EGBDF - The Album - Wish (Intro)

Today I continue with the low-down on the songs on my home-made album, EGBDF. Song number six is called "Wish" and is the one song with which I was graced with a cowriter.

I have a tendency to write murky lyrics. They're tough to understand sometimes, probably because I don't give them enough of a foundation upon which one can run with his imagination. "Wish" falls into thus category, I think. My brother in Christ, prolific songwriter Mark Williams, co-wrote the lyrics and among other parts, penned the bridge, one of the more elegant lines in the song.

But before I write about "Wish," I'd like to know what you think it's talking about. I've often wondered if it communicates the narrative or meaning that was intended. Take a look and leave a comment with your thoughts. It's perfectly acceptable to say that it doesn't seem to make sense.

Verse 1
Born and raised in Dixie; slow-motion dreams.
Open invitation, same old routine.
Instant recognition: just one more face.
Terminal condition; is it worth it?

Chorus
I won't wish on a fallen star,
Though sometimes that's all I can see.
(And) I won't wish, but I'll still believe.
The choice is up to me.

Verse 2
Born again in Dixie; old country church;
Lifetime dedication, love reimbursed.
Destination heaven when this life ends.
There are no regrets 'cause it's been worth it.

Bridge
When fallen angels sing their lullabies,
Temporary brilliance becomes permanent night.

(Chorus repeats a few times)

Okay, take it away! What does all this mean?

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EGBDF - The Album - Searcher's Goal

Today I'll hit song number five from my multi-selling smash-hit mini-album EGBDF. There's a little more lyric insight on this song as well as some sure-to-be-mind-boggling recording techniquery here.

Searcher's Goal

"Searcher's Goal" has some lyrics that I was really proud of, but I'm not sure they came across with any straightforward meaning:

With sights ahead,
I feel the eyes staring from behind.
Arms embrace what I despise,
Reaching for what I can't find.

This is the sensation of feeling like everyone is watching, and you make a big, huge mistake; something you know you shouldn't do but you do it anyway for whatever reason. Kinda like what Paul said he had a tendency to lean toward in Romans 7:15. "I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate." (Read it in context to understand all of what he was saying.)

The second verse says this:

If choice is black and white,
It seems I fall into the gray.
Impressions say a thousand things,
Stepping on the words I say.

Again, this is about wrestling with right and wrong, and no matter what I profess with my mouth -- who I say I am -- actions speak louder than words.

The narration in the next section contained a phrase from my favorite work of fiction, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", read by Michael York, the relevant part being, "'What is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'" It doesn't have a whole lot of relevance to verse two of the song, but it's the first phrase I thought of that wasn't as hackneyed as "A picture is worth a thousand words" (which was a theme in verse two).

Having discovered that "the searcher's goal lives inside" -- Christ in me, the hope of glory -- verse three should be self-explanatory and much more immediately understandable than the other verses.

Instruments used:
Look back at the notes on "The Answer Song" and "Dedication" to find out what "axes" were used. I had the same drum setup that I used on "Dedication" (remember, I only used the Roland R-5 on "The Answer Song").

The single keyboard chord in the song comes on the last note of the song. I used my Rhodes 660 for that.

Recording gear:
This song was also recorded at my friend Paul Proffit's living room studio, so the recording gear list is identical to that of the two aforementioned songs.

Production notes:
I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the only words in the song that don't have stacked harmonies on them (I think) are "the searcher's goal" -- the title of the song. It wasn't by design, but I remember listening to it and at some point that dawned on me.

Instrumentally, I believe my favorite part in the song is the little break before the chorus where there's only bass, kick drum, and a snare hit. That's my King's X part of the song. (Heh...)

I originally wrote and recorded completely different lyrics for this tune. The chorus was terrible, but I was just trying to flesh out ideas at that point. It had long, drawn-out phrases and started with the word "I." The sweeping reverse sound at the beginning of each chorus is a leftover of that recording. Let me 'splain...

I learned a secret and thought I was among the elite. You could flip the reel backward on the recorder, put reverb on something, and record the reverb. When you flipped the reel over and played it forward, you'd have... wait for it... reverse reverb! That's what I did with the old vocal track and left it on the final mix. That's the sweeping sound you hear at the beginning of each chorus. Took a good 30 minutes or more to get everything just right.

Today that would take about two minutes and a few clicks. If you hose it up? Hit to Ctrl-Z to undo it. It was good to engineer in the days before digital recording. Ah, the glory days of razor blades and splicing blocks...

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EGBDF - The Album - Easy To Smile

Continuing the series of posts on the background of the songs on my little album project, EGBDF, this evening hits "Easy To Smile". I believe this is my favorite song on the record, possibly my favorite song I've written. Since it's my favorite, this post is longer than the previous ones.

Easy To Smile
I had a Thursday (?) off from Robbins Music Center and didn't have a session at the studio that evening, so naturally I went to the studio first thing in the morning (probably around 10:00 AM. That was early in those days.). I decided I'd write a song and record it that day, so I went over a few ideas in my head on the 30-ish minute drive out to Harmony Studio in New Market, AL.

I don't remember if I had any lyric ideas by the time I arrived, but I did have a general concept of the song in mind, so I sat down at the Yamaha baby grand and played over the chord changes I'd thought of. It wasn't something I wanted to trash, so I went ahead and put a couple of mics on the piano, estimated where to set the input gain on the mics, armed the tracks on the recorder, hit record, and ran into the main room and played. It took two or three times to get an acceptable level, and once that was done I stopped the recorder and finished writing the chord changes.

From there I programmed the drums and started to think of a melody and a theme for the lyrics. Once the drums were done I recorded them, then went out to the piano to record the main part. I had to drag the Alesis BRC ("Big Remote Control") out into the main room since I was there alone, and did a few takes from start to finish before getting one I didn't dislike.

I had a very good idea of the lyrics by that time, so writing them was not too hard. I knew I wanted to make the song a little cerebral-sounding, hence the line, "And people wondered how the man without a dime garnered his perpetual smile." The word "garnered" actually isn't the best choice, but I needed a two-syllable word for "got" or "kept" or "had," and "garnered" seemed to do the trick.

Here's another song about "Johnny," just like "The Answer Song". But this is a different Johnny. This guy was poor all his life and by the time we hear the song, he's passed. I don't mean that morbidly, but I really thought it made the song work better.

There's the general background. Moving on to the physical stuff...

Instruments used:
I can't remember what electric guitar I used, but I believe it was the same cheap Stinger pseudo-Les Paul copy I used on "Roadside Park", but I'm not sure. Fairly sure I ran through the cheap Stinger mini-stack. Since the guitar parts aren't prominent in this song it wasn't as critical to me that they have an incredible tone. (That's good, because they don't.)

I used the Peavey Fury bass with new La Bella strings on it. I was very happy with the bass sound in the end.

The piano was a Yamaha baby grand. It was slightly out of tune, but given the choice between that and a Korg T-3 in the control room, the Yamaha won handily.

Recording gear:

The terribly popular (in the day) Mackie 8-bus 24-channel board took the inputs and fed them to two Alesis ADAT recorders. This was the basic signal path.

I think I used two Shure SM81's on the piano.

The vocal mic was an Audio Technica AT4033, one of the first almost-affordable vocal mics for the project studio community. I think they retailed for $699 back then. Still love the way that mic sounds. I remember saving up for one for a few months. I finally was able to buy it. I was elated. A week later there was a bill Callie and I couldn't pay; probably the utility bill. I had to sell the mic. Mercifully, it sold almost immediately. I hadn't even gotten to record anything with it. (The one I used on this song belonged to Harmony Studio.)

I used the Symetrix 525 compressor on almost everything except the piano and electric guitars. I may have even run the entire mix through it when mixing down.

I believe there was an Alesis Quadraverb in the rack, along with a Yahama SPX-90II (the original SPX-90 was better -- had an analog input you could overdrive and get some great snare reverb). There was also a Lexicon PCM41 in the rack. I loved the PCM42, but the 41 was an acceptable substitute. I ran the vocals through it with a modulating 23-or-so millisecond delay to get a bit of a chorus/double effect on the lead vocal. Hopefully I didn't over-use it.

General production notes:

I wanted this song to be a little more sparse, a little less-produced instrumentally than usual, so I wound up playing only piano, bass, electric guitar, and programming drums. Of course, there were tons of background vocals.

This song differed from others in that I actually did background vocals rather than straight-up harmonies on the chorus. The decision to keep the "Aah" so loud on the chorus was really arbitrary. I thought about mixing them lower but decided against it in the end.

I was thinking "Beatles" when I did the radio-sounding voice. No idea if it sounded like any Beatles material but I liked it. The song originally ended with a resolution, "I'm sure he would have wished the same for you," with that same radio sound and a piano outtro, but it sounded very contrived and cliche, so I clipped that part off.

My favorite part on the whole album is probably around 2:02 in the song, where there's a very wide-open drum fill/pause, and the bass hits with the floor tom. Very simple, and I actually played the part pretty tightly. That's the kind of thing I like; not busy, technically-incredible parts (which I'm really not capable of playing, anyhow).

Next song will be "Searcher's Goal", which started out to be a completely different song.

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EGBDF - The Album - Dedication

This is the third in a series of posts about my album, EGBDF, which you can find on iTunes, Amazon.com, etc. You may or may not find the series interesting. It gives background about the songs, how they were recorded, etc.

Dedication

This is probably the most heavy-handed song I've written. It's about drug use as escapism; trying to get away from worries in the real world. "Dedication to Hallucination" would be the extended title.

I noticed that a large percentage of the songs on the album (it's an EP, really) are stories about people. This one features Mary in the first verse and Bill in the third verse. I don't know a Mary or a Bill that had issues with drugs, just to be clear. I wish I'd chosen a name other than Bill (no offense to the legions of people named Bill who bought the album).

Factoids: you can sing "Mary had a little lamb" to verse 1 and it works pretty well. I was trying to subtly refer to cocaine in the chorus with the phrase "when you draw the line." I thought I was being really neat in the third verse by saying that Bill had been rescued from himself 2,000 years ago but prayed last night. Not hard to figure that out, though.

The original final mix had a different chorus at the end; a resolution to the situation, really, but it sounded very corny and awkward lyrically so I spliced in a couple of the previous choruses for this version. If you listen carefully you can hear the edit between the last two choruses (or chorii, as I like to pluralize the word) as the guitar plays a descending lead part and it's a chord that suddenly becomes single notes.

I recorded this song before the Meat Puppets did "Backwater," by the way. The 7th that the vocals do in the chorus are reminiscent of that song.

Instruments used:
The electric guitar and bass used on this tune were the same ones used on "The Answer Song". Strings on the electric were in decent shape for this one, though. I used a cheap Takamine Jasmine acoustic (maybe an S35 or its equivalent model of the day; can't recall) during the verses.

I had the bass too loud for the first five notes of the song but liked the mix well enough to not bother mixing it again. I do wish I'd gotten a less-muddy tone for the bass in the mix. It's one of my favorite bass parts on the record.

Drum sounds were a combination of the Roland R-5 and my Roland Rhodes 660 keyboard. The 660 provided the drums and the R-5 was used for cymbals (I mixed in some of the 660's hi-hats because I liked their crispiness at the time).

Recording gear:

The little Fostex R8 1/4" reel-to-reel eight track and the Fostex 424 mixing board got the song to tape. Matter of fact, the gear list is identical to that of "The Answer Song".

I forgot to mention the awesome panty-hose-and-coat-hanger pop filter. Cheaper and every bit as good as a Popper-Stopper (TM).

The low-fi vocals on the two bridges were accomplished by jacking the EQ around a whole lot.

Speaking of EQ, I wasn't happy with the overall EQ on the mix. Treble slices too much and there's no punch in the bottom end.

On that wonderful note I'll wrap up the background of "Dedication". Four more songs to go!

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EGBDF - The Album - Roadside Park

To recap, I've decided to post notes about each song on my earth-shattering album -- what went into it, what kind of equipment I used, etc.

This is about the second song, "Roadside Park".


Roadside Park
As a kid, my extended family lived in Memphis, Tennessee.. I grew up around my nuclear family -- three other people; not cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Although that's different from the way my wife and my parents grew up, I've never counted it as a disadvantage or as a scenario where I've missed anything. On the contrary, it gave me a great love for my mom, dad, and brother.

On the occasions we'd visit Memphis (which were quite frequent), we had to do so without the aid of these modern "interstate" thingies. It was a trip of 218 (or 208) miles, I believe, and you could immediately tell when you entered Mississippi because the ride suddenly got bumpier thanks to terrible roads.

 Along the way there was this thing called a "roadside park." I don't know why, but the trip to Memphis just didn't work for me unless we stopped at the roadside park. There wasn't really anything to do there except get out of the car and stare up at the trees, feel the wind blow, and generally relax and unwind from the almost-two-hour trip we'd had thus far.

From memories of that landmark, now a thing only of memories, came the song "Roadside Park". A place where there isn't really much to do, but that's okay... "a rest in the shade of the sunshine."

Instruments used:
I programmed the drums on an old Korg T-3 keyboard (which belonged to the studio where I worked in the evenings, Harmony Sound), running into my Roland TD-5 Percussion Sound Module.

There were a couple of cheap Stinger electric guitars in the studio and a couple of really cheap Stinger mini-stacks. I took advantage of these gems in order to get the monster sound you hear on the record. (Okay, in truth the guitars and amps were not very good. Possibly the worst I've played.)

There was a Peavey Fury bass (I think it retailed for $199) in the studio, and to be honest, whenever I strung it with La Bella strings, it sounded absolutely fantastic. No, really. But I ran the bass through as much distortion as I could muster. Doug Pinnick of King's X fame used bass distortion quite successfully, and that was my inspiration. But my bass part just sounds like bass through a distortion box. His sounds great.

A note about the drum part... I went for a minimalist approach on this song, which was something I usually don't do. I don't ever intentionally over-program, but I try to program what a good drummer might play. On this song I tried to imagine what would be played by one of the best drummers I've ever recorded: James Blair (or J. D. Blair). Blair played in Huntsville for a while and then went on to play for many excellent artists, among them Shania Twian. I think he may be my favorite drummer ever. He could "say" more by hitting one tom than any other drummer could say by playing a whole song. He grooved. He spoke with his playing, and he is one of precious few who can actually do that.

Recording gear:
I've said so much by now that I'm out of words and ready to end the post, so I 'll be short here. Recorded this song on a Fostex G16 1/2" reel-to-reel recorder, ran through a Mackie 24-channel 8-bus board, and mixed to Sound Forge on a mammoth Pentium PC. Used several effect units in the process, including one of my favorites, a Symetrix 525 dual-channel compressor. Always thought it sounded quite good and didn't color the sound too much. Used an Audio Technica AT4033 mic for the lead vocal.

All in all, this turned out to be one of my favorite songs on the album. Lyrically it really doesn't go anywhere, but that's the whole point.

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EGBDF - The Album - The Answer Song

My old friend Jim Sturdivant posted an overly-gracious review on Facebook of my six-song album, EGBDF. He noted that he wouldn't mind hearing more about how it was done. Thinking back over that brought a smile to my face, so I've decided to post notes about each song -- what went into it, what kind of equipment I used, etc. I doubt it'll be of interest to many people, but in the off-chance that there's a gear-head from the early 90's who couldn't afford nice recording equipment, it may bring back memories.

I'll start with the first song (the link will take you to the song, which you may purchase for the bargain price of only $0.89)...


The Answer Song
This one was recorded around 1993, I think. I don't know why I decided to do a rap track. This one's terrible. I didn't want to try to have "soul" or anything like that, because not only do I not have a cool rap accent, I sound very white. So I figured it would be very unusual and surprising, even amusing, if I just used my regular old voice.

You may notice that the first line of the chorus and the first sung line in each verse have essentially the same melody. The verse is in the relative minor key of the chorus so I thought using the same melodic hook for both would be cool. Don't know if it wound up being cool, but I did it, and there you have it.

My biggest regret on this song is the intentional artificial-sounding drum machine pattern on the chorus. Wish I'd stayed with a drum part that sounded more like what a drummer might actually play. I usually obsess about that.

Instruments used:
My trusty Roland R-5 "Human Rhythm Composer" (a drum machine; not an "instrument," really) provided the drums and percussion. I always tuned the hi-hats down a few cents because I thought they sounded a little less artificial that way.

I played a T. Shepard Strat-style guitar -- a yellow one -- with a graphite neck. It belonged to my friend Paul Proffitt, whose home studio I used. The strings were ruuussssty, and I had no extra sets of strings so I used steel wool on them so they wouldn't cut my fingers. It worked but as you might imagine, they sounded quite dead.

I ran through an old Ibanez distortion pedal and went directly into the board. That pedal was unusual because it didn't sound absolutely horrible when running direct, like most stand-alone distortion pedals do. (On second listen, I believe I may have used a Rockman headphone preamp on this song. Not the more awesome Rockman Soloist, but the cheaper one, before the Guitar Ace came out)

I used a cheap, cheap Steinberger bass copy. Ran it directly into the board; no direct box.

Recording gear:
The mixing board was a Fostex model 454, purchased from a pawn shop. All the pots were dirty so I had to sweep the knobs and faders back and forth frequently to get the crackly trash out of them.

The recorder was a Fostex R8, a 1/4" reel-to-reel machine that had eight tracks. Because of the limited number of tracks I had to "bounce" (combine) the drums and bass to a pair of tracks, then as I added each vocal I had to bounce them down, as well, to leave an open track for the lead guitar.

I ran out of tracks quickly on this one. I believe there are seven vocal parts going on at once during the chorus. Notice that the lead vocal and lead guitar don't overlap. That's because I ran out of tracks and had to put the lead guitar on the lead vocal track.

I used a Yamaha hand-held vocal mic (also found at a pawn shop; didn't even know Yamaha made microphones until I saw that one. Really liked it.), used a Yamaha GC2020BII rackmount compressor -- easily the worst compressor I've ever used, but it got the job done -- and a Yamaha SPX-90 II and budget-line R100 for effects.

Used my own reference monitors, Peavey (yes, Peavey) PRM308S. Possibly the best product Peavey ever made.

The mix was done directly to... cassette tape. Only the highest quality would do. :-)

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EGBDF

"A triumph!"

- The Washington Post

Yes, the Washington Post may have published those words at some point about a movie or something. If it did, you can bet it was taken out of context and slapped on the movie's DVD/Blu-Ray case. But enough about that.

You're invited to take part in enjoying a new compilation of some music that spans a slice of my life -- some slightly newer songs, some older. The songs, reaching back over the last 15 years or so, were recorded as "demos" in home studios and semi-pro studios. All were recorded on analog equipment (reel-to-reel recorders, analog mixers; no digtal stuff in the signal path). 

Currently EGBDF is exclusively available for download at iTunes. (Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic, and other online outlets should release it over the coming days and weeks.)

Below is a review of EGBDF by my friend, musician extraordinaire Bill Fowler. I hesitated to post it because it speaks highly of the music, which I wouldn't do myself. The first part of last paragraph was entertaining to me. I think it could be summed up by saying, "This album is average." I got a chuckle, although I don't exactly think he meant that. Hope he didn't, anyway...

Artists invariably create art based on what they know. They draw on inspiration from their own lives, experiences and in this case, a faith journey. Separating the good from the exceptional among musicians lies in the artist's ability to relate meaning and create a shared experience, if fleeting, for the audience.

Dean Lusk accomplishes this admirably. His music is refreshingly open and honest; a transparency of purpose in a sea of predictable refrains that seem to dominate the catalog of Christian music. Lusk's production value is high, yet unlike many in the genre, the sound isn't dripping with digital wizardry, tired lyrics or extended musical soundscapes.

Ear-pleasing harmony and mature hook development abounds. Selections like "The Answer Song", "Easy To Smile" are real sing-alongs and standout vocal performances in "Dedication" and "Wish" prove that Lusk is focused on delivering a message, not being the message.

The lyrics are fresh and self-effacing. The listener hears someone with a purpose and not just to fill space on an iPod. For Lusk, this collection of songs is a journey in faith - asking personal questions of God for which there may be no answer more satisfying than the gift of being able to ask them.

Masterpiece? There isn't one, specifically. The collection is the accomplishment. Each song tells its own story in a unique way without running together or being radically out of sorts with the next. The only downside to listening to seven well-written, well-performed songs is that there isn't an eighth.

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