I am an amateur songwriter who just wants to share his work with the world. The songs on this site are demos recorded on a Mac using GarageBand.
I have recently been collaborating with my longtime friend Christian Beach, playing organ, accordion and tambourine at several live shows (see a video clip of the a performance below) and on a few recordings.
Below are notes about the songs I have in my music player:
"Alliel" is a more complete demo of a song I first posted on here in November 2007. I finally wrote some lyrics and recorded the vocals. I also changed the piano parts in the verse and added a little break section after the bridge.
"What Would You Say?" was written and recorded with GarageBand during Memorial Day weekend 2006, using mostly recycled lyrics from ideas I had over the years. The version here is a 2007 remix of the song.
"Nashville" is a demo of a song that started out as just some lyrics I wrote down while on a plane prior to departure from Nashville in early April 2006. Those lyrics became the chorus, but I was having trouble writing the rest of the words, so I basically just improvised the lyrics sung on this version, which is why I'm singing about writing down some notes in a pad on a plane (I changed the time of the lyric writing to just before I left for Nashville in order to tell the story).
"The Greatest Love" was originally written in 1994 and I recorded the version here in 2005. Musically, the song is based somewhat on "Secret World" from Peter Gabriel's "Us" CD.
"Parting of the Ways" was written and recorded in early 2005. It's about moving on from a really long, drawn out relationship in which the boundaries were constantly getting blurred. It started out as just vocals, piano and strings, but I quickly added the bass and percussion parts along with that little bit of synth in the instrumental bridge. The lyrics really came about while improvising some words into the microphone. The title is a tip o' the hat to a 2005 episode of "Doctor Who."
"Untitled 20060528 instrumental" is an unfinished demo that I wrote and recorded the day after "What Would You Say?" during Memorial Day weekend 2006. It is one of the more upbeat songs I have written. It's also probably my most "Ben Folds-like" song...but that's a stretch. Someday, I plan on adding some lyrics and a bass line.
"Don't Lose The Groove (2009)" is an updated version (although it still sounds a bit retro) of a song I wrote with my longtime friend Christian Beach back around 1990, during the waning days of an industrial/techno/rap unit we were in together. The original was influenced by the sound of Nine Inch Nails, Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb, all of whom we had started listening to at the time. We made a quick recording of the song with me on the vocals (or screaming), so I used that as a reference for resurrecting the song. I wanted to keep a bit of the industrial feel, but tried to make it more of a dance track. I did all of this to enter an electronica competition on TalentTrove.com and it paid off as I came in 2nd, which was good enough for a $100 gift certificate from Sam Ash.
Christian Beach
"Taking It Real Slow"
Live at Fergie's Pub in Philadelphia, PA, 2/22/2008
Christian Beach performs his original song "Taking It Real Slow" at Fergie's Pub in Philadelphia along with Gorgo (mandolin), Michael Scotto (snare drum, percussion) and Brian Kelley (accordion).
