AFIII "Graphite & Glitter" Project from chrisAngela now released:-)

[ChrisAngela1]

Hello all and happy Friday! My newest project "Graphite & Glitter" is complete and now available on iTunes, Spotify, BandCamp, SoundCloud plus all other streaming sources!

All guitars, bass, and keyboards (with the exception of synth plugins) are processed through the incredible Axe Fx III Mark 2, so diverse! To me, it's the iPod/iPhone device that has completely revolutionized amp modeling...thank you all at Fractal Audio!

As AI becomes commonplace in our world, this project theme is loosely structured around both the good and the bad that comes with advancing technology. Of course, being an all instrumental album, this can be challenging to get across!

The project title is taken from the great Donald Fagen song "I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World), a song that discusses the widespread optimistic vision of the future and technology solving all our human problems, yet sidestepping the disappointment that can happen when we have such rose-colored glasses on about how life is going to be so good with no unintended consequences:

"On that train all Graphite & Glitter,
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris,
(More leisure for artists everywhere)

A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free"

I am fascinated to see where this (AI) will all go...thank you all so much for listening and for your support, hope you enjoy the project!

P.S. Each song is accompanied with a video on my YouTube channel, sometimes instrumentals go better with visuals! Highly recommend to consume with headphones and HD TV https://www.youtube.com/@chrisangela/videos

Cheers (and now I'll quit oversharing finally, apologies for that!)

chrisAngela
#newmusic #indiemusic #chillwave #darkwave #fusion #synthwave #ambientinstrumental #funkrock #AxeFxIII, #Ableton Live, #KieselGuitars, #IbanezGuitars

https://music.apple.com/us/album/graphite

 

[Gibson335]

Man, Thanks so much for posting this! I discovered your work through following this forum and always find myself amazed at your concept, musicality, and top-notch productions. It's so exciting for me to hear someone with a unique vision of what they want to do with their talents.

One question if I may, I'm an old fart (66) so most of my musical experience form-wise is a song or progression. More like pop/rock tunes or jazz standards. I really love your style of writing and want to incorporate the "evolving" aspect into an amalgam of my own style. Do you write through your compositions? Meaning, do you know beforehand all the ways it evolves throughout the piece before your start recording to put it together? Or do you work off the groove that you have set up as a base and then start creating themes and melodies and fill in how the harmony and BG sounds are orchestrated as you go? Finish a section, then think up a new section and continue on?

I tend to write more in a "progression" based style but am trying to expand to more of a evolving progression style like yours if that makes sense. Just interested in how you think about writing and developing your compositions.

Mostly just wanted to post and tell you that even if you sometimes don't get too many comments, there's guys like me that LOVE and appreciate what you're doing. At my age, I have just about zero interest in joining a bar band and re-creating the "classics". It's probably just me, but since covid it seems like that whole scene is pretty tired. But I still have a need for musical expression and what you are doing is fantastic and inspiring for someone like me that has been searching for a new way to combine music and technology to move into the future. Thanks again for all the hard work putting your music and videos together. I really do think they're great!

 

[ChrisAngela1]

Man, Thanks so much for posting this! I discovered your work through following this forum and always find myself amazed at your concept, musicality, and top-notch productions. It's so exciting for me to hear someone with a unique vision of what they want to do with their talents.

One question if I may, I'm an old fart (66) so most of my musical experience form-wise is a song or progression. More like pop/rock tunes or jazz standards. I really love your style of writing and want to incorporate the "evolving" aspect into an amalgam of my own style. Do you write through your compositions? Meaning, do you know beforehand all the ways it evolves throughout the piece before your start recording to put it together? Or do you work off the groove that you have set up as a base and then start creating themes and melodies and fill in how the harmony and BG sounds are orchestrated as you go? Finish a section, then think up a new section and continue on?

I tend to write more in a "progression" based style but am trying to expand to more of a evolving progression style like yours if that makes sense. Just interested in how you think about writing and developing your compositions.

Mostly just wanted to post and tell you that even if you sometimes don't get too many comments, there's guys like me that LOVE and appreciate what you're doing. At my age, I have just about zero interest in joining a bar band and re-creating the "classics". It's probably just me, but since covid it seems like that whole scene is pretty tired. But I still have a need for musical expression and what you are doing is fantastic and inspiring for someone like me that has been searching for a new way to combine music and technology to move into the future. Thanks again for all the hard work putting your music and videos together. I really do think they're great!

Thanks so much for the kind words, I'm so glad you like!

Regarding your (great) question, I put together tunes in the latter, working off a specific groove that I like and let it evolve from there. Most often I have no idea where they'll go. If I do have an idea, I'll make sure I record and capture it and then see if it develops.

It seems I'll incorporate a riff or basic progression based on what I'm actively working on with guitar, technique/theory wise. I started developing and recording songs as backing tracks to practice over, adding melodies and solos as I went along...I guess that is what started my style of putting them together! Often I'll have around 10-15 undeveloped song projects that sit which I constantly revisit time and again to see where they go.

It's certainly been a steep learning curve as three year ago, I didn't possess a DAW and had no idea how to record anything!

And I, like you, have zero interest in playing covers...as I'm near your age as well, I have never been stuck in any specific genre or decade, my interests keep evolving as music evolves! From watching The Beatles live on Ed Sullivan, to all the awesome music I've heard in the 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, 10's, 20's! My current favorite artists are Mark Lettieri, Cory Wong, Plini, Devin Townsend, and Nuno Bettencourt. Overall, my top influences that really woke me up and made me realize I needed a day job was, of course, EVH, but in the late 80's Joe Satriani...followed closely by Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Paul Gilbert, Eric Johnson...they all brought instrumental rock guitar into my musical universe gratefully

Again, thanks for the encouragement, I admittedly do this strictly out of my love for music and had simply never had the time to devote to it until the last few years!

Chris

 

[LancerS]

Great work! Some of the tracks I listened to are simply masterpieces and then again a few of them are busy to the point that it was hard for me to maintain focus; don't get me wrong they are all very unique, very tight works. The overall vibe for me is similar to a film score which you probably should be trying your hand at as well with the those mad production skills-the video just pushes all of it into a genre of its own.
I would also tell you that I think a tune like FunkoSonic desrves a more in your face up front guitar solo section which is wholly from a guitarists point of view of course. It turns out that Donald Fagen was quite the visionary and I love your take on "his" Brave New World concept.
Again very nice work Chris!

 

[ChrisAngela1]

Great work! Some of the tracks I listened to are simply masterpieces and then again a few of them are busy to the point that it was hard for me to maintain focus; don't get me wrong they are all very unique, very tight works. The overall vibe for me is similar to a film score which you probably should be trying your hand at as well with the those mad production skills-the video just pushes all of it into a genre of its own.
I would also tell you that I think a tune like FunkoSonic desrves a more in your face up front guitar solo section which is wholly from a guitarists point of view of course. It turns out that Donald Fagen was quite the visionary and I love your take on "his" Brave New World concept.
Again very nice work Chris!

Thanks for the awesome feedback and kind words! Yes, I agree I'd benefit from a bit more subtlety and minimalism, I just can't help myself sometimes I've been told before that my genre leans more towards "Cinematic", as I struggle to define my music...it's not straight ahead instrumental rock or electronic, etc. Maybe that's my calling?

And yes, agree FunkoSonic definitely needs a Nuno Bettencourt solo, he is my funk rock hero...but I'll need a few more decades (centuries?) of practice to pull it off myself sadly! I've been working on his "Rise" solo at solo speed and I'm up to 60% playback tempo...but each percent increase and my fingers just start tripping all over themselves!

Thanks again for the feedback, I crave knowing where all this stands as it's difficult at times to get!

Cheers

 

[Gibson335]

Thanks for your reply Chris. Thanks for taking the time to explain your method of writing. I sort of thought your music was developed based off a groove to start, but I'm amazed at how seamlessly you can transition from one idea to another during your pieces when you didn't have that next musical idea yet at the time of recording. (did that make sense?)

Also amazing that you just started working with a DAW three years ago!! I'm just starting myself but it takes me a half hour to figure out what button I just pushed that made the screen completely change at random. And how to undo it.... I can't imagine being at your level in three years.

I'm still wrapping my head around writing music this way. I understand the sit down and write verse/chorus/repeat way, and the jam with your band until something sticks way. But the write/record. Stop. Write another idea/record. Stop. etc. way is new to me. I find I have a lot of beginning ideas but stringing new ideas together is the trick. I just need to go back and revisit old ideas more and work on them again. Your music is definitely an inspiration to me!

I'm shocked we're somewhat in the same age group. Ha! i figured you were a 30 y.o. punk with an angular haircut! Your music is so modern yet still classic, and you visuals are definitely future forward to me. I'm glad your talents are keeping you young!
Take care and I'll be following your musical journey. Thanks again for posting your videos.

 

[ChrisAngela1]

Thanks again for the kind words!

To better visualize my workflow, here are a couple Ableton Live screenshots. I'm a big fan of organizing my thoughts and figuring out the arrangement by sorting things out in session view...this way I can add/subtract "clips" into the various sections of the song (top pic). I will play around with this for quite awhile until I record into the arrangement view (see bottom pic).

Once that's done, then I can mix and arrange until a cohesive tune emerges...or at least I hope so!

Solo guitar parts are typically the very last thing to complete and I often do that right in the existing recorded arrangement.

Next step is to apply Ableton's Automation for fades, panning, effect on/off, plus tweek any final reverb, delay, + effects.

I then apply the EQ, Compression (iZotope Neutron 3) and the Mastering software (iZotope Ozone 9)...wow do those make a difference.

I'll let that marinate for a few days and then come back with fresh ears and make the final adjustments before creating the MP3/WAV files to upload.

Each project I figure out just a few more tricks and techniques to apply to the next, but still a long way to go!

Hope this helps, I'm already starting to look forward to the next project, I love how they seem to take on a life of their own as I start with a blank canvas and go from there

Cheers