Category: Music

Music – Hold On

January 25, 2011
Music
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Credits:

Written: Jon Delise
Lyrics: Jon Delise
Vocals: Jon Delise, Brian Schwarz
Piano: Chris Potako
Guitars: Jon Delise, Chris Potako
Percussion: Chris Potako
Bass: Chris Potako
Recording/Mixing/Mastering: Chris Potako

Finished: 2005

This tune has a bit of an interesting story.  Jon wrote this song, and the band The Starting Line recorded it for their demo with Jon playing the piano.  It became a bit of a fan-favorite, but most people are unaware that it’s not a Starting Line song.

Anyway, Jon came to me and wanted to re-record it in 2005.  He wanted to flesh out the ending with bass, chimes, cymbals, etc.

The goal of this song was to be very precise and clean.  We wanted to minimize noise and really bring the vocals and solo guitar work to the front of the mix.

 

Music – Without You

January 23, 2011
Music
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Credits:

Written: Jon Delise
Lyrics: Jon Delise
Vocals: Jon Delise, Brian Schwarz, Chris Potako
Guitars: Jon Delise, Chris Potako
Piano: Chris Potako
Bass: Chris Potako
Strings: Chris Potako
Recording/Mixing/Mastering: Chris Potako

Finished: 2004

This is where our recordings started becoming more about concepts for me.  In order to keep pushing myself with recording techniques, each song from here forward feature some sort of over-arching design decision when it comes to the production.

This tune was about making a unique biting acoustic guitar tone and starting from 1 track (the guitar) and building it to be very layered.  By the end of the tune there are 4 acoustics, 3 electrics, 3 vocal parts, strings, bass, piano, etc.

I must say though, I’m quite fond of my piano ending.

And as a bonus, here is a remix of the ending sequence:

 

Music – All I Want

January 22, 2011
Music
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Credits:

Written: Brian Schwarz, Chris Potako
Lyrics: Brian Schwarz
Vocals: Brian Schwarz
Guitars: Brian Schwarz
Drums: Chris Potako
Bass: Chris Potako
Recording/Mixing/Mastering: Chris Potako

Finished: 2003

A riff written on the deck of my friends shore house turned into this tune quite quickly.  We wanted to experiment with “smoother” sounding guitars and (funny enough) faker drums this time around.  I really enjoy the switch into 3/4.

In the end, it made the tune a bit muddy, but it forced us to learn a bit more about EQ and compression. With a good bit of adjustments over the course of a few weeks, it was mostly corrected! You live and learn.

 

Music – Breathe

January 21, 2011
Music
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Credits:

Written: Jon Delise
Lyrics: Jon Delise
Vocals: Jon Delise, Brian Schwarz
Guitars: Jon Delise, Chris Potako
Bass: Chris Potako
Strings: Chris Potako
Recording/Mixing/Mastering: Chris Potako

Finished:  2003

After Jon Delise heard what Brian and I did with Rush Hour (a song they wrote many years ago in high school), he wanted to record a tune as well.  We bounced a few ideas around and settled on this tune do to it’s relative simplicity and slow build.

 

Music – Rush Hour

January 20, 2011
Music
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Credits:

Written: Brian Schwarz
Lyrics: Jon Delise
Vocals: Brian Schwarz, Chris Potako
Guitars: Brian Schwarz, Chris Potako
Drums: Chris Potako
Bass: Chris Potako
Recording/Mixing/Mastering: Chris Potako

Finished: 2003

Rush Hour was the first “full featured” song we tried to record.

There were many experiments recorded over the years.  There were many simple recordings with a single mic.  There were many bad ideas captured in even worse ways.  So, we decided to stop being bad.

This track took us several months in the summer of 2003.  We probably re-recorded all of the parts at least 5 times.  New techniques kept pushing us in new directions.  We borrowed equipment.  We bought new equipment.  We used old equipment in new ways.  I learned a lot about engineering, mixing, equalizing, noise reduction, etc.

Overall, this tune came out quite well.  I personally love the layering in the ending.