This song isn’t finished, by any means. My brother and I are going to work on it a lot, probably add a banjo part, some more verses, and plenty of vocal harmonies. But I thought you might enjoy it!
In other news, I’m now working on three freelance sound design projects, and a fourth may be starting up this week. It’s a great feeling, and if I get my clients’ permission I may be able to post a couple samples up on this blog.
This is a new song for you all, this time with extra vocals by my good friend Rebecca Bortman.
well, sort of. The Amazing Rolo is now a featured artist on NPR’s Open Mic, a “Web-only showcase for independent, unsigned or self-produced artists”. I’m pretty excited about it, it’s fun to see my picture next to the NPR logo.
And this is the Rolo page, in case the other link stops working.
Otherwise, I’ll be posting new music and stories soon!
Here’s a new song for you:
The lyrics are mostly about submitting material to radio stations and record labels.
I’ve got a whole folder of half-finished songs on my computer, so hopefully more will follow soon. For the past week I’ve been quite busy on various projects, and soon I’ll be back in Maryland getting ready for a show in Chestertown with my brother.
Here’s a little song I recorded yesterday morning:
Down in the willow garden.
(I didn’t write it, it’s an old traditional song, played by everyone from the Kossoy Sisters to Simon and Garfunkel).
It’s just a live take of me with my guitar in my room. Nothing fancy, but I thought it would be interesting to make such a sparse recording, since I usually add so much.
Also, Aurelia came over yesterday to build the set for our short film. It already looks really cool! It has telephone poles and a road and a sky, and the car is nearly finished. Pictures soon.
This is a little anecdote about playing underground hip hop for high school students at a vocational school in France.
It’s quite short and simple, I did it all this morning using music by Aesop Rock and an old NPR recording from last November.
In other news, I’m back in Pittsburgh. My trip to the UK was everything I was hoping it to be, and more. Now I’m looking forward to getting back to work on my Projects with a capital P.
[edit: whoops! That mp3 cut off before the end. I’m fixing it now, it should be fixed in a few minutes]
I’m not really sure how to describe this…I’ve been saying “sound documentary” but it’s really more of a story than a documentary. It’s the story of my car breaking down on the highway a few weeks ago.
In any event, I’ve been working on this for the past week or so. I wrote all of the text and music (except the Gillian Welch song, as you’ll see). The sound effects are a mix between stuff I recorded in my house and tracks from the BBC Sound Effects Library.
It’s long – about 15 minutes – and the file is about 16 mb, so be patient!
Oh, and the song that I talk about at the end can be listened to in its entirety here.
Here’s another music video for you! I took all the pictures the last few times I went home to the Farm…I compiled them all in After Effects and then wrote a short song that sort of matches the theme and mood.
Click to watch (16 mb quicktime movie)
Thanks to jonbro, as usual, for all the help.
And, as usual, let me know what you think!
I’m back in Pittsburgh after a pleasant trip to the Farm, where I hung out with my family, split and sold some firewood, and played a fun show in Chestertown with my brother.
Speaking of my brother, he recorded a really cool gourd banjo track for a new song I’ve been working on. I finished it up yesterday, and I think it’s pretty nice. I’m going to use it in my next sound documentary, which I hope to finish before my trip to the UK in a couple of weeks.
Thanks to a little encouragement (and a lot of help) from my friend Jonathon I recently started learning how to use After Effects – the software that I’m now realizing is used to make every car commercial that you see on TV. I picked it up fairly quickly, probably because of the similarities with audio software. I think I’m only barely scratching the surface, but it’s a useful skill to have, and I thoroughly enjoy it, even though waiting for video to render is the most mind numbing activity ever.
In any event I used After Effects to compile a lot of footage that I took at the Farm one day over the summer, and I lengthened and remixed an old song of mine to create a music video! I’m fairly happy with it. I think it’s a good initial foray into the world of video.
Click here to watch or download. It’s a 20 mb quicktime file, so be patient! Make sure your volume is turned up or else it gets kinda boring.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I’ve been working on a short sound documentary. I originally wanted to use it as part of my Handface documentary, but now I’m not so sure. In any event it was a very good exercise for me, and I hope you enjoy it. Click here to listen or download.
As usual, it will be much more enjoyable if you are able to listen on real speakers or headphones…laptop speakers are not so great.
Please let me know what you think! This was definitely an experiment so I would like to hear some opinions.
The past few days have been spent working on the Seznec Brothers recordings, which are turning out well, a little bit of Rolo music, and my Handface documentary.
For those of you who don’t know, Handface is my band. Well, I suppose it was, since the drummer is now off in Chile for six months.
In any event, a few months ago I realized that the Handface story is compelling, funny, and in a way is an analogy for (among other thing) Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, techies vs luddites, America vs TheRestOfTheWorld, etc etc etc
So I decided to make a documentary that would show all of these things. I finally settled on making a series of short audio-only pieces that would then be animated by my friends (and me).
Handface was composed of three people, who I will call Alberto, Jon, and Yann. Handface theorists often point out that Alberto represents the acoustic, Jon the electronic, and Yann (me) the electro-acoustic…therefore I figured that a good way to start the project would be by making short vignettes about each of the three members that somehow epitomize their characters.
All this is to say that I have finished the outline of chapter one, and you can listen to it here:
A Story About Techno
I would strongly suggest listening to it on headphones or real speakers. Laptop speakers won’t cut it for this one…
This episode is about Jon. He wrote the story, which can be found on his blog. When I read it I was struck by the stark imagery and poetic quality of the text – I found it reflected his personality quite well. I wrote the music, which is a remix of a Handface song.
It looks like my friend Aurelia will be helping me with the animation for this episode. I will probably add a lot to the soundtrack once the animation is finished, but I thought you all would be interested! Questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome.