I just posted recordings from my university days, which was when I first got my feet wet with digital multitrack recording. I licensed a shareware app called n-Track Studio which I used for years. A new version came out within a month or so of my purchase, but the company wanted me to pay for the upgrade so I just kept using the old version for the next 6 years until I migrated everything to Linux.
The name “New Folder” was a joke, because I was a compulsive organizer of my own computer’s filesystem and it drove me crazy to see other people’s computers with random folders scattered all over the desktop. “New Folder” is the default name for a newly created folder in Windows, and I remember seeing a desktop with New Folder, New Folder (2), and New Folder (3) all on the desktop, and all empty folders! I decided that the only way I would ever have a directory named “New Folder” on my computer was if I gave that name to an album. So I did, and I chuckle to myself whenever I see it in the file manager.
I am still fond of these recordings, but they are a bit rough around the edges because I was at an early stage of learning the craft.
“The Dead Horse Revival” was my first attempt to program drums in a midi piano roll editor. This is a song that dates back to about 1995, but in the early 2000’s I was working on my fingerstyle technique and had been reworking this song with a new chorus. I needed a song to test the electronic drums with, so on a whim I chose this. I was smart enough not to try recording my primitive fingerstyle, which was pretty sloppy at the time. The original song was called “The Dead Horse,” and this version breathed new life into it.
“Oasis” has been through many iterations. This version is actually a remix that I did in 2006, and I was still not entirely satisfied with it. I am resisting the urge to revisit this song, because I have already spent too much of my life on it. But it is tempting, because I left out the rhythm guitar in the verses and it sounds too empty. I also want to rework the drums during the verses, rewrite the lyrics, and maybe transpose it down to a key that I can actually sing in. But I like the guitar parts, the synthesizer, and the drums during the second half. (Obviously I have mixed feelings about this recording.)
“Green Thumb [midi]” was the logical extension of my experiments with midi drums. My brother Mark was working as an intern at the local PBS affiliate TV station, and needed a short song for the soundtrack of a commercial he was making. “Green Thumb” is an old Claudia song, and this version was a radical departure from the alternative rock original, but I was really pleased with the result. This recording is actually a stereo remix I made in 2006.
“Wormwood [midi]” has almost an identical story to “Green Thumb [midi].” This was a song from the immediate post-Claudia period during summer 1996, and the original version was recorded on a tape that we named “Chronocide: The Downfall of Mountain Standard Time.” We performed this as a new song at the last Claudia concert in November 1996. This version is a stereo remix from 2006.
“Song of Odysseus” is a rearrangement of the Claudia song “Stay With Me,” which needed a new set of lyrics. These new words were inspired by my winter bicycle commute, which always seemed to have a headwind. Mark contributed a line to the new words. The music was taken directly from the “2001: A Claudyssey” recording which featured Jake Bracken on bass.
“Lint in my Pocket” was a solo recording of an old pre-Claudia song that I wrote with Mark in about 1995. This was my first attempt to do digital multitrack recording by myself, and I think it turned out okay. The popping and crackling came from my cheap sound card.
“Aurelia Aurita” was another early solo multitrack recording. The song was written in 2000 not long after I got home from my mission. I found the words in a notebook of poems that Mark had written. Aurelia aurita is the scientific name for the moon jellyfish.
I hope you enjoy these old tunes!
