How hard can it be to make a track listing?

I just wanted to share with you the thought process that it takes to do the track listing on an album..

To be fair i've not had a lot else to think of since i damaged my back!!

Anyway last week i said the track listing for echo was this

1.Into The Sea
2.Burnt Out Car
3.Ghost
4.Eleven
5.Big Sky
6.Late Man
7.Glide
8.8.19
9.Draw
10.Moondial

Well now its

1.Into The Sea
2.Big Sky
3.Eleven
4.Draw
5.Burnt Out Car
6.Late Man
7.Glide
8.8.19
9.Ghost
10.Moondial

It drives me mad working out track listings this is how we did it:

I work out the key speed and time signature:

1.Into The Sea - em - mid pace - 5/8
2.Big Sky - Emajor - fast - 4/4
3.Eleven - Dm - Mid Pace - 11/8
4.Draw - Em - 6/8 - Mid pace
5.Burnt Out Car - E - Fast - 4/4
6.Late Man Am - Slow - 4/4
7.Glide C - Fast - 4/4
8.8.19 Am - Fast - 4/4
9.Ghost Bm - Slow - 6/8 - 7/8
10.Moondial - Am - mid pace 4/4

Then spend ages working out the different running orders - trying to get as much variation as possible - there are infinite possibilities for different versions of an album. This can take days. The whole album becomes one huge epic composition with dynamic peaks and troughs.

It drives you mad.

I just want to say Mr Kevin Feazey has done a magnificent job of mixing and mastering Ghost. Thanks man.

Some photos from todays walk.



Thanks


Matt Stevens
www.mattstevensguitar.com

Sunday Free Noodle 12 (on a tuesday)

Apologies for the delay on this - its a Tuesday noodle this week - no web=no noodle!

This week’s noodle is:

Matt Stevens (Guitars/Loops/) - Dolls House Live On Ustream 2009

This is a live version of my song Dolls House from the album Echo. Its from the run of ustream concerts streamed on the internet last year. Its twice the length of the original version and has more guitar solos than the whole of my new album!

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Please let me know what you think of this and if you would like to do a remix or collaborate give me a shout.

More noodles next week

Subscribe to my podcast feed here and get the Sunday Free Noodle every week:

If you like this you get get my album Echo as a "pay what you want" download here

About The Sunday Free Noodle

The Sunday Free Noodle project is a free MP3 ever week - remixes, collaborations, live stuff, spoken word stuff and other odd things - for the next year. 52 MP3’s (thats alot). I think it will be a challenge to keep this going and I’m really looking forward to doing it - please subscribe to the podcast feed on itunes to get it free every week and tell me what you think(yes you can say if you think if its crap). I hope you enjoy it.

This project has only really come about because i have injured my back and have had a chance to go through my hard drives whilst lying on the floor with the laptop on my chest. Odd how things happen.

I really it want to be a collaborative process. Let me know - if you are a remixer, cellist, vocalist, percussionist, film maker,trumpet player or visual artist or anything else let me know(although I draw the line at juggling) . Perhaps i could send you some stuff(loops and noodles) to add something to?

Speak soon


Matt

Speak Soon
www.mattstevensguitar.com
mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

Top Ten Metal Albums

Looks like the Sundayfreenoodle is going to be a Tuesdayfreenoodle - I've had no BT web access for a while. Hopefully back tomorrow. In the meantime

The Top Ten Heavy Metal Albums of All Time(by me)

1. Slayer - Reign In Blood
2.Carcass - Necrotisism Descanting The Insalubrious
3.Faith No More - The Real Thing
4.Napalm Death - Scum
5.Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind
6.Megadeth -Rust In Peace
7.Celtic Frost - Into The Pandemonium
8.Cathedral - The Ethereal Mirror
9.Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
10.Voivod - Nothingface

I'll probably change my mind tomorrow.

ta

Matt

"Free" Music

This is a preview of a song from Ghost which is my second album which is out in June. If you want to download the track, pay what you want and help us finishing making the record that would be great. Free is also fine! Please let me know what you think of it?

This new record is quite different to the the first album - its like a cross between Echo and The Fierce and The dead.

I like giving away free music - in fact please DO upload my stuff to file sharing sites and take away free music from my site. One thing i would ask is that you perhaps email the mp3's of songs you like to your friends and help spread the word - thanks so much.

Also out next week is a limited edition CD Digipack version of my first album Echo its available here.

I hope you enjoy this music.

Matt

Ghost Artwork

Hello all

I thought I'd share this with you - this the track list for Ghost

1.Into The Sea
2.Burnt Out Car
3.Ghost
4.Eleven
5.Big Sky
6.Late Man
7.Glide
8.8.19
9.Draw
10.Moondial

And this is the art work - let me know what you think?

Sunday Free Noodle 11

This week’s noodle is:

Matt Stevens (Guitars/Loops/Whammy Pedal/Ebow) - 8.19 Live On Ustream 2009

This is a live version of my song 8.19 which is going to be on my second album which is called Ghost and is out later in the year. The “synth” type noise is an ebow run through a whammy pedal. Its from the run of ustream concerts streamed on the internet last year. Its quite a Smiths/Fripp type track.

Powered by Podbean.com

Please let me know what you think of this and if you would like to do a remix or collaborate give me a shout.

More noodles next week

Subscribe to my podcast feed here and get the Sunday Free Noodle every week:

If you like this you get get my album Echo as a "pay what you want" download here

About The Sunday Free Noodle

The Sunday Free Noodle project is a free MP3 ever week - remixes, collaborations, live stuff, spoken word stuff and other odd things - for the next year. 52 MP3’s (thats alot). I think it will be a challenge to keep this going and I’m really looking forward to doing it - please subscribe to the podcast feed on itunes to get it free every week and tell me what you think(yes you can say if you think if its crap). I hope you enjoy it.

This project has only really come about because i have injured my back and have had a chance to go through my hard drives whilst lying on the floor with the laptop on my chest. Odd how things happen.

I really it want to be a collaborative process. Let me know - if you are a remixer, cellist, vocalist, percussionist, film maker,trumpet player or visual artist or anything else let me know(although I draw the line at juggling) . Perhaps i could send you some stuff(loops and noodles) to add something to?

Speak soon


Matt

Speak Soon
www.mattstevensguitar.com
mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

Ghost inside cover and track listing

ghost inside
Originally uploaded by mattstevensguitar

This is the Inside artwork for my new album Ghost - what do you think?

Thanks all


Matt

Ideas On Melodic Improvisation

I find it more useful to think about chord tones plus extensions plus chromatics - modes are useful but can get in the way of instant composition.

Once you realize that there are only really 3 types of chord major,minor and dominant you can begin to work out all the options for extensions and notes you can play with the conventional tonal system.

I agree you should know them and listen/study Miles Davis modal stuff and how it evolved into the Mahavishnu and the way they have parallels with Indian raga improvisations. Just don't let modes limit your note choices.

Really the trick is to internalize all this information then forget it when you are playing and just flow. Easier said than done!

Why are musicians predominantly male? vonaxenbourg

I don't really know - i'd love to see more female musicians. It can be a bit of a "boys club" in music shops etc so that doesn't help but hopefully things are getting better now. Also there are a lot of sexist fools around....

Ask me anything

Cafe Noodle The Story So Far

A few weeks ago I thought We'd try something - an online venue based around a "ning" network. So I posted out to some of our friends to see what would happen.

It's been great really - friendships have been made and in a very short time I think its become a remarkable community which I am very proud to be part of. Some great collaborative projects have happened and some brilliant points have been made about the way we consume music. Lots of great blogging from everyone really.

We'd really like to see you join up you can here - do it!

Tonight we have the first "live" gig a concert streamed from the front page by the amazing solo bassist Alun Vaughan - you can watch it here at 8pm tonight full details and more info here

We hope to see you there.


Matt and Karen

Next community project - calling musicians and songwriters

Hello

Soooo

The Twitterchords thing was a success and thanks so much to everyone who got involved - i thought perhaps we could try this next....

A really long piece -

Each person contributes a song in the Key of Dm at 75 bpm

Then we link them all up into one long piece?

One huge composition!! We could call it The Big Calm.

Good idea? Completed by the end of May? Open to everyone.....

Ta!!

Matt

Sunday Free Noodle 10

This week’s noodle is:

Matt Stevens (Guitars) - Spencer Park(Norwich Bootleg) Live 08

This is a live version of my song Spencer Park - its an audience recording from a gig I did in Norwich a couple of years ago - the quality of the recording isn’t great - one mic in the audience but I’ve cleaned it up as best i can. I was playing in a cafe bar - you can really hear the audience moving around. I like it that you can hear my pedals clicking and the glasses of the audience. As it say on my website “Honesty and Integrity is valued over perfection”. I was actually quite pleased with the playing on this (normally I don’t say that).

Powered by Podbean.com

Please let me know what you think of this and if you would like to do a remix or collaborate give me a shout.

More noodles next week

Subscribe to my podcast feed here and get the Sunday Free Noodle every week:

If you like this you get get the original version on my album Echo as a "pay what you want" download here

About The Sunday Free Noodle

The Sunday Free Noodle project is a free MP3 ever week - remixes, collaborations, live stuff, spoken word stuff and other odd things - for the next year. 52 MP3’s (thats alot). I think it will be a challenge to keep this going and I’m really looking forward to doing it - please subscribe to the podcast feed on itunes to get it free every week and tell me what you think(yes you can say if you think if its crap). I hope you enjoy it.

This project has only really come about because i have injured my back and have had a chance to go through my hard drives whilst lying on the floor with the laptop on my chest. Odd how things happen.

I really it want to be a collaborative process. Let me know - if you are a remixer, cellist, vocalist, percussionist, film maker,trumpet player or visual artist or anything else let me know(although I draw the line at juggling) . Perhaps i could send you some stuff(loops and noodles) to add something to?

Speak soon


Matt

Speak Soon
www.mattstevensguitar.com
mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

New Fierce and The Dead tee shirt from Zazzle.co.uk

logo3doutline tee shirt from Zazzle.co.uk

Echo - Track By Track

Available now from: 

ITunes Worldwide - Austrailia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

eMusic - United States, Canada, Europe

Amazon - International Download Store

Napster - United States, Canada, United Kingdom, European Unio

Rhapsody - US Only

All about my album

The Rules: 

1 - All sounds to be produced by one acoustic guitar (hitting it, looping it, overdubbing it, volume swells etc)

2 - The songs to be recorded as close as possible to "Live"

We did bend these rules as making a good record was the real point of the project (we added a few hand claps and some stomping on one song). I'm really pleased with the finished results. The album was recorded at Pinna Studios (a bloody great studio in East London) and mastered at Livingstone Studios (Wood Green). It was produced by Kevin Feazey and mastered by Sonny Simpson. 

The Dolls House on the cover we found in an antiques shop in Islington,London.

Burning Bandstands 

This is the first song we recorded in early 2007. We recorded the parts piece by piece into Pro Tools then stacked them to simulate how i play them live. For the intro I was thinking of eighties Thrash Metal acts such as Metallica(the middle of One from And Justice For All), Kreator and Sepultura. The end section guitars are 4 parts stacked in harmony based on arpeggios of Bmsus4 and D9 over the Bm/D7/E first Inv/Em first Inv. This song comes from a song i used to play with a band called Trinovantes about 4 years ago and has been played live at every gig I've done.

This is Burning Bandstands live at Spratton Gathering:

 

Airships

Another thrash metal/Sepultura inspired song for the chorus meets Friday Night In San Francisco for the verse, I tuned down to drop D for this one. Only played it live once - the rhythmic guitar banging at the start was put together by Kev in the studio. The section in the middle at half time can be done live with the DL4's half time feature and then overdubbed in harmony and then sped back up again. I like the solo at the end.

Drama In The Coals 

The first song in odd timing something i love - inspired by the likes of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Fripp and The Beatles (loads on Strawberry fields). Its in 5/4 and drop d again although I play it in E live. The metal section in the middle reminds me of Soundgarden and the picking is kind of Radiohead/Crimson maybe? My favorite guitar solos on Echo are the ones on the heavy bit. The title comes from watching an open fire when i was a kid.

Flies In The Basement 

This song is very much a surf rock thing played on acoustic guitar - kind of like a Dick Dale sound. It was inspired by going to see a band called the Mantarays - genius surfy stuff. Also reminds me of some of the flamenco sounds on Friday Night In San Francisco. It features Kev stomping and clapping at the start for a percussion sound.I played this song at our wedding. There is a live version you can get free here

Snow part 3

My favorite on the album and some people have said they agree with me. The pad keyboard type sound at the start is me fading the guitar in after strumming it using a volume pedal. It's a really simple song but I like the chord progression with the inversions. This a 3 part song - parts one is on the Fierce And The Dead album and two will be on the next album or maybe the third album - Kev and I performed the whole thing at the vsv festival a while back.

Chasing The Sun

This is an acoustic version of a song originally performed by a band called Monchrome which i was in with Justin Hemmington(Bass), Stuart Marshall(Drums) and Mr Kevin Feazey(Vocals and Guitar). We were going for an acoustic hardcore on this with added Fripp loop sounds at the end added using a volume pedal(before i used a filter synth pedal for a more advanced version of the same sound).  This also features more guitar banging percussion.

Spencer Park

Originally featured on the Parks EP as a live version this is one of the first tracks I wrote for the solo acoustic gigs.  Its in 15/8(always fun for the audience to clap along to) and features more hitting of the guitar body for percussion sounds. Spencer Park is a real place in Rushden where I grew up.

The "synth/cello" sounds at the end were created using a volume pedal

West Green

A bit of a dub track this one - its been played on quite a few podcasts.  The warped and lovely delay sounds are the end are Kev abusing an old Watkins copycat tape delay.  Have a look at this video that shows how we did it:

 

Jubilee

Another Park in Rushden  - once again originally on the Parks EP. 7/8 percussion loop of me banging the guitar into stacked harmonies at the end - I'm going to start playing this live again next year. Another Radiohead/Mahavishnu influenced one with more of a post-rock Sigur Ros/Slint feel at the end.

Dolls House

The guitar percussion loop has a delay on it to make it sound bigger, generally a minimalist type melody over Johnny Marr type chords going into a metal Zeppelin end riff with overdubbed NWOBHM noodles. Since writing this I've expanded this one a lot and the live versions are now 7 or so minutes long.  I really enjoy playing this live.

 

The album took the best part of 2 years of work off and on to make - here is a video of us making it:

Share

80's or 90's ?

MMMm tough one - 80's - Husker Du, King Crimson, Bad Brains, Slayer, Napalm Death, Maiden, Black Flag 90's Radiohead, Carcass, Buckley, Dark Star, Jason Falkner, Bob Mould solo, King Crimon Thrak - probably 90's then.

Ask me anything

What equipment do you use?

Loads of stuff!! full list ere http://www.mattstevensguitar.com/page18.htm - main looper is a line 6 DL4 - great little pedal for looping - LR Baggs charity shop broken Ibanez acoustic guitar and a volume pedal plus a whammy pedal for bass lines - all really standard pedal. All the keyboard sound come from fading in chords on a volume pedal some times adding in an line 6 filter modeller for more extreme sounds. Cheers

Ask me anything

Sunday Free Noodle 9

This week’s noodle is:

Matt Stevens (Guitars/live loops) - Flies In The Basement(There’s A Plug On That) Live 07

This is a live version of my song Flies in The Basement live at the Edinburgh Cellars in Stoke Newinton North London from 2007 recorded at one of the music born nights. It was interesting for me to hear it especially as I don’t play it live anymore and I’d not heard this for years - i found this on an old hard drive. Its from when i used to gig with just an piezo equipped acoustic guitar and a Line 6 DL4 looper/delay pedal. I think i may have to do this live again…

Powered by Podbean.com

Please let me know what you think of this and if you would like to do a remix or collaborate give me a shout.

More noodles next week

Subscribe to my podcast feed here and get the Sunday Free Noodle every week:

If you like this you get get the original version on my album Echo as a "pay what you want" download here

About The Sunday Free Noodle

The Sunday Free Noodle project is a free MP3 ever week - remixes, collaborations, live stuff, spoken word stuff and other odd things - for the next year. 52 MP3’s (thats alot). I think it will be a challenge to keep this going and I’m really looking forward to doing it - please subscribe to the podcast feed on itunes to get it free every week and tell me what you think(yes you can say if you think if its crap). I hope you enjoy it.

This project has only really come about because i have injured my back and have had a chance to go through my hard drives whilst lying on the floor with the laptop on my chest. Odd how things happen.

I really it want to be a collaborative process. Let me know - if you are a remixer, cellist, vocalist, percussionist, film maker,trumpet player or visual artist or anything else let me know(although I draw the line at juggling) . Perhaps i could send you some stuff(loops and noodles) to add something to?

Speak soon


Matt

Speak Soon
www.mattstevensguitar.com
mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

House Concert?

Evening all

Mr Lextrical made this. If you haven't heard this week's Sunday Free Noodle(and you should) its him who did the remix:

More people seem to be joining the facebook page each week over 700 now - seems to be on the rise every week. Amazing really.

I'm talking on Mr Nick Tann's new podcast about bloggers - you can listen here:

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And here is a nice post about my music here on Lisa Hoffman's blog - I really like this quote "Many of our readers are involved in a creative endeavor of some sort. MS's music will make a great choice for studio, office, party, road trip, cooking and generally speaking: LIFE." I love the idea of my music being useful to people and bringing something to people lives - it really means a lot to me. You should read Lisa's blog its great.

My other plan is to do some House concerts later in the year(post my back being sorted) - would you be interested in hosting one or attending one?

A few people have said they up for it - just email me or comment if you are interested.

If you don't know about house concerts what happens is i come to your house with a guitar and a little amp and play a tiny gig. What normally happens is you invite some friends and maybe you have a meal and the guest each contribute to pay towards the music. All good.

Speak soon

MS