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Showing posts from September, 2022

Gear: Epiphone Classic Les Paul Special II

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After I sat down with myself and agreed “NO MORE GUITARS!” Yes, I was asking for trouble. There is this app called Nextdoor, where you can keep up to date with what’s happening in your neighbourhood (stray cat, dumped rubbish and nail technicians - Wembley top 3), but also buy/sell stuff. I have been looking for bargain buys, but really bargain ones only. This 2006 guitar was advertised for £90 by a chap who bought it to learn how to play, but after a few weeks of self-teaching gave up and went on to play piano instead, consequently it had barely been used. Although I am aware this model has been produced in vast quantities (it’s likely still in production) and is an entry level guitar, it really is more than convincing with solid, round lows and mids, and is quite a versatile instrument and a nice addition to any home studio on my level. There is a bit of Slash's soul in it :) Long story short, you can’t beat a good double humbucker :) Oh, and still can’t find another one under £...

Behind the Record: Eternal Allies (2022)

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So there we were.. My first LP was released, and thankfully received positive feedback and gained a good number of listens (to my standards, that is). So what now? Many popular artists come under intense pressure for having to repeat this success with their next release - well clearly in my case, being virtually unknown, this was not an issue. The context: I have found previously that pumping rock tunes with a good beat and considerable distortion come relatively easy to me (like “We’re Gonna” or “Overdrive”), they were not overly difficult to produce (most of the time) and really got my legs going - low-hanging fruits, essentially. Some of the feedback I received for “Reach into your Soul” also suggested that while variety in terms of style of songs on an album is great to demonstrate an artist’s diversity and versatility, cohesion could help my new album be of a stronger material. Last but not least, I have been wanting to put together a record with songs that I like equally (yes, I ...

Gear: Fender Player Jaguar

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When I thought “I think I have enough guitars to cover my needs.” So what happened was.. I really wasn’t looking for a new guitar. I already had my Squier Strat, my Tele , agreed with EP Guitars on a custom Strat that he would build for me, and bought his underused Ibanez jazz guitar. It may have started off with the rookie error of me signing up to Fender newsletters and regularly browsing different guitars, although the Jag always escaped my notice. When the 60th anniversary series came out, I watched a few videos of it, learnt a bit of it’s history, but that was it. I must admit I really liked what I saw and heard, plus I remembered Kurt Cobain and Noel Gallagher had them as well, but I stayed strong. A couple of days later I required a guitar case at a short notice to transport my Squier Strat to EP guitars for a good clean and adjustments. This happened while I was in Lincoln for work. Thankfully, I had about an hour until my train back home and there was a music shop 4 minu...

Behind the Record: The One Next to You EP (2021)

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  Late 2021, I was already working on material for Eternal Allies, however to try and keep the momentum up, I decided to put out a release while I was working on material for the LP. The EP revolves around the first two songs, “The One Next to You” and “Wonder You”, that I originally wrote a few days apart in late 2007. Despite being of two very different moods, to me they have always been tied together and both channel a medley of warm feelings and memories I associate with winter months. Just listen to the demo of “Wonder You” - can’t you see yourself walking as the snow falls gently on a winter’s night? These two songs also aired on my high school’s radio at the time - oh what a feeling it was! This release was also intended as the "rebirth" of one of my first demo CDs, which featured the demos of “The One Next to You” and “Wonder You”, along with several others, but this time as a single featuring only these two songs. While I was working on them, I decided to add a coupl...