About the Blog....

Singapore
Each post is a about a song which is written or co-written and performed by me(Ben). Recorded at home on my trusty computer. Many of the songs sometimes say something about what happens my life. At other times, i just post music that i recorded and comment on it. So its public cause everyone can see it, but private since not everyone knows the full meaning of the songs

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Classical Gas Gas Gas

This song is interesting.

2 semesters ago, i was taking a module in school called 'creative thinking'. So there was an individual assignment that went something like "Come up with something that re-invents an existing concept and talk about its use". I am not entirely sure of the exact requirements so if any professor is reading this, sorry. Buy anyway, i had a stunning idea...record a song. But it had to be something that reinvents an existing concept. So i picked up the guitar and played classical gas. Thought i'd 're-invent' this one. So i whipped out a straight techo-beat which turned out sounding more rock. Used an analogue sythn to cover the bass lines and funny background atmosphere sounds and added a nice 80's rock guitar solo to it.

Of course, i am a failure of a classical guitarist, so i only could play parts of the song! Actually only the main the theme on the A minor chord that everyone knows. So i listened to the original song and transcribed what i could in 15 mins.

You must understand, i meant it to be a techo-sounding, electronica type of thing. However the result sounded like some soundtrack to the next Nintendo Hit (owing to lousy syth sounds), hahahahaha

Oh well, the drill to put on your gas masks when in contact with poisonous agents in the military was performed when your instructor shouted "Gas Gas Gas". So when i heard this, i thought it was a poison agent GAS GAS GAS!



On the flip-side, i thought it was quite novel (besides being cheesy). Check it out...this is classical gas if it was written as a computer game soundtrack for an old Atari games!

...Just for the record i scored an A- for this assignment!




Http://www.leftovermusic.com/Ben/ClassicalGasGasGas.zip

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Doodling...

From time to time, i i doodle on the guitar. i.e. i just "anyhow" play so one day i decided to record my doodling...and boy am i surprised at what i sound like nowadays. I can actually not sound like a heavy metal guitar player, haha i'm really amazed at myself. I think one yr ago, i would have never dreamt of playing like this but oh well...did i mention that i think jazz standards are boring?


Check it out...

http://www.leftovermusic.com/Ben/guitardoodle.zip

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Hope...

Anyway, i was talking to a few of my friends lately. Seems lots of them have emotional sob stories, I like you, you don't like me, you like me, i don't know, i don't like you, why like me...and the list goes on. I think this is perfectly normal to encounter such problems, it sucks but they are good learning experiences.

Many of my friends become a bit cynical after having gone through these emotional roller-coasters. They become very down to earth, which is good, but they start to view relationships with a pessimistic edge. My question was always, why go through all that trouble of trying to be pessimistic, sad and cynical.

Can't these guys just have some hope?

Great idea for song i thought, and i wrote it! It's a very angsty sounding song, i was abit angsty when i wrote it. It's emo-kind song for the emo-kind people out there (i'm emo too, though very rarely.)

Musically, i love the layering...(although go a few mistakes)

So have some hope will you?

http://www.leftovermusic.com/Ben/Hope.zip

A sappy one...

Alright, let me post something which was written,recorded and mix-ed entirely by me

What would make a good birthday present?

Well for starters, it has to be within reach. By that i mean it can't cost the world. But, it still has to have the desired impact. You don't want your birthday boy or girl smiling and saying a big thank you while at the corner of your eye you see he/she tossing your gift into the trash. Can't be too common, or else it won't have the impact. It could be something bought of the shelf, but for extra mileage, it should be personalized. For even for more extra mileage, it should be crafted by your very own hands. It should be a song! Yes thats right, yours truly wrote the next one as a birthday gift.

To add that sentimental tinge, i decided to make it a little sappy. A I-V-VI- progression in G major, which is my key of choice suits this feel perfectly. Espeacially with the V chord is played with an F#(VII) in the bass. Fanstically cliche progression used over and over again. But it works! Just base the melody on chord tones, and you've got winner.

Of course the toughest part is coming up with the words! That is what 'personalizes' this gift. So while the music took about 2 hours to compose the works took like 2 weeks of thinking. In the end, my best bet was the try remember conversations and pick on something that this person said that was not cheesy, corny or provocative. I finally i recalled just one line, it was not a particularly moving statement, it was just an observation about whats going on that night. But, it did the trick hahaha. So just intertwine that one line with a bunch of sappy words and viola! you get a song. Recorded this is pretty quickly too approx. 3hrs.

Thats how this song came about!

anyone care to guess what is the one liner, that the song is written from?


oh and sorry for the mistakes in all my recordings sometimes i do these in a hurry!

http://www.leftovermusic.com/Ben/Empty Night Star.zip

Epiphany

Here's more stuff from the 'old' days (old being about 1.5 years ago). This one is epiphany, written by jon lau, recorded and arranged by me. I liked this one, its got a nice dreamy melody to it. Tried my hand and harmonies on this one, turned out ok! to my surprise. It's not as high quality as the album version but it sounds ok!

well fyi, i'm no sound engineer, so i just learn as i go. If anyone of you reading this blog is a sound engineer or knows something about recording, mixing and the likes, and you think "Damn i could do a better job" please go ahead and help me do a better job! All my mixing and production skills are really learned from playing with the software that i use (SONAR 4 producer edition) and reading a few books. Bear in mind though, i don't have very much equipment, i curently record through a laptop and a line6 podxt live.

Anyway if anyone would like to hear this song as we(leftover) now play it, i suggest you hop on over to the website, leftovermusic.com (which is linked to this blog) email us and buy a cd! it's well worth it! hahaha

Oh and to get the files, you should copy and paste the address in the address bar of your browser, i don't know how to make a 'clickable' link just yet!

http://www.leftovermusic.com/Ben/Epiphany(1st mix).zip

Monday, March 5, 2007

Better off..

To start things off, i dug long and hard into my hard drive and came up with this recording of "better off". This recording is kinda old, almost 2 years old now (back when i was using the terrible ovation guitar..eekks). Although there are older recordings of my musical musings, this is the first decent recording with me on vocals and guitar. Well decent to me at least.
This one is not actually written by me, it was written by Jon lau. However, i did the arrangement, the guitar solos and the rythm too. Basically he came up with the melody and words. Eventually, me and Jon would move on to form the local band 'Leftover' and this song was one of the 'stamples' from our playlist, a live version is on our E.P.
Of course with 'Leftover' i didn't sing the song, our vocalist did it, i just played guitar. Also, Leftover went with a full band ballad version which, was cool, but i was always imagined this to be an acoustic song. Acoustic just sounds more...sincere?
thought the songs message was better put across this way. So here it is...."better off"

http://www.leftovermusic.com/Ben/bettermix1.zip

Sunday, March 4, 2007

In The Begining...

Right, here's the story of how i decided on this blog.
So i used to play in many bands in and out of school, one day i formed a band with one great guy and we started to explore original music only. The group had no backup singer so, i decided to lend my frog-like croak to the band. Surprisingly they agreed so i ended up playing guitar and singing seconds. One year passes and we do lots of originals a few gigs, jam alot. My frog-like voice actually becomes slightly pleasing to the ear. I enter university at SMU shortly after and become the resident band whore. As long as they allowed me to, i played. I played any music, anywhere, anytime. Needless to say this had an adverse effect on my grades, but who cares! Eventually, one of the bands, which was incidentally one of the pioneer SMU jazz bands actually got pretty good. We received lessons sponsored by SMU and played jazz and latin standards. At this point i had close to 5 bands including the one which played our own original music. It was crazy, in a good way. I was having some mini-identity crisis. SMU student or Musician? Moving on, as the original music band progresses, the jazz band gets an offer to play a big gig 'SMU grand-opening'. Of course we took it. However, when deciding on the songs, there was on song which i suggested, "Mustang Sally" which was pretty cool. I intended to do it as a blues jam for fun, but my bassist had other plans. Having seen paul ponudorai(i hope i spelt it correctly) totally bastardise the song into a funk-driven one my good bassist was inspired. So he copied the bassline used, note for note. Meanwhile, the singer being jazzy and all, had not much of an idea of how to sing the blues. So i sought to show her. Instead, the band decided that i would sing it. Geeez, help!. Still i sang it at the gig and ....Response was good! woaahh. I started to take my singing a little more seriously going from ..."There is absolutely no chance of me singing" to "maybe i can sing a little". So i go on band whoring while i record my first album (which later became an E.P.) with my original music band. My first year of university ends, many of the bands i whore for start to fade and fizz away. I played guitar mainly for these groups and there was a growing number of guitarists, so i guess i was getting 'out of a job'. However, i started to sing in a lead position. I did a few gigs like that. It was also this time that i started use my trusty "Timothy" Acoustic guitar more. Eventually, all the bands i whored for would fade away, with most of the members becoming my friends instead. The jazz band and my original music band lived on. In august, my original music band launches its E.P. and that was great! but back in school, i start to become more of a singer-guitarist than guitarist guitarist.
The gigs got less but at least lots of the gigs i got were paid. So one day i try to actually record the songs which i write with me actually singing it, to my surprise it didn't sound that bad...hmm must have been the computer programs which i used to enhance the sound quality.
Fast forward, to the present. I try to find one band that i can stick with and explore my own originals, though the original music band comes extremely close, i don't want to dominate the group with my own originals, we have a certain sound and it comes from all of us, not just me. Back in school, most of the people rather do covers. So, one day lying on my bed and staring at the ceiling, i think "Crap, why don't i just post whatever i write and record on a blog, whoever wants to listen will listen". So this is it, my diary of music. Its public cause anyone can listen, but its private cause not everyone will know the true meaning of the songs. Here i go!