Caldera is a one-person project hailing straight from the heart of North Carolina. So now that you know it's one guy, I shall now type in 1st person. My real name is Brett. I started this project in late 2005/early 2006, but back then I didn't use any real instruments, but made "DAH-DAH-DAH's" as you can hear in "Where's My Burger?" So as you may be able to tell, it originally started out as a comedy project. But now I've been playing guitar since late August of 2007 and practice almost everyday for at least 30 minutes to an hour, or more sometimes. And now I'm making my own original material with actual guitars and a drum programming software called Acoustica Beatcraft, which is an AWESOME software I recommend for anyone who's doing a solo project and can't play drums (or in my case, I can play drums, but I can't play fast double bass and blast beats, lol). So now it's more of a serious project, though I still plan on making comedy songs here and there, lol.
As said earlier, this was originally a comedy project due to all the excess boredom I went through in 10th grade (around 2005), and also my then-lack of knowlege of how to play guitar. One night I just decided to just randomly make guitar noises (or "try" to, lol) somewhat like Beavis and Butthead, which at the time was probably the biggest inspiration of the project, lol. And for "drums" I used an empty Pringles can. Many random "riffs" were made, put together, then recorded into a song, thus "Where's My Burger?" was put into existance.
After the recording of WMB I thought it would be neat to make a whole album (or at LEAST an EP if anything) with all songs done like that. I even planned to record a cover of "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden. But due to a busy schedule of marching band, concert band and being in a musical that year (as well as a short play for All-County Theater), everything for Caldera was put on hold. Many weeks passed, then months, then almost a year... It almost seemed as if Caldera was totally dead and gone... Until the summer of 2007.
One week that summer, I went to my old home for a weekend to visit my long-time friend David Beaver (guest bassist for "From the Pit of the Volcano"). We hadn't seen each other since I moved away in 2006, so I went to spend a few days there. And if it weren't for that trip, I probably would've never started learning guitar. As I watched him shred I asked him "How did you teach yourself this stuff without quitting? I don't think I have that kind of dicipline." Then he told me "It's called 'messing around in the house when there's nothing better going on.'" When I got back home that weekend, I almost immediately picked up the old Eastwood electric guitar we had and randomly messed around on it. I started looking at tabs sometime later and just went from there.
Eversince then I've learned a lot on guitar, and I'm still learning new things every day (of course, you never stop anyway). I believe I've only had other people teach me something no more than 5 times so far, mostly when I was still new to playing. I taught myself most everything though, like how to de-tune all the way down to drop-C and below, what note is on what fret, etc. And as I learned more things I thought, "What if I brought Caldera back... With REAL instruments?! That would be SICK!" I always wanted to record my own music with the real stuff, so I said "Why not? It probably won't be that great, but I don't care!"
Sometime around November I would make my first recording with a guitar, "The Beginning," a short ambient song. It was sort of a "last-minute" song, I just randomly pieced it all together and recorded everything on my computer. But it would be later on in March 2008 when I would make what will probably be my best-quality recording for a long time. This would be my first heavy song ever.
Being a senior in a North Carolina public high school, like all the other seniors, I was required to do a graduation project, where I could choose a topic of my own interest (such as a hobby, a career, etc), do LOTS of research on it (ugh), choose a mentor and make a final product with them. I chose audio production as my topic, and chose Jim Powell, owner of Dreamtone Recording Studio in Whiteville, NC (2 hours from where I currently live now) as my mentor. My final product would be a recording of a song, also randomly pieced together but not "last-minute." And for this song I would recruit my friend David Beaver for bass guitar, partially so I could have some experience behind the console, and of course to have an AWESOME bassline. The cool part about it was, we only practiced that morning of the session, no more than 10 minutes! He totally improvised the whole thing! After that and another trip back, "From the Pit of the Volcano" was born. Jim let me do the mix and that was that, and boy was it awesome! lol.
A little while after FTPOTV was put on MySpace, I felt like I was advancing on guitar a lot since I started. But at the same time, I wanted to take it to the next level with a faster approach. And with inspiration from learning the main riff to "Painkiller" by Judas Priest, I wanted to do something with grooves in it. So I tuned it back to drop-c and messed around, and a new riff was made and it went from there. Weeks passed by and it was made into a full song and was ready for recording. Around late June/early July 2008, "Rush of Adrenaline" was recorded, but lacked bass. So I searched for a VST host and finally found one, quickly learned the routes, then made a recording of the bass track, synched it with the song, and bam, it was finished. I felt more accomplished than ever with that song. But the thing is, I'm just getting started here, lol.
As of right now I'm working on another song that will have a more epic viking/folk vibe to it. It will have symphonic and more melodic elements to it, which will be a first for me since I'm new to using VST's, lol. And maybe... Maybe there will be vocals. But we'll see, for I'm not much of a vocalist really, lol.
And note, I'm not doing this to prove anything to anyone. I'm not doing this to look like some show-off who just needs attention. I'm doing this for the sole purpose of learning new things with music, and at the same time having fun in the process. In a way, this project can serve as a sort of "Guitar Diary" for me if you will, so I can hear how much I advance in each song. I also want to share my love of this art to anyone who is willing to listen. If you like my music, that's great. If you don't like my music, that's cool too. I'm not a professional, as I am fairly new to not only playing guitar, but also recording, producing, mixing, etc. I am always open for constructive criticism if anyone is willing to share it, I won't bite. Just please keep it within reason, lol. And to those who've shown support of any kind, I thank you all. You guys are great!
Well, that's about all I can think about for my bio thingamabob. Thanks for checking out my page, and I hope you enjoy the tunes! KEEP METAL ALIVE!!! lml
Peace!
- Brett, aka Caldera
