Sci-Fi Songs: August 2008

Kay Kenyon, SF Signal, Radio Airplay, and More!

I could not be more thrilled with the chain of events that occurred this past week.

First, over at Fantasy Cafe, Kristen wrote a nice post about two of my recent songs.

This led to John DeNardo at SF Signal mentioning Sci-Fi Songs in his blog this past Wednesday. John was kind enough to link to three of my recent songs:

The Return of Titus Quinn is a solo acoustic instrumental piece that was inspired by Kay Kenyon's excellent novel: Bright of the Sky. The piece of music came to the attention of Kay Kenyon herself, through SF Signal. Check out some of the nice things that Kay had to say about the composition:

Finally, Paul from the Beam Me Up Radio Show, Blog, and Podcast took a liking to Rachel Rosen, and graciously wrote about it on his blog as well as playing the song and discussing it on his radio show and podcast this past Saturday.

Thanks to everyone who wrote about Sci-Fi Songs this past week. I'm just about finished with a new instrumental piece, which should be recorded and posted by next Monday.

Sci-Fi Song #6: Rachel Rosen

Rachel Rosen.mp3

Sci-Fi Song #6 was inspired by the Philip K. Dick classic, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. This song is sung from the point of view of the novel's main character, Rick Deckard. I'd like to thank the moderators and members of the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club at Good Reads for picking this as the book of the month for July.

Here are a couple of good recent reviews of the book

Here are some of the tools that I used to record the track:

Martin Acoustic Guitar in DADGAD tuning
Les Paul Studio Electric Guitar
Washburn Bass Guitar
Rode NT-3 microphone (to record the acoustic guitar and my vocals)
Apple Logic Pro 7 recording software

The ES2 software synth for the synthesizer solo
Logic's included compressor, delay, and reverb plug-ins
The electric guitar parts were recorded through Logic's Guitar Amp Pro plug-in
The drum parts were created using Beta Monkey's Drum Werks V loop collection

Hope you enjoy it,
John

Here are the lyrics:

Rachel Rosen (Is She Really an Android?)

My name is Rick Deckard, I'm in my hover car
I'm a bounty hunter for the city
There's six androids free, and it's left to me tonight

They're the Nexus 6 and they get their kicks
From singing opera and killing humans
She's got short dark hair and an icy stare, alright

Is Rachel Rosen really an android
Can Rachel Rosen really be alive
Is Rachel Rosen really an android
Can Rachel Rosen really be alive

I give the Voigt-Kampff test to bounty hunter Phil Resch
cause he fears that he might be an android
He's got a laser tube and a bad attitude, tonight

I book a hotel room, I hope she gets here soon
I've got three androids to retire
We share an android kiss at the St. Francis tonight

Link Love, 8/11/08

Here are some interesting links from the past week.

Fantasy/Sci-Fi Book Blogs

I haven't read any Richard Morgan yet, but after reading these interviews, he's risen to the top of my "to read" list

Music Blogs

Over at Fong Songs, Fongolia posted a great video of the Harvey Danger guys performing "Maybe I'm Amazed" with an impromptu acoustic guitar solo by one of my favorite musicians, Jon Brion.

Where Music and Fantasy/Sci-Fi Meet

Check out The Best Heavy Metal Songs Based on Fantasy Novels over at Suvudu
He's not a fantasy/sci-fi novelist, but I really enjoyed Jonathan Lethem's You Don't Love Me Yet. At Death + Taxes, he speaks about his new music/songwriting project with Silos frontman Walter Salas-Humara.
Here's another one from Fong Songs, and it is of particular interest to to fantasy/sci-fi fans. Fongolia posted a video of Amanda Palmer performing a hilarious jazz standard style song called I Google You. It was composed by none other than Neil Gaiman! I didn't realize that he even wrote songs, and this one is great.

Sci-Fi Song #5: Sarene: inspired by Elantris

Sarene.mp3

My new song Sarene (Sci-Fi song #5) was inspired by Elantris, a great novel by Brandon Sanderson. This song is sung from the point of view of the main character, Prince Raoden. To learn more about Elantris check, out these great reviews and interviews at the following blogs:

Here are some of the tools that I used to record the track:

Martin Acoustic Guitar for the strummed acoustic parts
Les Paul Studio Electric Guitar

Standard Tuning for the rhythm parts and riffs in the chorus, the Edge-like delay guitar part in the second verse, and the harmony solo in the outro.
Open A (EAEAC#E) for the slide guitar parts in the chorus.

Washburn Bass Guitar
Rode NT-3 microphone (to record the acoustic guitar and my vocals)
Apple Logic Pro 7 recording software

The ESP and ES1 software synths for the synthesizer sounds in the beginning
Logic's included compressor, delay, phaser, and reverb plug-ins
The electric guitar parts were recorded through Logic's Guitar Amp Pro plug-in

Hope you enjoy it,
John

Here are the lyrics:

The city walls are covered with slime and sludge

It's difficult to find someone to trust

The Shaod took a hold of us and left us dead inside

Every scratch is agony where the pain will never subside

Oh Sarene, I wished I could have known you
Oh Sarene, I'm sorry that I'm gone
Oh Sarene, Your the one I wanted all along

I found a friend in Galladon the Duladen

We organized a union of the denizens from Elantris

We washed the walls and planted seed
and scripted Aons of pure light
A princess came to offer us
a solution to our plight

Oh Sarene, I wish that I could tell you
That I'm the Prince of Arelon
Oh Sarene, you think you're doing the right thing but it's wrong

Hrathen has three months to convert the populace of Kae
If he fails than the people of Arelon will be slayed
by the holy soldiers of the Fjordell Empire as they descend upon the innocent
it's up to use to save them

Oh Sarene, I think it's time to tell you
That I'm the Prince of Arelon
Oh Sarene, I think the time has come to claim the throne

Oh Sarene, we must protect the city
from Derethi monks and warriors
Oh Sarene, it's up to us to stop this massacre