About Me
After years of just playing along to all my favourite bands' music on their CDs, i finally found the inspiration to do it. Here's a quick guide to the songs currently on my forthcoming debut album release, 'Dark and Light':-
CAED MILE FAILTE This song was purely a practice piece; it's written in the mould of Steve Vai's 'Liberty', and i wasn't going to put it on the album at all. It was merely an experiment in the use of creating multi tracked guitar harmonies, but in the end, i liked it so much that it just had to be on there. The title is gaelic for 'A hundred thousand welcomes'. It's been a while since i recorded all of these songs, but i think it's the Thunder 1A used on there for all the melodies and the main lead too.
THE DARK SIDE This song was first written as early as 1996, while i was working in a car production plant. The work was so boring that i would tend to just drift off and come up with various things in my head. The first part of the song was created this way; then when i came to record it around 1999, that's all i had; i had lost inspiration and i didn't know where to go with it. The acoustic guitar/piano part was inspired by the wonderful 'Final Fantasy' game series. After this was done, i was stuck again for a long time! Where on earth could i go with it? Of course, the answer was to go completely the opposite way from the acoustic bit, so i went fairly heavy. This was inspired by a Machine Head gig that i went to.
The seven string was used here, with the bottom B string tuned down to A. The last part of the song shows my interest in the work of film composer Danny Elfman. It's basically a dark orchestral version of the main riff at the beginning, which brings the whole piece nicely full circle.
FIVE SWORDSI love this song.......it's probably where i first started to create my own sound from my influences. The main riff just sort of fell out of my sequencer as i was punching in a whole load of notes one day. I was looking for something like 'The Fox Hunt' in the film, 'Darby O'Gill and the little people' but with a rock feel. I was quite excited to create a light, cheerful melody and then when the guitars kick in, make a darker minor version of it.
Basically the song is comprised of five different sections. The name 'Five Swords' refers to a time when my friend's girlfriend did my Tarot. The 'Five Swords' card came up for me, and it did seem quite relevant to what was happening in my life at the time, so the name stuck.
The Ibanez 7 String was used on here for the most part, but when the heavy guitars kick in after the middle guitar harmonies, it's the Westone.
HIGHLANDERi've made more versions of this song than any other. When i first got my multi-tracker way back in '98, this was the song i started to work on first. I'd already got the main melody, but everything after that was the result of three days' improvising. But i was learning how to record, and i was never happy with what i'd done, so i kept working it, and working it, and working it..........
Eventually i started to hammer it into shape, after about fifty versions! This is the one that you can hear on this page. However, i've since become unhappy with the main guitar sound; it's far too messy sounding, even though i think i played it with real passion. So there's now ANOTHER version sitting patiently on my multi-tracker, just waiting to see the light of day. :o)
GODLESS
This was written about my sister, who died when she was only 35 in 2000. Even though i'd dealt with her death, about a year after she had passed away, a sudden realisation came to me in a flash. I would never see her again on this earth. It was very odd. On the same day, this melody came into my head, and it seemed to fit my mood and feelings very nicely. It all came together very quickly for me after that. I had just got into MUSE, and i think you can hear this quite strongly, which is certainly no bad thing. :o) There are lots of classical instruments at the beginning, which i do enjoy working with. And i think it's the Ibanez that is used for the solo.
