Update – October 7, 2010!!!

FECKER MEETS FECKER:

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This was something that had been talked about since the late 90’s when we first started writing songs together through this at the time fairly unknown thing called the internet. Living in different countries wasn’t something we were about to let stop us I can assure you. But anyway, what I’m referring to is the meeting of my good mate, Richard Anderson, which happened this past week in Melbourne, Australia.

Had a great time hanging for a week and a half with Richard, writing songs, recording, playing live (!), meeting legendary eccentric tram drivers, eating awesome rissoles and mash pub grub, drinking Fat Yaks and Egg Flips, attending Neighbours night, and even going interstate for some more recording in Hobart.

I’m still totally wrecked and catching up on sleep – I think at rough count I was missing around 14 or 15 hours of sleep from the last weekend compared to usual, but it’s all been totally worth it, and a great time that we’ll always remember!!

Hopefully I can return the gesture come 2011!!

THE FECKERS:

Had an awesome session in Red Planet over the weekend where a number of tracks were tended to, and it’s sounding bloody unreal. We’ve also had some final keys and drum tracks come in over the last few weeks as well as another vocal from Mr Hurb Jephasun (http://www.thejephasuns.com/).

While at Red Planet, I did some acoustic and bass stuff, as well as hopefully not driving Stew too nuts with tracks I had brought down for various songs that needed to be flown into the projects.

Also of note, and it’s a pretty big “of note” is some more vocal stuff that Irene Slade laid down. She was under the weather a bit from a cold, and wasn’t totally confident the voice would hold up. Luckily for all, the song required a bit of grunt.

Stew has her do a sing along to the track to get some level, and before they start, Richard and I are in the control room and commenting that “she’ll probably nail it on this run through”, and sure enough, she TOTALLY did!!! When we heard it back, we just went “WOOOOOOOOOOOOW”!!!!!!!!!!! Great job Cuz!!!! \m/

On another note that is Fecker related, there was an inpromptu debut gig from The Feckers this past week also.

We were having dinner at the awesome Gypsy Bar in Fitzroy, where Richard’s cousin The Titman is the chef, and Richard was having me on that “you’re playing tonight” etc. Me being a pretty laid back guy, the last thing I wanna do is as they say in Australia “cut someone’s lunch”, so there was no way I was about to get in the face of the guy who was playing.

Anyway, my phone rings, I go outside, and Richard is already talking with the guy who was very cool might I add. When I come back in, it was all arranged much to my suprise, and the performance ended up being a Fecker one, debuting one of the songs from our forthcoming album that has some interesting lyrical content. Was funny to look out while playing it and see people eating dinner and laughing at the lyrics we weren’t sure we should even touch in that timeslot!!

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Such fun. I busted out a solo song, and we did a blues jam, as well as a Queen song, which was real fitting being that we wouldn’t know each other if not for Queen. Cool!! :D

SOLO ALBUM NUMBER TWO:

So among all the progress in other areas, I’m getting a clearer picture on how I want the next CS album to go, and for now, lets just say there will be a LOT of music, and it’s gonna have everything from metal to string accompanied acoustic stuff. I’m sure you’ll dig!!

So far there are 4 full band tracks ready to mix, and maybe 7 or 8 acoustic tracks that need vocals.

GONE WILD:

The lads have summoned me to play more of a role in proceedings this time round, and I’m willing and hopefully able haha!!! I know how prolific those dudes are, so am hoping I can keep up!!

While Richard was here, we worked on some backup vocals for a new songs that Rob Smith had penned this past week. Sounding real killer.

Breakfree Recording

Kedi and Chris

Check the Facebook page for more info: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GONE-WILD-Friends/119729439767?ref=ts


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Update – 10.08.10!!!

At the start of the month we had 4 days in the studio which was a combination of Feckers and solo stuff – both of which we made quite a lot of progress on!!! :D

SOLO STUFF – Check out my Youtube Channel for a new video with Skube and I singing backing vocals on one of the songs that will be on my next album!!! We finished off lead vocals for this round of songs on day 1 of the studio sessions just gone. Just gotta add a string section, and it’ll be a done deal!! To say I’m happy with the results would be an absolute understatement. Note there’s no release date for this set as yet – so far we’re 4 songs into it, so you’ll know more closer to it being finished!!

FECKERS – Days 2, 3 and 4 were spent working on Feckers material – from Skube doing bass tracks on an as yet unnamed track, to our cousin Irene Slad doing some killer vocals on two songs so far, to myself laying down bass and guitars on several tracks.

Since I got back, we’ve also had some more drum tracks come in from Mr Leeflang, some vocals from Mr Smith, and some more vocals from Mr Bratbakken. It’s all kicking total butt, and we can’t wait for you to hear it!!!!

We’ve also got a little snippet from me doing guitar tracks from this album on the Youtube channel, so make sure you pay a visit!!!

Only a short one today, but keep an ear out cause there is heaps of stuff happening and I love it!!!! :D

Update – June 14, 2010!!!

STORE REVAMP:

CS Poster

Finally added posters to the store as well as giving it an overall revamping. Folks should find it easier to use and hopefully a little better to look at too. Now along with Credit Card and Paypal, you can also use Money Orders which are available pretty much world wide as far as I’m aware. Any questions when ordering, email info@cs-songs.com

As well as all that, I’ve decided to to honour the shipping discount I offered over the Christmas / New Year period indefinitely – so basically anything you order from the store comes with free shipping!!

Check it out at http://www.cs-songs.com/store

NEW MUSIC:

CS - Piano

Had some more fantastic sessions at Red Planet over recent weeks. Played some piano and finished off guitar on the songs we’re doing right now, and it’s sounding beyond what I ever could have hoped for already!! One of the songs is turning into quite a monster, growing and growing as monsters do!!

Mr Adrian Bryan was kind enough to come down and contribute some violin on this track for us which was fantastic. This was really cool for Skube and I, as Adrian was the guitar tutor at Claremont College when we were students there in the 1990’s!!

Adrian Bryan

Will be uploading some vids asap, and possibly be leaking audio snippets of the stuff too as it’s completed!! Stay tuned!!

FECKERS:

Had some guitar sessions for The Feckers stuff recently at the house. Much thanks here to Steve Solomon and my Bro Mathew Szkup for loaning the gear. For a novice at this engineering stuff I think it went pretty good!!! Also thanks to my lady Aisha Polat for her help with engineering on this stuff too!!

Dennis Leeflang has been drumming up a storm on more stuff in the meantime, and we’re now close to having all of the drum tracks complete!!

EXCLUSIVES:

I’ve recently tried a few things – give aways, discounted shipping, and even a happy hour via the websites to try and inject some fun and a little bit of humour into things too.

While you’ll read about these things on all of my sites eventually, the quickest way to catch them is via Facebook, where everything is posted to originally, then the other sites automatically update with the info.

So feel free to sign up to my Facebook music page to ensure you don’t miss out on any future offers!!

Update – May 18, 2009 – Final Vocals!!!

I’m officially done singing on my forthcoming album – unless of course something sticks out over the next few weeks that I can’t live with, but I’m sitting here listening back, and it’s sounding pretty cool. Not hearing anything that needs changing at the moment!! :D

People who are subscribing on Facebook would have heard all about the cold I had leading up to this session, and it was quite a worry for a while there. I went so far as to make a backup of a demo from my home setup here to take down to the studio in Tassie just incase the throat didn’t hold up. Was going to work on something new instead of wasting the day. But luckily it pulled through. Much thanks go to Lipton, Dilmah and the lemon tree out the front for their efforts in getting this album to the people this past week. I really owe those guys haha!

Anyway, we had “First Blood” to do singing on. Was a lil concerned about this one. The melodies are *just* lower than what I’d usually be comfortable singing, but at the same time, the main riffs to the song have a certain quality to them that is lost if the key to the song is changed and the riff played elsewhere. For a while I wasn’t sure which way to go with it, but I think it’s definitely come together well. Have a few harmonies to decide on using or not, but they’re all recorded, so this song is ready to mix!!! :D

Next up we had an intro piece for the album called “Magical Occurence”, which is a thing we did on an earlier recording ten ( ! ) years ago, but I never felt it was the right version of it.

The title, and music too is a very Kitaro kinda inspired thing that could probably go on his “Mandala” album very nicely, so I went for a Fender strat on the clean guitar to kinda replicate some of the guitar stuff on his album, which by the way is a big favourite of mine, and some of the instrument sounds are reminiscent of his stuff too, and I’m glad to say, this is the version I was hearing in my head!!

I started this one on my home setup a month or two ago, and took the tracks down to Red Planet where we added clean guitar, drums, and what has become the running joke, yet at the same time the unsung hero of these album sessions, my $300 casio keyboard for some clean chord pads.

This same keyboard was used for trumpet tones on “Tribal Eat Pop Slop” after we tried out a bunch of stuff but couldn’t find anything that worked for the song. Same thing goes here – the part was exactly what the piece needed, but the only difference was, I had demoed the song years ago and somehow remembered that the tone was called “Space Pad” and was number 73 in the sound bank, so I took it into the session especially for the part!! (No I don’t have a life!!)

The drums were good fun on this. Basically beating the hell out of two different floor toms overdubbed, then we added some reverb to give it some of that tribal thing, and it definitely adds to it and overall (I think anyway) adds a real nice and dramatic start to the album. Hopefully you will agree haha! This piece is ready to mix!!

Complete tracklisting for this thing (not in running order) is:

Magical Occurence
First Blood
October 22
(I Can’t) Start Again
Transition
Innate Self Destruct
Soundtrack
To A Scream
Lost Soul
Tribal Eat Pop Slop

The players on this thing are myself (guitars, lead vocals, piano / keyboards, bass, extra drums), My brother Mathew Szkup (drums and percussion, vocals, guitars), and our old comrade, Dale Brewer (bass and vocals), and I’ll be posting the first sound samples from it (along with confirming the title) over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!