Prepare to be Pwned!

Oh man, i am getting eeeexcciiiited!!

My good pals over at Pure Pwnage are about to launch the premiere of their television series on Showcase here in Canada!  The first episode will air on Friday March 12th 2010 at about 10:00 pm... and I am STOKED for PPTV.
Why?
Well, First:  I am pretty happy for them over there. They have managed to transition from internet phenomenon to 'real' television, which is VERY cool.  I can't think of it happening before, ever.
Second: It is going to be FUNNY SHIT. Like, roflmao funny i suspect.
Third:  As usual, the music is going to AWESOME.  How do i know?  Because Geoff Lapaire is awesome, and so are all the people who helped him make all the epic tunage in the show... Like David DeDourek, and that Pronobozo guy, and of course - me. 

If you are in the Toronto area, you may want to attend the awesome premiere event.  They are taking over the Bloor cinema and screening the first THREE episodes from the new television series!
Unfortunately I'll be home in Calgary and will miss out. Speaking of missing out, remember that if you miss an episode you will of course be able to view it online the day after it airs on the Pure Pwnage site.
That's it for tonight yos.

Peace and loud music!

Up and at 'em... fiiinally.

So a month ago my computer suddenly stopped working. Just wouldn't boot up. Nothing i tried worked, and soon panic set in... to keep this a very short story, i had to wipe everything and start over but have been told by my techno-ninja friend that he copied my ever precious data (including every piece of music i have ever recorded in my entire life) to an external hard drive.
yay.
So today, after weeks of trouble shooting, virus scans, reformating, reinstalling, updating, debugging, etc... I fiiinally have my music making machinery all up and running... and i have quite a lot of pent up tunage in my head. In 6 torrid tune filled hours I sketched out 3 totally different song ideas. double yay. Once i finally figure out how to get all my old data off this linux configured external drive that my meganerd buddy saved it to, I will also have access to the 5 or so tunes that are totally ready to be mixed down, rendered and shared with the world. Meaning all like 10 people that ever listen to my stuff, but still... I'm excited. It has been far tooo long, and it's hard to get much momentum going with all the unfortunate interruptions yo.
anyhoodle.
Hopefully i'll have something soon!

New Song - The Broken Keys Redemption

Hey! So, i've had this track kicking around for almost a year... and as much as i liked it I never really knew what to do with it. It just kind of sat there with a date as a title for a long time, but recently it has been coming up more often in my media players and it reminded me to share it i guess. Unfortunately i still had no title.

I had let another music-making friend hear it, and he immediately commented that the piano sound i was using for the bass line was "broken". I think he meant it as a compliment, ha. I'd mangled it pretty good with EQ, and de-tuned it, and ran it through guitar amps and such. Since then it was 'broken keys'. After i'd redone the brass parts to be bigger and better I wanted to add something to hint at its uplifting quality... and thus the new title yo.

I have absolutely NO idea what bloody "genre" this is supposed to be classified as. Unfortunately, no encoder or website yet has "Good" or "Kick Ass" listed as a category of music.
SO... tell you what. Take a listen folks, and then please let me know.

The Broken Keys Redemption (on Soundclick.com/SteveFord)

/Peace & Loud Music

Absence and Attonment

So... It's been a while hey?
I would love to say i've been too busy to blog, too productive to post, to uproariously uplifted to upload... but it would be a lie. There is absolutely NO good reason why i haven't been writing here more regularly, and why i haven't been putting up a tune a week really. I haven't been working on new material -nearly- as much as i should, but i have quite a few tracks sitting about waiting to be heard. So what do i have coming up to talk about, such as to motivate me to actually follow through on sharing it?
-Some piano-mangled brass bustin' funkesque goodness for starters.
-Last week i put together a track inspired by just how much of a curve ball roller coaster this spring has been.
-Also, i finally mixed up the first couple of tracks on an EP of 4 or 5 songs i've been working on all with song titles inspired by a friends bathroom renovations. So i can start posting them soon as well!
-Lastly, I've been playing a set of 3-5 finger strummed tunes on the acoustic for months that sound similar to each other in style that i should really get around to recording them.

Ok then. Projects are on the go, and older material does exist for me to upload...
So.
Less excuses.
More music.

/peace.

...Licking the Knife Will Get You Nowhere

One should not be in such a Rush to taste a sharpened Tool, afterall...



...Licking the Knife Will Get You Nowhere. (on Soundclick.com)
...Licking the Knife Will Get You Nowhere. (on Last.fm)

After stealing the idea for the song title from Jon, taking a suggestion from 3D (which is what i've decide to call David DeDourek from now on to save space, ha) about writing something in an odd time signature, and throwing in a heavyish guitar riff i'd been working on... well, i've got this... about two and a half minutes of rockness.

[throws horns]


...nice kitty.

mmmm.. Chili and updates.

Heyo,
So i made some seriously tasty chili this afternoon while working on a new tune... guess i was cookin' in both the kitchen -and- the studio. I've gotten a pretty decent draft of a few different sections for the tune, and could leave it as is if necessary, so i quit for the day and came up to feeeeed.
What is it going to taste like?
Well, let's just say that a suggestion from David DeDourek to write something in 7/8 time to cure my boredom combined with a Tool-like riff i'd been kicking around and a song title I stole from one of my buddy Jon Ernst's photo captions has all added up to tasty...
mmmm.... chili.
Stay tuned and hopefully i'll have at least the draft mp3 posted on Monday yo.
Cheers!

New Song - Sunny February Afternoon

So last Friday was an absolutely beautiful damn day.
After all the cold and snow earlier in the week, there were still drifts of undisturbed white out in the yard... and then of course, as the weather is apt to do here in Calgary, it changed totally and went from bitter winter to totally gorgeous. Clear and sunny and nice, and somehow all the ways i'd felt crappy all week kinda just melted off and were warmed and replaced by this very quiet contentment... it started with a very simple acoustic thing (that starts the song)... just two strings, a simple passage... that kind of just grew as an idea along with my own feeling of... Not ass? Ha.
From earlier in the week and all the self-reflective ass kicking and discouragement and blahblahblah to this simple moment of clarity and contentment and peace into something more active, something bigger and fuller. Quiet joy perhaps. The song and I. Bright and crisp.

Anyhoodle. It turned out not-so-bad for something that grew out of nothing quite organically on a sunny February afternoon, and so i have posted it on my Soundclick page and may get around to putting it up on the last.fm sometime too. If you want to go directly to the song's page on soundclick instead of the artist page you can click either the title or the picture.

Peace and loud music,
Steve