´YOUR HEART HAS GOT MY NUMBER' Youtube Video (c) 2012
The SPIRITRYST
´SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW' Youtube Video (c) 2012
The SPIRITRYST
´UNDONE´
Youtube Music Video (c) 2008
The SPIRITRYST
´SITTING IN THE GARDEN´
Youtube Music Video (c) 2008
The SPIRITRYST
´DON´T THINK TWICE´ (Just Fuck off) Youtube Music Video (c) 2012
The SPIRITRYST
´BOTH SIDES NOW´
Yoube Music Video (c) 2012
The SPIRITRYST
´CIVILISED´
Youtube Music Video (c) 2008
VIOLENT ARSE
´Oi Matters To Me´ (Oi-Punk Parody) Youtube Music Video (c) 2009
MY MUSIC and the GROUPS I WAS PART OF....
Well I recall laying in bed in the 1970´s humming tunes in my had with no way of repeating them or capturing them at all...it was like creating something you could not explain to anyone at all...maybe not even yourself. I always loved the concept of performance (...although the reality is much much different for me..!) and being in a band encapsulated it all...recognition for your creative exploits and some feedback about what you are doing is good....it is so rare to acheive a compliment these days from anyone...all you´ll get is sly stabs at humour and back-handed grudgingly delivered blabbermouthers.
...Is that what we have become as humans...our inability to encourage others because we are left at the stoodstill bus-stop??
So when I was squatting (...see the 'squatting' page on this website) way back in 1983 it become almost natural to want to become part of that scene. So 'we' formed two bands in a short time and both contained basically the same four members too....
GRINDER 1983 (Late) to 1984 (Early) Yes it was my idea (...and also a Judas Priest track too..!) In deepest and smelliest Hackney in east London formed from a punk squat cometh
...Grinderrrrrrrrr.....
I thought up the name and Alien drew it on my forehead in fat black marker pen. Martin ´squarehead´ Ryan had a black guitar in Balcorne Street (Hackney) and we used to play/muck-about on it...only he and Alien managed to get dsome decent sound eminating from it. So as a few choons were bouncing around our squat (quite loudly I may add..!) then 'Grinder' somehow raised itself from those 'toons' to head headlong into punk-failure. We set out (...I suppose?) to gig and play live...this never happened though. But we did have a fair few practices. These more often than not occurred in deepest South-London at I.G.A Studios in Elephant & Castle. With one or two more later on at a rehearsal place under some railway arches in Leyton (East London). It was winter-time in 1983 and 'Terry' pretended (Not that very well I might add) to be our 'manager' to such an extent that we got no gigs and recorded nothing ever (...time alone proved that he couldn't even 'manage' being a 'manager..!)....! Our 'songs' mainly came from Alien (...who used to be in a band called Poison in Gravesend, Kent he tellethed us). We did a few songs at practices from 'Poison' but funnily enough not one Discharge cover songs was tried at any of our practices even though we all met on the Discharge Tours..! The Line was Martin (Guitar duties), Alien (the Hoarsest Horse vocals), Olly (Bass guitar) and I was on drums. It was my first time on drums and basically was a wee bit lame (understatement!) and almost scared to whack the sheet outta the drums. We had a few songs penned (by Alien mostly) ´Prisoner Of War Cries´ and ´No Friend Of Mine´ were two I recall. These were recorded on a very old condensed microphone cassette recorder with bigger buttons than clarity levels...!! I still have a few songs from our practices in 1983 around...and I did send them to a guy in Holland (...Ed may have been his name) as he said he was doing a squat punk UK LP...so he had them and I have heard nothing since...oh well. It was fun, loud and painful sometimes - but other times it hurt even more than having both your legs cut off and put where your arm used to be....we successfully twisted our punk corkscrew into the deadened earth after a little over 4 practices and no gigs and three songs...outta the spiralling smokened punk-squat ashes that rose from that name of 'Grinder' came immediately another project....with the same line-up...but a different name...!!!!!!!
Rehearsals...4 or 5 Gigs...0 Press...0 Recordings...0
GRINDER SONGS (1) ´Prisoner Of War Cries´ (2) ´No Friend Of Mine´ (only rehearsal versions of any Grinder songs exist)
Grinder Personnel Vocals ~ Alim ´Alien´ Panazai (age 21) Guitar ~ Martin ´Squarehead/Barabas´ Ryan (age 20) Bass ~ Simon ´Olly Bucket´ Parrish (age 18) Drums ~ Anthony ´Treetramp´ Lynch (age 20)
GOATBREATH & the CAMELCOCKS1984 (Early) to 1984 (Spring) If Grinder were loud and disorganized then GB & the CC had this in concentrated abundance...to the power of 167. They were ugly, brash, vulgar, loud (O.K. O.K....they had some bad points too..!) and possibly even more like a unmuffled Kawasaki 1400 racing around your underpants in the wee small hours. It was like cowboy punk and we tried and failed unceremoniously to introduce a metal-crossover into the loud-wall-of-sound we had...it didnt really work at all..which made it all the more painful for us. The lucky thing is though is the public never got to witness either (...or both!) of these bands. The Guitar-a-motorbike was played by Martin ´Barabas´ Ryan, Alien again shrieking away on the mike and me (´Treetramp´) on drums. Sometimes Olly would turn up and play bass...sometimes not. I think we only practiced 3 or 4 times and nothing lasted that was recorded for more than a few days. That in itself is a pity as possibly the most (un) sensible sentence I have ever heard concerning what we were living and how we were just living it was melded into a song called "Living In A Hovel". The opening reparte was
..."Running Up The Wall...Stamping Through The Ceiling...Living In A Hovel...You Know It´s Got No Meaning"
...and that for me was everything we were and had been about. A self-penned ditty from Me, Martin and Alien sitting one night in the Kenton Road squat in East Hackney in the cold winter of 1984. No photo´s, recordings or anything was hoarded on Goatbreath and the Camelcocks by me...and I doubt by anyone else either...!! Although on Grinder I have a live rehearsal or two and about 4 or 5 photos of practices etc. And with that last Goatbreath practice my punk-squat music ended. It was fun but it never got to a live forum....now that would have been hilarious indeed (....much like the latter Sons Of Bad Breath...who had our same Olly in of course).
Rehearsals...3 or 4 Gigs...0 Press...0 Recordings...0
GOATBREATH & the CAMELCOCKS Songs (1) ´Living In A Hovel´
Goatbreath and the Camelcocks Personnel Vocals ~ Alim ´Alien´ Panazai (age 21) Guitar ~ Martin ´Squarehead/Barabas´ Ryan (age 20) Drums ~ Anthony ´Treetramp´ Lynch (age 20)
(Bass ~ Simon ´Olly Bucket´ Parrish age 18)
OBLITERATION (Mid 1986 - Mid 1987) Around two years later and with the metal influence in the scenes I was into came Obliteration. Yes they were metal and yes they were heavy too...although I wrote a classic punk song called ´Trenchmouth´ to go into the set of our music. I managed to acquire a used drum kit from west Londons ´Record and Tape Exchange´s music shop. Most of it was 'Premier' (by make) so it was pretty good stuff and it set me back about 100 quid I think. I brought it back to my south London flat on a number 12 bus (...yes bass drum and accessry bag too..!!!). Then I managed to bunk the train down to Margate, Kent on my own with it all (where I was spending a lot of time around the mid to late 1980´s) with the whole kit on a skateboard too....madness. I set up the name... and the line up had the quango of three brothers in a band with me (...not advisable when 'push comes to shove'...democracy has a surname you will discover..!). We were pretty' satanic and scary (...at least a par-score on the Death-Metal Golf course down in the hellish infernoes below I'd say..!)...but we knew what metal was about indeed....we grew up half 'n' half on metal and punk (by members) so we did ´nt make the same mistakes as most of the punk people driving headlong into metal territory thinking that all they have to do is play riffs. We started out with my brother on main vocals for the first few practices (Mike...Michael) and I was playing drums (adding to the premier kit with a locally bought old jazz premier kit for 70 quid. So I had double bass drum kicks and a fair few potato skin cymbals. Guitar was played by Kevin and brothers Rob (...bass..never played one before...I think it showed) and Lol (...later on vocals, replacing mike as he got bored and wanted to do 'Deathstalker' instead....read below...!)) filled in the personnel for Obliteration from mid-1986 for a year til I left. I penned more or less all of the lyrics and most of the guitar riffs and also drummed and did the flyers and artwork for the cassettes etc. We started out playing brash, thrash-punk (& lots of covers too). Yes Discharge got in the mix with ´Protest & Survive´, ´Ain´t No Feeble Bastard´ and a break-neck version of ´Possibility Of Lifes Destruction´ too. As we wrote (...well I did) more and more we filled up our set with virtually all our (my) own material and were blaise enough to throw in a few covers by Slayer ´Black Magic´ and ´Post Mortem´. The ´early days´ were gigged in our hometown of Margate, Eastern Kent. We opened our live gigging history at Margates ´Garlinge Scout Hut´ (where we practiced anyway!) it was attended by friends only really and we had pantomime supports from me and the bass player (Rob) in the way of two bands (...'acts'..!) called ´Pappadoomi Brothers´ (In which we wore aussie cork hats and my dads large paisley underpants outside his silver 1970 suits with white leather shoes and loud fish psychedelic ties to boot). We ´played´ some music from the ´Young Ones´ (...a UK comedy TV series) and also some sketches and jokes from that era...I played guitar (my red 'Ibanze `Rocket Roll II' flying V...!) while Rob ´drummed´ and my first partners young brother of 15 ´sang´ as he liked the Young Ones. No-one understood it or cared for it either way...it was a one-off for the night as was.....´Ted ´n´ George´...this was me and Rob (Bass player) just dressed virtually in the same stuff telling really poor jokes in a northern (´Macclesfield´) accent. The term "Led Zeppelin with lots of overweight people on board" springs to mind. We also played live in Margate at the ´Football Ground´ (Yes Margate Football club) and managed to pull around 150 people for our second gig...o.k. the skin heads turned up to try n start trouble. They failed...the gig was actually videod too. The support was (see below) DEATHSTALKER...an unmusical jagged bullet with your ears names on. The Obliteration gig was good...we had a backdrop (...yes I done that too..!). By that time we had about 6 or 7 of our own songs and a few covers thrown in too. With titles like ´March to Obliteration/The Obliterator´ you knew what was to come really didn´t you...??? Also I/we penned stuff about the themes of War, Life, Nuclear War, Binge-eating and daily existence too. With titles like ´Trenchmouth´, ´War Kills´, ´Life (3:59 a second too short), ´Lord Of Blood´ etc we were I guess typically metal in our visual elements but after a little listen I guess you can realise we at least thought about riffs, complexity and song structure quite a lot (...well i did)..it is so easy to just write and record music..I could write an album a day easily...but to construct stuff you like is a different story entirely...!! We played about 13 gigs (....well i did with Obliteration as that line-up). Starting in August 1986 and ending about the same time the following year I guess....we gigged in Kent lots too in places like, Margate, Canterbury, Whitstable, Dover...mostly with local punk band (from Canterbury) Epidemic (our mates too) and also Atavistic too. We also played in Dover with Heresy the punk band. We recorded our first ´Demo´ callled ´March To Obliteration´. It was a rehearsal demo with the ´best´ versions chosen to represent our ´sound´. for anyone who could help us gig more etc. It contained 4 or 5 songs (of which I am not entirely sure) but we only had a few to choose from anyway so the main ones were ´March Too Obliteration/The Obliterator´, ´Trenchmouth´, ´Lord Of Blood´ and ´Earths Demise´. I guess they may have been the 4. We organised (...well I did) and promoted our gig in Wimbledon in London (with friends and got a decent turn out...´Paradise´ they were called and another band called ´First Blood´. The we went into a 'studio' with a friend in Birchington, Kent (...not far from Margate) and recorded our first ´Studio Demo´ which was laid down onto cassette...!. It was fun indeed and we came out with 5 songs...adding ´War Kills and ´Life´ to our song list . The demo cover I did the artwork for (again) I called it ´Exorcism Of Life´ and we sent one to Kerrang (UK metal/Rock) mainstream music-magazine and they reviewed it too...! Not only did they review it..they said it was "very interesting indeed and if we could only get into a real studio then we´d really hear something"...! We (..in hindsight) never used this press appraisal at all...we should have been sending the demo to record companies and promotors by the bundle...but we sat back on it and done little on the back of our only real chance and let it go by relatively unnoticed..now I´d be jumping at it first moment...!!. We did gig up in London supporting The English Dogs (....who were totally metal by then and totally not punk anymore...pity) and played through thee best P.A. I had ever gigged with..it was so clear it was frightening..!! We zipped up north and did two gigs at Leeds (with 'Inferno') and also at Liverpool (Planet-X) with a great metal trio from Germany called ´Mottek´ and also´Extreme Noise Terror´. The bill was good as no band were similar...it was the time of the band when I writing 11 minute songs (´Ordeal Of Endurance´) and playing them live too. We got some verbal praise from the crowd and also Mottek loved us aswell (some compliment as they were superb indeed). Extreme Noise Terrier did what they did...punk by numbers..it made me laugh as much as our metal by numbers in hindsight. That was my thirteenth gig and my last with Obliteration..I had just returned from the Slayer European Tour (´Reign In Pain´) and saw all their 25 european concerts..and thought well the pinnacle of thrash metal is Slayer and why bother doing anything really..there it is..you dont need more do you?? So I exited stage left and left the three brothers one drummer, a riff-maker, song-writer, art-designed and lyricist down. They drifted on for a while got an LP out with most of my songs upon..which was a back-handed compliment as they couldnt write (much of ) their own stuff..they (tried to) disguise my songs by changing titles and or lyrics...so I learned a lot about them from their approach to the band without me.
OBLITERATION 'Obscured Within' LP REVIEW
This 8-song LP was released in 1990 (3 years after I had left the band after...forming it in 1986) and it comes wrapped in a 'Heavy-Metal' sleeve with lots of skulls on it as you would come to expect from men in tight trousers and big white shoes.
Now as I left the band some three years prior to this release (their first LP release and only one..!) it gave them ample time to 'discard' all of my material and have a new set (much more than the 8 songs on offer here) of course...lets see how the boys done for honesty, respect and not-living-off-someone-elses creations now shall we...???
....So the(ir) first of the eight-tunes is called....
(1) 'Into The Void'...well, well, well...thats not my song at all...well done guys....I was wrong...now I shall play 'Into The Void' and see what they were creating way back in 1990. It lasts for 6 minutes and 7 seconds and starts off with some chuggy guitar with phaser (and some way off and downright awful off-key psychedelic weird guitar-stuff like a retarded kid would play). It kicks off well and the production is excellent...the drums are a bit sloppy...but the rolls are great...the singer is pretty poor (as always...Lol could not sing) even neck deep in Phaser and/or flanger it still sounds like a bad 'first take-vocal'...were they on a tight budget or something?) "Thrusting ever onwards into the the spacey depths" is not really 'Angel of Death' entry-level is it...The production is immense though...well done the producer indeed...nice use of octaves on guitar too...Lol always sang like a guitar/bass...he would stick to the same notes that the tune was...never ever varied it...as a 'singer' you can't do that....its extremely rudimentary indeed...the 'guitar solo' was not really a solo...just noises with a 'treemelo/wang bar'...its slow or mid-paced (as I think Darren - the drummer - could not play fast if my memory serves me right...it usually does)..Its not 'Thrash/Death or Black' Metal at all...more like Heavy Metal/Rock....all of a sudden the track fades out with 'no ending'...which is awful indeed...well done boys...none of that was mine 100% all yours...maybe thats why they put it first track..?? Lets see how they do with the other tracks then...(I was glad I had nothing to do with that song of theirs...it would be pointless for me to have written a song like that...personally speaking)
(2) 'Your Choice' is 5 minutes and 47 seconds long...and nope thats not mine either...these guys are 'writing their own material' for real...!!! Well its slow again and has a childish tune to it with some of the worst solo overlays I heard in many a year...it does nothing for me and then just stops and then speeds up (it is, again mid-paced...not thrash of course) nice riff too...Lol ('singer') again (surprise, surprise) sings his voice like a guitar playing the same notes...really awful indeed....the production is superb of course....Heavy Rock and NOT 'Thrash/Death/Black' Metal at all....ha-ha-ha this solo is so shite its untrue...like a 4 year old (no offence four-year olds..!!!!) omigorsh....retarded or what....pity as you could have solo'd well over that with limited ability. Some of the timing and/or ends of bars of music and start the of the bars are off...did they edit this together..?!?!?!? It pretty lame as a Heavy-Metal 'song' goes....'buy one tune get one free' sort of fare (maybe even 'get 2 free')...These tunes would have made me laugh in 1986 when I was in the band...it is like when Punk came out and some bands just played the next notes down in 'two's or ones. It has no imagination at all for me. Thank god that is over. And thank god I had nothing to do with it...Well done guys...Thats 2/2 songs all yours.
(3) 'Trenchmouth' is 4 mins 36 seconds. ...and......This song is mine. I wrote it in 1986 (all the lyrics, the title and also most, if not all of the 'original songs' music and arrangement - at least 99% I am sure if not more) surely these guys would not 'steal' someone else's work and pass it off as their own would they...??? Oh dear...yes this is MY SONG...they have the chords...the words and the arrangement the same...although to be fair (?) it is a bit out of time to how it was written this version is not metrnomically 'in time' and the singing is also not on cue...they changed one or two words..for what reason...I am not sure. The production is about 20% of the last tracks (above) it was recorded obviously at an earlier time (or produced themselves?!?!?!) The (my) song stops abruptly at 1:23 and then they go into a 'slow part' which is also one of my (old) songs (as they couldn't write new stuff...they just used a piece from a song I wrote for Obliteration in 1986 called 'Smile' we played it live at gigs a lot (almost every time) Oh dear...not so honest now boys eh??? It is a lovely piece of music 'Smile' and the solo they played over it...dragged it into the ground...it is like a 4 year old...no knowledge of guitar scales or keeping in key (...do guitar scales mean anything to your ears???) and so simple its hurting me. I also just discovered what it is about their 'music' that is not correct...its like a lot of 'little sections' that do not flow into one another...they start and stop...not with any reason or connection...its like recorded pieces edited together (pretty badly I might add) There also seem to to be no drum cymbals on this mix's drum kit...low in treble too....another bad joined-section...there are so many each song...Well not so good there boys...100% Mine...'two of my songs in one' and virtually all of my lyrics (about 99%)....the Songs I wrote, the arrangement, musically and lyrically (That 'Trenchmouth' is) are on the Demo's 'March To Obliteration' (in 1986) and 'Exorcism Of Life' (1987)..How sad for them that they must do this...? Well this track is not 'theirs'...it ismine hook, line and sinker....the whole lot of it...left to Obliteration the track would be 0.00 seconds long and just have some off-scale out-of-key child-like solo's...ermm how sad...
(4) 'Inner Dreams' Well at least this ones not mine....I like the starting guitar riff..its got some nice finger movements from major to minor and beyond....the drums are off pace and wavering but at least it has energy....It stops sloppily for no reason...but it does have a nice feel in the slow section mid-song...Ok its out of time and rhythm a bit and sloppy but it could have been something in the hands of some musicians....still I like it...The pitch (?!?!?) of singing is awful as always...the effects over Lol's voice even' as thick-as-they-are' cannot disguise his lack of ability. Why not try a guitar solo here then...I'll tell you why....because its awful and makes a laughing stock of your limited ability thats why. Terrible indeed...tremelo arms/wang bars are a bad guitarist safety net...as demonstrated here. Sometimes the net fails even with it. So no fast/speed metal there...sounds like Heavy-Metal and Rock to me...I mean c'mon guys...Slayer were outdoing this about 10,000% some 8 years earlier.
(5) 'Claustrophobia' Well I could not find track on the net...could be a blessing in disguise I reckon.
(6) 'Macabre Insanity' Well these two words ring another distinct bell...I wrote a song (all the lyrics and virtually all of the guitar-work back in 1987 called 'Lord Of Blood'...and it had the words 'Macabre Insanity' in it). Wow they even stole that and used it as 'theirs'...Low lives or what..??? Umm...yep its 'Lord Of Blood' I am afraid...Actually the guitarist Kev wrote the intro jangly bit...that is awesome indeed...still...well done...the solo ruins it really really well...a good job of shitting over a 'Mona Lisa' of yours...the drums are sloppy to say the least...but hey the productions back at least....Here's my tune too 'Lord Of Blood'...a lovely slow riffer indeed...one of my best riffs indeed...and Lol's singing my words too...he is not doing too bad (for him) As you can tell he sang this when i was in the band...so I told him how it goes of course...I would sing...he copied and also remembered it......"The blood of his own....macabre insanity" a-ha thats why they renamed it (...ermmm but boys...they are my words you changed it too....if you are going to change it...please make the new title your own too...what is the point of trying to disguise it...then choosing someone else's other words (from "Lord of Blood' to erm...'Macabre Insanity' my words to...erm my words.....d-u-m-b or what...?!?!?!? I wrote some awesome riffs for this (after 'Macabre Insanity' lyric....I loved that riff I wrote in early 1987...well the whole song is mine, music and lyrics from the start apart from Kev's (guitarist) excellent jangly intro...his masterpiece indeed...Another pointless rubbish 'solo' if I dare call it that....it was just "....ooh this is where we put the thin strings on the guitar-bit'...."OK play...one take and we're going home for dinner"...Well that was the best track by a mile (Well it was my track after all)...good production...but the song was not Obliterations...how it ended up on 'their' album I am not sure...as it is totally someone else's (mine) if it were Obliterations then it would last only 1 minute and 16 seconds of jangly guitar and nothing else (OK you can take the kiddie solo's from halfway through it and ruin your 76 seconds if you like...insulting indeed to me and no doubt them. I guess Record Companies rarely care when they sell other peoples material...it ll comes to "Solicitorial Ettiquette" get everything signed (and witnessed..TWICE) and even on video before you do ANYTHING....."Do you Love Me.."..? (Hang on a minute darling....the microphones not switched on and look into the other camera will you while my solicitor takes notes....O.K. go on say it now...! Is that what life has become...oh my god..what a fucking mess this planet is.....and it goes to make some money for them.....these spineless thieves. Shame on you.
(7) 'Void Existence' and (8) 'Parental Guidance' These ones I couldn't find on the net...so yet more relief maybe....
So 'their' 'Obscured Within' LP release of 1990 (I even thought of the band name 'Obliteration' in 1986 too I might add (it doesn't surprise you I guess by now)...has 8 tracks...I could only find 5 of those 8 to review....so how did the guys do then..??
....Lets rate them for 'their' LP...after all...that is what a buyer would assume...no..they were expect them to release...and not someone else's songs....
if you do record other peoples songs...you have to pay them for it...9.1 % in most cases (in the U.S.) as they have recorded TWO OF MY SONGS...I am due 18.2% of sales revenue by law.
...So 5 Obliteration songs reviewed.....TWO OF THOSE WERE NOT THEIRS...so that leaves them with three left. 40% of the songs I reviewed were not Obliterations.....only 60% were....
...Some of the production was awesome...some was not...they are termed 'UK Thrash' I would say that they are mis-catorgorised totally...they are not Thrash...they just occurred during a 'thrash era'...this is Heavy Metal/Rock...nothing more...it leans into darker material ('Lord Of Blood'...I mean 'Macabre Insanity' of course...I wrote that about the Hallowe'en series of films...the 'killer' is Michael Myers...and if you know about Haddonfield and his 'Babysitter Murders' storyline then you'll see it all adds up...!) which is the (mine at least) high point of a really disappointing release...But at least they released something, even if 40% was stolen. As I said earlier shame on them....Any musician should be able to release their own material...the least they can do when they use someone else's material....they ask for permission (as you are breaking copyright laws if you don't) and you 'pay for usage'...they did not...they just steal and say "look at us'..."look what we have released"....disgraceful conduct indeed and shameless......keep tuned and thanks for all your emails regarding this site....
...Justice, Karma and above all, fairness has to be upheld. i'm sure it will...people usually are not as low-life a 'Obliteration' were in 1990....
Anthony
Drummer Main Guitar-Riff writer Main Musical arranger Main Lyricist Band Name founder Live Backdrop designer and maker Demo tape Artwork-Cover-Creator
....for Obliteration during 1986 and 1987. It was great time though and I am glad I did it and look back fondly on those times indeed.
Rehearsals...46 Gigs...13 Press...Fanzines and a Kerrang review Recordings...2
January 1987 ´March To Obliteration´ Rehearsal Demo ~ 4 Tracks (1) ´March To Obliteration / The Obliterator´ (2) ´Trenchmouth´ (3) ´Earths Demise´ (4) ´Lord Of Blood´
April 1987 Éxorcism Of Life´ Studio Demo ~ 5 Tracks (1) ´March To Obliteration / The Obliterator´ (2) ´Trenchmouth´ (3) ´Earths Demise´ (4) ´War Kills´ (5) ´Lord Of Blood´
OBLITERATION Songs (1) ´March To Obliteration/The Obliterator´ (2) ´Trenchmouth´ (3) ´Lord Of Blood´ (4) ´Earths Demise´ (5) ´Life´ (instrumental) (6) ´War Kills (7) ´Alone´ (8) ´Ordeal Of Endurance´
Obliteration Personnel Vocals (1) ~ Michael Lynch (age 25) Vocals (2) ~ Lawrence ´Lol´ Maycock (age 21) Guitar ~ Kevin Maycock (age 27) Bass ~ Robert Maycock (age 24) Drums ~ Anthony Lynch (age 23)
DEATHSTALKER (Mid 1986 to early 1987) Merging some sort of white noise at velocity and horror film gore themes was what Deathstalker seemed to be all about....we did nae care about swearing or vulgarity too much and only souight to scare you witless with our death-hungry lyrics and obscenities. The music was a manic speed drill and the drums were as fast as Nick (see squatting pages) could possibly go...most of the songs were of punk song lengths...well under 3 minutes mostly for all of them. I did the same with the E-string taking most of the brunt of the damage. My brother (Mike...Michael) made up the trio dressed as Freddy ´Nightmare on Elm Street´ Krueger on the shoutied vocals like a obssessed lone inmate. He dressed in a stripey old jumper with holes in and wore a brimmed hat and a friends glove that had the blades on finger-tips complete aswell..very awesome indeed way back in 1986..!! With áural assaults´ as songs we set up to rip ´n´ riff our way from the beginning to end as fast as possible usually. The ´songs´ were entitled like...´Human Carcass Carnage´, ´Destroyed Beyond Recognition´ and ´Hunting Flesh Machine´...I guess you get the idea...and those were just the titles. The words were much in the same vein (bloodied and lacerated like the songs themselves...!!).MIke sang for Obliteration (along with me on guitar) for the first few practices too. We set out to just make a noise and stagger people when we played live (just the once). We also only had one practice to our name so in effect it all was concisely perfect...none of this elongated Rawken-rawl rubbish...get in...make a reaction then leave. As our band phrase suggested..."Deathstalker enters your face....the back your head its escape"...that justabowt sums us up....bang...much pain....and then we were gone. I played an Ibanez flying V, had dreadlocks down to my backside and wore a back-to-front Slayer Tour T-shirt... and we had no bass player (in mind for either practicing or playing live either). It didn´t matter as the point would not have been made any better with a bass. So we did it as a threesome. We practiced (as well as Grinder...see squatting pages) at the I.G.A Studios in South Londons ´Elephant & Castle´. We just booked a 5-hour practice and spent much of the time just faffing about with weird vocal effects and being silly. I wrote all the riffs on guitar and would not share any with Obliteration...there was distinct difference between the two bands for me (although I was in them both...!!). Whilst Obliteration grew from strength to strength locally and further afield, Deathstalker would quietly and dormantly wait for it sole public anger outlet. This happened in April 1987 after nearly a year since it´s inception. ´We´ supported Obliteration and even had a backdrop (...that I made...just for the one gig). It was videod too in it´s entirety which I like indeed. Deathstalker came with no inspiration to name at all. It was out on its own...The fact it seemed to merge film and thrash metal was even more theatrical to me. It was like one of Freddy´s dreams itself. There for a while then you wake up and it´s all over...or is it..?? The gig was a nervous affair...but I felt quite good about the lack of ability to gel things (like the Sons of Bad Breath etc) it seemed to get even more exciting the less we thought or did about it feeling better...!! We played five of our ´aural slabs of noise-violence´ and then we had the audacity to play an encore. Although to be fair a few people actually moved nearer the stage the more we assaulted their ears..! We had punks, skins and metalheads down the front and just staring and watching...trying to work out what we were or what we trying to do or what they were hearing...no answer. So we did one more for them ´The Mutilator´ again and then they were gone...was it real...? You betcha....
Deathstalker Personnel Vocals ~ Michael Lynch (aged 25) Guitar ~ Anthony Lynch (aged 23) Drums ~ Nicholas Nicolaides (aged 21)
SNARE (1995-1996) This band was an amalgamation of the lead guitarist from Obliteration and me...joining a few musicians down in Margate, Kent in the mid-1990´s. The band was assembled in two-sides really (Margate trio of me, Ray and Kevin and the other two members from Ramsgate) and mainly stayed that way for the year or less it existed. The music was all cover songs. From the punkey era mostly with one or two rock songs in their or more poppier toons. It featured mostly Sex Pistols, The Damned and The Ruts. It was good project and we played locally down at The Ship Inn along Margates harbour seafront area. We were so loud the camera on the tripod shook when we played. We had about 5 or 6 practices (at a place in Cliftionville, Margate called ´The Quarterdeck´) and just the one gig as far as I can recall. It was good fun playing that stuff live and the band were cool guys too. The Snare personnel were:-Kevin (Ex-guitarist from Obliteration) now on vocals. Ray on lead guitar, me on rhythm guitar, a guy called Nick on bass with a big guy on drums. The drummer was excellent indeed and drove the local transport buses. He loved The Ruts too. I again made the backdrop and also thought of the name for the band too. It was good project that had quite a bit of local support indeed. But the internal politics and also ´payback´ time for friends who wanna be in a band reared their collective ugly heads...so I was off and outta there fairly quickly. Pity though...it was a good project. And like all crap decisions the bands that do this sort of 'furthering assessment' upon...they all end up crumbling in on themselves from this very destructive factor. It´s not big and and its not clever. Yet they seem to do it quite a lot (...I lived and learned). That attitude is against everything I stand for in life....furthering oneself at the expense of others....read on....!!!!
Rehearsals...5 or 6 Gigs...1 Press...0 Releases...0
SNARE Songs
(1) ´Neat Neat Neat´ (The Damned) (2) ´Plan Of Action´ (U.K. Subs) (3) ´Stepping Stone´ (Sex Pistols) (4) ´Stay Away´ (Nirvana) (5) ´Welcome To Paradise´ (Green Day) (6) ´Stupid Questions´ (New Model Army) (7) ´New Rose´ (The Damned) (8) ´Babylons Burning´ (The Ruts) (9) ´S.U.S´ (The Ruts)
Snare Personnel Vocals ~ Kevin Maycock (aged 36) Guitar (Lead/Rhythm) ~ Ray (aged 35) Guitar (Rhythm) ~ Anthony Lynch (aged 32) Bass ~ Nick (aged 34) Drums ~ ? (aged 40)
THE KINKS TRIBUTE BAND (1996-1997) Yes you read correctly indeedy....!! Kevin the singer in Snare (...and old guitarist of Obliteration of course) came to me one day in the summer of 1996 with an offer of ´forming´ this 'band'. My, then partner, said "do not go into it with him after what he did to you last time"...I did.....and it was the wrong decision again...she was right in the end. The Kinks really didn´t speak much volume to me but he gave me a cassette with all their music on it. I played and enjoyed listening to it. So I thought it may be challenging and fun to play aswell....and it was too. The ´project´ was in 'formation status' and had a goal too. It was to go on the 'club circuit' and get some money as no-one seemed to be doing one. So a few members like me and Kevin were amassed and then we had 5 members. All were local and there were a fair few muso´s or really good musicians in there. So I was mixing with some talented people indeed. But the reason I said yes to it was the fact that the drums were soft and sloppy and really not the ´backbone´ of the songs (unlike all the bands previous...bar Deathstalker of course). So I was amazed to find out that about half of their repetoire I already knew and could hum straight away...Hey these davies Brothers were prolific...and very good too...!! So we set about practicing and I was back on the drums (with high....very high indeed...harmonies thrown in aswell) and we practised in a few places mostly in an upstairs working mens club (The Labour Club I think) amidst dust-gathering snooker tables that had long seen their last 147 breaks). The singer Kevin was quite similar in looks to Ray Davies (The Kinks main singer and songwriter) and we were joined by a great guitarist called Steve (from nearby Ramsgate). He was into the energy and fun of it all and played with a real happy sunny body-langauged smile on his face. We had another guitarist from Westbrook area of Margate called Phil and found a muso bassist from the Ramsgate area that had played all his life and smelt the money and come in for it. We had quite a few practices and they were always fun..it was mainly me and Kevin larking and mucking about having a whale of time...all of the time. We had a great humour connection and that was priceless indeed...it made all the more worth it...even though it ultimately ended much like the way of the last venture sadly. We ran out with all the Kinks favourites of course...´Waterloo Sunset´, ´You Really Got Me´, ´Sunny Afternoon´, ´Dedicated Follower Of Fashion´, and ´Lola´ of course. We, well I, bedecked the drums kit and amps with union jack flags for the one and only gig I played with them (it was videod too). The owner of the second place we rehearsed above (the Dog and Duck pub) in Westbrook, Margate was a lifelong The Kinks fan. So he was bopping around behind the bar while we ran through the Davies´ brothers portfolio of hits. We wore nice clothes in a black and white vein and look smart and sixtiesh I guess. I could sense they were not happy with the drums/drum sound and they eventually got their way paying-back a little-muso-black-book favour and got a new arrogant drummer like they always wanted. It didn´t sound any different at at all...as I went to the gig and watched it after they (...Hi Kevin again mate....!) told me to leave. The drumming for me was secondary as I focused on the vocals and harmonies which I really enjoyed. We had an accapella practice around Phils house in Westbrook one time and that was great. The muso-bassist rarely came to those and even missed normal practices...but as he was ´talented´ he was allowed to be uncommitted and rude too....ah the love of money and what it can do to people. So that was that and it was the last music venture/group and/or band I was in...not that I have had enough of course. I just think it is so much fun making your own music and much simpler with the advent of home recording and technology...this has become accessible to almost anyone with a few hundred pounds or whatever currency you are currently dishing.
Rehearsals...9 or 10 Gigs...1 Press...0 Releases...0
THE KINKS Tribute Band Songs (1) ´Waterloo Sunset´ (2) ´You Really Got Me´ (3) ´All Day And All Of The Night´ (4) ´Sunny Afternoon´ (5) ´Dedicated Follower Of Fashion´´ (6) ´Lola´ (7) ´Tired Of Waiting For You´´ (8) ´Everybody´s Gonna Be Happy´ (9) ´Set Me Free´ (10) ´See My Friends´ (11) ´Who´ll Be The Next In Line´ (12) ´A Well Respected Man´ (13) ´Til The End Of The Day´ (14) ´Dead End Street´ (15) ´Mister Pleasant´ (16) ´Autumn Almanac´ (17) ´Wonderboy´ (18) ´Days´ (19) ´Plastic Man´ (20) ´The Village Green Preservation Society´ (21) ´Victoria´ (22) ´Apeman´ (23) ´Supersonic Rocketship´ (24) ´Where Have All The Good Times Gone´ (25) ´Do It Again´
The Kinks Tribute Band Personnel Vocals ~ Kevin Maycock (aged 37) Guitar (Lead/Rhythm) ~ Phil (aged 30) Guitar (Rhythm) ~ Steve (aged 46) Bass ~ ? (aged 55) Drums ~ Anthony Lynch (aged 33)
THE SPIRITRYST (2007-Present) "..and this is me"...
..It is a twyst of two wordes and I merged them both into one of ´Spiriit´ and ´Tryst´. The latter meaning a place to meet...maybe for lovers...but if it is a place where you learned to understand yourself (as a breathing, flesh and bones human being) then this will be a 'Spiritryst' of course...It´s the only example of the word before and after me...well this is (sadly) untrue as a racing-horse in Australia was later named 'Spiritryst' too...I am not sure how well he or she is running this season. I have had a guitar with me since 1984 and an electric flying V (Ibanez) thingey-majiggery-pokery too it is. I bought one to emulate most of my then 'icons' back in the early eighties times. They were from the Punk and Metal world and I would sit down and try 'n' try to 'xerox' most of my favouritre Discharge, Slayer, Venom and Metallica toons ad finitum. I got to a 'o.k.' standard I guess...not ´up on stage´ material but I could copy them o.k. and after a few years realised that this was not my gifted calling in life. I am cool with that. It (the damn geetaw!) has actually spent more than a year without seeing the light of day some/most years up till 2006. I then started to travel after a dormant 19 years of 'settledowndom'. I chanced a travelling email from an elder lady and fell into a world of light and happiness in travelling. Everything I had done before was disguarded and I turned a new leaf over and headed off into another whirled...headfirst. I had just bought my first property (& the last!) and showed my back to the ladder-climbing ´property-developing´ circus that riddles the U.K. in an instance of sheer adrenalin and scariness. It sounds pathetic back then and it was...I had to actually inexplicably 'dig deep' within myself to click a bargain flight to a beautiful place and leave the old world behind. It highlighted just how banal life can make you without even realising it. Out there some 5500 miles from the U.K. and more or less on my own I found relaxation, time and more importantly.....me. It was walking towards a defining moment not too far away where I could say..."I have discovered the me I want to be"....where you are totally content and knowledgable about all your pluses and those minuses (that the U.K will highlight and punish over and over again for just being....imperefect..it is not a crime..it is being human..!). It was there that the travelling community if you can call it that, would drift through performing art, juggling, music and dance...anything with indepth expression and passion. No ego´s (much) and just a lot of love for their own art (if you call it that). I found a relaxed attitude to picking up a guitar whilst travelling...it almost became a new instrument for me..the motivation and encouragement from anyone and everyone was new too..I like that feeling of people wanting you to put yourself on that edge of a dangerous situation..the U.K.´s ´play it safe´ rulebook was destroyed in an instance and some 40 years of the 'old me' dripped away with it. I became a newer braver self-confident man. And so the guitar playing came back and I was busking out Oasis stuff and Tracy Chapman stuff pretty o.k. at times...other times no-one paid any attention or clapped...but I was now cool with that. I did it for me and it felt good...and so over the last 5 years I have actually really returned to a dusty instrument I had all but given up on. I really enjoy strumming one, playing songs, tapping a rhythm on the body-work of a guitar even...it´s a guitar and it makes me feel good. So the tunes came thick n fast on scribbled bits of paper at the same time as an old 64 year old guy just new to guitar walked into my life on a beach in India. It amazingly turned out that we had both had stood on the same football terraces some 15 years back for the same poorly supported failing footy team in South London. It was a small world. He alone had more buckets of fun, happiness and smiles for badly played guitar than most of the rare ego´s that drifted through my life. We (yes the unliked and unmusical duo!) set up a beach-side music night that soon became the place to be...fun, motivation and relaxation to such an extent that most people would jump on ´stage´ for the first time in their life and not really think twice about it. We had 150 people each night...while some other ego-musos struggle to pull 30 or 40. We had a little something called ´fun´. So we did that a few years and I said to him one day "those tunes that you play...you know you should record them?". he laughed and smiled and said...yeah that would be crazy.....my own CD of my own music. So back in England I got him to purchase via eBay a 8-track digital portastudio to record his stuff on. We read a few pages of the manual and set about laying down his songs. After mucho deleted swearing failures we fathomed out how to do it and within a month he had about 6 or 7 tracks fully laden with drums, guitars, bass, harmonies, backing vocals, solos and other such noises...success for him. While he watched TV one night he said to me..."You wanna put those tunes of yours down Anthony and see what music you can make for yourself"..!! So on headphones, while he slept I slowly experimented on sounds and my own tunes...and voila I did one bang...and quick too..I loved it all the more...I could now see where he was coming from...my vero own unique and meeeeeeeeeee song. Onto memory cards those ideas went and within a year I got the very same machine second-hand for 160 GBP on Ebay too. I was up and running now on my own in a world where anyone can make their own music (within reach of a PC and a guitar!!). Then in 2008 I set about making all of my favourite bits of tunes into proper songs. I have little problem...well none actually...in coming up with songs, ideas or lyrics...they all flow into me at such an easy rate of consistency...it amazes me I was so poor at things like poetry and literature at school some 4 decades prior. I designed my own cover and ran off about 25 copies of a rough CD and took it to India and gave it away to friends...it felt good sharing my stuff with a little world I inhabited. I also discovered Youtube and also Windows-Movie maker and made vivid-thought-and-emotion-provoking-photo-videos to go with my music online...that felt even better...I love the contrast that photography can bring in one flip from smiles to tears from humans searching for and through the same thing. I have above 16 videos online (at Youtube) as ´SPIRITRYST´ so you can go check them out now if you like.
I bought a travelling guitar (well its good guitar...but I just took it travelling..!!)´in 2009 and I took that with me to India. Playing live is daunting indeed...sitting there before 150 people...with little ole me as just there as their sole entertainment it is a little demanding and stange indeed. But its what I would like to achieve and do with my life...so it´s a little ´´Dislike but love´ situation for me. I guess that comes through when I play live too. Through the scene and vibe I was moving (India..not England) I felt totally at ease making music and not at all reticent about showing it or playing it to people. England will always smash your artistic beliefs out of you socially...people will (ahem) ´joke´ their entire lives away...not realising that that IS 'THEM' all their lives...most of the time at other peoples (yes thats you and I..!) expense...what more could a pathetic existence contain than that I ask of you..???? So getting your songs as a structure is the first thing... now how to share it with the world in the shape or structure that you would like......
RECORDING YOUR MUSIC WITH THE BOSS BR-600 Digital Portastudio The BR 600 from BOSS is an excellent entry level home music recording portable studio for beginners and professionals alike. O.K. The professionals will go on 32 and 64 track versions..and more likely use the BOSS Br-600 as a portable ´on tour´ or on the road recording device instead. For you (?) the beginner it is a vital piece of kit indeed...everything it produces is crystal clear and excellently recorded indeed. All new gadgets have a thick book...this one too but it has a few simple processes that you head for and voila you are up 'n' running in no time at all. Plug in your guitar (or instrument via the D.I. - Direct Input jack lead) and then set a level (headphones are good...I use them for everything during my music from first strum to final mixes!!). Then record yourself with any effect you like..check them all out before you record anything as you can note which ones you´ll need for any particular sound or groove you are creating. Think of the speed'or 'tempo' of your 'song' and work out how fast to fix the drums at...go for a simple beat to start with (you can always change the backing drums which keep time anyway later on..I use 'ROCK1-V1' so press that and jam along..then twiddle the tempo button from 120 bpm (beats per minute) to your desired speed...then thats the 'speed' of your song....!) Once you have the basic first channel/track then you have a basis for the sound it (the song that is..!). From that ´idea´ comes the song...So go jam along with it and throw down any ideas however basic and crass or simple you think they are..one line or phrase or hum something that you like..when you have a really rough song (of say three or four channels...Drums, guitar, bass, vocals or sounds etc). You can now set about starting a new track....the idea is over...you are about to record your final song...! Get a new song and recreate all the ideas but for real this time...the exact tempo you will know as the groove slides the song along nice enough for you to play at your level of ability and sing to that tempo too....guitar riffs or chords (rhythm) are next for me....jangly or rocked up..you can use them for s spine for the song..you can always go back to any track n re-record (over) it after you have all the channels done...simple. Once you have the length of song and guitar n drums...lay down the bass to go with it too...and voila you have a real chunky sounding trio to over lay vocals and even more (Unthought of up till that point) ideas onto..!! Then its playtime for you...when you are at that point. The vocals (main and harmonies) can be really attacked and thought of detailed like. You can give them your all and always press the ´undo´ button for any take (recording) you do if you don´t like it as much as nothing...or the last recording before that...very handy tool indeed (I use it it a lot). It is like soundscaping indeas until you get the one you like. Harmonies are big in my Spiritryst world so I concentrate on them complimenting but never drowning out the main vocal. Sometime I will do two harmonies in sections...but you can work around the guitar solo (Channel) with harmonies as mostly solo´s go cheek to jowel with harmonies like a jigsaw puzzle...in short..they never appear at the same time (in my songs anyway!!). So as you think of (and do try any idea out!!) use ideas they may well change the direction of the song of yours time and time again..this is good..as where you are is where you are and you will hear your own song getting wider, fatter and more elaborate before your ears each time you sit down and listen, modify and tamper with it. I fill up all the channels with each song I record..I could do with the 16-track version..but money is not flowing that well...so the 8-track does me fine. With all your channels completed and in front of you....you have a ´song´...but it is a little louder in some parts than other...and you want to change the sounds of each instrument a little...o.k. this is where a few handy ´tricks´ come into play. The first thing is the drums...it has (I think) 7 or 8 ´´kits´ programmed into the BOSS BR600. These are non negotiable and the sound they give you is a preset. So choose which vibe comes off which kits for you...from ´ Hard´ to ´Reggae´and from ´Room´ to ´Jazz´...these kits sample each genre of music..so listen to your song after going into the drum programming kit method...you also can program rolls and intros and outros too....Song starts and ends...they have 300 or so samples that you program...if you program and intro then it will loop in the time signature you have set for it (it usually comes at 4/4 timing..which is basic rock or pop and thats what I use mostly) if you program an intro then the next program drum piece will be a beat...for how many lines/parts of your song you like...when you want a drum roll...you can see where it should be on the timer interface..and you scroll and put it there..if the cursor is flashing (a short line underneath any digit or letter on the digital screen!) then if you twist the top right dial it will change that specific number/letter...and thats how you change things and scroll through lists too. Be careful of that everytime you twist the dial.....if you can get into looking for that flashing line firstly...then you won´t alter anything you dont want too. Also the ´Pan´ element is cool...it sets the sound of any specific channel (of music) to anywhere in your ears...left or right or central...is is great for the feeling of sounds hanging in the air in differing places...its a cool trick or element for me. The other trick is ´fixing-it-in-the-mix´ as they say...!!! You have a song in several channels and you are happy with them all...but when you play it..it has sounds that are ´bum´ or you would like to erase and some are lower or louder than others...so how can you remedy that on the BOSS br 600..?? I am sure you can...but I have found my way (an easier way I think!) to that problem...Here is the solution to it....it is called
'AUDACITY'
RECORDING YOUR MUSIC FROM YOUR BOSS BR600 ONTO YOUR COMPUTER, LAPTOP OR PC Well this is no surprise that you are going digital with it on your computer is it now??? I searched the internet for free music-mixing download software.....I (I think) I have come up a winner with AUDACITY. It is a completely safe and FREE download available on google right now. It takes your music and turns it into visual soundwaves...basically it is like a loud bang being Mount everest and a a few small hills being a humm...you can see it in its visual form and its cool indeed.
Just click the download and its simple indeed...this package alone will help you to become a songmaker alone on its own. I cannot recommend it highly enough...it is superb and free. A must for you (if you ask me). OK its downloaded and you open it up...all you need to do now is get you music from the BOSS BR600 into the computer and record it. Find a lead that will do this from the output on the boss (Line out) jack hole...usually red and white ones and find an adaptor lead to fit into your computer. Press the record button on the Audacity and see what happens..it should record the sound coming into the computer..if it doesnt then its headscratch time.....a drop down box at the top of the screen allows you to select some options...or check the volume settings (both Audacity and your Boss....if it comes through the headphones plugged into your BOSS br 600 then the sound is not reaching thre computer...or if it is..Audacity is not picking it up). A lot of faffing around will give you a headache..but the solution is there somewhere..I recall hitting brickwalls on some computers...while others just pick it up first time...also go click your computer 'system preferences' in 'applications' go to 'sounds' (the speaker icon) and click there...you will see 'input' and output'...you need to click 'inout' so the sounds are allowed to come in to your laptop...make sure its not 'muted' too..then try again with Audacity.....any hassles go online and look for forums where people like (here) offer some alternatives and ideas on how to do it. It is great on Youtube aswell...people have shown me such valuable hints on problems I have had...and there these angels are with a 4 minute video telling me exactly how to do what it is that I slept poorly over last night..!!! So if you are up and running and when you press record on Audacity (& play one channel with the volume up from your BOSS Br600...as a ´test´ with something you have played or sung...!!) if it records those blue ´soundwaves´ (hey thats you and your music on your computer now..!!) then you are in (the music) business...!! After recording a segment for say 10 seconds...then press stop (on both Audacity and the Boss). Then set the cursor on Audacity to ´´song start´ (0:00 seconds...just click at the start of the section!) then press the´Play´ button and with headphones on...you should hear a single channel you sent to the computer to be recorded..!!! So basically now you have the tools to assemble your song. Assemble it like I do if you like...The drum channel up to about the volume you like (almost anything on Audacity can be altered later on!!) and press ´record´ on the Audacity and make sure the blue soundwave lines do not hit the top of the channel (the channel is Stereo on Audacity and you get left and right making its way as it records from the left (start) of the screen to the right direction..for as long as you are recording. If they do hit the top of the Audacity channel...turn the volume down on the BOSS BR600 until it doesn't (at its loudest point of your recording). Then when you have set the non-frazzlingly loud levels..you can record the channel (drums?) all the way through.....try to leave a little (say 10-20 seconds at the start and end for later modifying...it is VERY handy to have this bailout buffer-zone I tell you....!! and you can always delete it later if you do not use it...!). You will fade in and out anyway and/or delete it if you do not use it later on. So repeat the volume and recording seperate channles until all the seperate channels on the BOSS br 600 have been recorded SEPERATELY also on the Audacity program. (when you press stop' on the audacity...the next time you press 'record'..it opens a new channel anyway...so things can only be end-to-end if you press pause...not advisable at first...!)You should have the same number on Audacity as the BOSS br600 of course..!!! So now you have them all you have to align them up so they ´play together´ in time of course. I have found no easier way on Audacity than the way I do it..I listen to the drums and I know when the first chord (Rhythm Guitar) audio-wise comes in....so I will align my track with those two firstly. I either delete a little of the drums track (until then align) or add some blank space into the guitar channel track (or vice versa) its like cutting or taking away extra/too much carpet to make the designs run side by side...you can hear when the two channels are ´correct´ and in time...and also when they are not..!!! When you have the guitar aligned..then repeat the same for the other channels...you can ´mute´ any track/s you want to..and work with 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 etc as you wish...great for when you are aligning...and when you have the first chords/voice aligned...then automatically the rest of the channel will be too....just move onto the next one and voila all 8 channels are together and you can play them completely in time for the first time....an amazing moment indeed..!!! Now it sounds like a song..but not exactly levelled and the start and ends are maybe unprofessional and also there seems to be some bits on each channel I would like ´Silenced´ too...and other such questions...!!! The fade in and out have two versions...a quicker one and slower one too...but you can overlap the fade ins and outs several times to gently slope it out (or in). you can do this as a whole song (I.E. all the channels highlighted...make sure none are muted..!!) or just focus on one channel at a time for instance the guitar should come in slightly fading in ahead of the bass or vice versa....any instrument you can choose its fade in or out point...I go for the levels first then fade them all out or in together...mostly but not always...!! Also you can de-volume any track.....I start from the drums and bass and guitar..once the backbone of the song are in sync(hronisation) then you can adjust around them three channels (treat them as a finished ´track´ once the Drums, Guitar and Bass are playable levelled and happywise for you!). Then levelling others is much easier...I do the vocals next and maybe the solo´s and effects after that. But your choice is the way your song will go for you. You can also affect any section of any channel on Audacity with highlighting it and selecting the drop down effects banks (or delete, copy, remove, silence etc..!!!). The effects they offer (like any) are all perosnal to taste.....try them out repeatedly over a section of guitar for instance (highlighting the solo then adding say for instance Phaser). Then relisten to it and come to you conclusion...wrong effect (choose another) or right effect...but ´wrong sound´. So if you like the phaser...but it could sound ´better´ then all you do it highlight a section (say 4 or 5 seconds of a track) then press play on the phaser and it will play it for you.....faff around till you get the sound you want....if not then go check out some more effects. There are so many effects for everything on the Audacity package.....do go try them and see what you like...sounds for experimenting and also for mixing too. I recently 'discovered' the 'Mix and Render' button.....this is awesome for when you have a 'finished' song....highlight everything and press the button..the re-listen to it...nice one Audacity...!!! ....equalisers and god knows the stuff you can get out from it.....amazing that it is free too...it is a vital piece of making music for me..without it....is not worth thinking about....go download it now....!!! Also you can download a software app to turn your songs saved in audacity to MP3's (usage on the internet wise...this is very important indeed)..basically its a MP3 converter file maker software app.
By the way...if you want a different compliment of music backing (samples, drums bass and anything..!) go to 'Macloops' on the net...this (low quality...but still highly usable!) short aiff music files are superb for even making whole dance tunes...its idiot proof and they have a huge selection too...everything from country n western to dub step to metal to punk....
So after all that experimentation with Audacity...you are getting cockily good at knowing whats what and you are flying about..cutting, pasting, mixing and fading in and out...lopping tunes to fade and repeat in the background mid-song and also using the octaves and raising notes for harmonies etc..a real record producer now eh...!!!! You will want to save these 'sounds' of course. You can save them as Audacity files...like they prompt you to do so (You can indeed but I send them to my computer ´save them´ as WAV files. That way your actual computer can play them..and not just Audacity. So you call it the name of your choice and save it in a folder where you know where it is..dont get it lost now...when you are happy with a song..save two versions of the same song...just incase you know how things can disappear...I have been there...many times...!! Also when you close down the Audacity program..it prompts you (for some absurd reason?!?!?) to save you items or there will be nothing left of your music...I did exactly as they told me..then there was nothing...it WAS ACTUALLY blank...I think this is their way of getting you to buy the actual (Full version) package...so I am telling you NOT to press save....just click in the 2nd drop down menu at the top of the page and 'SAVE AS' from there...I do NOT save it with the 'closing audacity dialogue box's (the grey one..EVER!) shut it down without doing any decision making when that dialogue box comes up just prior to shutting it down. Because you have already saved you song in your files. Open it up to try it out once you have saved your song and see the channels load for you to work on them again...!! If they do (like they always do for me!) then you are up ´n´ running So you got your song and its saved and you have aligned it, adjusted the volume levels and are very happy indeed thankyou verry mush with the final song when it plays.......So now what...????? Well you can burn it onto CD.....and make an Album if you have enough songs or a single if you have 3 or 4 tracks. But what about ´Making a Video´ for your song..??? And then popping it onto Youtube...???? Great idea....so here´s how to do it...(Well how I do it I should say!)
MAKING A VIDEO FOR YOUR SONG/MUSIC AND UPLOADING IT TO YOUTUBE Well if that sounds daunting enough for you...you better go away..because it is not...it is fun...fun and more fun...!!! O.K: so you are a music star (at least in your own mind...for now!)...and the thought of a video is too much to go for...o.k. I understand that angle of thought. But the tools are out there for you to make a great photo-slideshow music video for yourself.....check out one of mine I made simply using ´Windows Movie Maker´.....
This was made in a simple slow and fun manner from a computer at a friends house over a few days and nights. Here´s how I approached it.....if you watch the video you will see I have a dark starting page or a few containing the the titles and info too then these give way to images and then thats the basis until the song ends (The end of the video is missing only due to it being so long and my friends computer not being able to handle the size it was uploading). So how to do it is simple just open a ´new´ project and click on the boxes and soon enough you will find the ones you need...spend a few hours (if you feel you need it on Windows Movie Maker) just doing nothing but clicking and finding out what it does (that way you will not get frustrated s it is not YOUR MUSIC PROJECT...just faffing around and getting used to it...save it if you want too as a template). Then when you think you are ready to start on your OWN PROJECT....then go for it....the intro is important as it sets it up nicely for the visuals (I would love to do moving video too....but I find still images very powerful too). Song title...your name...when it was recorded and on what device and how are nice to know. Then before I go get the first image...I have all the lyrics from my song (Burned a CD of it and play it and pause it while) I go to Google Images and try to relate the image/s to the words of my song...so for instance if you song starts with the lyrical line "It was a hot sunny day on route 66" (Heaven forbid it does...but we´ll go along that route for now o.k.?!?!?) Then you can type into Google Images "Sunset Route 66" and press search and go find something you like...or "Car on Route 66".....or "Road across the desert" etc...use your mind and imagination to use other words instead of the actual lyrics most times...it works better I find if you type in similar words and not the actual words of the actual song...but whatever works for you...then go for it..!!! Also if you select images and they contain words across the photo or are too dark/light/small/big you can ´open´ them on your computer after you have saved them and ´work on them´ in your own computers ´photoshop´......just go and faff around with the options on that (if you are not too familiar with it) and then you´ll be able to save and use almost any image available on the web for your song. If you go through your song saving them ´as you go´ then you must name them ´Line 1-01' and then the next image might also be vying for the opening image so save the next ´Line 1-02´ and so on...so when you open your images (and the relevent folder you saved them all in) they will already be in almost perfect order to work on through them systematically!). The beat/rhythm of your song will almost certainly dictate when the images on your rapidly assembling video change. If its a straight 4/4 rock beat rhythm...just count the drum beats......"1 and 2 and 3 and 4"...then the image should change to the next...and subsequent next line too.....about every 4 seconds (I find is enough of one image)...any less and you get too much in too short a time...and likewise if its 7 or 8 seconds on one image it can be too ´slow´. You will find out what is right for you and your song and YOUR video soon enough. Not just placing the image in the designated time beat/rhythm slot is important but also how the image looks and moves...you can have a fair few ´movements´ and swirls and flips...try them out (like anything..!) and you will soon shave them down to a few core favourites that appeal to you and also the image/s....also pay attention to your lyrics..op if you have words like "Flip"...."Spin"....."Turn"...."Fall".."Black and/or White" then you can also use these ´options´ in the image movements and have a black and white image then flipping or turning...it is clever but simple stuff that you will be making....before you know it you´ll be going back changing earlier verses and words overlaid across them, moving in colours and spins etc. That point is where you are really creating a masterpiece of your own....You dive in much deeper and are almost making your own movie infact.....like a musical visual book..your very own video film. Keep on saving it...if in doubt save two copies...open the last one you saved...and when you save it later on after an hour or two save it as a different video....just incase..then you have two videos and when you wake up and play the section you made yesterday...you can either add onto it...or delete it and start again...or maybe even modify the last-saved version....but dont save more than two versions...it clogs up your computer and always confuses you no end...!!!! So now you are up and running and need little advice before you finish you video and song ready for Youtube. The end should be (I feel) musically fading out and then the last titles come in..."thanks to.....more of your songs available on...check out my pages at....etc.."....whatever you feel is relevent. I always put the lyrics to my songs at the foot of the video. Sometimes people cannot hear all the words or catch them...and remember the world is a big big place and not everyone speaks 'english' (or your language)....so the written word helps others to watch and read...if your words mean something to you then get them understood....so putting them on screen means they are all readable in english/your language. So when you have your Windows Movie Maker video of ´Your song´ saved and it plays fully from start to finish...then now what..???? Well you need to get it to Youtube...sometimes it seems impossible and others it just works....what file to save it in is always a common question....Well the more clarity via visuals and sound...the bigger the video file size...some of mine have been 350mb in size (for me thats big) some others less than 150mb...check out Youtube for tutorials on WIndows Movie Maker file size uploads..watch, listen and learn. If you do not understand it...do not get frustrated...just click another video to watch on a tutorial and wait till you get one that relays the information in a way you want it to..!!! I have saved them on my desktop (of a computer) that worked well.....some...if not all of your videos you make (for youtube etc) will not play on your actual computer. software programs.....DO NOT scream.....swear or shout...!! For you are trying to upload it to Youtube etc...not play it on your conflicting(?) computer software programs...I have had loads of videos I made and play perfectly on Youtube...that have never (and never will;....!) play on my computers...software wars again....if it doesn´t play on Youtube...then thats the time to get mad..!!!!! If its in HD (High definition) like 1080/720mb or more in file size....then the ´buffering´ (upload speed of your computer and/or internet connection) may not be able to handle it all to play it smoothly...so it pauses and you get that shuddering aggravating wait for ´bits of songs´. I always upload the latest videos of mine in as high as the computer I am working on will handle...!! 720 usually now...all it does is give people (with great powerful computers and/or internet connections) the option of more clarity/sound quality while watching my stuff...if you do not have those options you can always click the ´cog´ icon at the bottom right of the youtube movie screen and selct a lower load speed say 480/360 or even 240....then it loads faster and plays smooth but the payoff is less clarity both is visuals (mainly) and audio. Hey but if your song is there then you are a star indeed and well done indeed to you......! I have not loaded a video up for 6 months now so am a wee bit rusty on the dead correct details of everything above and the stuff I have missed out...my guide is as accurate as I can recall....anything innacurate or any questione then feel free to contact me and I shall try and help your savaged wildly frustrated brain a little if I can....make someones day...make a song and a video and put it on Youtube.....it is an amazing feeling when a complete stranger clicks they ´like´ your song and/or comment on it too....Music is beautiful....so go create and make something unique in your life that is only ´you´ and no-one else on this gorgeous planet........Cheers for reading this far and if you have made a video under some of my guidance...then send me a link please...I´d love to see how you got on...!!!