Music

It took me a long time to create and record these tunes in a way I was happy with. When you record a CD and do everything yourself you have the ultimate control but also the responsibility of the way it turns out.

I didn't rush nor make it easy on myself – I took the time and the challenge. In fact I recorded most of the tunes many times over the last 10 years. Each time I wasn't really happy. Then I met Martin Motnik who played bass on most of the tunes and hooked me up to Gregg Bissonette. After I received Greggs drum tracks I knew the time had come to stop compromising and be serious on this project.

Drums were recorded early 2009 by Gregg and engineered by his brother Matt in their own studio close to LA. The guitars were recorded between December 2009 and January 2010 in my home studio which is actually my living room – my house was a mess with cables amps and speakers everywhere! Martin recorded a few bass tracks in 2009 but most of them were recorded in his new home close to Las Vegas in January 2010. The oldest tune was written in the 80s literally just when I started playing - Childhood Memories. The latest song was written a year ago. 

There are plenty of styles and types of guitars on here such as a Danelektro 12-String and a Baritone guitar, then the classic Fender Strat and Telecaster. Some fine handmade instruments by German luthiers such as a Lang Tele, a Nik Huber Dolphin and a Siggi Saphir and also a Framus CS Tennessee. Some vintage instruments like a 55 Goldtop Les Paul and a 69 Les Paul Custom are all over the recordings, and last but not least a Sitar and even a Waldzither. I think I used all in all 14 different guitars on this CD (check out the photos in this booklet). Pretty much any guitar I own landed on a track with at least a riff or a lick. 

The selection of songs is a good mix of what I do musically and reflects various stages and phases I went through over the last 20 years. The hardest part was to choose the songs – I have written more than 40 instrumentals but I thought these 12 are the ones I like you to hear (first).

There is a good balance between some real amplifiers tones (The Valve 250, Bimbo and 3100 plus a Framus Ruby Riot) and direct signals coming mainly from a Digitech RP1000 and a Lexicon FW810 which is an I/O interface with a very nice preamplifier for clean guitars. I have used mainly Digitech effects and stompboxes but not the obvious Whammy or YaYa – for that and more please check out my Digitech CD which will be released in June 2010. I tried to rely on keyboards to fill up spaces as little as possible so I replaced a lot of pads and pianos and so forth with sounds I created on the Digitech Time Bender.