An incomplete selection of music I've played on.

Selected Session Work

All I Want For Christmas, Is You

New Music!

Aloud is a four-piece rock n’ roll band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band is co-fronted by Henry Beguiristain (lead vocals/guitars) and Jen de la Osa (lead vocals/guitars), with Frank Hegyi (drums/percussion), and Charles Murphy (bass/backing vocal).

Founded in a small one-bedroom republic in Boston’s Fenway area by de la Osa and Beguiristain, Aloud has gone on to independently release three albums and crisscross the U.S. In 2010, Aloud embarked on a massive coast-to-coast tour in support of their third album, the critically acclaimed Exile. The band performed close to 100 shows in their four months on the road. The Boston Phoenix nominated Aloud for “Best Indie/Powerpop Act” in 2012. In the same year, the Deli Magazine listed Aloud as one of the “Best Emerging Bands” in their SXSW issue.

Aloud released their fourth album, It’s Got to Be Now, April 1st on Mother West Records. It's an RSLBLOG.COM Best of 2014 Album Selection. 

Aloud - Twenty-Five Miles (Edwin Starr cover)

Sneak peek of the title track for be the moon's Golden Age album!

Golden Age (Sneak Peek)

time passes slowly
i'm on the roof again
hiding and smoking
i'm a pariah

clock's barely ticking
i wait for three p.m.
i'll keep on moving 
i'll keep my distance 

in a sense it's a relief

it finally happened
storm clouds are moving in
i'm out in the open
and undefended

i never could be
one of your little sheep
i'll keep on moving
i'll keep my distance

in a sense it's a relief 

you say I'm out of control
call me a sinner
push me until I explode
but I'm just being myself

your blind beliefs are getting old
i am the future 
you push me until I explode
but I'm just being myself

in a sense it's a relief

Relief

Son of the Dharma

Show is back! Working out some gear, but here we go.....
Boston Emissions with Anngelle Wood
Online at @BostonEmissions 
Boston Emissions.com

Boston Emissions 9.29.18

One & Two

A country song written for Joey Clift's reboot of Sufjan Steven's shelved Fifty States Project.

R. K. Vallury: lead vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo
Maxwell "Bunny" Butler: piano, Hammond organ, drums and percussion, backing vocals
Jere Mendelsohn: acoustic guitar, reso-phonic guitar
Dan Wessels: upright bass

Music and lyrics by R. K. Vallury

Produced by Vallury & Butler

Engineered by Maxwell Butler

Butte, Montana (I Ain't Goin' Back)

Chicopee (avec les Funquois)
Performed by King Oaf
Maxwell "Bunny" Butler: vocals, Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ, clavinet, claviset, synthesisers, drum programming
Written and produced by Vallury & Butler
Engineered by Maxwell Butler

Our Fifty States Project - Massachusetts

Chicopee (avec les Funquois)

Another song written for Joey Clift's 2020 reboot of Sufjan Stevens' shelved Fifty States Project.

R. K. Vallury: lead vocals, guitars

Maxwell "Bunny" Butler: electric pianos, Hammond C-3, synthesisers, bass, drum programming and percussion, backing vocals

Farmer Samm: 1982 Ford LN9000

Lyrics by R. K. Vallury

Music by Vallury & Butler

Produced and arranged by Vallury & Butler

Engineered by Maxwell Butler

2020

Pure Michigan

A song written for the "Moon" album of Joey Clift's Our Fifty States Project, a 2020 reboot of the shelved Sufjan Stevens effort.

R. K. Vallury: vocals
Maxwell "Bunny" Butler: piano, dulcitone, synthesiser, backing vocals
Chris Elliott: muted cornet
Prashant Vallury: electric bass
Vincent Fossett, Jr.: drums

Lyrics by R. K. Vallury
Music by Vallury & Butler
Produced and arranged by Vallury & Butler
Engineered by Maxwell "Bunny" Butler

Earthrise

Aloud makes forward-thinking rock & roll that reaches far beyond the genre's boundaries. Spearheaded by Jen de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain, it's a sound rooted in sharp hooks, amplified guitars, and a willingness to explore new ground, with the band remaining in constant evolution.

The group launches itself skyward with Apollo 6, a psychedelic album laced with sweeping, spacey textures and distinctly personal songwriting. "We kept asking ourselves, 'What would a rock band on a different planet sound like?'" says de la Osa, who shares lead vocals and songwriting duties with Beguiristain. "That question led to a lot of sonic experimentation, and we came up with a cosmic, echoing record where you can hear the room itself. You don't just hear the song. You hear the space."

For Aloud, breaking new ground wasn't just a creative decision; it was a necessity. After putting the finishing touches on 2020's Sprezzatura — an ornate album inspired by the Muscle Shoals sound, featuring horns, strings, and contributions from Grammy-winning engineer Guy Massey — the musicians found themselves at home, unable to perform together due to the global pandemic and nationwide lockdown. They'd always been a collaborative outfit, arranging songs together in a rehearsal space before tracking them in a recording studio, and they'd just released the most lushly layered album of their career. Now, they'd have to do something different to maintain momentum.

"As writers, we're always looking at the experiences we've had and trying to use that as inspiration for songs," says Beguiristain. "Being locked up meant we had to turn inward instead, because that's all we had. I think we just naturally went to a personal place, and the guitar became our way of dealing with things. Songs became our therapy."

Recorded in several home studios across Los Angeles, Apollo 6 came to life as Aloud reflected upon the chaos, challenges, and resilient spirit of the modern moment. Beguiristain and de la Osa wrote songs about the benefits of meditation, the detriments of social media, and the coping mechanisms humans turn to during dark times. They experimented with guitar pedals — a Space Echo here, an organ emulator there — to coax new textures out of familiar instruments. They peppered their songs with sound effects, bird noises, and snippets of dialogue. Without help from an outside producer, the two reached out to bandmates Charles Murphy (bass) and Chris Jago (drums), both of whom utilized their home studios for recording sessions. Everyone produced. Everyone shaped the arrangements. As Aloud readied Apollo 6 for blastoff, the musicians also made sure to balance the layered swirl of their instrumentation with the most personal songs of their career.

"The album became the most self-expressive batch of songs we've ever written," de la Osa reflects. "Almost every single one of them was written about something we went through during that pandemic time."

"The Comeback Kid," with its space-cowboy stomp and western sound effects, became a musical mission statement: a battlecry from a band that formed in Boston, moved to Los Angeles, and weathered a host of challenges — from lineup changes to business deals gone south — over the course of six acclaimed albums. "Somewhere To Be" became a guitar-driven march worthy of Oasis, kickstarting the album with bold declarations like "I don't care about
the money; it's all just paper to me." De la Osa wrote about her search for stability with "Meditation for the Housebound," a psychedelic rocker punctuated by blasts of brass, and Beguiristain measured the distance between real life and the echo chamber of the internet with the jangling "Big Blue”.

For all its fiery futurism, Apollo 6 also nods to the musical roots that first brought de la Osa and Beguiristain together. The two met as teenagers in Miami, where they grew up within the same working-class Cuban community. Bands like Oasis, Beatles, and The Who became their mutual favorites, soundtracking the pair's relationship with a mix of guitar grandeur and pop melody. Apollo 6 is rooted in the same musical balance, but it also embraces an updated range of influences. The ambience of musique concrète, the witty angst of The Kinks' Lola Versus Powerman, the psychedelia of Noel Gallagher's Who Built the Moon?, and the unforced cool of French pop all inspire Apollo 6's unique sound, and Aloud doesn't recreate those influences as much as assimilate them into something sharply unique.

Apollo 6 is the sound of silver linings — a booming, boldly assured album created in a time of uncertainty.

Born to be great, but not to be hip.
www.maxwellbutler.net

Son of the Dharma

Aloud

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