Here we are again. Ha! The record has come along way and I'm super stoked with how it is going. The songs bleed into one another nicely. Their is continuity lyrically and compositionaly. The vocals are how I want them to sound and how I visualised them. The melodies are beautiful and memorable. The slide guitar sounds so sweet. I can say these things as I feel as though I have objectivity as I am merely the filter that the ideas and sounds go through. They are alive and I give them the pulse. They are the blood and I am the heart. Pleased in many ways.
With the ying is the yang. My mind has run in circles with how the record would turn out. I guess that when I set out to do this, the recording ideology was still being born. Whether to record at home with updated gear or to go into the studio. I began the demo's on older gear and figured I would go to the studio later. Somewhere along the road, inspired by the sounds, ideas, spontaneity and freedom of the demo recordings, spliced with the idea that a producer could come in and mix and master these humble beings, I though why not use these fresh raw takes? This in many ways seems like a great idea. Also, the cost of the recording started to add up. The idea of spending that money on jet around gigging through Europe has it's own pull.
Here we are. Me and my collective conscience's. Reviewing where we are at. Electronic beats vs. Percussion. Home recording (on old gear) vs. Home recording (on new gear) vs. Studio.
The thought of recapturing the ideas seems counter intuitive. However, if I am able to lay down the bare essentials of the tracks and let go of everything, a new canvas is ready for new ideas. That shouldn't be major really.
I have come to see that some of these tracks wont be up for releasing as they have some foundation problems. I will attempt to rerecord as was the orginal plan and if possible utalise takes via copy paste. I am investigating a program that will allow me to get the percussion vibes I desire and as important, sweet timing. Fingers crossed it's everything I imagine and then some.
With all this falling into place, it's almost time to start thinking about art work and visuals. For album track sneak previews, email me at
thesundanzekid@gmail.com
Here, I can send you some of the raw material. You can even share your thoughts and ideas regarding the best possible single to use to push the album. Shit, I might even whip up an excel spread sheet to represent the popularity of the tunes. Get involved and help spread the vision. Make the spread sheet reality!!! As well as, if you have any visual ideas inspired by the lyrics please let me know and I'll see what the creative crew can come up with.
"What's the difference between acoustic and electric guitars?" A question that I have been asked often enough. Once, I would have said nothing at all. They both have six strings, they both have the same chord shapes, you can essentially do pretty much the same thing with each. To a certain extent this much is true. However, after many years of playing electric guitar, very long and very loud, I have come back to the fine art of the acoustic guitar. Both respectively fine arts, mind you. When I first set out to play I had both the acoustic and electric guitars lying around. They were balanced. They found moods and feelings when I need them. The expressed the angry dark times and the deep reflective times. Some days that all I felt I had. As live gigs and rehearsals took over, the dust on the old acoustic grew thicker and she was played few and far between. No love was lost but a strong bond and artistry grew between myself and the electric guitar, as played as a lead instrument.
During this time, the development of playing and performance were geared toward the electric sound and the electric feel. These skills were honed, shaped, trained and explored. The electric guitar was set as low as possible on the action. The picks up upgraded, the channel sector manipulated with accurate cause and effect. The expansion of other electronics grew. From 1960's tube amplification, to pedal after pedal after pedal. To pedal boxes, tremolo bars, ebo's and on and on. The endless amount of possibilities are overwhelming, time consuming, brilliant and an absolute must for any 60's inspired guitarist wanna be. The more you look, the more of an art form you see. The idea of comparing the electric to an acoustic just seems somewhat hard to do. And that's without looking at my more recent discovers of the acoustic guitar.
After many years of electric guitars, burrowed away in hard cases in the back of station wagons, squished in with guitar amps, pedal boards, bass rigs, drum kits, friends, beers, drugs and what ever else you think you might need, a change slipped in. Like a train on the horizon that never arrives. The practicality of dragging it all around ceased. And when I moved to the UK many things changed. First, no car, and with that quickly follows the amp, the pedals become cumbersome and eventually the sight of a man playing an electric guitar through a DI at open mikes simply wreaks too much of Jeff Buckley. Done.
Around this time I wrote a song called "All you know"
you traded everything you know
left it all to what unknown
your keys, your love, your un-kept home
you're scared for it to turn to stone
but life is now you've done no wrong
you're a soaring melody in an unborn song
the time will pass it wont be long
before you rise the day is gone
all the while you take it in
all the while you stake your claim
conquered by a virgin sand
role reversal in a foreign land
take hold
can you find all that you had?
do you need to let it go?
So by and by, pretty much all my old ways have been replaced or prioritised ,in the year I've dubbed - "the year of change". The biggest change being that of promoting the acoustic guitar to number one. The number one position has many perks. It's the choice guitar for the current batch of songs. It's on display. Often, when it's not standing proudly upon the chair, it just might be lying sweetly on my bed. Arms length away from when I fall to rise. Many times have I fallen a sleep with a guitar in my hands, and many time woken to continue playing the same licks in the morning. One of the best ways to start the day. One of the best ways to end one.
Practically though, the acoustic has recently offered up some new pros. Other than it's ready to play and portability, as a writing tool and instrument it has again shown itself to be quite flexible. Within the depths of vibrations, steel string and wood, lay harmony and melody ready for the plucking. I have enjoyed the refreshing changes that the acoustic guitar has given me recently. I will have to cop to- and tip my hat- to bands that have down the mtv unplugged realms as far as getting me inspired again about the hollow body. Hearing songs being played in such a toned down way, made me ask how these songs where written and how come they translate so nicely as acoustically and why did the unplugged thing get such a warm welcome? I concluded, that probably most of these early 90's tracks were born upon the acoustic guitars, or at least the souls of them did, before the riches and fame, and with this in mind I set full stroke into trying my hand exclusively at writing tunes on the acoustic guitar. Solely for the acoustic guitar? Well time will tell. To hear the latest batch of tunes electrified is something that really excites me.
I'm not sure where the energy has come from, but I know that the this instrument has at least met me half way. The change has been good and refreshing. The tone and growl of the guitar has been held within my minds eye. The pop of the right hand as a rhythme instrument has been crucial. LInking up the feeling with a foot stompin vibe. The versatility that it offers to my style, where I can play hard riffs, slide guitar, hammer on and pull off runs, driving muted riffs, clean crisp open chords. It's been able to keep up with me and provide a wider selection and option of musicallity without all the plug ins, mainly due to wide variety of tones that you can pull. Yeah - it's about the tones man, for sure. So for now, the acoustic has it. You could knock past me down with a feather I'm sure.
Throughout the recording of the album I have been battling with the idea of recording at home or taking it to the studio. With growing confidence in my producing and recording ability, I started to weigh up the option of taking full control of the whole project. A fair idea at the time and an ambition that I would like to pursue, but after much deliberation it will have to wait.
The latest in home studio recording has come along way from the old Teac four track stations. Some of the updates in logic, to which I’m somewhat familiar with are amazing. The plug in options that are about are very convincing. I come from the old ideology of tape and tubes, and effects that you stomp on with your foot or your face, but with time and experimentation with the possibilities of built in plugs, you can get some really great sounds. I have really enjoyed learning about and using compression, EQing sounds to how I hear them, filtering, reverbs and panning. It’s great to hear what you can achieve with a good musical take and how much a piece can evolve once you have tweaked it.
As great as these skills have come in handy and the improvement in my recording taking my tracks to another level, they still don’t go beyond that of a demo level. Even if I had have invested in some new gear, I know now that I wouldn’t be able to pull that sounds that a pro would. At the time it seemed possible and created quite a dimmela – but now it just seems silly. The benefit of hindsight.
After to-ing and fro-ing for a few months and talking to musicians, producers, home recorders and friends it all seemed to come to light. The studio and producer is going to bring so much more than I could. I’m a guitarist, singer and song writer. I mess around with home recordings. Some people can make it happen. But my skills won’t match that of someone who has studied and made it a life’s art form.
A drunken conversation with guitarist **** outside of Passing Clouds was the final decider in which way to go. His advice; that all the time I’ve been playing guitars and writing songs, someone else has been doing the same toward recording. I couldn’t argue any more. It just made perfect sense.
So a new dilemma presents itself. Who is this person? That has been spending years shaping their craft, exploring recording and developing their ears, parallel to me as I have been writing, singing and doing what I do best.
The search begins…
Where to begin? The beginning of course. But where exactly is that. I guess it would be the point in time when I decide that I would write an album. Though precisely when that was I am not so sure. I have always loved listening to albums. Holding onto the cover, reading the lyrics trying to get as much out of the piece of art that I could. I would wring it like a soaking cloth till it gave me all it had to give. Albums like Ten, Axis Bold as Love, A Northern Soul, Back In Black, Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Wires, Harvest, Lovers, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, Sargent Peppers, albums that swept you away. Albums where you know the next track by heart. Where every tune seemed to relate to each other one way or the other. Like some kind of perfect spider web, that may fade but never lets go.
So why I've never recorded an album before some what eludes me. I have put together an album or a record worth of stuff with bands. But never set out to write one. The code was to have a set of songs to play live. And over time new songs would creep in and others slide out. Your mates could appreciate the tunes you had been playing for a while due to their familiarity and get a taste of some fresh stuff too. It was practical and made sense. And so this type of writing has consumed me for many years. I can not say how many songs I have written, but I would say well over 15 a year for the last 15 years. Not to mentioned failed tunes, random jams and hours of learning and noodling. I have documents of pretty much every song I've written. I will some day getting around to a least listing them, possibly alphabetically but probably chronologically, but will unlikely listen to them in full.
Many things have fallen into place this year. The numbers are adding up and I can sense a full circle has bound around to prosperous and successful times much like the era of completing high school. The world is again my oyster and I still hunger for more. The planets had aligned and I was looking for new challenges. Not to simply write another cool, satisfying song but something more. Something with more depth, something with more meaning, something bigger, more complex, more engaging. A meal not a mouth full. Lets just say it was time to write an album and once that was decided, an avalanche begun.
Though to this point the writing of the album has been solo, I have not been alone in my conquest. Many people have influenced, swayed and inadvertently contributed to this journey in one way or another. Having decided that I wanted to write an album, I dropped my ego and thought I'd do a bit of reading on the subject. Many years ago, during the days I had more time than sense I found myself reading up on pop songs of all kinds at the local library. A great place to hang out on a hot day and a suitable way to kill a few hours between meals and soap operas. The learning from these books was easily transferable into recognising the successes and formulas on the radio, but being one big Hendrix jam fan, not so easy to put into practice. However, with a change in life and less hours to whittle away at, the concept of writing a short, to the point song not only became necessary, but it also became fun and easy. When one is pushed for time, one seems to accomplish a hell of a lot more. If only someone told me this in my early twenties. As fear of not having enough time drove me to free myself up, but taught me little of managing and pooling time. Get busy living or get busy dying. I know both sides.
With the little hindrance of not having the ability to write radio savvy tunes out of the way(well at least write a song the length of a radio savvy tune), little was left to do but figure out what the heck to write about. We all know the answer to this one. Every great writer who ever lived and breathed has always said to write about what you know. One thing I do know about is my life. Which parts and why I would write about was another thing all together. This is where a little thing called parameters started to help shape things. This is also one reason why I elect to perform under an the artist name of The Sundanze Kid, of which of course is a very cool name. While the experiences I share in the songs are of the makings of Aaron Chaston's life, they do not encompass or represent these experiences in the way that could ever be sung, written or replicated in anyway. They are pieces of memories that make up Aaron Chaston as one entity. The living breathing man currently tapping away at a computer, silently voicing thoughts on the other side of the screen, is the result of all those put together. Who carries a story so long and so complex he has to at times make it up as he goes. As far as the name goes, it's a title to hang a few ideas on. Help with imaging, help with setting the tone and style. It's raw and free, it's open skies and endless nights, it's the devil at the cross roads, it's a blues mans suit in an old brown paper bag. Some day I hope to see people doing their own little Soundness all over the dance floor and turn these moves into a film clip or something - and so all the kids across the world can teach their kids how to do it. We could make it rain, hail or shine. Together.
The parameters began with a number of self imposed restrictions, ideologies and desires. The first was to get down my dream. To write down the album as best as I could see, hear, taste, smell and feel. Like a basketballer witnessing a free throw drop before letting go of the ball. Or a chef toying with flavours in his mouth before creating something unique and memorable. Or how a painter feels her way through the line of an object before she settles her brush upon the canvas. To paint the colour and grain. I really liked doing this part. Thinking about the colours of the sounds and the colours of the feelings. How the guitar part was going to growl. How my voice was going to rip and burn and bleed. How your foot would instinctively tap and you head bounce back and forth uncontrollably. How your body would want to find the space on the dance floor, stretch out and express moods and feelings that no longer seem relevant in our day to day lives. Like being involved with the music by dancing with it, instead of closing down our bodies and letting our minds over analysis it, like some soul destroying panel of critics how make one dream come true and kill off an entire village of love. Another time.
The past - my life divided into 3. The instrumental prior to these tunes would also represent a golden age, pre-language, pre-thought, visual, glorious, loving, memorable. Early memories - Into the Darkness. Thunder Cracks, The Setting Sun. The album moving from a dark to light to optimistic. A darker rock beginning for integrity, and lets face it, it's way easier to write about the sadness, the pain, the hurt. That's why I write. That's why I picked up a guitar in the first place. To express the unspeakable. For fault of no one to listen and no words to describe the pain.
The present - "current" events from my early twenties to now. Without Blood, Burning Lungs, Foot Prints. The album turns to current affairs, faith, globalisation, tragedy, betrayal, forgiveness, politics, environmentalism, lessons to learn and lessons to leave behind. It reaches it's extremes of intensity and beauty. Tempo, aggression, beauty, sadness, colour, all swirl to a solid beating heart.
The future - the knowledge that the unknown could be coming and if it comes certain things will be unavoidable. Unimaginable loss. Happiness beyond your wildest dreams. Sadness' untold. the ticking of time taking it's toll. The good, the bad, the ugly all adding up toward something that could be so fantastic if we embrace as much of it as possible, with love and patients and a deep desire to take it to the next level. To leave behind a world that you made a difference to. To have loved and learned and shared. Green grass, Red Sun Rise, Tears and Laughter.
The thought of altering the track order did cross my mind. But it wasn't hard to see that this was very counter intuitive. It would cut the album in strange ways. This is when I started realise that the thought behind the album would help it stand in a way that will recognise this as a piece of art and not simply a bunch of songs.
Following this, was to begin creative non-critical music writing sessions. Basically, a time where the critical song writer takes a back seat to the freedom to laying down and recording heart felt jams. Way too often would my playing become stifled with the desire to write songs when I could have been mindlessly writing some of the most amazing music to cross my subconscious. Too often have i stopped a jam and pursued a song, killing off the rhythm and flow to try and preserve a good idea - or half baked idea. However, with a better income and better recording technology I was able to simply hit record and find the groove. Two weeks of solid jamming, 14 hours of raw material, one day of slipping into over-critical-overdrive and a bucket load of ideas, saw the ball well and truly rolling. Great. But how does one sift through so much music. Take one ipod, one note pad, a pencil and the London Underground and you've got yourself plenty to get on with. Slowly, I begun to note and time reference many melodies and pieces that I found cool, placing stars and vibe notes around bit I liked. I also categorised into groups of things like bluesy, pull off madness, slide, vocal bit, beat box ridiculousness, and so forth. At the heart of it, I was listening for feelings that I though would suit the lyrical content I had in mind, the textures I was wanting pull and general rock blues ideology that I wanted to reinforce, praise, tribute, recognise and pass on.
The idea of having writing songs for so many years and not written an album seems strange. Strange that I hadn't done it before. I have gotten as far a singles, EP's, a set of songs, more than an albums worth. Even as I set upon this adventure it didn't seem so strange. But having complete the set of songs, having learnt a new style of writing, having found a new rhythm to beat to, I wish I done it sooner. But what good would that do. Like saying I wish the sun was out on a rainy day, or rain to come during a drought. In many ways it was out of my hands. Even if I wanted to I couldn't have pieced it together. Right now, I am up to recording the 3rd song in demo form. I am consumed with how I am going to get the drum sounds that I want. That I feel are natural, in time, authentic and make the listener want to tap their toes. I am enjoying putting down the ideas for each song, figuring out the structure of the pieces, becoming immersed in the piece and begin to hear melodies, counter melodies, counter rhythms to lay down once I have the foundation of the song in place. I have the arm wrestle battle of whether to try record the album at home with my limited recording skills (which would require me to up grade my gear and cost a bit) or to go into the studio and start working with an outsider (who would have to be really into the album, but would also cost a bit). I am also looking forward to how to release the album - itunes, indie labels, press 500 copies on vinyl and call it a day - the latter being my current favourite - achievable and super cool. But I tell myself not to fret about that until the thing is recorded nicely - though I do like to make sure the next step is ready to take in advance. I'm also focusing on how to get my voice just right. This is what I really want to shine above all else that has gone into this. Strong, grainy, powerful, smooth. So, I'm off to put some Jim Morrison, Jeff Buckley, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Tom Waits on for a bit of a humbling.
