Skäggkast!

Did a theme song for a Swedish comedy podcast called Skäggkast! which I am told roughly translates to BeardCast! The guys talk about me at the 54 minute mark in English.Working with Eric (aka @Beardworks) on this intro was some of the most fun I've had making music in a while. 

The Big Comic Page

The guys over at The Big Comic Page have started using an extended version of the "Weak Force" as intro music for their Big Comicast pod.  Their page is a most excellent hub for all your comic news needs.  That and they're really good guys.  Check em out.

Going Postal

It's impossible for me to let some things go... This is one of those cases.

   Going Postal by Remedial M-Theory

Going Postal is an expanded version of a track that was originally a cue I made for the TESD Puppet Theater movie. There is nothing wrong with the original, I love it. But sometimes these things won't let go of me and this one came at me from several directions. Started out with the drums and then spent several days on an organ part to go with the bass but I always knew that there was going to be some guitar, I just didn't know how that was going to fit in. The last thing I did was jettison the organ part, just wasn't working and didn't feel like it fit with the rest of everything I was putting together.

And damn... if I don't love the way it ended up.

Remedial M-Theory Numbers Station

a video and song featuring the creepy kids from the Overkill days.

Thank You Mick Gordon

I almost forgot to post a shout out and thank you to Mick Gordon for creating an amazing string effects soundfont that I used briefly in the score for TESD Puppet Theater. It's a fantastic tool for the little guys and I would have been lost without it.

well... not lost but it definitely helped improve a few key moments.

If you happen to visit his website, give a listen to Voices of Devs.  It is fantastic. Listen to his other stuff too.

Thanks again Mr. Gordon for your soundfont and your words of encouragement. Both meant a lot to me.

Slightly Better Update

I wanted to elaborate a little on some of the projects I mentioned in the previous post.

I was contacted about some vocal effects I used in the TESD Overkill Theme and offered to process some vocals, and before I knew it, I was recording the vocals for Chapter VI of B'ak'tun 13: Timewave Zero by Vaults of Extoth.  Never dreamed I'd start this year out by doing vocals for anyone--even if it is spoken word. 

Also kicked off a new project that is for all intents and purposes a virtual band with a friend on another continent.  Our band is called Irving's Basement and at the moment we only have one track but 3 wildly different versions.  The original version is a very weekend-in-the-garage , raw, rock track.  The second version is that same track slowed down by 800 percent, the effect and transformation are pretty cool.  The third started as an acoustic version that in the mix began to sound like a tribute to Ennio Morricone so we embraced it and ran from there. 

Worst. Update. Ever.

A lot has happened since my last update - I did some vocals on a drone metal album, created some theme music for a friend's film project, started a virtual band with my friend Joe P called Irving's Basement, did a theme with the creepy overkill kids getting a chance to not be creepy for TESD's Fat News segment, cut together a special intro for TESD's 3rd Anniversary (ep 142), finished a couple of alternate versions of the TESD Theme with at least one more in the works, and I'm scoring a film.

And a few other surprises on the way.
 
Other than that, I've been quietly putting together a Remedial M-Theory EP that will hopefully be available by April.  Expect nothing groundbreaking from this one, just some light music I've been working on in the moments I've had between all my other projects to keep myself sane.  Right now I have about 11 and a half minutes of unreleased music for the album and hope to end up with a total of about 15.

You know it's bad when you don't even have time to update your blog, but I'll try to post a few links to the different projects I've listed above as soon as I can bring myself to do it.

Foot Fist Cowbell

Foot Fist Cowbell may only exist because of a Will Farrel sketch on SNL years ago that made "more cowbell" the new "Free Bird!" It's one thing to say something needs more cowbell and an entirely other thing to actually make that happen. Not so much a dare but an extended mostly not serious exchange of such jokes that prompted me to put this together. After I committed to the project and put up a demo, I took a suggestion from my friend and added a shit-ton of side stick for the hell of it...

And then a week later I added the guiro.  

The Weak Force

Couldn't sleep and trying to finish a project that should have been done last week so of course I'm messing around with other things. Started with going over some of my earlier tracks to make them a little more listenable, part of which was fixing the distortion on a bass which sounds pretty bad.

I couldn't get anything to work, so as I often do when a sound is giving me shit I subbed it for a piano so I could keep moving forward, then started running it through the distortion fx chain. This gave me the idea to start a new track where I would run two pianos through guitar cabs and distort the living crap out of them until they basically sounded like guitars... which is how I ended up here.

 I've also been thinking about a pair of songs called "The Weak Force/The Strong Force" that will compliment each other utilizing similar motifs and contrast using song sets from opposite sides of the spectrum. This is an early clip from a demo I'm working on for this project, still working out the parameters, still trying to get a handle on the distortion.




Also, wanted to say thanks for everyone who enjoyed the intro for the Christmas Pod. The feedback has been mind-blowing. Thanks to everyone who dropped an email or mentioned it on twitter or even thought it and haven't gotten around to telling me yet. It means so much.

Clear Lucid No

Trying to put a couple of things together here.  Gooey melodic synths for lying in bed and staring at the ceiling as you drift off into a daytime sleep, and a floor rattling bass line that buzzes the carpet under my feet when I play it on my computer here at home... one of those things that reminds you that music can be more than just noise.

I originally intended to put some wobble bass into this but once I got to the point it didn't really work with the vibe I was going for so I went back and used the temp track that was keeping the space for the wub warm...  that's just how things work out sometimes.

Clear Lucid No by Remedial M-Theory