Hey! Look at that! Something new!

Tried out my iPhone 6's video capabilities with this unique perspective on myself drumming to a tune at a Recent show! Enjoy!

Places to [Snow]?

Well what we've got here is what we refer to as a good ol' Snow Day... And the day before my birthday no less!

Here's a newly released track to celebrate the snow day.

It was actually the track I recorded first last summer... It needed to age...

It's called "Places to Go" and has a fairly minimalist arrangement.

Finally! Something New!

Whenever I have Emma listen to one of my new recordings (both for "fun" and "she has a better ear than I do"), she many times will ask if the song is "about her," to which I always say, "No," as the lyrics were probably written in the span of 5 minutes and were the first things that rhymed that came out of my brain. 

I do not like writing lyrics.

But, in order to finally answer her in the affirmative, I came up with the song below, in which I may have taken some artistic liberties with our origin story:

New Tune: Sun & Moon Suite!

A New Tune!

Sun & Moon Suite: i. Trace the Sun / ii. Places Knew

Recorded in the Summer of 2012, I finally got around to mixing and pasting these two songs together. 

Originally I just had the song "Trace the Sun" and was going to let it stand on its own. Later in the summer, I recorded the guitar/banjo tracks to "Places Knew" and was happy with them. 

Then, I realized that the two songs were vaguely similar in their chords/arrangement. Hmm... Was I plagiarizing myself? If so, could I sue myself? If not, did I have a crappy memory?

I decided to bridge the two songs together, and then lyrically have them tie together as well! What resulted is a two-song suite! 

Check out the song below, and the lyric sheets HERE.

Sun & Moon Suite by TheWLRD

2012 and the Death of the Album

After much deliberation, I've decided that I'm going to release my recordings from this summer one at a time as I finish them.

I think this will allow me to a) Get music out faster instead of having to wait for an entire album to be done, b) Have something to work on after the summer sporadically, and c) Have a more consistant output of music.

That being said, here's the first tune I've finished this summer, entitled "Rollin' Over Mountains" - I enjoy the banjo, as well as the tremolo guitar towards the end! Listen below or to your right!


Rollin' Over Mountains by TheWLRD

Psych, Oh?

New recording!

Today I was trying out my birthday present from my wife, a new Shure SM57! 

I'm a huge fan of The Sonics, a 60s garage rock band. If you've never listened, you should!

I think it sounds pretty good! I'm quite proud of the tone I got for the solo, if I do say so myself... And I did... I cranked up the amp pretty GD loud! 

Also, how did I get that saxophone sound on there, when I didn't have a saxophone? Hmm... Studio trickery?

Check it out!

Blllargh!

After a long, crappy day at work, and a long, crappy night at class, I came home and this popped out of my brain:

Idea#3 by TheWLRD

I Need a Dolla, Dolla, Dolla is What I Need!

I was listening to The Astronauts' 1964 live album "Astronauts Orbit Kampus," today and heard their rendition of "Greenback Dollar." I thought it was pretty good! I had never heard the song before, and after some research, I realized why it sounded like a surf version of a Kingston Trio song.... 'Cause that's pretty much what it was!

I was inspired to figure out the chords, and then I figured I'd give it the ol' One Take treatment and record it live in the basement (aka New Syrinx Studios).

Turned out pretty good for one mic set in the middle of the room! Check it out!

Greenback Dollar (Live at New Syrinx Studios) by TheWLRD

Snow Day 2012: Part II!

Another tune for good measure!

Snow Day 2012!

Anoka-Hennepin called off school for snow? Perhaps the 2012 apocalypse is truly upon us!

With the free time, might as well record a cover!

Gettin' a Little Chilly!

I just put the finishing touches on a new tune!

The tune's called "Catch That Cold," inspired by our recent trip to Austin!

While there we saw Nic Armstrong & The Thieves perform live at a bar called Swan Dive. Both the band and the bar were extremely cool!

Anyway, I liked the 60s-Rock-Yet-More-Rockin' sound that they had, so I tried out a new song in the vein of their sound... Check it out!

Catch That Cold by TheWLRD

I used a lot of recently acquired equipment on the recording...

I've been playing around with my new pedalboard:

I love the MXR Micro Amp as a clean boost... It gives the amp a nice full sound even at low volumes. The Tube Screamer is a great overdrive, especially in combination with the Micro Amp! I'm not a huge fan of the Boss Distortion, it's a bit too much distortion on even the lowest setting, and isn't very versatile, so I'm in the market for a new one. The CryBaby Wah came with my guitar as a free gift! Sure, why not? I got the Korg Pitchblack tuner off Craigslist, and it does what it should! The Phase 90 I've had for years and years, I don't use it a ton, but it's nice to play around with...

I've also been playing around with my new amp:

The Deluxe Reverb has about the nicest clean sound of any amp I've ever heard... Super warm and toasty! And, hence the name, the reverb can go from a tiny amount to a crazy saturation. It's also fun to mess around with the tremolo (called Vibrato by Fender)...

Many more recordings to come I'm sure!

SingleTracks is Released!

After a long summer and fall of recording, mixing, re-recording, re-mixing, and mastering, Willard's highly anticipated sophomore effort "SingleTracks" is finally released!

Featuring 9 all-new originals and a live cover, the album showcases a wide variety of styles, from acoustic to electric, from folky to rocking!

Also, keep an ear out for special guest musicians Darin Rieland and Erik Sherburne!

You can listen to the album on the player to your right!

You can check out the album artwork here!

More to come in the ensuing weeks!

Get It Goin' B-side!

Every good album single is backed by a B-side, right? Well, Get It Goin' is no different!

Recorded live in the basement of Syrinx Studios, Get It Goin' is backed with a cover of Warren Zevon's 1987 tune The Factory.

While the original is upbeat, I thought it would sound cool as a slower, more somber tune...

I did some unique things in the recording process, check it out and see if you like it!

You can listen below, at YouTube, over to the right, or on the Willard Facebook page!

Let's Get It Goin'!

Alrighty! Here we go!

Here is the first track off my upcoming album "SingleTracks," to be released in October...

The first track is called Get It Goin' and is an energy-filled blast of sonic awesomeness. If it doesn't get you up and rocking, have 5-6 more beers and then play it at twice the volume...

That's me on the drums, bass, guitars, aux. percussion, and vocals. And that's the one and only Erik Sherburne on the rock organ. Bang!

Check it out below or on YouTube or at the Willard Facebook page!

New Album in the Works!

This post is being posted mostly as a tribute to my blog's most diligent "checker", Jim.

"Holy shit! There's something new! Linnea come quick! Bring the camera!"

I have been working on a new album this summer... So far it is vastly different than last summer's in that it is entirely more electric and includes 4270% more drums (check the math on that one).

Drum tracks have been interesting and frustrating to record. I've not had too much trouble with getting the *sound* I want, more the press-record-then-walk-around-the-drumkit-and-play-along-then-make-one-small-mistake-and-then-have-to-get-up-walk-around-the-drumkit-and-stop-recording-reset-hit-record-go-back-around-the-drumkit-and-play-again kind of trouble. The iPhone app "Free Mouse" has alleviated some of that annoyance/time wasting, but it still takes a while.

I envisioned, at the beginning of the summer, an album full of 60s garage rock... As the summer progressed, however, I found myself branching out a bit more. There are a lot more varying styles, which is probably good for the listener! I've also consciously tried to make the songs short and to the point. (Perhaps next summer will be the 20-minute-long-songs prog-rock record)

I have the talented-yet-not-oft-recorded Erik Sherburne coming over to lay down some organ/piano tracks on a couple songs. Should be a nice way to add some variety. Hopefully he doesn't try to "Jazz-it-up" too much... You know him, adding 9ths and dim aug 11ths all over the place...

I'm hoping to lay down the final tracks soon and then finish mixing up before the start of school... But we all know how that goes. Last year I finished it all up over MEA break. We'll see.

But stay tuned for some new tunes soon!

Make Me Smile!

Just a quick post for a quick recording I did recently!

I did a cover version of Chicago's "Make Me Smile" on my acoustic. The video was shot with my iPhone! Check it out below!

Track-by-Track: Sunnin' Myself on a Cold, Cold Day

Let's take a close look at track #7, "Sunnin' Myself on a Cold, Cold Day"

This tune started out when I was taking a look at the old bluegrass standard "Bile Them Cabbage Down." I took the chord progression (which is a pretty standard one), added some 7th notes to blues it up a bit, and slowed the tempo down.

The lyrics came together after a big re-write. I had the complete song written out before I came up with the chord progression, so once I had the chords, I had to switch up the entire song. I was imagining a bright shiny day in the middle of winter, (perhaps because it was the middle of crazy hot July) and (as the title implies) the warm sun shining through a porch window.

I wanted the song to sound like it was recorded on a front porch, like it was happening spontaneously. So I recorded the main acoustic rhythm guitar and vocals together with just one microphone. The mic was a ways away from me and set pretty wide open so it would capture some of the room sound as well. I was extremely happy with the sound of that track.

After that, I tried my hand at the solo sections, but I couldn't get the feel I wanted for the solos. Perhaps it has something to do with my limited soloing ability. Perhaps. So I knew I would have to do some outsourcing on the song.

I enlisted the help of my father-in-law's good friend Tom. As an experienced guitar soloist, I knew he could come up with some great stuff to add to the track. After discussing it, we agreed we'd try a high-tech, internet-enabled, Garageband track swap.

I emailed the song to Tom so he could import the track into Garageband and do his solo over it. Then he exported his solo track by itself and emailed me that file. I put it into my original Garageband project, adjusted the levels, and Bang! Awesome solo track.

I like the tune a lot, and I'm especially proud of the e-collaboration that allowed it to happen.

Check it out here on YouTube!

Track-by-Track: Until I'm Through

Alright, here we go!

The second track (in chronological order) is "Until I'm Through"

Musically, the track was heavily influenced by the amount of Vampire Weekend I was listening to over the summer, which was quite a bit.

It's the "fullest" sounding song off the album, having a bass and drum track, as well as an electric overdub. And while some may say it doesn't "fit" the style of a mostly acoustic album, I say "Pshaw!" Instead, I see it as a peak or summit as Track #5, with the acoustic music on either side as leading up and away from it.

I was still in the "simple chords" phase I was in for "Days to Begin," so the verse is pretty simple, with more focus on the funkiness. I like the "riff-y-ness" of the chorus. It's rare for me to do a riff, and I think it turned out nice. A wah-wah electric lead adds to the funkiness, methinks.

Lyrically, I'm not sure what I was thinking about. A love that hasn't had a chance to come full circle? A wronged person who wants to forget but can't? No idea. I did flip the chorus lines around in the recording, I think the focus on the "until I'm through" line (in the chorus and in the title) tries to keep it from focusing on the "love" stuff. Keep that mushy stuff at bay!

I had a solo recorded with the same wah used in the chorus, but I'm terrible at soloing electrically, so I chopped it out. I think the song is better overall without it.

The drums are a Garageband loop during the verse, and then the chorus is just me using the old "Keyboard Typing" to play a bass drum, midi-style.

The acoustic guitar is the Hummingbird mic'd acoustically. Bass is my Geddy Lee Jazz plugged in directly to my Tascam pre-amp with minimal effects. The electric is my Epiphone LP Gold-top plugged directly in as well, with the Garagband auto-wah effect. Maybe a phaser?

Overall, I like this one. I wish I had the time/means to record the drums myself, but I guess that gives me a way to expand in the future. I'm thinking my next batch of songs may lean more this way, at least in arrangement. More full band kinda stuff. Electric.

Anyways, check out the tune here on Youtube: Until I'm Through

Track-by-Track: Days to Begin

I promised to blog about each track individually, and here's the first. I figured I'd write about each track in chronological order, rather than album order.

The first song recorded was "Days to Begin," and I scanned in my notebook where I wrote the lyrics:

The idea for the music side of the track came from my good friend Pete Hemberger. He had sent me an email about how we should try to record songs that were "simple and clean" and used "C, F, and G."

I took his advice quite literally. Those are the only 3 chords in the song.

For the lyrics, I wanted to play around with the idea of setting out on the task of recording a song. (You could see this as a lyrical homage to "25 or 6 to 4," that is, a song about writing a song.) I had set a goal of writing one song every day this summer. That goal quickly fell through, but at the time of these lyrics, I had that idea in my head.

I'm a big fan of puns and the "dazed" vs. "days" in the lyrics vs. title I thought was very apt. I was extremely dazed by the idea of writing a song a day, and it took me literally days to begin the process of writing songs.

I quickly did realize that I had "overfill[ed] [my] cup" in song writing, but, like the song says, I kept "going on."

On the recording side of things, the song was a strange process. I initially recorded the guitar and vocals at the same time, with the acoustic being recorded with the built-in pick-up and the vocals through a separate mic. The vocals sound whispered because 1) I think it fits the feel of the song, and 2) I recorded this one really late at night while Emma was sleeping.

I went back recently and re-recorded the guitar track. I wasn't as pleased with the initial one when I went back and listened to it closely. Of course, Garageband (have I mentioned that it's the greatest piece of software ever created?) made this easy to do.

The outro guitar melody was just the acoustic recorded through the pick-up with a slight phaser effect on it. Nothin' fancy.

So now that you know way more than you ever wanted to about the song, check it out at the link below (I've posted all the tunes on YouTube to facilitate a better listening experience):

Days to Begin

The Album is Done

After a long summer of recording, I've got a 9 song album finished.

Whew!

I will blog about each song individually soon enough, but for now, you can listen to the songs on the player to your right.

Also, enjoy the album art here.