitter if tweeps wanted to see me playing the song and Bob’s your uncle. Here ya go.
FourFiveSeconds
I think I’ve had enough, I might get a little drunk
I say what’s on my mind, I might do a little time
Cause all of my kindness, is taken for weakness
Now I’m Four Five Seconds from wildin’
And we got three more days ’til Friday
I’m just tryna make it back home by Monday, mornin’
I swear I wish somebody would tell me
Ooh thats all I want
Woke up an optimist, sun was shining I’m positive
Then I heard you was talkin’ trash
Hold me back I’m bout’ to spaz
Now I’m Four Five Seconds from wildin’
And we got three more days ’til Friday
I’m just tryna make it back home by Monday, mornin’
I swear I wish somebody would tell me
Ooh thats all I want
And I know that you’re up tonight
Thinkin’ how could I be so selfish
But you called bout a thousand times wondering where I been
Now I know that your up tonight
Thinkin’ how could I be so reckless
But I just can’t apologize, I hope you can understand
If I go to jail tonight, promise you’ll pay my bail
See they want to buy my pride, but that just ain’t up for sale
See all of my kindness, is taken for weakness
Now I’m Four Five Seconds from wildin’
And we got three more days ’til Friday
I’m just tryna make it back home by Monday, mornin’
I swear I wish somebody would tell me
Ooh thats all I want
Now I’m Four Five Seconds from wildin’
And we got three more days ’til Friday
I’m just tryna make it back home by Monday, mornin’
I swear I wish somebody would tell me
Ooh thats all I want
Enjoy!
The pedal to Phoenix
Becoming a phoenix of sound. That’s my new mission as of January 1st 2015. I didn’t consciously make a new year’s resolution about it, but I’m definitely on the path.
While in Las Vegas to play a gig in 2014, I was hanging with a good friend. He put on the TV while we were chilling and on came the show Austin City Limits from his DVR. It was the episode with Ed Sheeran playing some of his material as he does – solo acoustic with a looping setup. Instant inspiration struck me. Right then, right there. I pulled out my iPad to do a little research into what Ed uses to get his loops happening. It was a bust on the net with every site saying, oh he uses the RC-30 or some such little Roland pedal.
No way was it a little Roland pedal that I saw on the screen. It was something much bigger, much better. My buddy Brian, who’s house it was and who is also a musician, obliged me as I freeze framed the show at the few spots that had his pedal board on screen. Unfortunately there was no real clear shot of the name, nor of the make. [not until early January did I find a little corner of the web that gave a good detail of the box: The Chewie Monsta, Ed’s custom board.]
But boy did it hit me about how to approach the new singles I’m going to be dropping this year. Hit me in how to perform them live when I’m sans band. Thus began the process in my head.
Phoenix of Sound
I called another fellow tinkering musician late last year and asked if he’d be willing to embark on the mission with me. Mostly because he’s into making weird instruments and knew he’d appreciate it. So far its only been talk about where to get parts.
It dawned on me in early this year that I have an old midi pedal that I had for my amp rigs, just sitting in storage. A real tank build of a midi pedal (image above). Lots of tap dancing happened on this device early in my career. It still looks the same. It’s a super solid construction. In fact I don’t think any other midi pedal controller was as expansive or solidly built.
Leave to me to be the one person to find a flaw in it.
[pause for effect]
I know you’re thinking, what the hell is the flaw? Well, it has to do with the position of the expression pedals when you hit a patch change. Turns out that if an expression pedal was at a certain point in its range and I hit a sound change on the midi wizard. It would send the wrong expression pedal setting.
How did you figure that shit out Jody? (you ask).
Like any inquisitive musician with a computer, I hooked the midi wizard up to the computer and started stepping on the expression pedals and the midi wizard. What I found out was that if the pedal was between 0-60 in its range, it would get sent as 0. Above 60 and it was fine, the number would go out. Man what a pain in the ass that was on volume stuff. I did mention it to the people at Rolls who promptly told me, who cares – we don’t intend on fixing the issue. Ouch!!
So I had to make due with it, meaning that I had to rework a whole lot of carefully crafted amp settings to work around it. Not fun when a company couldn’t give a shit about a product bug. I don’t think they make the midi wizard any more and now there’s a midi buddy. But I wonder if they kept the bug in that product.
When I made the jump to using a laptop for recorded and live sound, I put my pedal board in storage with the rest of my amps. There they sat, unthought about. Neglected. Miserable. Not any more!
Rebuild
As of moments after this post goes live, I will start tearing apart the pedal board, assessing which parts to keep, and which to sell off. Then I will start tearing apart the midi wizard itself and thinking how I can take its guts and finding a new housing for it. See I’m thinking of doing something along the lines of the Chewie Monsta. Only a little more in depth.
I want to be able to create multiple loops. I want to be able to erase takes if needed. I want to be able to turn parts on and off. I want to have visual feedback from the board. I want awesome sound quality.
The first things come from the computer I’ll be tied to and its software. Right now I’m contemplating using MainStage along with Mobius. Mostly because MainStage can do almost all the things I need it to do with a full band setup. There are a couple of things I want it to do which will require a call to Apple. Thus why not use the same software for the acoustic setup, then its only a quick change of programs between which type of show I’m playing, full band or solo.
I could still use Ableton, I have that all set up for the full band thing. But that takes the fun out of learning new software right?
The pedal part doesn’t have all the feedback I need. Not the visual cue anyway. What I wish to do is put a laptop screen into the box on the floor. This will give me the visual feedback that I need from MainStage.
The next step is to start pulling things apart and finding a metal worker. Actually I already know one. I’m hoping he won’t charge me too much money to create a custom case to fit all these pieces into once I get it into working order.
Stay tuned, more pics and story about the journey will come.1
Having escaped NAMMthrax I’m going to recount some of the fun I had at NAMM 2015.
NAMM
I’m a fan of NAMM. Its a bit like experiencing Guitar Center if it were on Steroids. A lot of steroids. The main reason I go is to see all the fun new gear. Usually I’ll go for 3 days, on occasion I’ll go all 4. This year I only took it in in 2 days. Partially due to scheduling and partially due to seeing if I could fit everyone in that I needed to in 2 days. Hindsight says it was too short a time for how much I had to see and do.
For the cool new thing, this year I think hands down it’s gotta go to Omnisphere 2 by Spectrasonics. I already use Omnisphere, so this is a very cool update. Looking forward to when it drops.
My surreal experience of NAMM occurred on Saturday. I was walking along when I hear “Hey Jody, do you want a pen?” I turn to look and its Dave Pensado offering me a pen while standing outside the Izotope booth. For the non music world, Dave Pensado is a premier top level mixing engineer who has mixed some of the massive hits you’ve heard on radio. The shocking thing was how tall he is. For some reason I always pictured him to be like 5’9″, but he’s easily about 6’2″. Nearly as tall as me. We chatted briefly and then he did a presentation for the amazing new Izotope plugins Ozone 6, Alloy 2, Trash and more. Super nice and friendly guy.
The other great thing about NAMM is seeing certain people that for some reason I don’t run into other than at NAMM. Great time to catch up on what other fellow musicians are creating!
I did happen to see a purple microphone by Sennheiser that matched the purple shoes that I’ve got. Check that featured image for this post where I’m posing with the microphone. Think I need to color coordinate my mic and shoes?
I also helped to create a slogan for one of my endorsers. It’ll be interesting if Studio Devil starts using “Studio Devil, putting amps into storage for years.”
Stay tuned, more musical stuff is coming.
Pick up a gig as a producer is how I’m getting the new year kicked off with a bang. Though I actually got a really great bang of a kick-off this year as I rang it in in Sydney Australia.
https://vine.co/v/OwjzaAwQMVj/embed
As I freeze frame the video above from Sydney, I can see a pretty brunette looking at me shooting the crowd. Funny what you catch after the fact. The other fun thing is that its the first video I’ve put online that actually had a slightly viral take. Over 234,000 views in less than 12 hours. I now understand the desire to have big numbers.
Beyond the video, I’m sitting down to be the producer for a Utah metal band known as The Book. Chances are you’re asking yourself, why the hell would a pop/rock artist be producing a Utah metal band. One that’s slightly thrashy at that. The answer is: The lead guitarist was my first rock guitar teacher. I wanted to give back to the man that got me started down the road to musical amazingness.
There was one stipulation to them that I mentioned prior to starting the process. They had to be open and willing to allow me to have them change anything without a fight. No, I’m not going to make them do a pop song. Instead I had them play me what they thought were their 4 best songs and I chose the one that I felt had the most potential.
Act one: After getting the demo I chopped up the arrangement so that it would make more sense.
Scene One: Recording the drums. That was an adventure to say the least.
Scene Two: Editing drums.
Scene Three: Recording Guitars part one.
So far no issues with the process. Phrase that made me laugh the most so far, “I worked my ass off.” I merely responded with a chuckle and a quick quip stating the work hasn’t even begun yet.
At the studio for recording the drums the engineer mentioned that he’d never witnessed a producer that actually had the balls to tell a band or band member what to do in the recording process. I let him know that the band agreed to allow me to push them in the appropriate direction as needed to get the best possible result. Besides, the ideal job of a music producer is to let band know when something isn’t working and they can’t hear it.
So far no arguments and only a lot of hey that’s turning out really cool comments.
Dragging an 80s style metal band into 2015 is certainly going to be an adventure for me as a producer. Thrash Metal will never be the same after this gets dressed up and unleashed on the world.
The saga will continue.
I’m excited to say goodbye 2014 hello 2015 earlier than I normally would. Why? Well…
Because I’m actually already in 2015 as I type this right now. How is this possible you ask? Easy peasy is the answer. I’m in the land down under, known geographically as Australia. Yes! I’m in Sydney Australia enjoying some time off before the swing of 2015 gets going full.
All I can say is: if you’re a fan of fireworks, you have to get to Sydney for their new years eve event.
Pure.
Simple.
No if’s and’s or buts’s.
Get to Sydney, you won’t be disappointed.
New singles will be coming starting soon. Also, I’ve been hired on to score an indie feature film. Its off to an exciting start already.
Hello 2015
https://vine.co/v/OwjzaAwQMVj
Here’s a little clip of the festivies that happened early today Jan 1st 2015.
Hope you enjoy the end of your 2014 and enjoy your new year festivites and see you when you get here next year. Had to throw in a little time humor.
Happy New Year!
Stay tuned!
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas from the land down under. Where women glow and men plunder!
This is my first time enjoying Christmas from south of the equator. Very different. Not my first time enjoying it while outside of my native country. Also my first time being what feels like a day ahead of the rest of the world, and technically it would be right.
Christmas in Sydney Australia!
G’Day mates!
Yesterday I tweeted that I’d take questions from Twitter followers. It’s the first time I went out and asked what burning questions my Twitter followers, I figured I ought to actually make a video for it and answer on camera. That’s exactly what I did.
Took a little time out of my mixing schedule to answer your questions. It was fun! I got some interesting questions that ranged from why our current president is following me to ones that I’ve actually been asked numerous times.
Your Twitter Questions
Transcript Questions:
1. How are you? and what is your opinion of Nickelback? (@IndieAppleTree)
2. How does it feel to be followed by @BarackObama (@CherryDoley)
3. Do You know Jacob Whitesides? (@kristinholly22 & @Ribka_sitorus)
4. Are you related to Jacob Whitesides? (@abbiemaxreeves)
5. WHERE YOU AT HOUSTON YESTERDAY? (@qtxgrier)
6. Are you related? (@Cashewsass)
7. I need you to tweet the boys from 1D to follow me bc you are verified, will you do that? (@zainbigdick)
Transcript of the video:
Hey! You caught me here in the studio. I’ve been working on a song with a good buddy of mine by the name of Claude J Woods Jr. Amazing singer. This is a song we have co-written together called “Supernova”. And right now I’m gonna take some time out and read questions to you that I have gotten via Twitter.
Question #1 comes from Indie. How are you? And what is your opinion of Nickelback?
Well, I’m doing very well at this point. I had a surgery not to long ago, if you went back through some tweets. And I’m on the tail end of the recovery on it. The doc has given me the thumbs up and says that I’m doing okay. And I believe I have about another week to a week and a half before I can start doing workouts again. Because I like to workout just about every day of the week.
As far as the second half of your question, what my opinion is of Nickelback. Personally, I happen to like several of their songs. I think they’re a very successful band and anybody that thinks otherwise is obviously fooling themselves. They guys do stadium tours and play to huge throngs of crowds. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Personally, I’d like to be playing those kind of stadiums at this point and that should hopefully be happening towards the end of 2015. We’ll see.
The next question is from Cherry, Cherry Doley I believe the name is and asks: how does it feel to be followed by Barack Obama?
You know, its an interesting thing. I’ve no idea how to react to that. Mostly because he followed me out of the blue. I don’t think it was Barack Obama himself that followed me. As far as I know, that Twitter account is the political campaign for Barack Obama. And occasionally he does tweet out of it and when apparently he does tweet out of it is it signed with a little bo. How does it feel? I think its pretty darn cool to be followed by the first President of the U.S. that is of non white descent in America.
This next question comes from Kristin Holly and another by the name of Ribka Sitorus. I hope I’m saying those names right. The question is, do I know Jacob Whitesides?
The answer to the question is: I know of him. I have never actually met Jacob. I’m sure he’s a fantastic guy. I know he does music much like I do. I’ve never actually met the guy, so I can’t say that I know him personally. There’s your answer.
The next question is very similar to the last question, this one comes from Abbie. Hello, was just wondering if you are related to Jacob Whitesides?
This is something that I’ve gotten asked quite a bit on twitter. And the answer is, I don’t know. I know that originally when Jacob and I started following each other on Twitter we had no idea either. So the reality is we don’t know if we’re related. Nobody’s done any research into it, so there’s no way to know it from that aspect of it. That’s really all there is to say about it. We don’t actually know if we’re related. We both have a very unique last name that is not widely popular. It is highly possible, but we just don’t know.
The next question comes from Ruby. The question is: Where you at Houston Yesterday?
And I believe that means, was I in Houston yesterday? And the answer to that question is: No. I was actually here in the studio. I was working on this mix for this song called “Supernova”. Have I been to Houston? Yes, I have. Was I there yesterday? No, I was not.
The next question comes from Kat. Kat asks are you related? Unfortunately Kat I have no idea who you are asking me if I’m related to. If you are asking me if I’m related to my sister, or my mom, or my dad – I’d say yes I am.
If you’re asking me if I’m related to a musician by the name of Danny Whitesides. Who is the drummer for The Used. The answer to that question is: Yes, we are related. We are 2nd cousins.
If you’re asking me if I’m related to someone like say Barack Obama. The answer to that is, I have no idea. Chances are no. If I’m related to somebody, need to get a little more specific please.
The next question comes from someone who goes by the letter H. And that question is: I need you to tweet the boys from 1D to follow me because you are verified. And actually the precursor to that question for her saying that was, would you do something for me via direct message on Twitter.
H. the answer is, I cannot. And the reason for that is, is I have done that a few times in the past and it has never worked out for anybody unfortunately. Just because I’m verified and they’re verified does not mean that we actually know each other. I believe one of the guys from One Direction does follow me, I do follow him back. But we have never exchanged tweets. We’ve never exchanged any kind of information of any sort on Twitter. So unfortunately any I’ve asked somebody to follow another person, it has never worked. And I don’t think having the verified symbol on the account makes me any different. I wish it did. But I don’t think it does.
Thank you everyone who posted questions to me on Twitter. That’s all I’ve got for right now. Pay attention, because I will ask again. For those who wanna ask me questions, you’ll get your answers via video.
Thank you and have a great day.
Enjoy, get your questions ready for the next round!
Always lift things the right way, you don’t want to get a hernia. I like to tell people I rocked so hard that I got a hernia. Reality is tad farther from the truth. What’s the reality? I was doing a P90X workout. Specifically it happened while I was doing a tricep row in a forward lunge.
It doesn’t look like it, but I’m pretty strong in this regard. So a couple of years ago I decided to add a bit more weight to the exercise. So far so good. Then I switched sides and I ended up spacing out a little bit on my body form. Lift, lift, lift, pfft, hmmm, what was that? Lift, and finished out the workout.
I didn’t really notice it as it was extremely small.
Fast forward to a couple of months ago and I’m chatting on the phone with a friend who is undergoing a hernia operation. Seems he had been born with it. Never did anything about it for many years and now it had become a problem. This gave me a reason to say – hmmmm, I might want to go have myself checked out. Up to that point, what I was seeing was so small, didn’t hurt, and I could push it back in kind of thing that I didn’t know it was a hernia.
Next step, see the doc.
You Have A Hernia
A few quick questions from the doc and then it’s: drop your pants. I drop ’em and he says push down. I do and he’s feeling around as I do it. Immediate answer – yes, you have a hernia.
The doc sends me to yet another doc to give a 2nd opinion. Sure enough, she says yes you have a hernia. They didn’t feel it was urgent. Made me feel better for sure. I pepper her with questions about the types of operations and recovery.
I get all the information together I can and decide I should get the operation scheduled. That happened a couple of weeks ago. The drag of it is we’re in the middle of finishing up a song single, I had couple of other production music things going on, but the date of November 7th ended up being my best option so that I’d be fully recovered by Christmas and New Years.
Going in the for the operation was a piece of cake. Went to sleep under the lights. Woke up next to nurses.
The photo you see above is from later in the day after the operation. My stomach, which hours before hand was a 6 pack of abs with nearly zero body fat, was swollen and I wasn’t happy if I moved. I spent 4 days in bed, getting up only to go to the bathroom.
Now two weeks later, I’m a bit more mobile and I’m able to sit in the studio a mix for little bits at time. In my time of laying around for 4 days in bed, I was watching a ton of movies and doing a ton of thinking of things to do.
I’m very much considering doing some things about the production of this new song that could make for interesting things down the line.
Stay tuned.
p.s. – thanks to everyone that has been wishing me a speedy recovery.
How do you write a tune about a Supernova?
A little like this. You play basketball with a bunch of guys who all work in the music industry. Guitar players, singers, bassists, drummers, mixers, etc. Jumping around pretending to be NBA type players. There’s a lot of shit talking and then saying hey, we should make some music. Such is the case for myself and Claude J Woods. We met playing basketball.
We started with a tune called Keep The Swagg Up – very Hip Hop. The second one we wrote was Whipped again more hip hop in nature. This time around it’s more of an urban pop R&B type thing called Supernova.
Step inside with me as I play you a clip of the song as I’m working on the mix.
Supernova
transcript:
Working on a song called: Supernova. And it
sounds a little something like this.
You’re more than a star
You’re beaming like a Supernova
That just blasted through my heart and took over
Have a great day!