The New CD is Mixed and Mastered

Greetings once again from the lake...

We've had a small taste of winter around here the last day or two. It actually started snowing for a few minutes this afternoon. Damn, I'm not ready for another winter. I'm just not a winter kind of guy. I'd rather wear shorts and go barefoot than trudge around in heavy coats and boots. Granted, we keep it toasty warm around here with the fireplace (furnace hasn't even had to kick on yet), so I can hang around the house in as little clothing as I want (smile), but I'm going to miss going for walks.

On to the album news...

I'm basically done with the final mixing and mastering on the new album now. Mastering this one myself was even more of a bear than I thought it would be. I think I did a reasonably competent job - at least enough so that there shouldn't be any sonic issues with the CD serious enough to interefere with anyone's enjoyment of the music. I gave in to the itch to record "just one more song," so the new album will feature 12 new tracks.

I plan to shoot a video for the first single, "Go," towards the end of this month. Then it's just a matter of getting the rest of the packaging and (hopefully) CD-ROM content together in order to get the album released by late November or the beginning of December. My main website will also get a complete revamping at that point; it's long overdue, but I've just been so damned busy getting the CD finished that it's been hard to find the time. One skinny little punk can only do so much at once, LOL.

Stay tuned and look for the new video sometime in the first half of November!

DV

Almost Finished Recording the New Album

August 2006 New Album Update

Hullo, m'friends...how's everyone doing? Hope you've been having a great summer (unless you're in the southern hemisphere and it's winter, LOL!). I've been having a pretty good one - somehow, in the midst of working on this album and various other things, I've found time to make a few trips here and there and enjoy it. I remember when I used to be a very reclusive guy and never seemed to get out and do anything all summer - things have surely gone the other way since then!

I have eleven new songs recorded now. I think I have enough variety and scope in the material at this point to make a good, nicely-balanced album (unless I decide to do "just one more" at the last minute - it's happened before, hehe). It's always a bittersweet thing coming to the end of a project. It's definitely exciting to complete another collection of songs and be able to share them with everyone, but it's also hard to cut myself off - I think I always feel like that "ultimate song" is still in me and I'm always wanting to take one more stab at "getting it right."

The new album will be called Go, deriving its title from the newest song I just recorded (which will also likely be the opening song and first single/video). A similar thing happened with Reality Show - "Out of the Closet" was written in a last-minute burst of spontaneity and ended up becoming the album's "flagship" song. It's kind of a cool thing that seems to happen at the very end of a project - you look back at everything you've done for an album and suddenly feel the urge to ramp it up one more notch by doing something really cool and different.

At this point, I'm going back and tweaking the mixes on everything, fixing problems and making subtle improvements to get things more ready for the mastering stage. I'm also driving myself halfway insane working on cover concepts; I wavered back and forth and agonized over the graphics on Reality Show quite a bit and this time is no different. With any luck (and as long as I don't decide to record that "one more song"), I should be able to have the new CD out in October. Most likely the "Go" single and video will be released a week or two before the album itself.

That's the news for now. Off and running again. Have fun and behave yourselves (or at least be good enough to stay out of jail!).

David

Chicago, Madonna, Modding My Bass...

Halooooooooooooooooo out there...

Boy, June has been a busy month.

The first weekend, we went camping downstate. Wouldn't you know it, the weather turned unseasonably cold just in time for it and we froze our asses off at night. Still a nice weekend, though.

The second weekend, we took a trip to Chicago (the first time for both of us in the "Windy City") to catch the Madonna show. Chicago...wow, what an amazing city. So much stimulation and so many things only a walk or a short bus ride away. Our friend, Bert, who is the production manager for Gay Chicago Magazine, very kindly put us up for the weekend and showed us around town. A big city is a lot less intimidating when you're with someone who knows his way around. The Madonna concert was great fun - from what I've heard, it wasn't quite as an elaborate a production as she has featured on previous tours, but it was still quite a spectacle of sight and sound. Madge does know how to throw a party!

Then it was back to Michgan (and reality) to spend the rest of the week taking care of everything that had been let go during all of this. Ugh.

Finally, I was able to get around to installing the mods for my Fender Jazz fretless bass that I'd been wanting to do for the past month. A set of Dimarzio Model J pickups, a new Gotoh bridge and a new pickguard later, I have it sounding and looking mucho better. The new pickups have really brought that bass to life with a big bottom end and a "vintage" vibe. It put me in such a "retro" frame of mind that I'm now working on a downtempo track with an almost '70s feel to it for the 10th song on the new CD. I wonder if Madonna would lend me her "John Travolta" suit if I do a video for this song? It would probably almost fit my skinny ass...although the sleeves and pant legs would be a little short... ;-)

Time to kick back with a glass of wine for a few. George Carlin is on TV - I can't think of a better way to cap off the day. :-)

Fretless Bass (part two), and a New Interview

For those interested in the "techy" stuff...

Yeah, stop the presses...I changed my mind and opted for a different fretless bass (availing myself of the fickle, flighty musician's prerogative, LOL).

I should say first that the Steinberger Synapse was a nice instrument in its own right. Interesting design and a very different sound. But the longer I had it, the more I realized I'd really rather have a 4-string fretless instead of a 5, and that I kind of missed a more traditional body shape.

So I had a Fender Jazz 4-string fretless sent over to try out as well. After putting lighter gauge strings on and getting the action right, it plays beautifully. I just need to put a different bridge on it and make one or two other tweaks and I'll be stylin'. So the Steinberger is on its way back to the retailer and the Jazz, in its rather slick Midnight Wine finish, is now sitting happily in its new home in my studio, waiting to be used on the last few tracks for the new album. I have a feeling I'll end up getting rid of my other basses and buying another Jazz fretless (maybe with a different type of pickups in each for sonic variety). I never thought I'd find another bass that feels even more comfortable to play than my Carvin, but I'll be darned...

My First Published Interview...

I hadn't thought about it, but I guess this my first real interview published on the web. I'm the featured artist for May 2006 at Gay Guitarists Worldwide, a site run by Robert Urban, a musician well known and respected in the GLBT community. You can read it here:

http://roberturban.com/gayguitaristsworldwide.html

More New Areas to Explore on the New CD

"The Vectorman Goes Fretless"

I have seven songs "in the can" for the still-untitled new CD and I've already delved into so many different, new sonic areas. Presenting this rather ambitious material live is already going to be a challenge, so what did I go and do? Why, I decided to take up a "new" instrument and make it even more difficult, LOL!

I've been a fan of fretless bass players Patrick O'Hearn and Tony Franklin for years and have always wanted to delve into fretless. The other day, I got the itch again and figured, what the hell, why not go for it now? I've also been very intrigued by the new Steinberger Synapse basses, so I decided to satisfy both curiosities at once and get a Synapse 5-string fretless (see photo). I've only had a few days with it, but my initial impression is that it's a very slick design and very comfortable to play. I just used it for some overdubbed parts on a new song I finished up yesterday, and it sounds great in the track - its sound has a lot of definition and personality.

Playing fretless isn't easy, mind you...a certain amount of nuance/inaccuracy in pitch is part of the fretless "sound," but keeping everything in-tune enough to sound good without the aid of frets takes some practice. I have a long way to go to master this thing, but the rewards in terms of the added expressiveness will be worth it. I just hope I can get it sufficiently under control not to suck too badly when I go to play it live at gigs, hehehe. :-)

I'm still really fond of my Carvin 4-string, of course - it's a fine bass and Carvin make beautiful instruments. Given how different the Carvin and the Steinberger feel, though, I don't know that I'll be wanting to switch back and forth during gigs, so I'll likely just play everything on the Steinberger fretless. (I wonder if I can get an endorsement out of this...? LOL)

Meanwhile, I'm starting on song #8 for the new album. Might actually get this sucker done before the end of the summer after all...

"In-Flight Movie" - This Month's Song Preview

"In-Flight Movie"

Preview Now Playing at http://www.myspace.com/davidvector

(Approved for all audiences)

Greetings, m'friends! Here we are with this month's sneak peak at the new album. You have your boarding pass - let's go airborne for a few. :-)

Inspiration comes from the strangest places. The initial idea for "In-Flight Movie" actually occurred to me while watching the Jodie Foster movie, Flightplan. I found myself pondering the imagery of aircraft and flight, and thinking that it might be interesting to use a person taking off on a deserted airplane from a deserted airport at night as sort of a metaphor for those who have lost the joy of being alive and are in danger of "drifting out of the world" if someone doesn't intervene.

The "disillusioned dreamers and the weary with care" are taking one-way flights out of life every day, of course. The "dreamers" around us can be more susceptible to these unexpected departures than many realize. They expect so much from their lives and feel everything so intensely that when things appear to have gone all wrong, making a seemingly romantic exit like a character in a tragic movie can become an appealing notion. Better to be dead than to live a failed, mediocre life and all that. I'm not endorsing that line of thinking, mind you (if I did, I would have been gone long ago after the many disappointments I've weathered, and I never would have been around to see things get better).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the clip (the song itself is 5 1/2 minutes long, this is just the first 2 1/2 minutes or so). As I just told a friend, I really need to do a more upbeat, happy song after this...I do gravitate to the moodier side oftentimes, but I don't want to get all depressing and start having people trying to label me as "emo" for heaven's sake. :-)

As a side note, I also set up a camcorder in the home studio during the recording of this song so that I can include a few brief snippets of the recording process in a "making-of" video that I'll put online when the new album is released. Don't worry...contrary to rumor, I do NOT record my vocals in the nude, so the vid will be entirely work safe, LOL.

Hope you enjoy your weekend! Write me when you get the chance and tell me what's new. The Internet goes both ways and I always enjoy hearing from you guys. :-)

Dave

"Get Real" - New Song Sample from the Next CD

"Bass Guitar is back in the mix on a brand-new song preview."

Click the link below to check out a preview of "Get Real":

http://www.davidvector.com/new_album_previews/Get_Real_sample.mp3

Hiya, boys and girls...

Still working away on the new album as the bitter cold here in northeast Michigan keeps me indoors. Hope you're keeping warm wherever you are, unless you're in a climate where it's warm all the time (in which case, I hate you, LOL).
Thought I'd share a partial clip of a new song I just finished recording, mainly because this one features something I haven't used on the last few tracks: bass guitar. I pulled my "baby", my Carvin custom 4-string bass, out of its case for the first time in a while, and rekindled the love affair. It's been cool doing some more heavily electronic stuff for the CD, but I thought it was time to bring my bass playing back into the picture; it's one of the things that helps set me apart from a lot of other techno/dance music, since most of that kind of thing uses nothing but synthesizer bass.
The lyrics on "Get Real" describe something we all encounter on Myspace, elsewhere on the Net, on MTV and the radio, and in everyday life: fake, shallow people. You know the type. As Rush's Neil Peart put it in "Limelight", they're the ones who wish to seem rather than wish to be. The ones who have to read GQ, Cosmo, Instinct, etc. to know how to dress, how to decorate their homes, what music to listen to in order to be perceived as part of the "in crowd". Sure, there's nothing wrong with wanting to have a little style and glamour injected into your life. It can be fun. But life isn't meant to be a 24/7 fashion show, a nonstop indulgence in empty vanity that makes you lose all perspective.
And then there's reality TV (a recurring subject on my last album), which is so good at making buffoons of people for the sake of "entertainment". But a lot of people want it, don't they? Fame for no real reason and a short-lived moment of glory at any price. Instead of "What would you do for a Klondike Bar?" it's "How much of an ass are you willing to make of yourself just to get thousands or millions of people to notice you for five minutes?"
Of course, the irony of the fact that I'm forced to play the "game of hype" a little bit myself isn't lost on me. You can't be in the music biz and not do the PR thing (unless you want to be playing for 8 or 10 people). But to me, the "glamour shots on Myspace" and all that are secondary to making good music. I'd like to think that most people dig me for the music first and foremost, not just because they're having daydreams about what they'd do with me if they got me naked, LOL. ;-)
Aaaaaanyway....enough of my babbling. Hope you enjoy the song preview. Making a video for that one is going to be fun - a great opportunity to poke some much-deserved fun at the more fake and pretentious aspects of the music biz and of modern society in general (evil grin).

Talk to you soon!
Dave