Guitarbloke

Blog posts

  • SHAKE 2

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    by

    admin
    in

    This is the track which inspired the rest of the SHAKE project. I used my Ibanez ARZ in drop-D tuning for the rhythm parts and a mixture of the ARZ and my JEM for the leads. Plugins were ii ii ii ii by Otto Audio for the rhythm tracks, along with Parallax by Neural DSP for the bass, and a selection of Logic Audio’s builtin guitar effects on the lead and clean tones.

    This is video game music for a 90’s-style FPS, heavily influenced by Sonic Mayhem and less heavily-inspired by Mick Gordon. The riffs carry the entire track and the leads are just there for atmosphere.

    More to come in this series. I have an entire soundtrack’s worth of ideas in the pipeline.

  • Hang On

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    by

    geebee
    in

    This started out as an exercise in figuring out how to take advantage of the low strings of my 8-string. Then I added a coda which somehow turned into its own whole song. This was pretty heavily influenced by both Devin Townsend and Astronoid. Because MP3 players are still pretty bad at seamlessly transitioning between tracks, I’ve included both individual parts as well as the full, 11-minute, track.

    Both parts:

    Part 1:

    Part 2:

    Part 2 is the one to listen to if you like songs.

  • Jericho

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    by

    geebee
    in

    This song is a bit of a Van Halen tribute. I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of their actual songs, but they were a bunch of amazing musicians with a unique sound, and whose influence can’t be overstated.

    American music from that era exudes independence and confidence in a way which comes across as very silly and inauthentic when a non-American tries to do it. So rather than trying to write about getting a car and hitting the highway in pursuit of freedom, this song is instead about a pub crawl of North Oxford on public transport.

  • I Need a Beat

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    by

    geebee
    in ,

    Sometimes, I just set an audio track to record and sing the first thing that comes into my head. In the case of this track, it was the “I need a beat…beat…beat….beat” line. After that, it was pretty much inevitable that this was going to turn into one of those songs that’s just about writing a song.

  • Attack Angle

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    by

    geebee
    in

    If you look through the track listing for the average 90s FPS soundtrack you end up with a combination of slightly trying-too-hard-to-be-tough titles (“Kill Ratio”) and stuff which is obviously just the name of the level (“Big Gun”). To stick with the boom-shoot theme of the SHAKE project, I’m trying to go with song names that sound suitably aggressive but aren’t really.

    This track was one of the first things written with my Solar A1.8 and it seemed only appropriate to try to make it chug as hard as I could. I’ve already sung the praises of the Evertune system elsewhere, but this whole track would have been a complete mess without the near-perfect tuning and intonation it provides.

    Mixing music which goes this low is a real challenge. It’s hard to keep the guitars and bass separated and sounding tight when they’re constantly intruding on each other’s part of the frequency spectrum. The high-pass filter got a real workout on this one.

  • Yes I Am

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    by

    geebee
    in

    I’m not a good lyricist. If anything, lyrics are probably the biggest source of delays in getting my music into a finished state. Sometimes, the best thing to do is just open my mouth and see what comes out.

    What’s this song about? Nothing.

  • Wishing Well

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    by

    geebee
    in

    One of the tracks in the SHAKE project. This is an attempt to replicate some of the magic of 90s FPS soundtracks, when everything was metal/industrial. Although everyone – rightly – loved Mick Gordon’s modern DOOM soundtracks, I’m even more of a fan of Sonic Mayhem‘s original Quake 2 OST.

    I’m sure it’s been done before, but I really like the contrast between the spooky clean lead and the groove-metal rhythm. Imagine Dimebag shredding in a giant subterranean reservoir.

  • Mayday

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    by

    geebee
    in

    A motivational song about tidying the house. No actual tidying occurred.

  • Gingere

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    by

    geebee
    in

    This song dates all the way back to the nineties. That version had really wild, more dance-oriented drums and plenty of guitar histrionics but it was way too complicated for its own good. I decided to revisit and simplify the whole thing a bit.

    The keyboards are heavily influenced by the Tron soundtrack by Daft Punk. I love the “futuristic city” sound of that film, evoked by all those huge sounding pads and strident brass instruments. Some of Mike Oldfield’s Ommadawn seems to have got in there as well.

    The main guitar used for recording was my Ibanez ARZ800. Or at least that’s what I think it is; Ibanez model numbers can be hard to work out. The ARZ series doesn’t have a great reputation but it’s a relatively rare example of an Ibanez with active EMGs and that active sound suits this track perfectly. It doesn’t hurt that this thing sustains basically forever.

  • Grid 2

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    by

    geebee
    in

    I love the guitar and drum parts in David Lee Roth’s “Skyscraper”. I don’t really like anything else about the song, which honestly seems as if it doesn’t know where to go after it establishes that great opening riff. So, I wrote something rather similar and didn’t even try to add a vocal part. A song that could only really have been written using an Ibanez JEM; it’s a perfect instrument for both in-between single coil sounds and scooping up to a note with the whammy.

8-string ambient dad rap electronic guitar guitarbloke instrumental metal rock SHAKE soundtracks vocal