I wrote this song sometime between 2001 and 2004.  This time frame is what I call an equipment transition period in my keyboard inventory as I was starting to sell off many of my old vintage analog synthesizers and replacing them with modern virtual analog synthesizers.  This is one of the first songs I wrote using the new gear.

This is a rough mix and has no vocals, because quite frankly, I have yet to ever fully figure out lyrics or vocals for the song.  This mix is a bit longer than the final mix was going to be by at least a minute.

All parts are me.  Copyright by Brent Haeseker. 


Skirting The Issue

This is a rough demo of all first takes.  I have had this song on the short list to complete for years, but for some reason have never been able to sit long enough with it to do a proper recording.  This is actually a rough mix of those first scratch tracks to play around with what parts might be salvageable.

In the final version the beginning of the song won't be so sparse - I was testing some new audio plugins on the drum tracks and  slowly bringing in the other instruments to see how everything was balancing.  The guitars are also over processed and the bass is too boomy.  My first take vocal track is very rough with plenty of bum notes.

Oddly enough, the song originally started life as a synthesizer instrumental.  I had recently recorded another song using only my Roland Jupiter-8 synth and wanted to try another song using just it.  However, that idea didn't last although the final mix will likely have more synth parts at the forefront.

I wrote this song in 1999 or 2000, by my best guess.  Copyright by Brent Haeseker

Run Forrest Run - Rough Demo

I studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston from 1991 to 1993.  The college is magnet from some of the best up-and-coming musicians on the planet.  If I'm not mistaken, we had the highest percentage of foreign students over any other college (but don't quote me on that).  I thought I was a pretty hot keyboard player when I got there on day 1, but by day 2 I realized I was just another humble drop in the bucket.  However, since my interest was always more in composition over musicianship, I refocused on composition and ended up a Commercial Arranging major.  

What is Commercial Arranging, you might be wondering?  Well, basically it's composition, but focusing on any musical environment one might come across in the profession of music.  For example, I can write music for most any instrument and most any style of music.  At Berklee, I wrote a lot big band scores as well as string quartets and everything in between.

Each year the college would have their "Singer's Showcase" concert.  This was a big event that always sold out our concert center and featured many of our top student musicians.  It was also directed by a handful of our top arranging students and somehow I got picked for the 1993 show.  Putting on the show, which happened at the end of the semester, was actually one of my "classes".  The first few weeks we auditioned singers, then we matched up music that would fit each singer's vocal style.  We tested out material, wrote scores and rehearsed.  A successful performance meant an "A" for the class.  

This is one of the songs I was assigned to handle.  It is an old song R&B song that Arentha Franklin once recorded in the early 70's.    Working only from a lead sheet with chords and lyrics, I wrote a score for a 6 piece horn section, piano, synth, 2 guitars, bass guitar, drums, percussion, 4 background singers and 2 of the most amazing gospel singers, Robin Spears and Laquinta Brown.

If you have ever rehearsed with a horn section, the trumpet players are always the ones that blast everyone's eardrums - stay away from the trumpet players.  However, with Robin and especially Laquinta, you have to put them off in a corner without microphones and even then the trumpet players are complaining of the incredible volume.  I have no idea how they did it.  If you listen to the recording, the rest of the band is drowned out.  That's unfortunately for me as some cool parts I wrote, such as the bass part, aren't even audible.  For the record, I had nothing to do with recording process.

This was a fun score to work on.  I borrowed a little from Aretha's recording and threw in a lot of original composition too.  I can't tell you how addicting it is to write music and then have a room full of awesome musicians and singers at your command to play it. My voice can be heard at the very beginning as I counted off the beat - yes, it still remains as my only live performance as an arm waving conductor.  


You're All I Need To Get By

This is another version of the song "This Time".

This Time - Reprise (Demo)

This is a demo of a song I wrote around 1997.  Two main reasons made me scrap the song - my lead vocals were awful and the solo section sort of fell apart.  It's a shame as it is a really nice song with a great chord progression.  I"m playing rhythm guitar, bass guitar and doing backing vocals.  My buddy Marcus Williams, in additional to extra backing vocals, did a really nice guitar solo but the rhythm section didn't gel there - my fault as I was still new to playing bass and I never had time to work through the song with the drummer, Steven Bell.  Steve is a fine drummer, so with more time we could have nailed it.

GoodBye - Demo with Backing Vocal

I guess I must have written this on a Saturday night.  Probably recorded sometime in early '90's, but who really knows.  Obviously an unfinished song.  Copyright Brent Haeseker.

Saturday Night

In 1999 I recorded an album of songs that each featured only one synthesizer from my ever-expanding collection of vintage synthesizers.  This album was called the "Vintage Synthesizer Demonstration Album" and catered to other synth geeks like me that were interested in collecting particular instruments but didn't know what certain ones sounded like.  I figured if I used only one synth on each song, it would showcase a full overview of that synth's sonic characteristics.  Also, it was a fun creative experiment in minimalism.

This song features my old Yamaha DX5 synth, basically a 6-octave DX7 with two DX7 synth engines in it. This was a top of the line digital synth in 1985.

The song is in 3 seperate movements, each stylistically different.  The first movement is pretty experimental, just showing off the harsher and bellsy sounds the DX-series could make.  The second movement is a bit of '80's synth funk.  The third movement is somewhat of traditional and modern composition mixed together.

The song was written and recorded pretty quick.  I didn't even bother to fix some flubbed playing, just cranking through it pretty fast.

Other songs on the album featured the Oberheim OB-Xa, Roland Jupiter-8, Roland Jupiter-6, Roland Juno-106, Minimoog, Sequential Circuits Pro-One and Korg Poly-800 - all sold on Ebay years later.

This song copyright 1999 by Brent Haeseker.

DX5 Demonstration

Appropriately named.  Not much of a song - more like a creative experiment gone horribly wrong.  Actually I have quite a few of these pushing-the-envelop brainstorms.  It flushes the musical toxins out of the body and allows you figure out new ways to develop musical ideas.  My best guess is this is from any time from 1989 to 1993.  This... um... song is copyright by Brent Haeseker.

Fast and Bizarre

This is another demo from my Vintage Synthesizer Demonstration Album.  Other than the drum loop, all the instrument tracks on the song are from one of my old Roland Juno-106 synthesizers.  This song was written and recorded in 1999.  Copyright Brent Haeseker.

Juno-106 Demo 1

I rescued this recording off an audio cassette, the only surviving recording of this song that I wrote in 1989.  The song has a variety influences that all culminate in this extended song.  First off, my training in classical music inspired me to write a multi-movement piece - this song has 3 movements.  

The first movement is a bit experimental where I was trying to convey a sense of emotion - setting the scene for for the overall despair and heartache the entire piece is based on.  The musical themes in the first movement are developed in the following movements, but they are not immediately clear to the listener - my intent was to give the first movement a lost and confused feeling that one might feel after a breakup (yeah, I was still a teenager when I wrote this song).  A descending melody plays throughout to signify the downward spiral - it attempts to reverse direction towards the end of the movement, only to be pulled back down, repeating at the end to show submission to the reality.

The second movement is based on the emotion of anger - sort of a "how could you do this to me" response after the initial despair wears off.  The themes are aggressive and tense.  There's definitely a late '80's dated sound overall to the song, but to this movement the most.  

The third movement is the plea to win back the lost love.  Themes from the first and second movement appear - yet the angry edge of the second movement themes have softened.  The piano solo at the end is a bit frantic as it desperately tries the gain back the attention of the one longed for.  

All a bit over-dramatic, but knowing this even at 18 years of age, I couldn't resist a silly banging on the keys in the final seconds of the song to remind myself and the listener not to take it too seriously.

BrentsBSides