I made a new video a few days ago. I’m playing bouzouki again, and singing John Lennon’s great song “Oh My Love”:
I’ve also created a Myspace page for the band, which has three songs from the upcoming album you can listen to. That’s at http://myspace.com/mallsecurityissexualmagic
I found an old video recording today that I had entirely forgotten having made. It was taped while I recorded my college audition tape because some school required a video recording. So I dubbed in the final mixed recording and put it on Youtube.
This song (and five others) got me a live audition at Julliard which I’m quite proud of achieving. It’s a Miles Davis song called Dig. I had to play the melody, solo, and walk over all six songs, so that explains a little what’s going on in the video and why. It was recorded at Peter Tomlinson’s home studio near Woodstock. He played the piano, and Jeff Siegel the drums (they both teach jazz at West Conn).
This isn’t my bass but Kim Valentines (my teacher at the time). I didn’t have what became “my” bass for another month.
Queens of the Stone Age’s great album “Lullabies to Paralyze” is a big influence on the record I’m making at the moment (QotSA and the Doors really stand out as two big influences on the sound I’m going for), so last night I felt the urge to cover the kind of sweet, kind of dark opening song from that album, “This Lullaby”.
I played it on my bouzouki, which is an Irish instrument I have. It’s tuned similarly to a mandolin (GDAD instead of GDAE), and is an octave lower. I figured out the arpeggio, turned the “camera” on (it’s an iSight embedded in my computer), then did my best Mark Lanegan impersonation.
I have a couple other covers planned to try to stave off the overwhelming public demand for my music while I finish work on our first album “der Wulfähn” (which is coming along great- it may be done by the end of the week).
I’ve been making a lot of progress on the recording of our first album der Wulfmähn. Tonight I decided to record vocals for several songs, and decided to experiment with a new recording technique. I tweaked some instrument tracks then put my laptop, microphone, headphones, and a flashlight into my backpack, grabbed a microphone stand and began to drive.
I play mostly at night because it’s quiet and I know I’ll be left alone, but I don’t live by myself and so I have to keep it down. I sing louder in my car than anywhere else (probably because the idea that everyone in your car wants to hear you sing is reassuring), and there are all sorts of other advantages to recording in a small, isolated spot. Your sound waves stay put and don’t disperse, allowing greater bass and other acoustic phenomenon that I’ve never studied. Plus, since our first album is designed with night time driving in mind, where better to record then actually in a car in the middle of the Nether Woods?
The recordings came out pretty well, I’ll definitely try it again. I’m psyched to have found one of those personal methods that make what someone does unique. You should always be on the lookout for those.
Any “Rescue Me” fans out there that were as amazed as I was by the final scene of the new episode tonight should check out Mark Lanegan’s album “Bubblegum”. Without it, and the song “One Hundred Days” that closing wouldn’t have been nearly as moving, the two really complimented one another. The whole album’s a moody journey about drug abuse and all sorts of gritty topics you may run into under an overpass somewhere- worth buying/downloading/whatever you do.
Hey everybody! My name is David Gill, and I’ve started this blog as an outlet for the various things I’m working on at the moment. I’m a nineteen year old jazz bassist in college, and have been working on composing and recording songs for a band I’m in/starting called “Mall Security”. The band is a complicated thing….. I want to say complicated because it’s a difficult thing to explain to somebody, but when you hear that word used to describe a band your mind immediately goes to an image of some teenage friends who just bought instruments at a garage sale that are arguing about what to name the band and who’s been flirting with whose crush.
The word I’m looking for is maybe “unorthodox”. Yeah, that puts the right sort of spin on it. Unorthodox- not complicated. This band is completely uncomplicated when it comes personal situations, hangups, and drama- mainly because I’m the only active member. My good friends Tom and Jack Cothren are also in the band, and have permanent spots available for them, but are in different locations at the moment (have have been on and off for over a year). Jack is currently in the US Coast Guard, and Tom (better known to me, and probably will be better known to you as TK) is going to school at SUNY Geneseo. They help me out writing songs when they’re in town, and when they’re not we talk frequently and they help me usually in decide between different ideas I have (like the title of this blog, which is a band name I thought of that I wish I could use, but I don’t have the money to hire a trademark attorney). They’re like brothers to me- guys who I always enjoy being around- and and those sort of people are important to have in a band.
So what sort of things are going to be on this site? You’re going to hear about the progress I make composing, performing, recording, even listening to music, and techniques I find and pick up that help with all that stuff. Sort of a musicians diary, that I’ll do my best to make entertaining and informative. I also enjoy writing. People have told me I’m good at it, so I’ll be posting things I do for various classes. Things I write and are so proud of that I want everyone I know to read them.
While I’m currently working on music sort of by myself at the moment- I play several instruments and so I can record things alone- that will change as I assemble a working band to perform the songs I write (this band could be put together by the end of the week, maybe not). You’ll hear about the progress made on that, and have the chance to listen to jams we have (hosted probably by friends of mine via Bittorrent unless I find somewhere that can store these podcasts). I may post lyrics, parts I’ve been recording, maybe even some videos.
This is a really diverse site and I hope you’re into all of the things that get included. I’ll be individualizing the look of things as soon as possible. I take my music and writing very seriously and always strive for improvement, but like to have fun pointing out and not taking serious all the trivial things that go along with this stuff (like the name of your band, or the credits on your album), and life in general.
