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Crumble like Sand 

I completed a new song over the past two or three weekends (give or take a weekend) that is now entered into a growing list of un-published music works. This is a problem that I like to have.  I probably have close to 10 songs right now that are largely completed and just need either minor mixing touch-ups or just mastering.  The fact that I fully completed all of these songs means at some point in the not too distant future I feel they are worthy of being published.  I have plenty of other musical scraps that do not make it this far. So, this particular song will likely not be fully aired out for at least another year but it does make me feel good to know that it exists. The current working title is Crumble like Sand.

If you would like to hear a demo of it just shoot me a note and I'd be happy to send it to you for a listen and perhaps to get any constructive feedback you care to pass on.  Your thoughts might influence it's final form…who knows. The lyric content was developed this weekend and rendered into the arrangement in close to final form.  This sometimes takes much longer but it is a highly varied and uncertain process to be honest.  

That's all for now. In the mean time, I do have a new song scheduled for release this Friday, November 18th called Chugging Down the Qi.  You can check it out now by visiting my New Music Vault and entering passcode Qi. However, you can also see a great video I created that accompanies the song on Youtube here.

Please consider streaming any of my music on your favorite streaming platform. I make a few partial pennies of royalty per stream. Cha-Ching.

Much Gratitude

Dave

 

 

 

 

Photo by Jonathan Borba:

Thing 5: Worthy 

Thoughts on the making of Chugging Down the Qi

Official release date scheduled for 18 NOV 22.


The song has been inspected by the distribution service and has passed all the pre-requisite requirements that a "single" needs to be born into the world.  It is now on a trajectory that will make it a public offering for all eternity. I have also completed a video song version that I plan to release via a Youtube upload on 18 NOV 22 as well.  Other loose ends include pitching my song to Spotify editors.  If they feel it is "worthy" they could add it to popular playlists on this site (queue the Wayne's World "we're not worthy" bow.)

 

 Photo by Steve Johnson:

Thing 4: Sweet Spot 

Thoughts on the making of Chugging Down the Qi

Official release date scheduled for 18 NOV 22.


Thing 4

The change/bridge in my song slowly builds.There was one particular tone that fed my ears with sonic pleasure and played within the stereo field just behind the primary jungle xylophone pulse.  This was the hook for me that made me stick with the bridge.  That barely perceptible tone/texture was called synthetic juice alarm.  This was an Omnisphere Synthesizer patch that uses a saw square bright synth oscillator squashed between two juicy filters in series.  It created a quirky rhythmic patch made more quirky with a heavy hand laid on the mod wheel. My Kurzweil PC3K was the controller I played the Omnisphere through.   If you were sitting next to me I would point this subtle aural sweet spot out more clearly to you.  Anyway, it created an incredible sonic vibe to that portion of the song.   Well, that is all for now. 

Dave

 

Thing 3: On the Table 

Thoughts on the making of Chugging Down the Qi

Official release date scheduled for 18 NOV 22.


The musical contents were developed slowly over the course of several weekends prior to even pondering the lyrics in any direct way.  I use Ableton Live as my means of recording, editing and mixing my music on a computer.  I create all the music on my own and on this particular song I started in what is known as the session view of Ableton.  I do not always use this technique.  Session view allows you to loop phrases of music such as drums or chords in chunks of time.  It could be 2,4 or 8 bar loops (really any length you desire).  Using midi, I am able to sample different sounds and instruments within the space of the notes created.  I combine both partially quantized patterns with fully organic patterns.  Semi rigid frames dance with organic swing.  I layer, I weave, I construct and I de-construct.  I leave much on the table.  I often get lost in this world and pop out of my trance hours later.  In all this chaff there are often gems that sparkle and capture my attention. 

Peace Out

Dave

 

Photo by Pixabay:

Thing 2: Focus 

Thoughts on the making of Chugging Down the Qi

Official release date scheduled for 18 NOV 22.

 

The beginning guitar rhythm had a body and texture that I really liked.  This synched perfectly with the bass that entered by the next bar.  The drums were the final icing on the cake that made me decide to hone in on this portion of the song as "the song" itself.  You see up until this point I had focused several weekends on the first section of the song which I ended up shelving.  I know you, the reader, have no idea what I am talking about. You'll just have to come back to this write-up after the song is released.  It will all make perfect sense then ; )

 

 

 

 

Photo by Maurício Mascaro:

Thing 1: Bread 

Thoughts on the making of Chugging Down the Qi. 

Official release date scheduled for 18 NOV 22.


I work best when my mind is fresh.  This means that typically my brain rests in a state of lightness, curiosity and minimal effort.   It has taken me a lifetime to cultivate those conditions and I am sure it will require a lifetime to maintain. This song, called "Chugging Down the Qi",  was created largely with that atmosphere in place (easier said than done).  The lyrics are about my general aversion toward the momentous amount of shitty events that took place in 2020.  Perhaps a psychoanalyst would see even more in them. The lyrics are a bit esoteric.  My sub-conscious was definitely spewing on this one.  I kneaded the words and phrases against the texture and flow of the already developed musical content.  This is similar to the effect of yeast and its outcome called Bread.

 

 

Photo by Edward Eyer

Word of the Day: Ch'i and Qi 

Ch'i: (definition)

Vital energy that is held to animate the body internally and is of central importance in some Eastern systems of medical treatment (such as acupuncture) and of exercise or self-defense (such as tai chi)

An alternate spelling of Ch'i is Qi but is less often used in the United States.

Here is Ch'i used in a sentence:

Dave has a new song being mastered and readied for public consumption. He is not sure if he wants to call the song Chugging Down the Ch'i or Chugging Down the Qi.

Let him know your thoughts on this matter of critical national security.

He will be providing more details on this baby over the next several Blogs.  It's a good one.

He expects to release it in approximately 3 weeks give or take a week.

Sincerely

Dave's Management Team

 

 

 

  

Photo by Ron Lach

 

 

 

Part IV: The Ghosts of Bridgerdoom 

My next song has been released! 

I'll provide some background on the song in four parts over four separate Blogs. 

*********************************

Part IV:

Song construction: I experimented with arpeggiated sounds using controlled randomness (if that makes any sense). Ableton Live has several cool new tools in their latest S/W version to enable this.  I also played with samples and sample friendly plug-ins. I was on a steep learning curve at that time into the art of slicing, chopping and transposing sounds. 

Song Theme: No one ever said true love was easy. The movie sound-track adaptation may be hitting Netflix or a Hall Mark Movie Channel any day now. Disclaimer: If you can't hear the storyline I have relayed in my previous Blogs when listening to the music you may have to apply a sprig of your own active imagination too.  Good Luck. 

In conclusion:

The song called Ghosts of Bridgerdoom was formed and is now presented to you for your own ghostly entertainment.   As usual, it was a blast to create. I'll bid you farewell ladies and gentlemen with a deep bow of gratitude. Happy Halloween…..Enjoy the famous Ghosts of Bridgerdoom Ball and the music.

 

Dave

 

Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto

Part III: ribald ghostly romance 

My next song has been released

I'll provide some background on the song in four parts over four separate Blogs. 

Part III

Word of caution, everything may not be quite as refined as it first seems within this awaiting castle of opulence and restraint. The music will spin you into a world full of court intrigue, ball rooms, perfumes, potions, colorful gowns, operatic drama, side long glances and steamy ribald ghostly romance.  Enjoy the ride. There are plenty of curves and bumps to this adventure.

 

Part II: Push 

My next song has been released

I'll provide some background on the song in four parts over four separate Blogs.  

Part II 

This piece was created mostly "in the box" so it is fairly synth heavy and electronic.  It formed up through creative playing around on my Ableton Live Push Device for percussive rhythms and using my Kurzweil Synth to build more organic and melodic features.  Suffice to say the song grew out of mostly imaginative layering of sounds and rhythms until something clicked and I went into "the zone" musically. 

 

divergence smashed (Part III of III song background) 

Photo Op has been finalized for digital distribution and is about to be delivered to digital platforms; release date is still targeted for Friday, 26 AUG 22.  

I'll provide some background on the song in three parts over three separate Blogs. 

Part III: 

Listening back, I suspect, I smashed together two fairly divergent musical ideas. Bold move Dave and perhaps disastrous from a song gluing perspective. I like it anyway. Lyrics were influenced by what was going on around me and one of those things was a narcissist clutching a bible and clearing a peaceful protest with tear gas to enable his next photo op in front of the church.  A holy moment indeed. 

 

 

 

photo by: Ivan Vranić on Unsplash

Lions and Tigers and bears; oh my! 

I completed my lyric video over this past weekend and I thought it came out pretty cool. I plan to premier it on 26 AUG 22 so keep an eye out for it on Youtube.  It's got Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my, Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my.  Ok…it does not have any of those but it does have churches, tear gas, protest signs, dancing, D.C monuments, cityscapes and a few words. It will be a mind blowing experience and a great photo op during the live premiere simulcast event beamed to billions of unsuspecting, future fans around the world. 

  

Dave

fuzzy shape (Part II of III song background) 

Photo Op has been finalized for digital distribution and is about to be delivered to digital platforms; release date is still targeted for Friday, 26 AUG 22. 

I'll provide some background on the song in three parts over three separate Blogs.

Part II: 

Life was still fairly locked down due to Covid, Trump was still in-office and the George Floyd protests were ongoing. The song was created without any direct outside musical influence driving the creative direction. This was me inside my studio starting from ground zero and evolving the song over the course of probably several weekends by playing around with sounds, rhythms and textures until a fuzzy shape of cohesion slowly emerged.

 

 

 

Photo by Julia Clooten

ad-libbing (Part I of III song background) 

Photo Op has been finalized for digital distribution and is about to be delivered to digital platforms; release date is still targeted for Friday, 26 AUG 22.

I'll provide some background on the song in three parts over three separate Blogs.

Part I:

I looked back at the few notes I collected during Photo Op's song development time-frame and concluded I did not have much to go on after a two year lapse. The lyrics were not fully documented in my notebook. I must have been using lyric ideas and ad-libbing them into the song. I do not know my state of mind and wish I was better at capturing this closer to the song's conception point.

 

Photo by Pixabay

Song Demo 

I made a blog post on 15 July 22 in which the last paragraph reads like this: 

"I have three things going on: brand new song in creation with a very traditional, simple acoustic guitar vibe, almost country-ish but also not. I still have yet to lay down the vocal tracks on this and that is usually a daunting task for me.  It has a working title of 93 Million Miles but that could change." 

Since writing this, I have incorporated a vastly different sound to the chorus where I use a TC Helicon VOX effect that makes the voice sound full old school Kanye West. In fact, the pre-set is called Kanye Lockdown.  I had a blast fooling around singing with this effect on and my first vocal track attempts reflect this to a comical extent.  So comical I decided it would be best to only share with myself.  I was lucky enough to be able to feature a new up and coming vocalist named Jeffrey Husted. He agreed to sing the chorus and bridge section. Thx Jeff!

This song is still several weeks away from final mixing and probably several months away from final mastering and distribution. I'll keep you posted when it gets closer to a final product.

If you join my mailing list here, as a new member, you can download my latest album Many Faces for free and I will also send you a password for access to my VIP area which provides a song snippet of 93 Million Miles and some of my latest music.

All the best to you,

 

Dave

93 Million Miles 

I have noticed a pattern emerging for my song creation, song final mixing and my song distribution and marketing process over the last several years.  I do not know if it is typical or an ideal process but it is MY process.  

When I started making original music many moons ago I spent all my time creating and mixing songs in series until I had an albums worth of material .  Then I distributed it.  This put a large gap in getting my music out in front of ears.  Later I started creating, mixing and distributing a single at a time.  This evolved to creating fresh new music and letting the demo simmer for a while.  While that song is simmering I will go back to another 80% done song and listen with fresh ears; sometimes weeks or months later.  I will get closer to a finished product (or discard) but still leave it on the shelf to stew.  While this is stewing I will often go back to a piece on the shelf, do a deep listen to another song and do final mixing, tweaking, mastering and call it Done.  Rinse and Repeat.  

The key here is that I often have things working in parallel but not in a multi-tasking sense; I am still devoting full attention to one song at a time. I am just not necessarily doing each production phase all at the same time for any given song. 

I have three things going on.  Brand new song in creation with a very traditional, simple acoustic guitar vibe; almost country-ish but also not. I still have yet to lay down the vocal tracks on this and that is usually a daunting task for me.  It has a working title of 93 Million Miles but that could change.  I am starting to think about my next song release and believe it will be coming out officially in about 5 weeks.  The song will be called "Photo Op" (I think).  I am also starting to idea shop for fresh new song ideas…..the front end of creation is difficult for me….it is way to un-constrained.  I am also still running the tail end marketing and distribution of my most recent song release called Paint with No Color.  You can stream that one right now and I hope you do! 

Have a Great Day! 

Dave

 

 

 

 

Photo by cottonbro:

Stranger Things 

Since a new season of Stranger Things is now out on Netflix, I thought it would be appropriate to post a song I created several months ago called Comatose.  If you listen to this show's theme song and compare to Comatose you may hear similarities in sound design and textures. Listen to the rubbery bass, synth pads and audio filtering effects.  

I am now prepping a new song for release in several weeks which I'll blog more about later called "Paint with No Color"

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Dave

 

 

 

Photo by Element5 Digital: https://www.pexels.com/photo/arcade-facade-1293261/

Horizon 

I feel the creative juices starting to simmer but they are over that third hill to the left about 20 miles away. Hoping to make it there eventually.

 

Dave

 

 

It ain't right 

I have a new single scheduled for release next Friday.  It focuses on the tragic situation going on in Ukraine.

Here is the news clip that informed the song's development.  This was not deliberate.  My mind must have been ruminating on Ukraine and this particular article became the attractor.

I will get into a bit more detail on the song in my next blog but if you watch this attached video you'll understand.

This situation in Ukraine is sad and frustrating. One feels quite helpless as we stare at TV screens until we can not stare any longer.  My song will not make it any better but perhaps someday it will make its way to Andriy.  If he wants to add some of his guitar riffs to the song I stand ready to splice them in.

My thoughts are with you Andriy and to all the courageous people of Ukraine.

Dave

 

 

 

 

Photo by Stephanie Souza

potential 

potential
pre
untethered
here
diverted
here
resonate
here
waiting
here
falling
slowly
open
patient
bared
before
first notes
after
last songs

David Husted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Kaique Rocha

 

Elvis Bowie 

Amazing news! Reports are out that Elvis Bowie will be featured as lead vocalist on Dave's upcoming album release called Many Faces on 15 APR 22!  This is truly astounding news! This means that somehow Dave and Elvis made amends and agreed to let bygones be bygones. The photo below was smuggled out of a recent top secret recording session and captures a rare moment of Bowie actually smiling at the camera.

The impact of this will likely be felt throughout the world, if not the solar system.  Ready your engines!

 

I Wish You All the Happiness in the World. 

My New Song called Garden was released today!  Find it on any of your favorite streaming platforms!

I finished my final editing touches to my music video version of the song last night and I am now ready to share that as well.  See Below.

Garden is about happiness. Probably a dangerous subject to tackle given the time we live in but that is just where the creative juices flowed when I was noodling around with chord structures, rhythms and lyrics.

Tangential Story:

I participate in a music sharing group of friends that offer up songs that fit designated themes for a certain period of time.  Each week we listen and comment on the music.  Some of the categories have been such things as:

  • songs played live;
  • songs of artists singing cover songs;
  • songs with connections to geographic locations;
  • songs that deal with trouble in relationships;
  • songs that in some way reference travel or transportation;
  • songs and make you think of a specific media source

and many other and varied themes over time.  

We have been doing this for close to five years.  It's kind of a book club for music. Two songs are offered up for listening and comments per week.   Low work.  I can manage that. Yes, we are musical geeks.  Yes, it is fun.

By the way if you are interested in joining the group I am sure you can contact the musically obsessed Commissioner of Music at the following link to inquire: My Five Music

One of the latest My Five Music themes was on the subject of happiness.

The final mixing of my original song Garden happened to overlap when this category of My Five music was in play.  Strangely, the creation of the song itself was prior to this theme being announced.  It felt very synchronous to me. That is my story and I am sticking with it.

Garden touches on the subject of conditioned verse un-conditioned happiness. I hope you enjoy and I Wish You All the Happiness in the World.

Thank You

Dave

 

 

photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels

10x 

 

 

When you have done a complete re-mix of a song 10 times; it is time to stop.  

This particular creation will not be released for many months.  It will ferment in the vault for awhile on its own.

I write this now so I have a future memory of this moment when the mixing plant was shut down.

Free Climb.  Coming to a theatre near you in FY23.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by RANJAN SIMKHADA from Pexels