In Kora Lew I experimented with creating polyrhythmic lines using percussion, kora and flute. I recorded the percussion lines with Maschine Jam and added the melodic instruments using the West Africa Discovery plug-in in Native Instruments Kontakt. Everything is then sequenced in Ableton Live and triggered using the session view on Ableton Push.
In this piece of music I got to work with the West Africa Discovery plug-in which I have found to be very inspirational as well as intuitive. Being able to jam and improvise them melody lines over Machine Jam enabled the polyrhythms to come together in a much more efficient way than traditional sequencing.
Snow Dance was written during a blizzard. I could not leave the house, but watching the snow fall and pile up outside the house inspired me to record a catchy melody and riff. I recorded the original piano parts in GarageBand and then sent the file to my friend and frequent collaborator, Jared Denhard, to add the banjolele and flute. Jared returned the file to me, and I then mixed and mastered the whole dance together.
The most exciting part of this project was being able to collaborate with Jared over the internet, even though we were both snowed in in our respective houses. No polar bears were harmed in the making of Snow Dance. In fact, rumor has it that Snow Dance is often requested at Polar Bear discos.
The most exciting part of this project was being able to collaborate with Jared over the internet, even though we were both snowed in in our respective houses. No polar bears were harmed in the making of Snow Dance. In fact, rumor has it that Snow Dance is often requested at Polar Bear discos.
Confusion Breakdown is a jam piece written in the style of the typical breakdowns of bluegrass and mountain music. I this song I play three different banjos, bass, guitar, and dobro. To create the recording I had to record every part individually to a click track before assembling and mixing the tracks. This song was recorded entirely in Studio One.
Confusion Breakdown was certainly not the first recording I have made by overdubbing myself. I first tried overdubbing with two tape cassette recorders back when I was a teenager (and it wasn't a great success). Overdubbing is a great skill to perfect, and working in this style always brings me back to thanking one of my great influences, Les Paul, for inventing sound-on-sound recording.
