Burned by the Sun (acoustic)
A look at the making of the acoustic version of Burned by the Sun.
This version was meant to bookend the album. I wanted it to feel like a reprise in an opera. Or the ending credits of a movie.
Overcome by Silence
A walk-through of the song, Overcome by Silence.
Overcome by Silence started with a beat, and then became fleshed out with resonance and harmonics generated from that beat.
Shade from the Light
A look at the making of Shade from the Light.
Shade from the Light started with a simple recording of me playing an old, out of tune piano. I loved the crackle and warble of the thing. I brought that into the computer and effected it further, bringing out more of its imperfect characteristics.
Nothing So Strange
A walk-through of the song Nothing So Strange.
Like so much of this album, Nothing So Strange started with an interesting percussion part. Then I added a filtered out acoustic guitar part to give it a little bounce. Then some synth bass for some substance.
Also like so many songs on this album, it soon became about creating an atmosphere. A mood. I wanted each of these songs to paint a picture; to create a space.
The Wreckage
A look at the making of The Wreckage.
The Wreckage started out with a big 80s beat. Then some fuzzy synth bass. It grew into a mildly epic action film soundtrack.
Too Far Gone
A look at the making of the song Too Far Gone.
After opening the album with the relatively high energy of Burned by the Sun, and then calming it way down with Out of Here, the next track, Too Far Gone, sits somewhere in the middle. It has a spooky, mellow start, but then grows into a pretty big chorus.
Once all the songs are finished for an album, you get to start thinking about how they fit together. Which song will start the album, which will end it. How the energy of the songs flow from one to another. This was a tricky one to place, but it felt right nestled between the more mellow Out of Here, and the big 80’s anthem The Wreckage.
Out of Here
A behind the scenes look at the second song on the album In Measured Hundredweight, Out of Here.
Out of Here started as a simple acoustic guitar riff. Something simple and flawed. Then slowly I built up the mood with some atmosphere and a little bass.
There are a few songs on the album that deal with the theme of letting someone down. This is one of them.
“Don’t want to wait for death; I hear it coming. Maybe I’ll catch my breath; as soon as we get out of here.”
Burned by the Sun
A behind the scenes look at the song Burned by the Sun.
The first song that I wrote for the album, incidentally is the track that starts the album. Burned by the Sun came out of playing with bits of my own sample pack. The sample pack was created from recording my cover of the Johnny Cash song, The Man Comes Around. During that process I had accumulated a bunch of low guitar hits and swells, weird atmospheric vocal harmonies turned into pads, and random bits of percussion. So I brought everything into Logic and started messing around with it all.
Then it came time to make the music video. I knew I wanted a Mad Max style lone survivor in the apocalypse vibe to the video. I had been growing out my apocalypse beard for a while! So it was time to put it to use. Luckily here in Las Vegas, we have tons of mountains and desert areas to film such a thing. So after a stop at a thrift store for apocalypse clothing, I set out to film the video.
