Jody Whitesides

Tag: independent artist journey

Reinvention: The Independent Journey Behind “Delicate Stretch of the Seems”

Culminations. This week is the culmination of a bunch of audio work. Specifically on some remixes of my first album I ever put out. Delicate Stretch of the Seems was originally released under the name Amalgam. But the release is obviously not.

Long time ago, in a musical universe far far away…

There was a young man who wrote a bunch of songs and worked on putting a power-trio together. When I did that, I originally felt it was better to use a band name. The name I chose was Amalgam. Yes there was a meaning behind it. The concept of many things rolled into one.

The idea was to be able to run with any type of music and still sound like that band. A couple of great examples would be Queen, and RUSH. They always managed to sound like themselves no matter what they did – the musical DNA was too strong. I had this notion that Amalgam would do that to, kinda like how Trent Reznor is Nine Inch Nails as the mouthpiece.

The record labels felt the music was every bit like that and more, but the time had swiftly changed and while they loved the music, it wasn’t what they felt they could sell. Yes, that was powerful rejection early on. Someone I still decided to forge on.

Those initial recordings done on equipment owned by my roommate, Jeff Scott Soto, eventually became my first full fledged CD and a true independent release. Mixed on tech that was cutting edge for the time, which helped forge the sound. Crazy.

Even crazier was being able to obtain distribution and getting in stores with an impending tour. Everything was looking up. Then it all came crashing down.

In the aftermath, Jeff said something to the effect of: Dude, you’re doing all the work, you should just use your name. Which is why all subsequent releases were using my name.

Here’s the full circle, I’m re-releasing this early release under my name so as to not confuse people with another band called Amalgam. They are likely defunct at this point as well. Though I will say, they were good chaps in that they reached out to ask me if they could use the name when I no longer was. I said sure.

Thus, if you’re reading this, you can purchase the entire album for the first time digitally in full studio quality WAV format. Or you could listen on Friday on your favorite streaming service. Obviously I’d prefer you did the former. Especially since it sounds so much better and it’s in 48k/32bit file format.

What a long strange road it’s been. What a wild year 2026 will be as well. Stay tuned.

2025-11-11
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.

2025-10-14
With You Release – An Amazing Remix of Creativity and Sound

The late nights never seem so bad. Suddenly I’m having late nights again and it’s not exactly by choice. It’s a drive that has lit back up and there’s a vibe of forward movement that has been missing for about 3 years. And it’s a journey that I’m on …With You.

As I’m getting the technical side of things to finally settle down a little bit, it’s always hard when a little problem rears up with it. Last night was just such a thing. Then again this morning it had another mishap, that has since taken care of itself. It’s causing me to look into another bit of gear to hopefully solve the issue.

There’s a new fire under my feet with all this tech improvement. It’s getting the musical juices going as well. This week I’ll be finishing up a version of a wedding song for a friend, where I’m doing the music and my friend Claude J Woods of Earth, Wind and Fire is doing the vocals (I may sing on it as well). It’s for a private affair and I’m happy to see it come together.

There’s another slight change that you’re not likely to notice, so I’ll point it out. If you’re new to my musical world, and you want to sign up for my email list – you currently are unable to. I’m hoping to have that rectified by next week. I’ve dumped the 3rd party list server that I was using. It’s become long in the tooth, isn’t worth the money it’s costing and won’t be able to do some of the things I’m working on, to make it more enjoyable for you.

I’ll keep it at that until I have it up and running.

This week will see the release of …With You. A song that is a real amalgam of things. Different time signatures, different arrangement value and almost a backward feel to the type of music that was going on when the album originally came out. Now it feels more at home in today’s musical landscape.

I’m happier with this mix due to some of the effects that are now available that I didn’t have in the late 90s. Yeah, it’s that old. It’s not rerecorded, just remixed and remastered.

Remember I’m on this journey …With You and I want you to feel included. Thus, if you’re not already part of the Jody Army, do return to my domain in the next two weeks and join the ranks. Your data will only be between you and I and I have another trick coming up that sleeve that will make being a part of the army very worth while.

Until next week, remember to keep you ear to the grindstone, and float along in the Breezes.

2025-09-23

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