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Update – 17.08.17!!!

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!

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New video – Jamming some Bumblefoot!!

Jamming on the end of the great Bumblefoot song “Don’t Know Who To Pray To Anymore” for some fun on a leisurely Sunday evening!!

Make sure you check out the absolute ripper of an album that is “Little Brother Is Watching” at http://www.bumblefoot.com/

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Update – August 29, 2009!!!

PIECES OF ETERNITY:

So hopefully by now, everyone has seen the cover and heard the sample from “Pieces of Eternity”?? (If you don’t know what I’m on about, go to http://www.cs-songs.com/powerfulostrichearache)I’m so happy that it’s nearly a done deal, and can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks about it.

The latest there is that I’ve OK’ed a digital proof of the album artwork with the manufacturers, and pending everything going smoothly on their end, it’ll be a done deal in the first half of September!!!

Been working on the online store here, so everything will be ready to go in time for the CD’s coming back from print. Also will be doing some promo stuff for the release – interviews, radio etc. Very excited for all that!!!

Keep an eye on my associated sites over the next day or so for a full length track!! ;)

THE FECKERS:

For those who may not be aware of it, for years I’ve written songs with folks in other countries through the wonders of modern technology, and even had the pleasure of a few guest guitar cameos too. One of these collaborations is with a mate by the name of Richard “MacGyver” Anderson, and even though we never really had the money to complete a lot of our ideas so far, we never really stopped collaborating on stuff.

For a while we were really trying to bring the songs to life, but it seemed like the gods were against that happening, which lead to us shelving the idea for a while, and he went and formed a cool little band called GONE WILD, while I was finally getting some of my own stuff together.

Now that we’ve both had some progress on our own sides of the pond, we decided it was time again to team up and hopefully tend to some of those now many songs. This was penciled in to start in July 09, looked shaky for a little bit, but ended up happening and then some.

We’ve made some fantastic progress on 3 songs, which are hard rock / metal, and on those tracks basically all the drums, bass and rhythm guitar is DONE!! Speaking of drums too, we have the most unbelievable skinsman helping us out on this stuff – more on that soon.

Basically everything is going amazingly well, and while this has all been going on, we’ve been recruiting other guest singers and players, and the list is a real impressive one! And we’re not even done yet!

I’m back in the studio next week doing lead and acoustic guitars, and possibly even getting some vocals added to one of the tracks, so stay tuned!!

MORE SOLO:

Started work on what will be my 2nd album in July also!! Once again with my bro Mathew Szkup on drums, and the incredible Stew Long running the controls once again. We’re four songs into the drum tracks, although Stew’s hectic schedule of late hasn’t allowed any more progress to be made on the songs thus far.

Again it will be a mixture of stuff – of these 4 songs, there’s a funk / rock / metal thing, a Harrison esque chord strummer, a piano based rock ballad, and a 10 minute epic kinda thing that to quite Stew “covers most countries on earth” in the moods it creates. Starts off thrash metal and ends up as a waltz!!

Will post more on this stuff as we chip away at it in conjunction with The Feckers stuff.

LIVE APPEARANCES:

While I can’t say too much at the time of writing, it looks like I’ll be getting back onto the stage in 2009, not only in Melbourne, but also interstate!!! Stay tuned!!!

AND IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH:

Just have to say a big THANK YOU to Ron Thal, and Peter Hodgson for their nice words in this Bumblefoot Interview!!!

To say I’m honoured is an understatement!!!

Check out http://www.bumblefoot.com/ for more Bumblefoot, and also Peter’s awesome guitar blog titled I Heart Guitar, at http://www.iheartguitarblog.com/ !!!