Living in the Minus World 16/7/09
Evening all, it’s been a long time. Due to the Writer’s Strike I have been on hiatus, waiting for justice, inspiration and the correct dosage of alcohol to return. And return I have.
So what have I been doing in the last – say – six months? Well the big thing is that after enough people kept telling me, I decided it was time to write my first album which I started probably around January/February this year and I’m aiming to get fully recorded by mid-2010. I also recently started up my own website: www.PhilHaymes.com which I’m using to promote my stuff, blog about the process of writing an album and learning guitar. The good news is that I’ll also be sharing some of this with the Robot Panic community too.
I’m currently about 30% through the writing of the album, I’ve got a few songs down in rough demo format and an overall structure/tracklist for the album. The title is ‘Bright Shadows and Dark Light’ which is based off of two tracks from the mid section of the album, cunningly called ‘Bright Shadows’ and (yep you’ve guessed it) ‘Dark Light’.
Ok so to give you all a flavor of things to come here’s a couple of videos of some of the rough tracks I’ve been working on:
This first track is lovingly called ‘Giant Enemy Pyramid’ (GEP for short) and it’s the opener for the album. It’s pretty shirt and this is an early version, the current one I have has a much better lead apart as well as a kick-ass synth solo at the end!
Next Up is a short clip of ‘Bright Shadows’, the full track runs in at about seven-and-a-half minutes but most of the mid section is still up in the air so I’ll post an update later on once I have things figured out!
Now seeing as I love you all I’m also going to include a load of Black Mages covers I did a couple of weeks back to keep you entertained.
Force Your Way – Final Fantasy VIII
This is a really fun piece to play from the string-skipping pedal note melody through to the tapping solo and powerful harmonies.
Dancing Mad – Final Fantasy VI
I could have gone with the full piece but it’s very long and not that interesting to watch me standing around during the Pipe Organ solos ^_^ I love this solo though, for some reason it feels kinda David Gilmour even though it really isn’t.
Battle Scene – Final Fantasy VI
Some fun riffs and melodies but most of all I love the whammy bar abuse at the start of the solo.
Eyes On Me/Love Grows – Final Fantasy VIII
Originally sang by Faye Wong, I love the melody so much I decided to do my own arrangement which is sort of a cross between ‘Eyes on Me’ and another track ‘Love Grows’. As a side note, I recorded this early last year on the day I picked up that particular guitar.
Okay, I guess that’s enough shameless self-promotion for one day. I’m off to watch The Karate Kid 2 and drink Earl Grey.
Love,
The PhilthBot69
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Tags: final fantasy, guitar, living in the minus world, philthy
July 16th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
That is some nice music you’re writing. Can’t wait to hear the full thing. Good Final Fantasy covers too, but I’m more of an F-Zero fan. You should look into doing covers from those games.
Haha.
This also reminds me that I need to fix my guitar.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
You want F-Zero? Phil does F-Zero. For example.
July 19th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
“Giant Enemy…” giving off a very Steve Vai vibe. Keep it up Phil!