 01)
Namesake Composition 3:56
02) Had 4:54
03) Fallacy 3:32
04) Indulge In Kind 4:32
05) Forest For The Trees 3:56
06) Soliloquy 5:08
07) The Requisite vi-IV-I-V Song 4:19
08) Solipsistic Universe 4:18
09) For Your Consideration 2:28
10) Cerebration 5:02
11) Pawn Takes King 3:36
12) The Last Folk Song 3:16
No band. No budget. No studio.
No worries, eh? Once again I delved into my album writing
process completely unarmed, so to speak. The best production
to date from my home bedroom studio, this collection of aural gems
was my most “mainstream” sounding album. It is much less
“lo-fi” than the preceding three albums and took most of the
summer of 2002 to write and record. The songs’ subjects
still range from philosophical blathering to infatuatory love songs
(not to be confused with statutory love songs). There is some
serious stuff. There is some lighthearted japing. There
are lots of questionably mixed harmonies and plenty of layered
guitars. Oh, and MIDI drums; gotta have those!
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I decided on
the title Long Hair Phase because this album inevitably will represent
this time in my life, when I wear my hair in a ponytail. I’m
quite aware that I’ll eventually grow out of it and cut my hair short
again. I didn’t necessarily believe it would in any way describe
the music contained therein. However, I have made the following
observation …
Long hair is usually
representative of hippies and non-conformity, and doing one’s own
thing, and being a “rebel”, and other such silly things. And
because I think this collection of songs came out a lot more
“mainstream,” “polished,” and generally more radio-friendly than
my previous albums, I find it amusing that it came out of my “rebel”
phase.
This album is fairly
evenly weighed on the scale of emotional-about-girls lyrical themes
versus cerebral what-the-hell-is-he-talking-about intellectual
crap. See folks, I be left-brained and right-brained. Go
figure.
And this album is much
less heavy on the “funny” or “humorous” side of things, but
there’s more than a healthy helping of wit, satire, introspection, and
other such things, that I hope you’ll find plenty to enjoy.
I started recording this
album in July 2002. The first song I wrote for it was Had,
which was written in June. I recorded a quick demo acoustic
version of it, which is the same version that appears “hidden” at
the end of LHP. Over the course of the summer, the
songs came to life, took shape, and matured to a healthy state. I
believe they all still have room for maturity and refinement, so perhaps
I’ll wait until I’m rich, famous, and signed, at which point these
will be recorded again, before I can call these songs truly
finished. The last song recorded was Cerebration,
which was finished the second week of October 2002.
I didn’t originally
envision the album turning out as Rock & Roll as it did. I
anticipated more acoustic tracks, perhaps along the vein of For
Your Consideration and Forest For The Trees.
But it turned out I had too much fun playing around with MIDI drums and
Soundfonts, and before I knew it, many of the songs had full backing
rhythm tracks. Which, in turn, encouraged me to flesh out the
mixes with even more guitars. I don’t think I ever gave
any of the songs overkill production, but then I do have that
tendency to fill up that aural environment with ear candy.
Do listen to this album
with headphones, if you get the chance. Seeing as how that’s how
I recorded it mainly, I fully believe you’ll find a greater
appreciation for my efforts and, perhaps, my musical “vision.”
I also implemented a new
program called Rebirth. It’s a loop-based music “creation”
utility. All one needs to do is open the program, click New Song,
click Randomize Pattern, push play, and *poof*, music has been created,
and a non-talented, non-musically-inclined 10-year-old can be the next
Electronic Music phenomenon. However, the program does allow you
to truly compose (although, really nothing longer than a bar at a time)
and execute pre-envisioned patterns and rhythms (oh, but isn’t the
effortless pull-down menu randomizer just so easy and fun? [sarcasm!]
Anyone can do it! Even you!!!)
Anyway, I did use some of
Rebirth’s tools to enhance some of my tracks. To add some of
that Techno sound (ie: ad nauseum 4/4 headache bass), delay effects,
“bubbly” synth lines, etc. here and there. Okay, so I
experimented a little. Big deal.
For the record, I did not
once (not a single time!) click the Randomize Pattern pull-down
menu. I actually can compose and sequence, thankyouverymuch.
Long Hair Phase was
recorded, edited, and mixed entirely with Voyetra Digital Orchestrator,
Propellerhead Rebirth, Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 4.5, and Creative Sound
Blaster Live!Ware with Environmental Audio and plenty of Soundfonts.
Instruments &
Equipment: Parker P-38 “Woodie” electric guitar with piezo
pickup system (great tone!), Fender Jag-Stang electric guitar, Ovation
12-string acoustic/electric guitar (my baby!), Fender Princeton Chorus
125W twin amp, Crate GX-15R practice amp (amazingly good reverb!),
Tascam Portastudio 414 mkII four-track mixer, and many cables and such
from Radio Shack and Guitar Center.
I don’t know the specs
on the omnidirectional microphone I used (since it’s on loan from a
friend), but it was a television studio mic that can take a licking and
keep on … uh, doing whatever microphones do. But it does it very
well!
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©2003 Brian Michael
Weidemann