Australian Guitarist / Songwriter
The new album is out October 29, but you can check the video out for audio previews. Self recorded over the last couple of years, and was mixed by Dennis Leeflang, mastered by Thomas “Plec” Johannson, and artwork by Dan Verkys.
Visit http://www.thefeckers.net/ for pre-orders, which are available now!!
Was a great thing to finally get the remainder of the TCSO songs I recorded with Dennis Leeflang, Mathew Szkup and Rob Lundgren finally finished and released, and boy did they come up amazing!!! Listen below – in the process of creating a section of the site for this which will feature all kinds of “making of” and “story behind the song” type of stuff!! More sooooon!! 😀
During the making of the second album from The Feckers “Live To Fight Another Day”, we found, as is often the case that we had too much stuff, and somehow this version of the great W.A.S.P. song “Mean Man” happened, which when we decided to throw it out there, also happened to be the first music from The Feckers in five years!!! Hope you enjoy. Head over to the official site to download it for free!!!
LINE UP AND CREDITS:
Tugra Ismail – Lead Vocals
Chris Szkup – Rhythm, lead and bass guitars, backing vocals
Dennis Leeflang – Drums, mix
Mathew Szkup – Rhythm guitar
Alexey Spectre – Backing vocals
Mixed by Dennis Leeflang @ Livelong Productions, Mastered by Maor Appelbaum Mastering, Artwork by Dan Verkys.
“Mean Man” (Written by Steve Edward Duren), originally appears on the W.A.S.P.album “The Headless Children” from 1989. That is a killer song and album, so make sure you check it out and go buy it you bastards!!
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.
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.
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!!!
Had a few months away from the music, doing some quick trips overseas to New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore! Always an amazing time that I thoroughly enjoy, but now it’s time to get back into the music!
As I speak, there are five songs mixed down for my new collection of songs (so far unnamed) , and while I didn’t tell anyone, I decided that when I got to this point with the mixing, it would be time to start putting them out one by one, while carrying on with the mixing of the remaining songs in the background. Dennis Leeflang has been doing an amazing job on these, and I totally can’t wait to have them out there! This morning I sent what will be the first song released to Mr Andy VanDette for mastering. Dan Verkys will also be handling the artwork, as is always the case. We’ve started bouncing ideas around for it already.
It’s a song called “Ride” and is a song I wrote in 2001 back when I was living in Hobart, but knew that I had to pack everything up to move away and start again – which I did in 2004, but that’s another story. It is interesting to look back on the song, and also hear it coming to life in this final version. It features Rob Lundgren on vocals, Dennis Leeflang on drums (and mix), and myself on guitars, bass and keyboards.
Aside from this, I’ve gotten back into the playing live thing, which felt really good to do! Here’s a few recent live vids:
https://www.facebook.com/cs.songs/videos/10155608412894921/
(“Born” – Live at The Basement Cafe & Bar, August 11, 2017)
A song from my second album “Resist to Exist”. For some reason this was only the third time I had played it before. Always liked the song!
https://www.facebook.com/thefeckers/videos/1499862263408256/
(“Slackers and Wankers” – Live at The Basement Cafe & Bar, August 11, 2017)
A favourite from The Feckers album “It’d Be Rude Not To”. One that I have been playing since even before the album was released in 2013, and one that is played at most live gigs I do. It had been a while this time, so it felt real good coming back to it!
https://www.facebook.com/cs.songs/videos/10155604847674921/
(“Down in a Hole” – Live at The Basement Cafe & Bar, August 11, 2017 – with Dylan Beast)
Alice in Chains cover and wow, what a song!!! Dylan and I had started playing in a heavy band together that is still putting songs together on the quiet. We had also discussed other styles and possibly doing acoustic duo type gigs, which is how this all began. We do quite a few Alice songs as we both love them so much!!
https://www.facebook.com/cs.songs/videos/10155604803329921/
(“Sunshine” – Live at The Basement Cafe & Bar, August 11, 2017 – with Dylan Beast)
Alice in Chains cover. See what I mean – we really love the band haha! What a song, and album!!
https://www.facebook.com/cs.songs/videos/10155338819414921/
(“Thank Fuck It’s Friday” – Live at The Basement Cafe & Bar, May 20, 2017)
David Brent cover. Being a huge fan of the British (aka REAL) version of The Office, I was absolutely over the moon when I heard Ricky was bringing back the Brent character and I always enjoyed his songs from the show, drawing that fine line between being a pisstake and actually being pretty bloody good! I’ve been doing a few of his songs from the soundtrack album live this year as I just think they’re really good songs. I haven’t met anyone in the crowds that has recognised them so far though sadly – maybe they think “that guy Chris writes really good songs” when I do it? Sorry Ricky – I always give you a plug when I do them haha.
https://www.facebook.com/cs.songs/videos/10155322168969921/
(“Spoonman” – Live at The Basement Cafe & Bar, May 20, 2017 – With Dylan Beast)
This was the day after Chris Cornell sadly passed away. What a SHOCK! We were both huge fans, and this wasn’t planned at all. I sent Dylan a message asking if he’d like to sing something by Chris and he was into it. Some people said perhaps it was too soon, but I don’t think there is a right way in these cases – you just do what you gotta do, which is what we did here. Real glad we did!
https://www.facebook.com/cs.songs/videos/10155367622294921/
(“Drunk” – Live at The Basement Cafe & Bar, June 02, 2017)
Have been wanting to do a song by the great Bumblefoot for a long time, but I’m human in regards to my singing range and guitar abilities while he isn’t haha! So for a long time it didn’t happen, just cause I couldn’t find one I could do justice to! Here is my attempt at the great song “Drunk” anyway. Hope I didn’t balls up your song too much Ron!!
(Never thought I’d get to sing the lyric “I see your face in every drop of golden urine” at an intimate little acoustic gig some day in inner Melbourne though I must admit haha!)
https://www.facebook.com/205478486451066/videos/451161761882736/
(“Kings Highway” – Live at Sash Bar, April 08, 2017 – With Michael Hussey)
Tom Petty cover. I’ve done this song a fair bit this year. The “Into The Great Wide Open” album it’s from is just about perfect to me. Just great songs that are to the point, great melodies and playing, no one going off on any tangents trying to steal the spotlight or anything like that. Just great rock n roll – which is what Tom and The Heartbreakers have done for over 40 years very consistently. My mate Michael Hussey joins me here for some off the cuff jamming of the tune. Great fun to do!
(Photo above from the Cunning Stunts gig at the Republic Bar and Cafe, Hobart – thanks to Colin Mahoney!!)
Welcome to the first update in a while! My apologies for that, but here’s the latest!
Metallica Tribute band Cunning Stunts, featuring Brett Collidge – Drums, Jake Cowburn – Bass / Vocals, Mathew Szkup – Guitar / Vocals and Myself – Guitar. The night was an amazing success and totally took us by suprise. So much so that we’ll be doing it again semi regularly as we’re able to find free dates in everyone’s schedules. Will keep you posted!
(Photo courtesy of Shot By Slaidins Photography)
Here are a couple of vids from us jamming!
(Photos by Daryl Bean)
Here’s a vid of me playing there on the day!
The last day of the year as as good a day as any for some video action right??!!
Here’s the official video for “Ascend”. This track is from my “Resist to Exist” album that came out in August 2014, and features my bro Mathew Szkup laying down the smack, and a cameo from Dennis Leeflang on tribal drums. Hope you enjoy!!
Also…..here’s some video from yesterday’s guitar tracking for the next album!! Thanks for hanging with me this year and always, and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and yours!! 😀
Hey all!
I have a few days of guitar tracking for the next album this week which I’ll be documenting on my Youtube channel – this is all for the next album that is due out around July / August next year and will feature Rob Lundgren (vocals), Mathew Szkup (guitars) and Dennis Leeflang (drums) along with myself. Stay tuned as there’s lots more to come!