I’m sure plenty of bands and solo artists out there have used the Ipad to record music with. The Ipad surprisingly has great sound quality. That’s why I wanted one so I can have something better to record on ’cause honestly, recording music on the PC sucks. I find that recording on the Ipad is way better. You don’t need to spend a lot of money of studio time when there are other options to record.

In this day and age, bands & artists obsess with wanting to record in the studio ’cause they want to play rock star and they want to sound like one. Well, they don’t really need to. As long as you’re unsigned, you can record and release albums however you want to. Homemade albums are really cool.

I’m hoping to be one of the very few to make an album on an Ipad. Noticed how I didn’t call it a demo. I called it an album. That’s what it’s gonna be. An internet album with a virtual cover and all. The Ipad is a very handy tool for musicians and songwriters and I want to inspire other bands & artists to record in this way.

The album is coming out really well so far. Still got more songs to go though and writing like crazy!!! Still haven’t came up with a title for it yet. When I get all the songs done, I’ll come up with a title for the album. When I pick a title for it, I’ll probably pick something out of the lyrics. This will be considered my debut album.

You don’t need to record in a studio and get ripped off. When you record on your own at home, you get more freedom and more control. You get to be your own boss. That’s a huge part of why home recording is great.

I usually don’t listen to my own music a lot but for some reason, I can’t stop listening to these songs. If I can’t stop listening to these songs, then the same might happen to you. I think you’ll like ’em. That’s my goal with these songs is hoping to get people to like ’em and enjoy ’em. I know I’ve had a lot of nasty critics with my music over the years but maybe people will have a change of heart once they hear these new songs. I tried to make these songs catchy and listenable as best as I can. There will be plenty of sing-alongs and memorable melodies that you won’t get out of your head.

I tried my best with the singing and will try my best with the singing for the rest of the songs. Not only that Neil Young is  a huge influence in my singing on this album, David Bowie is another huge influence.

It feels great to be writing again, though and finally get out of that writers block. I’ll confess it that I had writers block for a long while. Stuck in a rut and now I’m out of it.

Kev

I’m taking my time with these new songs ’cause I really want to make ’em really good as possible. These songs really are heading to a new direction for sure. Heading to more of acoustic/folk music. Ever listen to stuff like Mumford & Sons, the Beatles and acoustic Neil Young? Well, you might hear a lot of that on this album. A lot of it will be gospel influenced a little bit. It’s gonna be some pretty serious songwriting. The songs will have plenty of back-up vocals and harmonies.

I just finished writing a killer song today. It’s a slow ballad but I’m really proud of this one. It turned out to be a really beautiful song. I know I should let the music speak on it’s own but if I’m proud of these songs; chances are, a lot of other people will like ’em too. I feel these are some of the best songs I’ve written.

I only got 6 songs on this album so far. How many more will I come up with? As many as I can fit on a blank CD.

I try my best to make some of these songs short as possible but I can’t help it if I write them kind of long ’cause that’s how I’ve always written. I don’t like short songs too much. I like to send a message with ’em.

When I’m ready to release these songs, I’ll put up cryptic teasers and stuff. I wanna try to get a buzz going and get people all excited.

When I write a new song, I usually just put it right on the internet to get feedback from it but I don’t think I’ll do that anymore. I think from this point on… I’ll write a batch of songs quietly  and release ’em on an album yearly. That’s how bands & artists do it. I’ll release an internet album once a year.

When will I ever make an actual album with a real CD cover with album art and all? Whenever I can afford it. Whenever I come up with the money to make the real CD, I’ll do it sometime down the road but for now, I’ll just release albums for the internet-only (Sorry, I refuse to do the Kickstarter/Pledgemusic bullshit).

Can’t wait to get this album out. It’s probably gonna be out in July or August. Not sure.

Kev

I just signed up for an artist profile on bandcamp and it’s actually a great site! I know I slammed the hell out of the site in the past but I’ll have a change of heart with it, I guess. My upcoming internet-only album will probably get exclusively released on bandcamp. That is probably the best site. I won’t make people pay for it, though so I’ll just leave the “free or more” option unchecked.

Why won’t I make people pay for my music even if I can if I wanted? It’s because I never did music for the money! I don’t care about money when playing music. I just love making the music and sharing it with people. That’s what it should really be about. That’s how local music used to be anyway but in this day and age local bands and musicians want people to buy your music when you don’t have to. There’s nothing wrong with giving out your music free.

When I’m ready to release the album, I’ll come up with a cover and title for it. As for the cover, it won’t be anything fancy. Probably will just be me holding the guitar on the front of it. There’s a professional photographer I know in Greenwich who I will probably work with for that, he could take me some really cool shots ’cause he’s one of the best photographers I’ve seen.

When I’m ready to release this album, I’ll announce a release date by posting a teaser video giving you a small clip of each song on it.

Can’t wait to get these songs out there. I think this is my best work yet, in my opinion and hopefully other people will agree.

Kev

The goal to my upcoming internet-only album is write songs that sends positive messages. Songs about love, happiness and life. After the popularity of my Whitney Houston cover inspired me to make this move with my original songs. I thought, after the large number of views of that video… I figure this is the kind of music people wanna hear. Slow ballads with good singing. That’s what I’m aiming for in the next batch of songs.

I am hoping to attract more female listeners and fans to my music so there will be some romantic and love songs on the next demo album. I’m gonna give the love song thing a try and see how it goes. I’m probably gonna be horrible at it but ya never know — maybe other people will differ. For the next batch of songs, I want them to be positive and family friendly kind of music. Stuff for people of all ages to listen to.

I have a little trick to attract women even more. Write songs that the ladies would like.

There will be upbeat rock songs too, though. I wanna focus on slower ballads mostly.

When I release this album, I’ll make this entire album streamable for youtube and I’ll find  a place for you to download the album for free for your Ipods or whatever (I’ll probably do that at Soundcloud).

I think I will leave my older songs behind ’cause most of my past songs were controversial and negative so I think I’ll keep away from “Evil Fred” and all the others. I think I will concentrate on new material. I don’t really want to look back at the past. I want to move forward with my music.

Kev

I don’t think there’s gonna be guitar solos on my upcoming internet album for now ’cause I feel that I’m not that good enough of a lead guitarist yet. I feel that I’m a pretty good rhythm guitarist, though but I still need a lot of learning to do and practicing in lead guitar.

I have been focusing on trying to learn lead guitar, though. Like I always say, I’ve been studying music theory ’cause in order to be a great lead guitarist, you have to know music theory. Lead guitar and music theory both go together, in my opinion. I’m working on my ear training and listening skills. Working on techniques, learning scales, etc. Sometime down the road, I’ll make face melting guitar music with cool solos.

That’s why I’m starting to get into jazz music a little bit. Listen to jazz guitar for inspiration and I’m also gonna look into listening to classical guitar too. Of course, I’ll start listening to the classical greats like Bach and Beethoven. All that stuff.

I just wanna improve my guitar chops a little bit. I’ll never become a technical god like Yngwie Malmsteen, Al Di Meola, Joe Satriani or Steve Vai… I just wanna improve my songwriting skills. I just wanna get better. I just wanna become a real musician and that’s what I’m aiming for. Prove the doubters wrong that I know what I’m doing musically and know my shit!

Kev

https://twitter.com/KBrocking/status/475826984057335808

Just a little tease for my upcoming internet album. Here’s a song that will make it on there. Handwritten lyrics of one of my new originals.

Kev

I have been writing and recording like crazy. Just recording through garageband on the Ipad. Just my acoustic and voice. I’m just playing unplugged with the microphone pointing toward the acoustic soundhole so I can make my guitar sound loud and upfront. I love my recordings with the guitar loud and upfront. That’s how I always loved to record.

Ya know, I can’t stand recordings when bands have the guitar in the back and you can’t hear the guitar that much ya know? I’ve heard plenty of band recordings by bands/artists over the years where the other instruments takes over the guitar playing. I hate that. I love my guitar pretty loud ’cause it helps me sing better and makes me feel more confident. Plus, I think it sounds better being played loud.

I recorded like 5 songs so far for the upcoming internet album and I’m proud of them so far. I’m trying to make these songs really good. Gonna give ’em my best shot. At least, I’ll try to make ’em really good for me but hopefully other people will find ’em really good too. I’m taking the singing seriously this time around.

I don’t really need to spend hundreds of dollars of studio time when you can record for cheap at home. I try to make the production of my songs sound clean the best I can but if I can’t… oh well. That’s the beauty of home recording, ya know? Just record your songs not caring how the sound quality is. I’ve always have that attitude. I don’t know anything about producing and mixing, all that stuff.

I record songs as a way to get ’em off my mind and keep ’em. I never cared how the tracks sounded. Sure, I tried my best over the years to get rid of hiss and try to get a clean studio sound and garageband for the Ipad is the best I can do for that.

I don’t believe in perfection. Perfection is overrated in music, ya know? If you want your music to be perfect with sound, songwriting ability and your technical skill… then you’re playing music for all the wrong reasons.

I’m gonna ignore those negative critics toward my music from this point on. I don’t care what they have to say anymore but I do think people will love my upcoming songs. How many songs will I come up with for the album? Probably around 15 to 20 songs. Depends on how many I come up with. While I’m mostly gonna write new material, I’ll bring some of my old ones back. Not too much old songs but some. I wanna bring back “Evil Fred”, “Mr. Tough Guy”, “Time Bomb” and a few other oldies. Those are songs I wrote back in 2006. I wanna focus on new material mostly.

Kev

Today, I have recorded a few song ideas down for my upcoming planned internet album. Yes, I still have this in the plans; however, I’m not gonna release the new songs one at a time like I used to. I’m gonna do things a little different this time. I’m not gonna release the next batch of songs until the release date that I’m gonna choose. Before the release date, I’ll upload teaser videos showing small clips of each song that’ll make the album. The album will just be my voice and my acoustic. The songwriting will be in a different direction like I said in the past. More mellower songs. There will be rock songs but I wanna focus mostly on the slower stuff. I wanna focus on my singing and make the singing good hopefully. Do the best I can.

I feel the singing has gotten way better than in the past. In the past, I used to sing in a real deep tone. Singing as if I’m using my speaking voice. I don’t sing like that anymore as I have gotten a bit more of a range in my voice now. I have been practicing with the singing a lot lately and have been using a lot of head voice so you will hear a lot of that. I maybe singing with more higher notes too.

When will the release date be? I don’t know. Lets get the album made first and then I’ll decide.

The album will be free for download. Listen to it on your Ipods or whatever. I don’t wanna spoil things for the release so I’ll sit on these songs until I’m ready to release them. I just recorded guitar parts for a few songs so I won’t forget ’em.

Kev

Some may wonder why I don’t gig too much. Ya know, play my songs live on the stage in front of people. I could go out there more and my play my songs in front of people but the reason I don’t is simply because I don’t care to. I don’t look at music like a job like many out there do. I don’t live in rock star fantasy land, ya know? I’m just into music just for the pure fun of it and just in it for the love of it. I never cared to make money off of music ’cause that’s not what I do this for. Too many bands and artists in this day and age are obsessed with making money and being at the center of everyone’s attention. I don’t have to be like that, ya know? So many bands just gig on a weekly basis and waste a lot of money on studio time/CD manufacturing when they don’t really need to do all that.

What ever happened to making music for the pure enjoyment of it as a hobby of some sort? That’s how I look at my music life. I never looked at music as a “professional” career like many do. It’s very rare these days. There are too many bands and artists who are obsessed with “perfection” with their music when music doesn’t always have to be about “perfection” ’cause “perfection” in music to me is overrated. You don’t need to follow trends in music. You don’t need to play music what others want to hear. Just play music to whatever makes you happy. Music is here for you.

I just read an interesting interview by John Frusciante in this month’s Guitar World, and he said, “I just don’t believe in that game of pretending with music in order to make money and get attention”. He also explained that it’s unhealthy for a musician to live their lives by playing live more than just writing/creating. He doesn’t think it’s healthy for a musician to be on stage all the time and seek attention. I agree with him. Frusciante is a guy who doesn’t care for fame and money at all which is why he left the Chilli Peppers ’cause he felt the workload overwhelmed him and he just wanted to make music for himself and enjoy life.

That’s pretty much how I feel.

Bands/artists are obsessed with attention and money ’cause I still blame it on the mainstream music industry. They all wanna be “stars”. I don’t have to be that. I just want to make music for me although I appreciate the support of my listeners/fans who came to believe in me.

You don’t need to be all fancy in music. To record music, all you need is a cheap home recording rig. Maybe ProTools or an Ipad w/ Garage Band. That’s all you pretty much need. You don’t need to spend lots of money in a studio. When you’re an unsigned musician, you can release music however you want to. You don’t always have to force people to pay to listen to your music. I just like sharing it and getting people to hear it. The internet is a good tool to share your art. I miss the old days when original local bands/artists used to throw music online for people to hear and to share it but it isn’t like that anymore. These days, everybody wants you to pay for something in order to hear their music online and to me that’s pretty shady.

There are very few bands around this area who believe in the Free Music Movement and the Lucky Jukebox Brigade is one of them.

Music should be a community. Where musicians share each other songs, get feedback on it and getting non-musicians to listen to your stuff as well. Nope. It isn’t like that anymore. All bands wanna do is promote themselves to death more than making music and obsessed with playing live. All the promotion of your music, playing live and all that silly stuff is just a distraction from making music.

I don’t care to play live. Playing live is like meaning-less to me. There’s nothing special about playing music in some small place to play for a few people.

Don’t get me wrong, though, I do like playing “live”… I’m just not that obsessed with it. If I got the opportunity to play live, I look at it as something fun. I’ll never look at playing live on stage as a job. I’ll look at playing live on stage as a way to share my songs to people. That’s why I never cared to get paid playing shows. I’m always willing to do free shows. I don’t even care to get paid a few bucks off of playing a gig. I never cared about money playing live. Just wanna share my art for the people who like my music and hopefully attract new listeners.

When I do play live, though, it’ll be only when the time is right and when I’m ready. I’m not that obsessed with playing shows daily or weekly. I don’t need that kind of stress. Playing a show once in a while is a cool thing to do.

As a musician, you don’t need to play live with your music. It’s a choice whether you want to or not.  Just make music for the internet, that’s what I prefer to do more.

As far as playing a show again at a venue, will I? It all depends if it’s the right thing, ya know? If it’s the right venue, the right promoters/bookers, if the bands/musicians on the bill are right, etc. I’ll think about considering it. Only when the opportunity comes up. I don’t really mind playing a few shows a year or none at all. When I get enough new originals written, we’ll see. I might book a show in support of my planned, “internet album”, I wanna get in the works.

Kev

Here’s my little plan of what I’m doing for my upcoming “internet album”. This will be an exclusive internet only album ’cause I can’t afford studio time and CD manufacturing/duplication so I’m just gonna make this album homemade. I’m thinking this will be a two part album. The first side will be all new songs that I will write for this year and the second side will be all old songs. I wanna bring back a lot of my old songs so I can show new people of what I’m all about musically.

I’ll come up with a title for the album and design a cover for it. The cover will be nothing fancy. I’ll probably just use a photo of myself holding my acoustic guitar for the album cover. This will be an internet only album and it will be absolutely FREE! I believe in the free music movement ’cause it’s a good thing to do to share your music and get it heard, ya know? Bands/artists don’t always have to sell their music. I don’t take myself seriously and want my music heard.

This album will be for the longtime fans of mine and it can be for new fans too. Who ever wants to hear it, I’m good. I’m probably gonna upload all the songs to either reverbnation or soundcloud and then I’ll link them to the album page in this site. I’m hoping this album will be pretty big so I’m gonna promote it as best as possible when I’m ready to release it. I’ll pick a release date for it once I get enough songs together for it. I’m thinking the internet album might be out later this summer.

I have been writing new songs and re-learning the old ones. How many songs will be on it??? Not sure. Depends on how many I come up with and think what best tracks will make the album. I’ll make the album downloadable for mp3 that way you can listen to ’em on your Ipods and whatever gadgets you listen to music on. This will be an official album and will be all homemade.

I’m gonna try my best to make my new songs really good. Like I repeatedly said before, my newer songs may be going in a different direction. I’m sort of going in a folk/rock and poetic direction. I’ll still do the aggressive acoustic rock that I did in the past but I wanna concentrate on slow ballads mostly. I really wanna focus on the singing this time around. I’ve been working extremely hard on my vocals and practicing like a mofo. I feel that I have gotten much better as a singer. I’ve been singing with more range and singing higher as you can all tell. I’ve been singing with the “head voice” more and that’s how you wanna sing. My goal for my new songs is that I want people to be able to feel it when they hear them… ya know, the goosebumps. I want my songs to have more passion and emotion next time around.

My two new songs that I released earlier this year: “Leave this Place” and “Speak A Little Loudly”. Those two will definitely make the album. If you liked those, wait until you hear the songs that I’ve been sitting on.

I’m serious about this “internet album”. I’m gonna make it happen and committed to it. I do all I can to make the best music possible. Really I do. You may not see it but I do work my ass off and work hard on my talent. Not trying to sound like an egomaniac here.

Kev