I haven’t recorded anything properly in almost 20 years. About 8 years ago I did some recording on my own. But I am definitely not a pro. And although the songs were good 8 years ago, I felt it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. So since then I had always thought I would record something again, but the opportunity had never come – until now…
Earlier this year, my family and I were visiting my mom in Clearwater, Florida. At the beginning of our vacation a good friend of my late father’s visited us and brought along an acoustic guitar. Over the course of the evening I played several songs, mostly requests, songs like “My Way”, “Ring of Fire”, etc. At one point I played him a song that I had written several years earlier.
After hearing the song he told me he had an electric Fender Stratocaster guitar (he actually didn’t play guitar but owned this beautiful strat) that he wanted me to have. But he would only give it to me on one condition, that I record the song for him.
When I returned home I immediately enlisted some help from Nick (Nixon) Boyd, my first cousin Geoff’s son, who along with his brother Jake, also happen to be in the band Hollerado. Nick was starting to record/produce bands and I had wondered if he could help.
We put aside some time in May of 2017 to try to record the song. At this point it had a working title of “Caught the Sun” which was based off of the first line of the song. It’s a very simple, with 4 chords repeating over and over, pretty much the same progression as countless other songs. It has a somewhat country feel to it.
At the time Nick didn’t have his own studio (he has one now but hasn’t given it a name yet!), so we recorded it all at the Royal Mountain Records HQ, which has a rehearsal space in the building they own near the Junction in Toronto. Jake played the drums, throwing in a few different takes, and Nick kept to the bass guitar. The first song took maybe 3 sessions to complete.
Once we finished I realized this wasn’t enough for me. And after a few email exchanges, Jake & I joked that I should do a Country Album, about a guy who can’t stop writing Country songs. We ‘jokingly’ said it could be called “The Bane of my Existence”.
Inspired by this I was piqued to write another country song and to possibly do some more recordings. So while Hollerado were on tour in June, I wrote “The Bane of My Existence”, totally inspired by Johnny Cash. And also during this time I went through my snippets of songs, to see if I had anything that was worthy of being recorded. I found a handful.
When Hollerado’s June tour was over, Nick & I went over the songs, and worked out some arrangements and lyrics and we scheduled more time later in the summer to record.
And after months of mixing/mastering and final tweaks we finished. I could go on but for the sake of space and your time, let’s get to the music. Thanks for listening!
Hello
WOOOHOOO Wynnzie!
Good morning.
Good recounting! Also good morning.
right on, cool story bro
nice ditty too
Johnny Hallyday: France’s ‘Elvis Presley’ dies at 74
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42247551
Hello hello! Thanks for sharing the story and the tune!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SENzTt3ftiU
Hi All
@Garf Great video about J Dilla and the Akai MPC
Hi Wynnzie
Thanks for the great post
No Problem. Thanks for letting me self-promote! Feels weird, but sometimes you just gotta do it.
@Michael – I commented earlier, but I really enjoyed the tune, so thank you for self-promoting! 🙂
Well, Mr Wynn, you* will have a place to self-promote as long as this site exists
*and any other Canadian musician
Hi @janet, there is more than one song here! And thanks for listening!
Thanks @Garf!
I see it’s busy here today.
Very
Hard to catch up after some time away!
would anyone like to share their cable account with me so I can access TSN Go?
no, just a thought
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW1pbuyGlQ0
Just curious: is the new Wet Secrets on the list for new releases tomorrow?
I have not looked yet, I have been procrastinating about it all day
but there is no mention of anything new on their Facebook page
They sent out a tweet earlier today https://twitter.com/thewetsecrets/status/938505962909941760 with a release date of Friday.
Check the Six Shooter site.
but http://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/music/wildlife-wet-secrets-new-tyranny-of-objects-album-fun-dark-and-subtly-genius
Ok, I think I have a new goal next year, try and find a way to combine the dates for as many upcoming releases as I can in one place by scraping other sites. Then we can filter it for Canadian content.
I have added it to the calendar, thank you for the nudge Janet
You’re welcome! Thanks for adding it to the calendar!
as I said up there I need to find a better, more automated way to track release dates
(I should also read news letters when they are sent to me)
I’m out for today, but will talk to you all tomorrow!
I was away from my computer today. Way to go Wynnsie! I am so glad you did this album and it is great to hear the backstory of how it came to be. Thanks for sharing with us. 😀
I wondered where you were to
Thanks Darlene! Making art/being creative is therapeutic! No matter the outcome.