As many of you know, I am a hard rock guy who grew up in the 1970's listening to Nazareth, Mountain, Triumph, Scorpions and Black Sabbath, among many other in that genre. I began playing bass and singing in my Mom's C&W band as early as 13. My first 'real' job - in 1980 at age 15 - was as a guitarist in the house band at Redbanks Bar near Woodlake, California. Riders from nearby ranches would tie their horses up at the hitching post outside, so it was not at all a glamorous job, but $125.00/week (cash) for a 15 year old farm kid in 1980 was good money... 
To say the least, I was a rocker growing up in a conservative farming community where any kind of rock and roll was shunned. I used to keep a battery powered cassette recorder stashed in the hay loft of the barn so I could listen to Blue Oyster Cult, Motorhead, AC/DC and other bands that would have got me burned at the stake for listening too.
Over the years, I found myself working more and more in genres where I was uncomfortable, or, at the very least, felt out of place. But, I always did my best in my role as a supporting musician and back up singer.
I am signed-on full time to two bands right now. One is a studio-only project called 'Outfall' and they are a Christian neo-metal band based out of Murrietta, California. I was hired when their guitarists left abruptly with an unfinished recording itinerary. I liked the genuine nature of these guys and decided to stay on board. The 'studio-only' nature of this band (and it's online following is impressive, amassing over 40,000 streams in a single day) means I have a great amount of flexibility for my work and other projects.
My main 'gig' at present is being a member of a currently unnamed music group based in Forrest Falls, California. I am one of three guitarists and 3 lead vocalists in this 6 piece, female-fronted band. I was offered the spot in November 2019 after meeting the bandleader at a June 2016 audition at Musician's Performance Studios in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The bandleader called me and invited my wife and me to dinner with he and his wife. I signed on with a handshake and we started working right away to create this new project.
"Unnamed Project" is a band of stellar musicians (other then myself) who come from several local bands and many with a long history of more than 25 years in the music business. Our target audience is private parties, breweries and special events like reunions, where a "Dance Friendly" band would be the ticket. We have a couple of different setlists to be uber-versatile. Our setlist runs the gamut from Bryan Adam's "Summer Of 69," to The GoGo's "Our Lips Are Sealed, " Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me," Boston's "Peace Of Mind," "Hotel California," Concrete Blond's "Joey," "Love-Shack" by B-52's, "Alreday Gone" by Eagle's, '867-5309-Jenny" and many others.
In my spare time, I work closely with a friend and colleague who has a fabulous studio complex in Burbank. We are working continuously on everything from automated telephone switchboard messages, to commercial jingles, sjhopping center PSA recordings, side music projects and voice characterizations. It's not a glamorous job, but it's a living.
Sometimes, I want to do songs that may not make 'the cut' with the band's voting system. Other times, i just want to do a particular song that I have always liked and want to cross it off my bucket list. Not being a great singer means I really have to work to find songs that i can sing well enough to allow others to listen to them and I have many recordings made here in my home studio that are clearly "not me" in terms of how the finished product turned out.
I've been mesmerized by Dobie Gray's song "Drift Away" since I first heard it around 1975. Since then, I have always wanted to record my own version of it. Whenever I have mentioned it in previous bands, it always got blown off and maybe - to some degree - that's because I am not a great vocalist and the band sensed the song might "not fly" or be well received. At any rate, I wanted to do it and yesterday, my friend and I did it.
The song was very simply made. My drummer colleague drummed to the recording in Pro Tools and made me a MP3 of the basic tracks, adding 2 additional tracks of percussion effects. The drums were recorded on a multi-mic'd kit and mixed down into two tracks, panned left and right at about 60% respectively.
From this CD, I imported the tracks into Audacity and added the bass lines, 2 tracks left and right. I listened to every version of this song I could find. Then I stumbled onto a video by a guy who was noodling around on a version of this song and I liked the simplicity of how he approached the song. I can take no credit for the arrangement, but there was a sweet simplicity to it and I felt that it would blend in with my stripped-down concept for the song. It's kind of a hybrid 'finger-picking' type of thing, better suited to an acoustic, but works well on a clean electric. I keep the pick trapped in the meaty part of my palm, so I can switch to it when the phrases need more zest.
The guitar used was my custom double neck played direct-out through a 1999 Marshall 50 watt solid state on 'clean' with reverb added. The main guitar track is panned left and right with the 'main guitar' being in the right speaker and only the delay 'tails' in the left speaker. Bass lines were recorded on my $60.00 Ibanez Bass, direct-out through a Fender Rumble 40. No super trick equipment here, Jack...
Next came 4 tracks of backing vocals. I started by singing some phrases - in different registers - until I found one that worked and I laid that down. My wife was working on her home office PC (now taking a majority of my studio) and I could hear the 'clackity-clack' of her keyboard on the rest sections between the vocal phrasings, including an occasional laugh - which was probably directed at me trying to sing - so i went back and generated silence in the rest sections.
For me, this song brings back memories of the first time I heard it. It made me happy. It's certainly not album quality, but it was a fun accomplishment and something that will live forever.
I hope you guys - and gals - enjoy this as much as I did making it. Special thanks to drummer, colleague and friend Ffej Rednil, for his patience and humor, as he continues to support our side projects, affectionately called '80 proof Redemption.'
May all you do be blessed...
- Rob
P.S. I have the backing vocals rendered down to their individual tracks if anyone is interested in hearing the 'behind the scenes' work, I can post them up...
To say the least, I was a rocker growing up in a conservative farming community where any kind of rock and roll was shunned. I used to keep a battery powered cassette recorder stashed in the hay loft of the barn so I could listen to Blue Oyster Cult, Motorhead, AC/DC and other bands that would have got me burned at the stake for listening too.
Over the years, I found myself working more and more in genres where I was uncomfortable, or, at the very least, felt out of place. But, I always did my best in my role as a supporting musician and back up singer.
I am signed-on full time to two bands right now. One is a studio-only project called 'Outfall' and they are a Christian neo-metal band based out of Murrietta, California. I was hired when their guitarists left abruptly with an unfinished recording itinerary. I liked the genuine nature of these guys and decided to stay on board. The 'studio-only' nature of this band (and it's online following is impressive, amassing over 40,000 streams in a single day) means I have a great amount of flexibility for my work and other projects.
My main 'gig' at present is being a member of a currently unnamed music group based in Forrest Falls, California. I am one of three guitarists and 3 lead vocalists in this 6 piece, female-fronted band. I was offered the spot in November 2019 after meeting the bandleader at a June 2016 audition at Musician's Performance Studios in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The bandleader called me and invited my wife and me to dinner with he and his wife. I signed on with a handshake and we started working right away to create this new project.
"Unnamed Project" is a band of stellar musicians (other then myself) who come from several local bands and many with a long history of more than 25 years in the music business. Our target audience is private parties, breweries and special events like reunions, where a "Dance Friendly" band would be the ticket. We have a couple of different setlists to be uber-versatile. Our setlist runs the gamut from Bryan Adam's "Summer Of 69," to The GoGo's "Our Lips Are Sealed, " Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me," Boston's "Peace Of Mind," "Hotel California," Concrete Blond's "Joey," "Love-Shack" by B-52's, "Alreday Gone" by Eagle's, '867-5309-Jenny" and many others.
In my spare time, I work closely with a friend and colleague who has a fabulous studio complex in Burbank. We are working continuously on everything from automated telephone switchboard messages, to commercial jingles, sjhopping center PSA recordings, side music projects and voice characterizations. It's not a glamorous job, but it's a living.
Sometimes, I want to do songs that may not make 'the cut' with the band's voting system. Other times, i just want to do a particular song that I have always liked and want to cross it off my bucket list. Not being a great singer means I really have to work to find songs that i can sing well enough to allow others to listen to them and I have many recordings made here in my home studio that are clearly "not me" in terms of how the finished product turned out.
I've been mesmerized by Dobie Gray's song "Drift Away" since I first heard it around 1975. Since then, I have always wanted to record my own version of it. Whenever I have mentioned it in previous bands, it always got blown off and maybe - to some degree - that's because I am not a great vocalist and the band sensed the song might "not fly" or be well received. At any rate, I wanted to do it and yesterday, my friend and I did it.
The song was very simply made. My drummer colleague drummed to the recording in Pro Tools and made me a MP3 of the basic tracks, adding 2 additional tracks of percussion effects. The drums were recorded on a multi-mic'd kit and mixed down into two tracks, panned left and right at about 60% respectively.
From this CD, I imported the tracks into Audacity and added the bass lines, 2 tracks left and right. I listened to every version of this song I could find. Then I stumbled onto a video by a guy who was noodling around on a version of this song and I liked the simplicity of how he approached the song. I can take no credit for the arrangement, but there was a sweet simplicity to it and I felt that it would blend in with my stripped-down concept for the song. It's kind of a hybrid 'finger-picking' type of thing, better suited to an acoustic, but works well on a clean electric. I keep the pick trapped in the meaty part of my palm, so I can switch to it when the phrases need more zest.
The guitar used was my custom double neck played direct-out through a 1999 Marshall 50 watt solid state on 'clean' with reverb added. The main guitar track is panned left and right with the 'main guitar' being in the right speaker and only the delay 'tails' in the left speaker. Bass lines were recorded on my $60.00 Ibanez Bass, direct-out through a Fender Rumble 40. No super trick equipment here, Jack...
Next came 4 tracks of backing vocals. I started by singing some phrases - in different registers - until I found one that worked and I laid that down. My wife was working on her home office PC (now taking a majority of my studio) and I could hear the 'clackity-clack' of her keyboard on the rest sections between the vocal phrasings, including an occasional laugh - which was probably directed at me trying to sing - so i went back and generated silence in the rest sections.
For me, this song brings back memories of the first time I heard it. It made me happy. It's certainly not album quality, but it was a fun accomplishment and something that will live forever.
I hope you guys - and gals - enjoy this as much as I did making it. Special thanks to drummer, colleague and friend Ffej Rednil, for his patience and humor, as he continues to support our side projects, affectionately called '80 proof Redemption.'
May all you do be blessed...
- Rob
P.S. I have the backing vocals rendered down to their individual tracks if anyone is interested in hearing the 'behind the scenes' work, I can post them up...
