A quick recap of how we recorded and put together the vocals and the music for “The Pianos Were Burning.”
Tag: collaboration
Stuck in a Creative Hole for 3 Years
It’s been a long time.Probably about three years (or more) since I last produced a new Acid42 track.Here’s how circumstance and collaborators brought me out of the creative hole I was languishing in.
Setting Poetry to Electronic Music: Collaborating with Syke
The title of the poem is Pag-ibig Na Makapangyarihan, which literally translates to “Love So Powerful.” This was a spoken word piece originally performed and written by Filipino hiphop emcee and poet Syke Dolero, known for his machine-gun flow. I ended up composing some jazzy world music around his poetry.
Video for Emorej’s “Stars (Acid42 WorldMix)” and Pray for His Recovery
Emorej (aka Jerome Llama) took my lyrics and set it to a beautiful melody. I then took the vocal track and constructed a mournful worldbeat track with a little drum-n-bass in the chorus. This worldbeat/ethnotronica remix was produced using Acid Pro and some VSTi’s. I posted the track back in 2009. As I recall, Emorej loved it.
Balalaika or: What to Do When You’re Creatively Stuck
Stuck on a musical idea? Here are 2 possible solutions: share it and sit on it. This is the story of how I got stuck on a song idea and how doing those two actions allowed the song to evolve into something much better than its original.
“Stars”- My lyrics set to Emorej’s music
I recently dug up the lyrics and thought it might be interesting to get someone else to write and produce a new tune out of it. So I sent out a call to Electronica Manila members for a collaboration. And Emorej volunteered. He took the lyrics, set it to music, and used a vocal software named Miriam to generate the vocals with the French accent. The result is a simple, but catchy downtempo tune complete with a synthetic but sultry French singer: “STARS.” See the lyrics below.
Collaboration with Cocolulu on the “Panda Extravaganza” Remix
Manila-based musician Cocolulu (AKA Spazzkid)(aka Mark Redito) is releasing an E.P. on my QED RECORDS, and one of his compositions “Panda Extravaganza” caught my ear so to speak. I felt like doing a remix, but he lost his assembly files and only has the final MP3 of the song. So, I built up his track from scratch using Reason, and played with the sounds a bit, and then sent the file to him. Cocolulu added on to it some more and moved sections around. I got the file back and added a few more touches.
Track: Acid42 + ARIEL – Emblues in Repose
It’s a relaxing downtempo instrumental — a collaboration between East and West coast-based Filipinos trying to figure out this country. The song is based on a riff and a series of patches proposed by Ariel and expounded on and sequenced by myself. The result is a light, flowing, driving song which is primarily in E-minor. Very west coast, if you ask me.
Track: Collaboration with Syke on “Pag-Ibig Na Makapangyarihan”
Collaboration with Filipino MC and rapper Syke. The ends result? A hip hop / world music track with doses of electronic yumminess.
Japan Odyssey: Gigging with Grace Nono at the World Expo 2005
From April 5 to 9, 2005, I was in Nagoya, Japan, as keyboardist, laptop musician and backup singer for the Grace Nono and Bob Aves group. We performed for one hour at the Expo Dome, a 3,000-seater auditorium located within the 300-hectare World Expo 2005 Nagakute site, which just days before us, featured Alanis Morisette. And we rocked the house with a set featuring songs which mixed traditional Philippine tribal music with Western-flavored and electronic arrangements. Traditional + experimental = spiritual world music in ancient languages.