mark fassett

Well, we completed the RPM Challenge 2010… 10 songs, and some pretty good stuff.  I’m working on doing some clean up and finishing work to the songs, then I’ll master them and post them.  I still need to get the artwork done as well, but that should happen in the near future. No CD name yet…
It was a great experience to get down to the music again… and it has me thinking about my next musical project.  I have been thinking of doing a covers CD of all the music I liked during my early years of playing music… mostly pretty cheezy corporate rock, so it would be a great challenge to breathe some life into those songs.  I’m also thinking of doing an instrumental CD.

In other news… The Aquamarines CD is done… I just finished mastering it last week.  I guess the band could come back with additional fixes, but I think it’s golden.  Great piece of work, it should be available soon at your local and online retailer of choice.

Along For The Ride went into Whiskey Hill Studios in Woodside last month to record tracks for our upcoming CD (still to be named).  There is still lots of work to do to get this CD going, but it’s going to be a joy to work on.  I’ll do the mixing in the Noom Room, overdubs, etc.  This will be fun… I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do with these cool songs.

Yep, it’s that time of year again… RPM Challenge time.

It looks like this year it will be a combination of John Rose and another musical friend, Charles Culbreth.  Charles is an old friend and musical master of melody, so the hope is he will provide John and I with enough melodies to get us started (or better yet, to take us all the way to Feb 28).  It’s a tall order, but we shall see… whatever Charles will come up with will be great.  It will be a different style of working then how we’ve worked before.  That is one of the best things… doing things differently each time we take on this project.
I’m still working on mastering the Aquamarines upcoming CD.  This CD is really, really great work… quite a sonic feast.  I think there are just a couple more songs left… not sure if there is a specific release date up ahead, but keep your ears open for this.

I need to post some more music for you to hear… I have some things in the works, and will post something soon.

Oh, and there’s another entamoeba show coming up, this one is scheduled for March 6.  Watch this space for more info, but this promises to be a multi media experience with visual art, music, and maybe even dance.

The end of summer has always been bittersweet for me.  On my latest CD, Jennifer Wilde helped flesh out my idea by writing great lyrics to our song “Summer’s End.”

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I wrote the chord progression and initial melody (which Jennifer greatly improved on) while on a camping trip at the end of summer, watching my daughter in a particularly joyful and innocent place.  I was struck by similarities of the end of summer, and the end of innocence that happens as a child grows.  Hopefully the song captures that… I think it does.  Growing up in the midwest, the end of summer meant not only the beginning of school, but the beginning of fall/winter, which brought snow and cold… and for me, as an outdoor child, melancholy.  I think it’s something people who grow up on the west coast haven’t experienced.

Today, it’s different.  With the end of summer comes the beginning of a new period of productivity for me.  The dormant entamoeba has been reborn, with a new cello player.  More on that as time goes by.  In the meantime, feel free to listen to this from the EP we put out earlier this year:

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Today, I had a conversation with Kevin Keller, an old friend and musician who I performed with in his Kevin Keller Trio.  He was waiting for the delivery today of his new CD, to be called “In Absentia.”  I’ve heard a bit of it, and it sounds really great!

Also today, I received a batch of files from my friend Rick Escobar that will comprise part of the next Aquamarines CD.  Rick has asked me to master them, so tomorrow I’m going to be in the studio getting one track ready for a pre-halloween release.  Again, I hate to repeat myself, but this stuff is VERY cool.  If you like surf music combined with old TV themes and classic Japanese pop blended with world music, you’re gonna like this CD.  I’ll see if they’ll let me post one here… if so, I will!

Cheers… and on to next time…

John Rose and I are on track for the RPM Challenge, in spite of very busy schedules.  So far we have a bunch of song ideas that we’re playing virtual tennis with… one of us starts with an idea and we toss it over the net to the other, repeat until finished.

So far this one is going to be different… there’s some real old school stuff, but also some mellow stuff.  It’s all pretty organic so far, especially compared to last year when we had more of an electronic flavor.  The nice thing is we’re really getting to PLAY on this one… John has laid down some FINE bass riffs, and I’m playing lots of guitar.  I haven’t even picked up the bass yet for this challenge, but I think it will happen (there’s one song in particular that needs some upright, but only if I beat John to it).  John has done some nice guitar work too.  One song is just piano right now, and I’m working on a melody.

So check back on our progress…

Scott Caplener has once again offered to help with some artwork, which is awesome.  Scott is a great visual artist, filmmaker, and all around great person.

After a great family vacation/weekend up to Ashland, Oregon to see a couple of plays and enjoy the general ambiance of southern Oregon, I had to stop by radiostar studios on the way back down highway 5. What a cool vibe. The place had a writeup in the Jan/Feb issue of TapeOp (article not available online that I could find).

The studio is in the town of Weed, north of Mount Shasta (and there is a view of the mountain right from the facility). The town itself is pretty dead, it seems… not sure what the main industry is now, maybe the recording studio. Anyway, what a great place to do a recording. They feature analog and pro tools, a pretty healthy stable of Neve preamps, and just about all the experimental gear you could imagine getting your hands on. Old tube gear? All over the place. Drive-in movie theater speakers? Check. Classic guitar amps? Yep. They offer accommodations with your studio sessions as well, dirt cheap. They were really great to give me a tour, completely unannounced… and really, now I’m dying to record there just for the experience.

Their main room, studio A, is an old theater… giving you an option to record in a familiar performance/stage environment, even with an audience of your choice. I can see how that could elicit some great performances from a band.

Their owner/chief engineer/producer, Shirley Massy, has some major credits and a great attitude… seems like she’d be great to work with. Anyway, check them out…

Oh… and the plays? We saw a couple, and they were great… especially a western version of “Comedy Of Errors”… way cool.