I'm a big fan of bands like Dokken, Vixen and Harem Scarem. When the original idea of this project came up, it was going to be a cross between all of those type of bands exclusively, and one of the first songs written for this project specifically (as opposed to reworked older material) was So Close (And Yet So Far).

This song was covered a while back by a Croatian all-girl band called Angels. They recorded two versions: an English one and a Croatian version entitled "Maska Nevjere". You can check out a sample of the Croatian version HERE (first sample in track 1). They also covered the Dungeon cult classic song Slave Of Love and I did guest solo for them, which was pretty cool to do.

As usual, drums were handled by Tim "TY" Yatras, and I did everything else on this track.

So Close (And Yet So Far)

For the last 18 months or so, I've been working with TY and a couple of other really talented writers and musicians on some song submissions for J-pop artists. We basically get an outline of what sort of thing they're after and it's thrown out to the writing team to come up with a rough draft of a song to send back, and ultimately our contact in Japan pitches it to the artist along with other producers and songwriting companies around the world.

Secret Tears is one such song. We were really happy how it came up but ultimately it wasn't chosen, and we thought it was too good to just let it sit there unheard.

I finished the whole song structure, TY finished the lyrics and did live drums, and then we got our good pal Gareth in once again to do lead vocals, and one of our other writing team, Lucy, to do the bridge vocal.

This is still one of my favourite things we've written, hope you enjoy! :)

Secret Tears

For the last 18 months or so, I've been working with TY and a couple of other really talented writers and musicians on some song submissions for J-pop artists. We basically get an outline of what sort of thing they're after and it's thrown out to the writing team to come up with a rough draft of a song to send back, and ultimately our contact in Japan pitches it to the artist along with other producers and songwriting companies around the world.

Like Secret Tears, this one wasn't picked up and we thought it was too good to let go unheard. I finished the song, wrote a solo, then TY did the lyrics and live drums. Reluctantly, I did the vocals (I hadn't sung in a while when we did this track but it seemed like something that would suit my voice) and it came up a lot better than I expected.

If we ever take Clarity out as a live act, this song will be in the set for sure!

A Better Place

One of the most special friends I have in the world is an amazing pop musician called Tania Moran, and we met weirdly enough through our mutual love for Iron Maiden (yes folks, pop singers are allowed to enjoy metal too). Tania went on to record an EP and two albums of slick, beautiful music that was recorded in some of the top studios around the globe.

Her last album, Sanctity, came out a few years ago but the title track was never really given the production polish that we both thought that it deserved. Being that it’s a very special song to her and it’s one of my favourites, I thought I’d redo the music entirely and bring Tania into my studio to redo the vocal tracks. In an era of poor-to-average singers relying on studio trickery to make them sound good, it’s refreshing to work with a vocalist that just nails her parts as soon as she steps in front of the mic!

If you’d like to find out more about Tania, with links to more of her music and videos, visit her pages here:

http://www.facebook.com/taniamoranfans
http://www.reverbnation.com/taniamoran

Sanctity (2011 Remix)

It’s no secret that I’m a a sci-fi fan, particularly of Doctor Who. After a drum recording session with LORD’s ex-drummer TY, for a laugh I suggested we record a version of the Doctor Who theme, metal style. Over the course of the next few weeks, whenever I had any free time between recording sessions and writing for the next LORD release, I worked on building this song up from a simple recording to a fully orchestrated production.

This version is based on the Murray Gold / Ben Foster version of the theme (2005 – 2009 series), originally written by Ron Grainer with Delia Derbyshire.

Doctor Who Theme: Metal Mix

It’s no secret that I’m a a sci-fi fan, particularly of Doctor Who. After a drum recording session with LORD’s ex-drummer TY, for a laugh I suggested we record a version of the Doctor Who theme, metal style. Over the course of the next few weeks, whenever I had any free time between recording sessions and writing for the next LORD release, I worked on building this song up from a simple recording to a fully orchestrated production.

This version is a stripped back mix of just the synths, based on the Murray Gold / Ben Foster version of the theme (2005 – 2009 series), originally written by Ron Grainer with Delia Derbyshire.

Doctor Who Theme: Bare Mix

For the last 18 months or so, I've been working with TY and a couple of other really talented writers and musicians on some song submissions for J-pop artists. We basically get an outline of what sort of thing they're after and it's thrown out to the writing team to come up with a rough draft of a song to send back, and ultimately our contact in Japan pitches it to the artist along with other producers and songwriting companies around the world.

Like Secret Tears and A Better Place, this one wasn't picked up and we thought it was too good to let go unheard. I finished the song, did an awesome keyboard solo and TY wrote the lyrics.

We got Lucy Kong, another one of our J-pop writing crew to come in and lay down a vocal, which gave it an entirely different flavour to what we would usually do with a male voice.

In My Dream

I was asked to do an arrangement of "Journey Of The Sorcerer" from "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" for someone recently, but give it more of a rock/metal kick, keeping all of the orchestration that the latest movie version had. Purists will likely hate this but I think it came up pretty well! :)

Journey Of The Sorcerer

Two Blue is a collaboration between LT and guitar master Chris Brooks. 

The previous collaboration was on the song The 80s Called (And It Wants Its Awesome Back) which was a fun, cheese-laden shred-fest. This time the goal was to break out some tasty solos and show off the tones you can get out of Seymour Duncan pickups (in LT's case it's a Custom 5 and a Hot Rails neck, Chris is using Duncan Distortions).

You can hear more of the Clarity Project at http://www.lord.net.au/clarity

Two Blue

Recorded for the movie WARRIOR by Majestic Film, featuring vocals by Doro Pesch and Lord Tim

Metal Warriors Theme

The CLARITY Project is the brainchild and solo project of Lord Tim, frontman of LORD, previously of Dungeon and well-known audio producer and music video director.

While LORD offers L.T. a massive degree of freedom when it comes to musical styles (LORD is renowned for its broad musical palette), being a band situation means catering to the collective rather than the focus coming entirely from any one person. Aside from this, L.T. was interested in working with other singers and musicians beyond the scope of inviting a guest to appear on an album, and working with music that even goes beyond LORD's broad boundaries, such as 80s pop/rock, orchestral scores and specific concept pieces.

LT's Clarity Project

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