by

Spoons & Production Notes…

My friend, Joanne Gabriel, has inspired me to experiment with creating sounds with my guitar.  As such, I sat down last weekend & recorded a bunch of songs using regular household spoons as the main method of strumming the strings on my guitar.  I played around with a bunch of effects in Jeskola Buzz & was able to create some really otherworldly & spacey tones.  After recording these songs, I had this sudden brainstorm to release them as an EP.

So now I’m working on post production for two projects.  My Moonscapes project which is the result of my FAWM 2015 creativity & now this new EP that I’ve entitled Cuillères Intergalactiques.  I’m hoping to finish up the post-production on the EP this weekend, which will leave me a lot of time to concentrate on the post-production of Moonscapes.  But until I release them, you can listen to the demos on my FAWM page.  Leave me a comment, either on my FAWM page if you are a fellow FAWMer, or in the form below.  Let me know your thoughts on the Moonscapes demos or your thoughts on experimenting with sounds.  Share your outlandish sound creation experiments, or any other crazy thought that might inspire someone else.

 

See You In The Shadows…

by

Quietaphobics – Double Teamer – Live On 807 Back beat

From the local Cable TV archive – a show I co-created & produced back in the day.  My favourite Quietaphobics song in all their alt-folk glory.  A walk down memory lane…  Enjoy!

by

The Top 10 Prog-Rock Songs That Influenced Me…

 

 

Progressive Rock has had a strange history.  From its early days in England in the late ’60’s, its arena-rock success of the early 70’s to its cultish status since its heyday; Prog Rock has seen a lot of changes.  Some of the Prog Rock bands have had a lasting influence on music, whilst others are so obscure even the most knowledgeable music guru takes pains to think of one of their songs.  There has been much criticism of Prog over the years – both negative & positive.  That the musicians are talented & highly skilled has never been in doubt.  That they can be seen as pretentious and flamboyant, perhaps.  But Prog Rock has always enraptured my imagination because of its artistry – the way it uses music to tell stories & build pictures in the listener’s head.  Plus, I’ve always liked the idea that some songs just need to be longer then four or five minutes.

I used to play a bit of a game with some friends of mine – something to just pass the time.  We would imagine we were stuck on a deserted island with a single ninety minute mix tape as our only musical solace.  The game was to pick the songs that we would put on that Deserted Island Mix Tape.  I always laughed that mine wouldn’t hold all of my “must have” songs – since most of them were beyond the six minute mark.  Well, the below list is my Prog Rock Desert Island Mix – if I could only have ten Prog Rock songs, these would be them.

Continue reading →

by

CANDLE’S NEW SONG ASCENDS TO NEW HEIGHTS

“Man is but a bridge to the Übermensche.” This is the statement being made with Candle’s latest single: Übermensche, released today on Layaway Records. Übermensche is the second single from Candle’s sixth studio album: Vibrations, which was released in the fall of 2014. The song & its B-Side were written in February 2014 as part of the annual online song writing challenge February Album Writing Month (http://www.fawm.org). Ken Ficara, a fellow FAWM participant, writes of Heartbeat: “The very pretty little piano melody over the wall-of-drone is extremely effective. This is quite a track.”

Darby Spicer’s ongoing experimental space rock project Candle fuses psychedelic & progressive rock stylings with ambient sounds & textures that create emotion driven soundscapes that only need to be experienced to be understood. Darby composes various pieces built on the idea of feelings that can be provoked in the individual listener. It is his intention to stir up true emotions through the medium of music & philosophical poetry. Like a candle burning brightly, he wants to show the contrast of light & dark in the greyest area of human existence: that of the soul.

Übermensche & its B-Side, Cær Sidi (Ancient Sources Remix), can be downloaded from Candle’s Bandcamp page: candle.bandcamp.com; where listeners can name the price they feel the download warrants. The download also includes album artwork, printable liner note collector cards, CD label, as well as bonus material. For more information, promo requests or to set up an interview, contact: Darby Spicer: candleexperience at gmail dot com

by

The Western’s Final Count Down

My buddy Jim lives in Montreal & is a part of this great post-rock spaghetti western band called Golden Tombs.  Anyway, they’ve just put out their debut album, but what I wanted to share with you all is their amazing video for the great cover they do of The Final Count Down.  Watch, listen & enjoy!