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BigBoss · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:49 pm Post subject: Psychic For Radio

I don't know about you, but I often have songs playing in my head, either stuff I'm writing or stuff I know. About a year ago I was running around and this very long song was playing back in my head and when I got to the radio, not only was that song playing, it was at the same point as the playback going in my head. I was talking to a friend shortly afterward and commented that I was "psychic for radio" and I prompty said "what a cool name for a band". I've since had similar experiences, I've got no idea what to attribute it to, but it's a super power. Anyway that lead to the formation of a project idea.

After a variety of ideas were thrown around and discarded, I eventually and relatively recently came up with the concept I wanted to work with. Get a group of guys together that have never played together before and seclude ourselves and write and record an album. Right now we've got me doing keyboards and guitar, a bass player, a guitarist and a studio all confirmed. We've got a vocalist 90% confirmed and have gotten a large response in an open call for drummers. the idea is to go and start recording on June 30 at the moment. The idea is to make some cool music, have fun, stretch outside of our individual comfort zones a bit and make an album that is interesting, but not overly thought out. Should be fun, I'll let you know more as it develops.
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goo-goo · Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 7:54 am Post subject:

who's confirmed on playing?
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BigBoss · Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 7:56 am Post subject:

I'm not sure that I should say too much at this point on the specific players in case the whole thing tanks Smile

But they are both in bands that have albums out on my label and are both in the Los Angeles area.
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goo-goo · Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 2:05 pm Post subject:

BigBoss · Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 2:41 pm Post subject:

You left out trumpet, I was just taking my old trumpet in to get it cleaned up, my son thinks he wants to learn how to play one, so we'll try with my old one first. Boy, I've had this thing for 33 years.
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goo-goo · Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 7:33 am Post subject:

BigBoss · Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 7:41 am Post subject:

I can literally play just about any instrument you put in front of me, not necessarily well because I haven't learned where the notes are on it yet (like woodwinds). I started playing in Orchestra when I was 9 (which is where I got the trumpet) and I had the opportunity to play many other instruments. Trumpet and Piano are the only 2 instruments for which I've had actual lessons, everything else I taught myself like guitar, tapping, bass, drums, etc. I was not fortunate enough to have my parents send me to a music academy, you'd think after paying for 3 years of piano lessons and buying me a trumpet they would have wanted me to pursue it more, but they mostly discouraged any practicing because of the noise.

I have 5 sisters and the one that is 18 months younger did piano, sax and drums, so for a while when we were kids we formed a band where she played drums and I played this cheesy organ and sang. She's actually got a much better natural ability than I do, it's a shame she didn't really keep up with it, but a few years ago she got herself a drum set again and started pounding away. I wish she was better, I'd use her for this project Smile

- by the way, I still need to confirm a drummer so any drummers in Los Angeles, drop me a line.
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goo-goo · Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 8:43 am Post subject:

*Mark Zonder *cough*cough Razz

mhm..maybe i can post this at the MP.com Forum...

just let me have soemthng like an official statement.
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BigBoss · Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 10:09 am Post subject:

I have some peripherial experience with Zonder and it would not be a gig he'd be in to.
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BigBoss · Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 1:24 pm Post subject:

well I just returned from the first Psychic for Radio weekend, boy, what an amazing time. This is who was part of it:

Kurt Barabas (Under The Sun) - Bass
Karl Johnson (Atlantis and K2 live) - Guitar
Doug Sanborn (K2 and a zillion other bands) - Drums
me - keyboards, guitar

We had a guy by helping with vocal stuff, not sure if he'll sing it, so final singer is up in the air. First let me say that these are some freaking monster players, I knew they were good from having heard and see them live, but I just had no idea how good, I was certainly a bit out of my league on that one, but it was great fun. Like 12 hour days for 3 days and everyone had a good time, we forgot to eat a lot of the time.

So on Friday it was Kurt, Karl and I and we sketched out 4 songs, on Saturday after Doug had arrived we worked out the arrangements to the 4 songs and did some general jamming and got set up to record. On Sunday we tracked the songs, although there is more to record, we all have our own studios and can lay that down remotely and we worked on some other new tunes, we got most of this insane tune in 5 worked out, but it was still very loose, so we'll save it for next time. I managed to get lyrics written and rough vocal done on one track this morning (monday).

It really went better than I hoped overall and it was a lot of fun. I pulled my camper up there for the rest of us to live in, and it was an adventure getting it in the driveway, which is 100 yards long and we had about 1 inch of clearance on each side, but no damage was done.

I'm super appreciative to the guys for helping me realize my concept and I'm anxious to get the material to a point where you can start to hear it and also finish up the album.
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goo-goo · Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 8:40 pm Post subject:

Was there any film involved? wuld be pretty cool watching you drive the camper on that 1 in on each side...
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BigBoss · Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:46 am Post subject:

I probably filmed about 25 minutes total, but we didn't think to try and film getting the camper through. I meant to film a lot more, but I kept forgetting, I'll go through the tapes and see if there is something interesting enough to pull off of it.
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BigBoss · Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:16 pm Post subject:

So I have forgotten to follow this up. Back in January, Michael Sadler came to the studio and laid down vocals for one of the ballads, then just this week I got Mark Zonder to lay down drums to this guitar riff that I wrote. I'm hoping to get those 2 tracks wrapped up and on Mindawn in the next month, and I've got another track nearing completion. We got really delayed because I had Kurt do the Amaran's Plight album, and that took a lot of time, and then we all just keep getting busy, but we've got 75% of the plan laid out now and I think all the rough tracks for the songs to finish an album in the next 6 months, but I plan to release about half of it or so as the tracks are finished on Mindawn so it doesn't have to sit.
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Shawn Gordon
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ProgRock Records