New Music – “Following”!!!

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Full length video for the song “Following” that I wrote in 2003, when I knew that I had to leave my home town and move away to keep growing. At the time I played in the metal band Jigsore, but was also getting into more melodic things like this and it was coming out in my writing. Wanted to keep both things going, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

Had been pondering whether I should wait til I have the money to give it the full production, or just release it quick, as is. Turns out with the loss of my old mate Keds recently that my soul really needed some healing, so I finished it up on boxing day. Here it is, warts and all. Music purely for the soul.

All vox, guitars, bass, percussion, mixing, mastering and video editing by me, artwork by Dan Verkys. Hope you dig! 😀

Free – Grab a copy of the song for FREE here!

 

FULL LENGTH VIDEO:

 

LYRICS:

Dreams to follow, yet so bogged down
Nothing more for me in this town
Lands far away, they’re calling me
What they propose, I’d like to see

What exists now, will always be
Around as far as I can see
I will not change, what makes me me
Be back some day you will see

Want to acheive, in myself I believe
Don’t be sorry but, happy when I leave

Following that I dream
Much closer than it seems

Something I, I need to do
How can you know if ya don’t pursue?
And it may prosper, and it may sour
If my way’s had I’ll progress in the hour

I need respect, for what I’ll do
I’d have no problem if I was you
We’ll carry on, do what we do
All the things that get us through

Following that I dream
Much closer than it seems
Still a part of the team
The last of me not yet seen

New TCSO song – “One Half Of Two”!!!!

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The fifth in a “once a month or so” series of tracks from TCSO, a mellow acoustic song written by Chris in his Mount Stuart unit up in the hills in 2001 on the old Tascam four track, where he would sometimes write and record three songs in a day. Not having a job had some benefits.

Featuring fellow Fecker Paul Jolley (Piano), and Rob Lundgren (vocals) alongside Chris Szkup (guitars, bass, cajon, shaker, backing vocals).

“It’s a song about being a very single goofy guy that is wondering if there is anyone from the better gender that would even notice any of these things which he thinks he has underneath the long hair and taking the mickey out of himself”, says Chris.

For a long time there wasn’t a title for it, until inspiration came from the Sara Bareilles song “Manhattan” from “The Blessed Unrest” (2013) – killer album by the way!

Once again, mastering on this track was done by Andy VanDette at Engineroom Audio in NYC, while artwork was done by Dan Verkys.

Listen and purchase (if you wish) via the Bandcamp site!!

New TCSO song – “I Will Wait For You”!!!

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The fourth in a “once a month or so” series of tracks from TCSO, a very personal song, “I Will Wait For You”, and as Chris will tell you, one of his proudest moments as a songwriter.

Featuring TCSO regulars Rob Lundgren (vocals) and Dennis Leeflang (drums and mix) alongside Chris Szkup (guitars and bass), due to the content of this song, Mathew Szkup was high on the list of people that Chris wanted to try and get on the track. While his schedule was tight, he does appear on acoustic guitar which was an awesome touch, and makes the whole thing “complete” in a lot of ways.

“Lyrically the song talks about the whole dealing with losing loved ones, and also what it means for the people left behind, really trying to make sense of everything and offering some thoughts on it all, as well as some personal recollections of people that were close to me who are no longer with us”, says Chris.

Another thing of note with this song is that with the “bridge” of the song, which to me was meant to be a bit of a Beatles esque jammy section, I realised that the lyric “Come Together” was in that section followed by a gap, so I had Rob sing “shoot me” as a little nod to the masters. Great fun to do that, and I think it sets the section offperfectly.

Once again, mastering on this track was done by Andy VanDette at Engineroom Audio in NYC, while artwork was done by Dan Verkys.

Listen in full and purchase (if you wish) via Bandcamp!!!

Free David Bowie Cover – Roy Bratbakken and Chris Szkup – “Moonage Daydream”!!

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Moonage Daydream cover artwork by Dan Verkys

Moonage Daydream cover artwork by Dan Verkys

A cover of the great David Bowie song, written of course by him, originally appearing on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars from 1972.

This release is dedicated to Dan Verkys’ father, who is currently recovering from a stroke. It came about when Dan was starting to get the itch for a new exhibition of his amazing works, and mentioned the idea of having some music tied in with it, and this song quickly came up being a favourite of his. He mentioned that as great as the original version is, he could hear a heavier version of it in his head. No blast beats or death metal grunts, but just an overall bigger amount of “grunt”. Neither Chris nor Roy were familiar with the song unfortunately at that time, but definitely up for the challenge, and adding grunt is pretty much what they do in their “Dungeon Sessions” songs, so it was a goer!!

Vocals – Roy Bratbakken
Guitar, Bass, “Drums” – Chris Szkup
“Mixed” by Chris Szkup
“Mastered” by Roy Bratbakken
Artwork by Dan Verkys

Roys vocals recorded at The Dungeon, Skedsmokorset, Norway.
Chris’ guitars, bass and “drums” recorded at CS-Songs, Melbourne, Australia.

Grab it for free right now from The Bandcamp Store (or stream it below, but we reckon you should download it damn ya!!), and make sure if you’re in Victoria you get along to see Dan Verkys’ newest Exhibition “Archipelago”, launching at The Mad Gallery on Sunday June 10th. More info at his site, and the Facebook event is here.

We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording it!!

Free Deep Purple cover – Roy Bratbakken and Chris Szkup – “Stormbringer”

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Stormbringer Artwork by Dan Verkys

Stormbringer Artwork by Dan Verkys

Cover version of the great Deep Purple mkiii song, written by Richie Blackmore and David Coverdale.

When looking for the next track for their “Dungeon Sessions”, Roy had mentioned that he always had wanted to attempt to sing the song, but he wasn’t sure if it could be done. Afterall, he’s singing the parts of both Coverdale AND Hughes – no easy task, but it sounded like a good reason to make this the next song in those sessions.

Chris liked the challenge of being able to build a track for him to attempt his vocals on, and got to work on things when this came up, while he was probably having some of the same thoughts Roy had along the lines of “holy shit, can I do this”? The results are obviously a new take on things that hopefully pay respects to the original as well. We’re certainly happy with it.

Visit the Bandcamp store from here, or click the embedded link below to listen / download!!

New Music – “Forgotten Ones”

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“Forgotten Ones” is a piece I had for years and years that never ended up on any album. I actually recorded an early version of this with Colin Mahoney in 1994 that was my first time ever in a studio come to think of it! As there is a bit of a gap in TCSO studio releases coming out right now I thought it might be a good time to put it out 100% on my own, right down to the playing of all the parts, “mixing”, “mastering” and video editing, and liked the idea of a full length accompanying video for it.

I started it on March 17, 2018 and intended it to be all done within a day. Sometimes you just aim a little bigger than is possible though haha. So while I did most of it on that day, there was also a small amount of work a week later, and the final touches being added today on April 1, 2018. My shirt changes in some of the clips will give you an idea as to what was tracked when. I did some mic’ed up electric guitars for the piece but for some reason the direct recorded ones sounded better on this. So that’s how I kept it.

All up, a very fun thing for me to do, and something I may do again at some point! I hope you enjoy!! 

Free Soundgarden cover – Roy Bratbakken and Chris Szkup – “Fresh Tendrils”

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Roy and Chris had discussed this song going all the way back to the making of The Feckers “It’d Be Rude Not To” album from 2013, both sharing a love for the album, and great band, being Soundgarden’s “SuperUnknown” album from 1994.

The guys had kept in touch since that album’s release, and in late 2016 had revisited the idea and started tracking the song, not really sure what the end result may bring, but being driven purely by their feelings for the album, and track in particular. A full “band” version was tracked during this time, with Chris playing guitar tracks, then building the “band” around those, adding bass and bad drums, that were tweaked a little bit, hence the quotation marks around “Drums” in the credits.

Fast forward a few months, all instruments, and Roy’s vocals had all been recorded, and the guys were talking about throwing the track out there when the tragic news of Chris Cornell’s passing broke all around the world. Devastated, the guys didn’t feel it was the right time to put their version of “Tendrils” out there at that time, although Chris did do their song “Spoonman” a bit with his duo partner Dylan Beast at live appearances as a nod to the amazing talent that was Chris Cornell.

Fast forward again to early 2018, and it’s time!!! It felt right to keep this version raw and “demo like” in some ways rather than hiring drummers, mix and mastering engineers etc – Music purely for the fun of it. We hope you enjoy it!!

Listen and / or download for free at the Bandcamp store here.

New TCSO single “Nobody Knows”!!!

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The third in a “once a month or so” series of tracks from TCSO, a hard rocker called “Nobody Knows”, which sees the founding members of The Feckers reuniting for the first time since that album’s release in 2013, with lyrics here being written by Richard Anderson, and the music by Chris Szkup.

Featuring Mathew Szkup (guitar), Rob Lundgren (vocals) and Dennis Leeflang (drums and mix) alongside Chris Szkup (guitars and bass), this song was once upon a time going to be included on a 2nd album by The Feckers, however when those plans were halted due to life getting in the way, Chris was very keen to still have the song be heard and released, especially with a new ensemble that he felt could do good justice to the track. The rhythm guitar track on the left hand side is Mathew Szkup, while on the right is Chris, which is “a mark of respect” says Chris – it seemed like when we were growing up that all the great rhythm players in the metal bands we were listening to would usually be panned to the left hand speakers, and anytime a riff would “break down” to introduce a song or so forth, it would always be panned to the left hand side. “As I owe a great deal to my brother in terms of rhythm playing, it felt right to have him panned left on the songs he plays on” says Chris.

Once again, mastering on this track was done by Andy VanDette at Engineroom Audio in NYC, while artwork was done by Dan Verkys.

Listen in full and purchase (if you wish) via Bandcamp!!!

New TCSO single – “No Way Back For Us”!!

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The second in a “once a month or so” series of tracks from TCSO, a cover version of the great song written by New Zealand artist Rob Smith of RPJ called “No Way Back For Us”.

Featuring Mathew Szkup (guitar), Rob Lundgren (vocals) and Dennis Leeflang (drums and mix) alongside Chris Szkup (guitars and bass), this song was originally intended to be used for GONE WILD when a third album was being discussed a few years back. However, when plans changed in regards to that album, Chris obviously had fun on the track and asked the question “can we do the song anyway”!!! Luckily Rob Smith being the great fellow that he is, agreed to it.

Once again, mastering on this track was done by Andy VanDette at Engineroom Audio in NYC, while artwork was done by Dan Verkys.

Check it out right now for free on Bandcamp, and if you feel like purchasing it, then thank you so much but either way, I hope you like it…….especially you Rob Smith!!!

October Gigs!!

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Let the crazy month of October commence!!! Here are the gig announcements I mentioned last post….

TOMORROW night – playing with Dylan Beast at Baxter’s Lot from 9pm (event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1962734097330752/?ti=icl ).

Video – https://youtu.be/otZL6kRyF7M

 

October 15 – Playing the Impact Events Buskers Stage with Dylan Beast at 2.30pm as part of the Spring Fling Street Festival 2017. This is the 40th anniversary of the event and promises to be a great day out. I’m told that we’ll be right next to the Town Hall Hotel, so a perfect spot for people to have a cold one and take in some tunes!!

(event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1424415924272799/ )

More info – https://www.springflingstreetfestival.org.au/

October 26 – sharing the bill with Brett Franke at The Night Heron from 7.30pm (event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1969099936708903??ti=ia)

Video – https://www.facebook.com/cs.songs/videos/10155684022689921/

 

October 28 – playing with my mates in Cunning Stunts at the Republic Bar & Cafe in Hobart again paying tribute to Metallica. This is likely to sell out like last time, so my advice would be to grab tickets asap if you’re interested in coming along from the following link – http://m.moshtix.com.au/…/cunning-stunts-a-tribute-to…/98924

(Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/310812786054912??ti=ia )

Video – https://www.facebook.com/events/310812786054912/permalink/310917542711103/