Entries Tagged 'Sunil Sawani' ↓

Just a quick note to those paying attention — I’ve been working on an EP called “How Does It Know?” with my friend John Krohn up in Lansing since 12/29/07. We record like once a quarter (or so it seems), and my progress on finishing has been incredibly slow. In between sessions, there was a lot of writing and figuring and arranging. This is the longest I’ve worked on a project, and now that it’s so far into it, I want to make sure it’s really good so as to warrant the amount of time I spent on it.

Anyway, at this point, we’ve got all drums, bass, organ, piano, saxophone, guitar (though there might a bit more of that) done, and we’ve got lead vocal done on 5 out of 6 songs… The sixth song is missing lyrics still, and it’s been stumping me for a long time. Love the song, don’t know what to sing. These days I’m trying to finish writing all the vocal harmonies so I can get those recorded when John gets back from tour with his band, Frontier Ruckus.

I did declare at first session this year that this was the year I’d finish this record. Better get to work. But it will be finished, if not released this year. It’s going to be awesome.

I was playing around with a free VST synth and came up with the bassline for this one first, and built everything else around that. The lyrics came really easily after that. It’s a short one but I like it. At first my idea was to have a few different song snippets with the theme of the sky, but I’ve just got this one right now.

As an aside, I’m turning 30 next weekend and I think it’d be cool if the Facebook Part Time Songs page could reach 30 fans by then. We’re already up at 27, so if you’re on Facebook and haven’t “fanned” me, feel free to do so!

     Under Some Sky (MP3, 2.1 MB)

EDIT: ALL the photos (not just the ones below) are on the Facebook PTS page now, which is here.

Just a few photos to share from our day of recording in Lansing last Sunday. We were able to track Chris’ remaining parts (saxophone, piano, and organ) and Dan’s newer guitar parts, both of which came out great. Thanks John too, for working with me/us all day and letting me crash in the studio.

An instrumental I’ve had running through my head for days that I had to get out. Photo courtesy of my wife. Tonight, I feel like it evokes thoughts of Obama’s inauguration. Perhaps because it’s tomorrow.

     On Inaugural Eve (MP3, 3.8 MB)

I saw giant swarms of birds changing direction quickly in the stormy sky on my drive home. Some landed on electric wires momentarily, but most flew around frantically, as though none of them knew where they were going, but were all thinking the exact same thing.

     Sit Up, Sit Down (MP3, 4.9 MB)

Ok guys, new category: [SONG]… Just single songs not as part of a “Release”. These won’t be shown on the Releases page, but perhaps someday in the future I’ll package a bunch of [SONG]s together to make a [PTSXXX]. edit: who cares? they’re all up there now. these are the kinds of decisions you have to make when you have a fake record label. -ss

Anyway, this one is called Hold It Till It’s Gold and came to me while on a bike ride. It gave me an opportunity to mess around with the Alesis ControlPad I got a little while ago.

     Hold It Till It’s Gold (MP3, 1.7 MB)

This is the result of reworking a couple songs I had for my old band, The Low Hello. They sound totally different this time around, due to all instruments being played by me. I always liked these two songs a lot, and it was fun to record them, despite having a cold and having to sing.

     ZIP file of all songs (ZIP, 5.6 MB)
     01 Check Your Pockets (MP3, 3.1 MB)
     02 File Under Sole (MP3, 2.5 MB)

I had started working on a set of songs as I was finishing college; I didn’t have a band, though, and after the fun I had recording with other people on the Square Miles EP, I decided I wanted to do another full band recording. Luckily, a couple of my friends were in a band called Tenley, and they were amenable to helping me out with my songs. I piggybacked on their practices — as soon as they were finished, Keith (their singer) would step aside, and I’d jump in and we’d work on my songs for a bit. This worked pretty well, and we eventually booked some time at an acquaintance’s basement studio to record.

When they were done, I sat on the songs for a long time (over a year), and then I decided to take the step of actually releasing Tenille as a for-sale product. That was OK in the beginning, as friends and family purchased copies. After that though, the sales dried up, despite the fact that I had it up for sale on iTunes and CDBaby. The fact that I didn’t actively do a lot of shows and try to sell there couldn’t have helped either. Anyway, I am hoping the songs will be enjoyed further in their free, online state.

The “hits” on this one are probably Big Arm and Hard to Be, but I like the EP as a whole, and at that point, I was convinced it was the best thing I’d done. Thanks to Keith, Jason, Dan, Billy and Steve for all your help in making this happen and being my band for a short while.

     ZIP file of all songs (ZIP, 14.7 MB)
     01 Hard To Be (MP3, 3.7 MB)
     02 Fragments (MP3, 2.4 MB)
     03 Big Arm (MP3, 3.0 MB)
     04 Waiting For Machines (MP3, 2.2 MB)
     05 The Lions Tame (MP3, 3.6 MB)

Bonus song
This song isn’t actually part of the EP, but my friend and local hip hop artist Big Now decided he liked the music for Waiting for Machines enough to lay down a few rhymes on top of it at the end of the song. The result is great, and obviously very different than anything I can do. Have a listen:

     Waiting For Machines, featuring Big Now (MP3, 2.9 MB)