Here are some songs I've recorded. All of these are somewhat unpolished — I apologise for the fan noise in the background. (Some day I'll have a real studio...) These were all recorded and edited using the excellent Ardour digital multitracker and Audacity audio editor on a Linux machine.
The songs on this page are in Ogg Vorbis format.
Original songs
"Episodes of Misbehaviour"
Download "Episodes of Misbehaviour" (4.0MB Ogg Vorbis)
Margaret Beckett used the phrase "episodes of misbehaviour that should never have been done" in reference to the Iraq war in September 2006, and I thought it was such a wildly inappropriate metaphor that there had to be a song in there.
Composed by me. Vocals, acoustic guitar and fretless bass guitar by me.
"Hello World"
Download "Hello World (2006 Remix)" (4.2MB Ogg Vorbis)
I wrote this originally at school in 1999 for an IB music composition assignment -- trying to produce something that could be used as a TV theme tune -- using Cubase on a Mac with a GM keyboard. Finding the MIDI file again in early 2006, I reconstructed it in Rosegarden and recorded it again using some better synthesisers: the drums, organ and piano are being done by FluidSynth, and the rest is from my Roland D-110 synth module. I've resisted the temptation to redo any of the parts, so the sequencing mistakes are as they were in the original, but it does sound a lot better than it used to!
Unfortunately I don't seem to have saved the other TV theme song I wrote at the time (which was more upbeat, had a more interesting piano part, and was generally a better bit of music). I've probably got it on a cassette somewhere, along with the original version of this one...
Composed and sequenced by me.
"How Will They Know"
Download "How Will They Know" (3.1MB Ogg Vorbis)
Written by me — my first real song. The fingerpicked bouzouki part came from idly fiddling around with the instrument.
Composed by me. Vocals, Irish bouzouki and fretless bass guitar by me. (The percussion part is played on the bouzouki body.)
"Marking Time"
Download "Marking Time" (5.6MB Ogg Vorbis)
I'd been playing this bouzouki riff for ages, trying to think of something to do with it; in the end I've just added a simple Rhodes piano part over the top. Perhaps I'll do some more to it some day, but I'm quite happy with it for now.
Composed by me. Irish bouzouki and softsynth Rhodes (using Learjeff's jRhodes3 soundfont) by me.
"Mermaid"
Download "Mermaid" (2.3MB Ogg Vorbis)
A happy bouncy song, written with my (lack of) vocal range in mind. Many thanks to Mark for some help with the lyrics.
Lyrics by me and Mark Callanan; music and performance by me -- vocals, Rhodes, piano, bass, the Nekobee and WhySynth DSSI synths, and cheesy TR-808 drums.
"Model M Blues"
Download "Model M Blues" (1.9MB Ogg Vorbis)
This was me learning to use Rosegarden before I got around to buying a MIDI controller, so all the parts were recorded using my PC keyboard (an IBM Model M, hence the name). Drums from my D-110, organ from Aeolus and everything else from Hexter, I think. The timing's a bit ragged in places, but I was quite pleased with the overall effect.
Composed and sequenced by me.
"My Piano"
Download "My Piano (Ninjam 2006)" (5.7MB Ogg Vorbis)
The Ninjam system allows you to jam in real time over the Internet with other musicians -- the best bit being that there's a semi-automatic archive available of all the jams under a Creative Commons license. Back in April 2006, I found myself playing along with drummer indigo, and ended up improvising for a while on an old chord progression of mine. This is the (slightly edited) result.
I also did this "song" as an OctaMED module years ago, and some day I'll get around to doing a proper arrangement and recording of it...
Composed by me. Softsynth electric piano by me. Drums by indigo. Licensed under the Creative Commons by-nc-sa license.
"Rhymes With Lucia"
Download "Rhymes With Lucia" (4.1MB Ogg Vorbis)
The title's from Song Fight!; the chorus grew around it, and the rest was inspired by various family members and friends who're teachers ranting about children and their parents. I think it's pretty obvious from the recording that I really can't sing this sort of stuff very well -- anybody feel like being a guest vocalist for me?
The "electric" guitar part is my electro-acoustic through the CAPS amplifier and cabinet simulator plugins -- after Freeverb, probably the plugins I use most often. Otherwise largely unremarkable.
Composed and performed by me.
"Song For A Thunderstorm"
Download "Song For A Thunderstorm" (4.0MB Ogg Vorbis)
This song was originally an experiment to see what my bass guitar would sound like if I used a contact microphone rather than the pickups. The resulting double-bass-like sound reminded me of Reprazent's music, and I wrote a song around the bass parts in a pastiche of their style, using Hydrogen and some delays to do the drum parts, and with a couple of electric piano tracks courtesy of jRhodes3 and the CAPS/TAP plugins (again).
At a loss for what else to add to it, I dug out a recording I'd made of a thunderstorm on July 3rd 2005 and edited it a bit to fit. I'm quite pleased with the result.
Composed and performed by me. (Well, I didn't really perform the thunderstorm, but I did record it.)
"Sunburnt"
Download "Sunburnt" (6.2MB Ogg Vorbis)
I really don't like the summer very much.
Composed and performed by me.
"The Beast"
Download "The Beast" (4.9MB Ogg Vorbis)
Mark is a much better lyricist than I am, so when he mentioned that he'd written the lyrics for a new rock song but didn't have any music to go with it, I asked if I could arrange it. This was the result, after a bit of back-and-forth collaboration.
Lyrics composed by and copyright © 2007 Mark Callanan. Musical arrangement and performance by me.
Covers and remixes
"House Carpenter"
Download "House Carpenter" (5.0MB Ogg Vorbis)
Folk ballad "House Carpenter" (or "The Daemon Lover", depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on). I learned this from Mark, who follows the Joan Baez version pretty closely.
Traditional song (it's a Child ballad). Vocals and softsynth piano (using Soeren Bovbjerg's Steinway soundfont) by me.
"Making Me Nervous (Mandola Mix)"
Download "Making Me Nervous (Mandola Mix)" (3.0MB Ogg Vorbis)
A remix of Brad Sucks' "Making Me Nervous", with the intention of turning his cute dance tune into an acoustic folk song. (I think it works, but it needs some more instruments...)
Composed and copyright © 2004 by Brad Turcotte. Vocals by Brad Turcotte. Mandola (with tieclip microphone used as makeshift contact pickup) by me.
"The Lakes of Pontchartrain"
Download "The Lakes of Pontchartrain (5.6MB Ogg Vorbis)
Folk song "The Lakes of Pontchartrain", which is a 19th-century variant of "Lily of the West". I learned it from a live version by Paul Brady, but my arrangement's rather different. The harmonica was a birthday present from my housemates, and I wanted to use it in a song (so please excuse the general lack of good technique).
Traditional song. Vocals, softsynth piano, bass, octave mandola and harmonica by me.