My mom doesn’t think that punk or hip-hop is where I should be heading. After all, I am a piano player.
But I’m thinking, the more genres I get into – the better.

In this track I’m using what essentially is the drums track from “Fight!”, an instrumental off the soundtrack of the new movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. The score was produced by Nigel Godrich, the mastermind behind a lot of Radiohead’s sounds. This is not exactly a remix; more like a whole new song written on a bed of drums. Had to stay awake until morning to submit this in time before my flight to Mexico that same night.

VOTE for me so I win. You know you want to.

The making of this next track involves 5 different artists. The original beat, called ‘In Heat’, is a remix produced by Javelin of a track by HEALTH, off the remix album ‘Health: Disco 2′. This new version, ‘City In Heat’ includes me singing the chorus and playing a synth solo, and my friends Truezt and Special from the eTEAM spitting the verses.

Double check it –

Here’s a free download link by the way, to get your summer hotter while it’s still here –
http://www.mediafire.com/?gob3tabak1ci310

Finally releasing my new piano album – Punching Keys E.P.
It is downloadable at www.everyonestalking.net for the price of your choice!
It was recorded a few months ago but the promo piano-smash video took some time to assemble.
Here it is –

Huge thanks to the guys at Crooked Seas. Without their filming and production skills this wouldn’t have come together. (Or apart, in the piano’s case). The video was directed by Craig Leblanc. The graffiti for the piano was done by the artist KJ Summers after we found this old piano that needed to be taken out of an old community center. It needed a new home, but instead it was painted, and then smashed with a sledgehammer and dropped off a cliff. I figure – guitarists get to smash guitars all the time. Piano players need to have fun too.
After we dropped the piano – it actually landed upright, which gave us the opportunity to take some pictures for the album cover. Check it out –

Punching Keys Album Cover

A bit about the tracks on the album:  Read more...

Once again I’m taking a stab at remixing a track ‘piano-rock’ style.
This one is of ‘Fruits’ by the stoner-reggae band Slightly Stoopid.
If you dig it, vote!

Tomorrow I’ll be releasing my new album Punching Keys E.P. along with the promo ‘piano-smash’ video!
Cya

I listen to a lot of music.

I try to get my hands on every new electronic, rock or hip hop album that seems interesting. And so it is rare for me to find something that is 100% refreshing or unique in its sound. Eric Berglund’s new project ‘CEO’ is just that.
Not being familiar with his original band The Tough Alliance, the only thing that I knew about this album is that it has a very cool front cover. After hearing the single ‘Come With Me’, I was hooked.
The thing is, every track on the album could be a single. Its a perfect blend of sonically crisp slick production and great songwriting.

Ceo - White Magic

With a serious lack of good albums coming out this year, this is is a breath of fresh air. The songs are very positive and upbeat. It reminds me of some other bands but not any one in particular, more like a blend, and that’s what makes it so strong. The tracks are quite different from one another too. My favorite is the 4th piece, sharing the same name with the album, ‘White Magic’. It’s mostly instrumental, with some vocals thrown in for good measure, and a killer guitar line. Illuminata is another catchy tune, that could easily be a hit if people listened to music that is slightly more artistic than just plain pop.
I’m not too crazy about the video for ‘Come With Me’, and so here’s a high quality YouTube audio track for the song.

 Read more...

Did this one not too long ago.
It’s harder to remix when the original song feels complete already, and this one is such a huge sounding song.
So I didn’t want to break the flow too much; all the original vocals are still present.
What’s added are new drums, some fx, lots of piano and a synth-guitar solo.

Some unique images in this video for Rise.
Rise is the first track from my debut solo LP: You Are Only Here Once.

Also check out the new videos page for more viewing pleasure.

Lost: Answers

LOST: Answers

Somewhere in an alternate universe, Lost actually makes sense. I think most of you will agree that while the process of watching through all the seasons was fascinating, in the end the writers copped out! Most mysteries and mythology elements were left unresolved, unexplained, or worse – not even mentioned. So I don’t know if I can truly recommend the show to anyone, now that I know how it ends. Yes, I did have fun watching it, and I’ll say at least that the characters were well developed and most of them did have satisfying story arcs, but it’s the huge 6-seasons buildup that amounted to nothing in the end. Let’s just say that when you have sex with a girl, the experience is terrific, but if you don’t get to the orgasm in the end… You get my drift.

So I’m writing this as a devoted fan of the show, but also as a disappointed viewer. I’m a musician and so I love all the little details, & I don’t forget any plot points. The show to me was like an epic symphony or a progressive metal track. I’m thinking: should I be blaming the writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof for fucking up? Surely, it’s not easy to solve all the questions, and even harder to write a whole TV show. Surely you hit a few wrong notes if you play a 40-minute symphony, right? Wrong. You can play it perfectly, and I’ll support this argument by saying – the writers could have EASILY resolved most of the mysteries on the show and completed it properly. Why they screwed up so much is beyond me. This seemed like it was supposed to be a science fiction show. Did you see The Fringe? Sure, it’s not as exciting, and the actors are not as good but at least they explain what happens based on actual science studies, philosophy theories and quantum physics. OK, so maybe Lost isn’t a science fiction show. Maybe it’s just a thriller or a mystery show. Well it failed in that department too. I think around season 4 I started realizing that the writers were full of shit, while my friends still believed until the end that stuff will be explained. You could also argue that maybe some things are better left unresolved. Well, open endings are not the same as THE PLOT NOT MAKING SENSE. My friend had a good point about this – ‘did you ever read Sherlock Holmes?’ he asked me. Those books are successful because Sherlock solves the case! And by the way, if you haven’t figured it out from the title, there could be spoilers.  Read more...

Hey peeps and tweeps!
So me and my band Everyone’s Talking decided to cover the new Drake single ‘Find Your Love’.
Added a few extra chords, some flangers, a piano solo, and a guitar solo – to make the song a bit more ‘rocky’.
The song actually took much longer than filming the video for it, but we did spend some time doing some photo-animation. Check it out.

And here’s a new remix that I made last night. Gotta catch up on my sleeping hours, but I managed to upload this baby 10 minutes before the deadline. The original track is by the Disco Biscuits – an AWESOME live band. And their last album actually makes them a decent album band too. They have their own music festival called Camp Bisco that happens every year not too far from New York. Been there twice, and I hope to go again this year. Highly recommended – www.campbisco.net But anyways, here’s the track. Vote for me

Just got a new Roland sound card, so finally I can properly record music again.
I don’t recommend ever using M-Audio by the way; my Fast Track Pro was causing way too many issues.
Been recording lots of vocals lately and while trying to go through the whole recording process properly, I came up with the following ‘vocal rules’ that I think are essential to follow for the best results.
Thought I’d post that up, in case some of you awesomusicians might find use in it.

Top 10 Vocal Recording Guidelines

1. Always demo a temporary vocal track first, so you can listen back to it, hear all the imperfections, mistakes and unclear parts, and then re-record your vocals again from scratch with that in mind.
2. While recording, remember to sing equally and control your volume by changing your distance from the mic, according to how much you’re projecting. Use a pop filter.
3. Never use default pre-amps. Use Avalon or Universal Audio pre-amps if you can. Tube mics are better than condensers.
4. After recording, compress the recorded vocals manually, as much as you can. That just means turning down vocals that sound too sharp or loud, and turning up unclear quieter parts.
5. Try to sing as in tune as humanly possible. When you do, the clarity of your tone will also improve, because the precision of your singing intensity will improve. Yes I know, with today’s music industry it seems like you don’t have to know how to really sing. Trust me, that’s crap. You MUST know how to sing.
6. Autotune, but just enough to fix harmonies or some slightly off-key notes. NEVER do the T-Pain robot bullshit.
7. Make sure other listeners understand at least 60% of the lyrics you’re singing. If it’s a pop song, go for 80%.
8. Choose a method to make your vocals sound more interesting. Doubling, harmonies, an interesting reverb or an effect could all work.
9. Compress and reverb the final vocal, but not too much. Also EQ the vocals with respect to the rest of the track and use a De-esser.
10. Don’t Suck

It’s over here!
Let me know what you think.

This one took 15 hours or so. I shortened it, and changed the structure of the song. Used some original samples, but mostly re-played the others and added new parts.
If you’re an STS9 fan, you’ll recognize another song in the middle of this one.
Would be nice to win this competition. These remix websites are just awesome. Acidplanet, and Indaba are both great hang-out places for musicians. Highly recommended.

Oh and if you want to download the track, just click THIS