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Hi folks and welcome to my demo songs page. If you're interested, check out my music autobiography and visit my channel on YouTube for lots of music videos!
Anyhow, these songs are best described as unfinished works in progress. There are mistakes and tracks that need re-doing. Some songs have midi instruments (especially drums and keyboards) that I programmed using "composition" software so those instruments sound like they are being played by robots (ie. by a computer). I was pretty much stuck with this process before getting the Roland GR-33 guitar synthesizer which now allows me to play many of the accompanying instruments myself -- listen to Beautiful You Fly II, Forest City, and Shadows to hear the GR-33. While those computer-composed parts will most likely not be in the final versions of the songs, they serve to fill in the background and give me ideas for when I re-do them...if I ever get to that. The other thing that I just have to say is the quality of the sound is poor at best partially because the songs are converted from WAV to MP3 format which compresses them so much. There is also much room for improvement on my part in how the songs are mixed and mastered. At any rate, I've posted these songs here just so you can get an idea of what I am working on. |
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| For best results, please use headphones or good monitors. If you can't do that, computer speakers will have to do. If your music playing software (ie. WinAmp, Windows Media Player) has an equalizer, you can really improve the sound quality. I use these settings in Window's Media Player (picture below). See how the faders are arranged to look like a "smile"? Experiment with the EQ settings but generally you will need to boost the bass (left) and treble (right) ends a little. | 
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"A Light In You" © 2006 (4.5 MB mp3) (read lyrics)
"Beautiful You Fly II" © 2005 (5.8 MB mp3)
"Critical Now" © 2008 (8.5 MB mp3) (read lyrics)
"Cruising" © 2006 (1.8 MB mp3)
"Distant Sight" © 2001 (2.7 MB mp3) (read lyrics)
"Forest City" © 2006 (5.3 MB mp3)
"Last Forever" © 2003 ( 5.0 MB mp3) (read lyrics)
"Mitosis in a Winter Wonderland" (Video) (9 MB wmv) (read lyrics)
"Mitosis in a Winter Wonderland" (2 MB mp3) (read lyrics)
"Never Been a Girl" © 2008 (3 MB mp3)
"Part of Every Dream" © 2003 (1.7 MB mp3) (read lyrics)
"Pieces of the Puzzle" (Video) © 2008 (18 MB wmv) (read lyrics)
"Plenty of Woe" © 2003 (1.5 MB mp3) (read lyrics)
"Shadows" © 2003 (3.0 MB mp3)
"Simon The Ammonite" © 2001 (5.2 MB mp3) (read lyrics)
"Taralena Electric Guitar Solo" (Video) © 2008 (13 MB wmv)
"Taralena" (Video) © 2005 (7 MB wmv)
"Undercover" © 2003 (5.2 MB mp3) (read lyrics)
"Walk With You" (Video) © 2008 (16 MB wmv)
"Walk With You" © 2008 (4 MB mp3)
I originally set out to write a ballad for the kids at the Forest City school but ended up writing a more universal song of encouragement for everyone, especially my students. This is the first song with lyrics I've done in a long time so don't be too hard on me. I went a little string-crazy on this one too because I was enjoying the lush sounds from the Roland JV-1010 sound module. Unforunately, there are some audio crackles and there's one nice example of a "plosive" (exploding letter "p") in the vocal on the last chorus. Heck, there's any number of things that need fixing but at that rate I'd never post anything. So let's just get on with it. Hope you like it.
Here's an electric version of a song that was originally an acoustic ballad. For this one, I played every instrument except drums (which I composed with midi software and edited pretty extensively). I did the bass guitar, blow pipe, and horns with the Roland GR-33 guitar synthesizer and the lead and rhythm electric guitars ran through a Boss GT-6 guitar effects processor, my latest cool toy.
This song started as an acoustic one but quickly morphed into something a bit heavier. I featured the writing and recording of this song in my YouTube video series, "Write/Record a Song" in which I discussed how I came up with the song idea, created background instruments, and finally recorded it. However things have changed and I've only ended up using the midi drums created in Jammer (composition software) which I then extensively edited. I played all other instruments ... acoustic/electric guitars, bass, and keyboards. And of course, I'm singing it to ya'. It isn't completely finished yet.
I was asked to write some music for a school video and this is my first go at it. It's an instrumental with acoustic guitar leading what I hope you will feel is an optimistic melody. The video is going to highlight special needs students and I wanted to capture some positive energy for them. Had some fun with the GR-33 guitar synth and tried to recreate a sax to play against the acoustic guitar. I might call this song finished at this point and move on because I have other songs to write for the video or maybe I'll re-visit it to re-do the bass end which is kind of muddy.
Turn it up loud! Dueling electric guitar solos and perfect vocals (NOT!) make this probably my best rock tune.
Dedicated to the kids of the Forest City program for their video. Once again I am exploring jazzy instrumental sounds and using the Roland GR-33 guitar synthesizer quite a bit. For this song, I played bass, trumpet, sax, and air bell with it. There's a couple different acoustic guitars and a solo acoustic lead in addition to piano, bass, and drums. It sounds a bit like an awards show theme song but you be the judge. Don't pay attention to the ending because the song should fade out in the video ... I hope.
Although this song took months to do, I still feel it is unfinished. When I started writing it, I thought it was the nicest song I'd ever written. But after months of working on it, I don't know anymore. I thought I liked the "vocal collection" expansion card for the Roland JV-1010 synth module but the choirs on it (last chorus) are way too artificial. And there's other issues -- vocals aren't spot on, instruments need more room to breathe and much more variety, mp3 compression sucked all the high end out. But it is what it is and for now I'm going to just let it go and if it comes around again, I'll do what I can to pump more life into it.
Don't you just love biology songs?! If you do, check out this video. My students have been asking me to record it for a long time so here it is. Note that the audio/video is a bit out of sync. Sing along!
Here is the downloadable mp3 of the song. Thanks so much to those of you who asked for it.
I used to sing this with my two buddies on the street in Ottawa (in the market). We had this beautiful 3-part harmony going on the chorus that I've tried to re-create here. I flubbed a couple words since I revised the lyrics for YouTube so don't mind that, haha.
I love Alan Parsons Project so here's a song on which I experimented with getting a thick, multi-layered vocal. The accompanying instruments (bass, drums, piano) were electronically added and have that robotic timing. But the guitar solo has long been one of my favourites for capturing the mood. Gotta' laugh at those canned vocals at the end but laughter's good right?
Here's a nice little ballad love song. I hope you like it.
I wrote this song so many years ago ... I must have been 20 years old. Originally sang it with friends in 3-part harmony. It's a really fun song to do with just acoustic guitars while busking on the streets of Ottawa. Anyhow, here it is in all it's cheesiness complete with a "Band-in-a-Box" generated piano solo.
Here's another instrumental song. I'm posting it here to demonstrate some of the amazing sounds that come out of the Roland GR-33 guitar synthesizer. On this song, the digeridoo, sax, tin whistle, flaminco guitar and midi keys were all played on electric guitar using the GR-33. The other instruments (piano, bass, drums, clean electric guitar) ran through a Roland JV-1010. You're going to hear some mistakes because I'm just getting used to the GR-33 and it takes time to learn how to play all these different instruments on a guitar.
How many songs out there talk about evolution? Must be a market niche for that. This is a REALLY old song from when I was just starting out with my home studio. But it's kind of an autobiography and it was fun to record.
I had some questions on how I did the electric guitar solo for this song (from the slideshow below recorded in 2005). So I decided I'd film myself playing it. Keep in mind it's 3 years after I initially recorded it but I tried to play it as close to the original as possible. Hope you like it.
Cruising the streets with the top down and the radio on ... dreaming of Taralena. Since I decided I probably won't do much more with the song, I put together a cheesy video slide show for you with photos of my childhood, buddhism, music, and teaching. So here it is in all it's glory. See it now before Hollywood scoops it up! :)
Let's rock and roll! I made some mistakes in the lyrics and hit some bad notes in the vocals and lead guitar. Also, there are a few audio crackles. I'll have to work on that. You might find it annoying to hear lead guitar through most of the song. I was initially just doing a test run with electric guitar and later decided to add vocals over it. Finally, the song just craps out at the end without fading ... my trademark. But hey, it's just a demo. Oh yeah, I only used a cheap, second-hand electric guitar from Cash Converters on this song.
Watch the music video and enjoy my silly dance moves. :)
Here is the downloadable mp3 of the song. Thanks so much to those of you who asked for it.
Unauthorized use of graphics, music or lyrics is strictly prohibited and punishable by reincarnation as an ant!