stefkeB

I've started thinking lately to get up to grips with performing alone with more than simply a guitar. I have most of the hardware and software I need (I think), but to link it all together takes some planning.

One of the tricky things is the lack of hands you have when playing guitar. And the fact that even though you have two feet, you need at least one to stand up. So only a foot controller seems reasonable.

But I have too many buttons to push:

Falling begins quite soft, but after the bridge it is again quite heavy. Live recording at the Muziekkot in Herne at 25/7/2006.

A video-recording of the first Transport Aerian gig at the Muziekkot in Herne (on 25/7/2009). Oh my... The sound is good (make sure to watch the HQ version), but I hear all my stupid mistakes...

8:56 minutes (8.18 MB)

A recording during an improvisation, together with Jan. I was recording my new Marshall for the first time and it took a while to get the best connection. I think I found a better connection afterwards: the amp has an emulated Cabinet (4x12") output, which I can connect using an XLR cable and a plug to a Jack-connection into my audio interface.

The lyrics were already written and during a break at noon I recorded them. I used my Sure SM58 (for which I have reasonable hints that it's a fake).

3:48 minutes (3.48 MB)

Somewhere between rock and pop. It starts quite (= "stil") and grows during the song. It becomes rougher when the drums kick in. The lyrics suggest but don't explain what really happens/happened.

3:58 minutes (2.73 MB)

Dutch song about love and marriage. The kind of song my wife asked me to write. I'm not that good in happy and positive songs, but this one is OK. It probably needs a less mellow arrangement, though, to improve.

2:30 minutes (2.3 MB)

First draft of a re-recording of "Weg" (Away), which was originally recorded in 2000. With better microphone and guitar, now using Ableton Live. But I'm not fully pleased with the drums and the guitar solo right now. A friend once told me that it had something of a Red Hot Chili Peppers song.

2:24 minutes (1.65 MB)

Jazzy popsong, about, well, Religion. It was musically originally inspired by "Here In My Head" by Tori Amos, but the arrangement is totally unrelated to Tori Amos music. The lyrics are thematic but also somehow vague, to indicate general directions but with some freedom to give your own meaning to the song. It combines two themes. One about religion and one about loss and death. The two paths are combined and related. This is the first listenable demo from 2000.

4:32 minutes (3.12 MB)

My Escape is a song about dreaming, reality, virtuality and escapism. Or about liking what you can not have. Or about leaving from where you are and trying to grasp something that isn't there.

1:46 minutes (1.22 MB)

A dutch song about a young girl, who doesn't fit into our current world. She is not stupid, but fails to behave properly in our school system. She is sensitive, follows her dreams and, sadly, gets rejected.