With my recent releases of songs, I’m sure you’ve probably noticed by now that my guitar playing is very bluesy on both lead & rhythm guitar. After listening to the tracks, I believe I’m an okay lead guitarist and can get the hang of things quite well. I still have a lot of work to do in lead guitar playing, though and am learning. My guitar playing is pretty bluesy ’cause like I explained before, I got that by listening to a lot of blues music or a lot of blues rock. I got that guitar playing style just by listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, SRV, Clapton, Joe Bonamassa, etc. Also other blues greats like BB King, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, T Bone Walker, etc.

“Be On the Run” and “Mr. Tough Guy” is already getting some nice feedback. Not bad for a couple of songs that I wrote years ago. The thing is, I can never tell whether people are gonna like my songs or not. I just put my songs out there and let the music do the talking. Let the music speak on it’s own. It feels nice that people actually enjoy my originals too, though.

A lot of my music is very blues inspired and they probably will continue to be. I’m just used to hearing that kind of music since I’ve been listening to blues for so long.

I’ll be bringing a lot of my old songs back for the Greatest Hits album. How many songs will I include on the greatest hits album? Probably about 11 or 12. It all depends. After I complete this Greatest Hits thing, I’ll get to work on the brand new stuff ’cause I want to write brand new songs too.

It is fun looking back at my old songs, though. People are already requesting some of my old songs so when I said that people still like my older songs, toldjaso! I’ve got some longtime followers of my music still. It’s nice that the longtime fans stayed loyal to me after all these years. I’m hoping to grow new followers too.

Kev

Some wonder why I always write long songs. Original songs that are over 7 minutes or a little longer. Well the thing is, I can’t help it. I guess that’s what I get for listening to bands that write songs pretty long with such bands as Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, The Doors, Dream Theater, Allman Bros., etc. I try to write shorters songs sometimes but a lot of times I can’t help myself write long songs ’cause I get that by listening to a lot of music that inspired me.

When I start writing new songs again, I’ll probably continue to write long songs. Probably because I write a lot of lyrics to the songs and I like to jam a lot. Ya know, improvise. If you seen a live show of mine, you would see how I would play.

In my mind, a song will end whenever they feel like ending. If you’re the kind of songwriter who predicts ahead of time of how long a song should be then you’re doing it wrong, in my opinion. You should never predict how long a song should be. Just play whatever comes out. My songs are pretty long ’cause I listen to a lot of jam rock music. That’s where I get it from.

Writing long songs is how I write.

Kev

I haven’t posted all day today ’cause I spent most of my day working on music. Spent some time recording vocal parts for “Mr. Tough Guy” and “Be On the Run”. I kept re-recording the vocal parts over and over again until they sounded right. I think I got the vocal parts good enough. I’ll upload them soon.

For my upcoming internet album that I finally started working on, I’ll let everybody hear every song on it by streaming every track. I won’t make the songs downloadable for free until release date which a release date hasn’t been decided yet. I gotta finish the album first and then I’ll decide a release date.

I am also planning to do a professional photo shoot with a real photographer so I can have photos for the album cover and photos for promotional material. There’s a pro photographer I know well in my hometown of Greenwich and I’m gonna see if I can work on something with him this Spring. I already have an idea of what I want the photoshoot to be like.

I’m pretty serious about this album but gonna do the greatest hits thing first. Get that out of the way and then I’ll start writing new material.

I’m planning to promote this album as much as possible and there’s definitely gonna be some heavy marketing on it. I want to get it out there as best I can. I want to take my time making the album ’cause I want to make it a real good one. Gonna try to give it my all. Gonna give it my best.

Kev

I was at Barnes and Noble bookstore earlier this morning and I was reading an interesting article through “Acoustic Guitar” magazine. In the magazine had this interesting article where it talks about the internet being an ugly place for musicians. It’s so true if you think about it. You’re a musician, an acoustic singer/songwriter or you just want to play in a band and all of a sudden you’re getting all kinds of criticism and hate online.

This article tells an interesting story about a solo artist named Frank Fairfield who almost gave up the music thing ’cause he couldn’t take the criticism from haters and doubters. Yes, this guy had a lot of them. I looked up Frank Fairfield in youtube and he seems to be a very popular musician. All of his videos that I’ve seen in youtube has got a lot of views so this is a musician who has gone viral for sure. He’s very good musically though! This is a guy who is not all that famous and he seems to be an unsigned musician.

Trolling for Trouble: The Internet Can Be an Ugly Place for Musicians

I understand where Frank is coming from ’cause I too am a victim of being attacked by trolls, critics and doubters. I’m in the same boat. I too came pretty close to giving up music ’cause of it all.

Yeah, I know the internet is a scary place for musicians so I’m glad I’m not alone on this. All musicians have their share of haters… all of them. It doesn’t matter how good of a person you are, there will always be people who won’t like you but who cares right?

I remember when I first started out in songwriting and guitar playing, I was putting up my songs online and right away people started making fun of me. They were making fun of my singing, my guitar playing and bashing the way I look too. Other local musicians in the music community tried to destroy me. I was a big target at CRUMBS, the RRC (Rock and Roll Confidential, which is a site that’s no longer online, good riddance that is) and other online message forums.

Yeah, you want to become a musician, get your music out there and play your music like everyone else but you gotta learn to stay strong and tough… stay above the negative people. Not everyone is gonna like you ’cause you can’t please everyone. People say that I deserved all the hate and criticism, they say I started it all by calling me a troll and stuff but it’s not true really. It’s the internet… people are crazy as fuck on here for sure.

Yeah, people will attack you for no reason… they will never have anything positive to say about you… people will doubt your popularity and your dreams… call you delusional on a lot of things blah blah blah blah. They will also criticize your music and your talent.

When you want to play your music, you’re going to meet a lot of crazy people so the best thing to do is not give negative people any attention. In the article above I like Bobby Owsinski’s advice that you should ignore the negative haters. I also agree with him that you shouldn’t read the “comments” whether it’s the comments on a blog, facebook or twitter… don’t read any of ’em and he’s so right. I gotta stop reading everything that comes in. Usually when something negative comes in, I’ll just delete it and ignore it. I would usually block the person too.

It is interesting though, how other people think they can say what they want about you but when you do the same to them, you’re the bad guy all of a sudden. It is interesting how other people think it’s okay to say what they want about me but I can’t talk bad about other people or I would get in trouble. That’s messed up. I usually don’t start things with people unless they start with me first but I gotta learn to ignore them completely which is what I’m getting better at.

You can’t give negative people any attention. If you want to play your music, go right ahead. You don’t have to give it up ’cause other people want you to. That’s why they hate ’cause they want you to give it up. The secret in staying above them is not giving a shit what everybody thinks. Just continue to play your music. You only care about the music and nothing else. I mean, look at Metallica for a perfect example. Metallica continues to be one of the most hated bands on the planet but they don’t care. They just keep going with their music by making records and touring, not giving a shit what anyone thinks. You should have that same attitude. When people see that you don’t care about the haters & critics, even more people will respect you for that.

Haters are gonna hate, that’s all there is to it. I stopped caring what people think of me a long time ago. I’ll continue to play my music. Continue to record my songs and continue to play live shows.

The internet is a problem, no doubt. I know from experience dealing with haters & critics. I still get ’em today but that’s okay. I’m a tough dude. I don’t let ’em bother me anymore.

Kev

I spent most of this evening tracking guitar parts for two of my older songs: “Mr. Tough Guy” and “Be On the Run”. Now both of those songs are kind of on the blues rock side a little bit. You would know when you hear them and some of you probably already know about those two songs. Both of those songs have a jam rock kind of feeling. I added guitar solos to those two songs too. I’ll be adding a lot of guitar solos to my songs for this album ’cause I want it to be a “guitar” album.

I just tracked guitar parts to those two songs with my new Fender acoustic/electric plugged into my Focusrite and the new guitar sounds awesome when recording audio with. Yeah, I definitely like my new Fender acoustic more than the Ibanez acoustic.

I’ll track vocal parts to those two songs tomorrow evening.

Feels great to finally start recording again now that I finally have a recording rig that I’m happy with. I’m sure you noticed a huge improvement in sound quality when I showed you that “Big Giant Circus” song. For some reason, I could only get the guitar parts to sound on the left channel but I just figured out how to get it to sound on the right channel so it’s all good so bear with me if I make any mistakes with the recordings.

Kev

While I was at Parkway music today while waiting to check out, I decided to browse around the electric guitar section in that store. Man, there are some pretty nice electrics in there too! I’m sure I can buy a nice electric between the $300 – $500 price range. What kind of electric would I want to get? Well I want to get a solid body electric guitar with a whammy bar.

I already have an electric guitar but that one is a full hollow body. I want to get a solid body too.

Yeah, so I’m starting a guitar collection which is good to have. It’s good to have different kind of guitars ’cause they all sound different, ya know? I might start saving for a new electric guitar maybe sometime this summer. I really love buying new musicians equipment and gear when I can.

I love electric guitars too and I wanna focus on rock music at some point. I think after I complete this internet-acoustic album, I’ll start making plans for a full-band electric rock album. I’ve always wanted to do an electric rock album with a real band and all that stuff. Someday I’ll make that happen for reals.

Kev

Well earlier today I went to a guitar shop in Clifton Park… a music store called, “Parkway Music”. The 1st pic above is me trying out different acoustics in Parkway. Then I found the one I am pretty happy with which I bought the guitar that’s in the bottom two pics. The guitar that I took home was a Fender acoustic/electric that costed me about $260. The guitar has volume controls on it and an onboard tuner as well.

After I took home my new Fender acoustic/electric, I decided to try playing both my new Fender and my Ibanez to hear the differences between sounds. Yes, I am noticing a big difference. Both acoustics do sound totally different. Which acoustic guitar do I love more? Definitely the new Fender. The sound on the Fender is bigger which is what I was looking for.

Now that I got a new Fender acoustic, I could make that internet album with. Having two acoustics now can be pretty useful ’cause I can start experimenting with alternate tunings which is what I’m gonna do.

Kev

A lot of people mistakenly believe that they need to follow the strict rules when writing lyrics in songwriting… ya know: rhyming, rhythm/timing and all that stuff they teach you in the instructional books. Do you really need to follow that crap? In my opinion, no. In lyric writing, the only rule you need to follow is be yourself. You don’t need to be a fucking perfectionist in lyric writing, ya know? Just be yourself, that’s it. Write lyrics however you want to. In lyric writing, you don’t need to rhyme ’cause in case you haven’t noticed, songwriters don’t rhyme anymore. There’s plenty of bad lyric writers these days that write songs that don’t make any sense and in lyric writing, I’ve seen other lyrics in professional songs where the grammar isn’t that great as well.

You can write lyrics however you want. Just write what you feel inside. Whatever works good for the song is all that matters, ya know? That’s how I’ve always written lyrics. To be honest, I haven’t been writing lyrics for a long while but planning to get back into it. You don’t need to rhyme and you don’t need to be perfect. Just write whatever makes you happy. I always gave whatever the song needs and that’s how lyrics should be written. Don’t take yourself so serious and write from the heart.

If other people don’t like the way you write lyrics then fuck ’em. Technically, there are no rules in lyric writing just like there are no rules in poetry. Just write what you feel and that’s all there is to it. Speak your mind.

Kev

Yesterday afternoon, I’ve finally started tracking songs for my planned internet album. I’ve recorded guitar parts for a song called, “Big Giant Circus” which the guitar sounds beautiful on it. I also started to record vocals on it too and the vocals sound amazing. The vocals sound perfectly clear. For the interface, I am using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 and when you record guitar/vocals on that baby, it sounds like you just recorded in a professional studio which is what I wanted. For recording vocals, I am using a Shure SM86 condenser mic (w/phantom power) and I’m also using a pop filter. Using a condenser mic and a pop filter really helps make your singing voice sounds clean & clear.

For many years, I’ve been trying to get a professional sounding recording rig and I think I achieved my goals.

Over the years of my life, I’ve used shitty recording rigs. When I first started writing and recording acoustic songs, my very first recording rig was a shitty boombox radio with a record button on it, lol. Then I graduated to a Tascam 4 track machine which was still pretty shitty sounding. Then I graduated to Cakewalk with a shitty soundcard where I could plug my guitar into. Then I graduated to ProTools with an M-Audio Fast Track interface that sounded pretty shitty. Back then there was a lot of background hissing in the recordings.

Now I can finally record acoustic songs with no background hissing, no electric humming noises and none of that stuff. I’m so happy with my new recording rig. Now that I can record perfectly clean and clear, I no longer have to record in a professional studio ’cause this is a professional studio.

Whenever I upload a new song, I think you’ll definitely hear a huge improvement in sound quality.

As for the DAW, for now I’m using Acoustica Mixcraft 7 which I bought for $50 at Best Buy. I got the small version of the software for now but to get the full version will cost me an additional $40 dollars which I will upgrade to the full version soon. Either that, I could trash this DAW and get something better down the road. I still need to learn how to use Acoustic Mixcraft ’cause I don’t know anything about the software as of this moment. I got to learn how to use it and I will. I just wanted to start off with a cheap and affordable DAW until I get something better. What DAW will I replace this with when I do decide to get something different? I’m probably gonna buy the newest edition of ProTools sometime down the road which will cost $499 which isn’t totally bad really.

Whenever I get done recording my first song off this new recording rig, I’ll upload it for you all to hear. My music will be new and improved. I think you’ll be impressed with the sound quality this time. Trust me.

Now I finally have a professional sounding recording rig, I can start making my own homemade acoustic albums. Yes, real ALBUMS! Not demos. I’m gonna track vocals for “Big Giant Circus” today.

Kev

I have always been into metal. Yeah, I am a metalhead as some of you know. Like I said before, I may not have the long hair and I’m not covered in tattoos but that’s okay. I just dig metal. I’ve always listened to metal throughout my whole life. When I listen to metal I would only listen to regular metal like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses, Black Sabbath, etc. Those are the kind of metal bands I would mostly listen to. I’ve always stayed away from death & black metal but now I’m just getting into that stuff.

I’ve been listening to a lot of At The Gates who is a great band. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Venom. I’ve also been listening to some Burzum too. I’ve gotten into a lot of these bands thanks to Guitar World magazine which is a magazine that I’ve read throughout my whole life. They introduced me to a lot of these bands that I just got interested into listening to them myself. I’ve already listened to a lot of Opeth.

Over the weekend, I’ve started listening to a death metal band called, Death, which was one of first death metal bands with Chuck Schuldiner as guitarist/frontman. You’ve probably heard of them. I’ve been digging that band too.

There are still tons of other death & black metal bands that I need to check out though… I really need to get around to checking out bands like Bathory, Mayhem, Darkhrone, Celtic Frost, Behemoth, Deicide, Amon Amarth, Obituary and many more bands to name. So many bands to check out so little time.

Why have I been listening to a lot of this stuff? Probably ’cause that’s where all the great guitar playing is. Plus the music is cool to listen to. These bands make some of the most melodic stuff I’ve ever heard. It’s kind of crazy. I love listening to this stuff though as it’s not really all that bad at all. I also listen to this stuff for guitar inspiration. I will never play this music in a band of my own. No way. I just like to listen to it.

Btw, when I was young, I actually tried to grow out my hair long like those metal dudes but my hair just doesn’t grow like that which kind of sucks. Yeah, I really did purposely tried to grow my hair long at some point but it didn’t work out.

Kev