I've wanted to do a Kanye/Mike Dean guitar cover for a while. These two dudes did a lot for my appreciation of music production, so it made sense to start here. It's kinda funny, I know basically nothing about the one guy and way too much about the other. 

This isn't my favorite Kanye track, but the guitar parts always stood out to me. I also truly did not realize how extra this song was until I attempted to duplicate it. There's strings, piano, a vocal sample, etc. all playing a role. I liked putting this together because I got to hear those extras stripped out. Listening to just the guitar/bass/drums gives it a new sound and that was a cool surprise. 

Here's a quick breakdown of the elements in this:

Bass: this is the bedrock of the whole thing. Every other piece is just falling in line. Such a cool and fun line, too. That build up part at the end! Listening to it on repeat made me notice a kinda spy movie vibe in it.  

Drums: I use a pretty rudimentary GarageBand drum track and it was hard to make this true to the original. I tried my best. It's actually two drum tracks layered over each other. One is only hi-hat and the other has the snare and a few fills. 

Rhythm Guitar: just a couple clean chords supporting the bass line, but my favorite is the short stabs that come in under the guitar solo. Any time you can use a wah pedal/effect, it's worth doing.  

Lead Guitar: there's a guitar line that follows the bass to a tee, and then you've got the solo that comes in later on. It's not especially complex, but it took me a long time to get to a place where I was happy with it. Nailing the timing on some of those bends was tricky for some reason. But once I found the groove, it was very fun to play something so grandiose. I added a little echo and reverb effect to make it pop a bit, too.  

That's it, that's the first one! I hope you enjoyed it. Gonna link to the original below, should you feel so inclined. Put your hands to the constellations.

https://open.spotify.com/track/1UGD3lW3tDmgZfAVDh6w7r

Devil In A New Dress (Kanye West cover)

Hi again! I'm back with another cover, this time it's Real Thing by Turnstile. 

The recording will speak to this, but you may note that I'm not naturally adept at playing/recording heavier guitar sounds. However, I really like this song for its simplicity and it felt like a good access point to show off my distortion chops(or lack thereof). 

Here's a few thoughts on what went into it...

Ryth Guitar: Let me be the first to say that I overcompensated big time here. The effects on the main guitar are very extra. I used my own distortion pedal and added the GarageBand "Classic Drive" effect in post. It's also double tracked for most of the recording lol. I wanted to get a giant, fuzzed out wall of sound and that's the best way I knew how.

Lead Guitar: Quite possibly the simplest lead out there and it still maintains a level of cool. There's a reverb-y/stadium guitar sound in the chorus that's a grand total of three notes. There's also a quick guitar fill in the second verse (again, only three notes) that borders on unnecessary. It's a weird piece of flair choice by the band, but I sure do love it. 

Bass: Another extremely fun song to play on bass. Unfortunately, the bass I own is terrible and the open strings produce an awful tinny/buzzy sound. Per usual, I tried to disguise that with effects. But the part where the guitar cuts out to let the bass shine is very fun, which brings me to...

Feedback: Loved playing completely uninhibited and trying to produce some sort of shrill sound to build and bring the guitar chords back for the next verse. I could record distorted chaos all day. I fucking get it, man.

Drums: Not perfect, but I think I did a better job programming them this time. There's a snare build leading up to the last chorus, which took some effort on my end. I also really liked the way the drums complimented those chunky DUN DUN DUN parts. Does that even make sense? Either way, not too shabby for a pre-baked GarageBand track.

There ya go, folks! I hope you can keep it all together waiting for the real thing. Here's the real Real Thing, if you feel so inclined:

https://open.spotify.com/track/1Rz1CTinAymBA4dcMPGijY

Real Thing (Turnstile cover)

This cover choice was directly inspired by S2E1 of Joe Pera Talks With You, which I feel is a beautiful piece of art. The episode opens up with Joe's choir students singing this song while they show scenes of springtime in his community of Marquette, Michigan. There's such a powerful aura of hope and renewal that it almost feels religious. I'm not joking, it's truly beautiful to me. Not to mention, seasonally appropriate. 

With that in mind, let me take you through what went into this recording... 

Vocals: No use beating around the bush...I'm singing in this one, which is a big step for me personally. I really don't enjoy the sound of my own voice, but the lyrics kinda carry this tune and I couldn't leave them out. If you think my voice sounds bad and nasally, I'm right there with ya. But if you think my voice sounds robotic and underwater-y, it's because I used the full power of GarageBand's pitch correction. It's double tracked in the chorus too. Very fun tbh, but I'm not going to commit myself to singing in any future covers.  

Rhythm Guitar: This might be the first instance of me feeling pride in my guitar playing. It is by no means a difficult song to play, but I really felt like I strummed this well in that warm and fuzzy tone.

Guitar Solo: I wrote this myself and I think it's passable! Gives the song a more light-hearted feel and I fought the urge to layer on too many effects. It's a simple song and I tried to stay true to that in the guitar parts. 

Bass: I didn't look very hard, but I could not find a bass tab for this song. I tried to more or less mimic the guitar, but I wouldn't award myself too many style points on the groove. Wanted to have the end fade out with the bass though. It felt right for some reason. 

Drums: Possibly the lowest effort I've made on any drum tracking thus far. I felt that if I was going to sing I could phone it in on other elements. The solo section shifts to a cymbal ride and there's a crash at the end that took a little bit of programming, but I definitely did not do much. 

There ya go, folks! I hope you have a great spring and that you're feeling hopeful. If you're so inclined, here's the original:

https://open.spotify.com/track/0D3o4nl1tWLZJQAH0kQUP9

The Mighty Quinn (Bob Dylan cover)

Working on guitar covers for 2022. Doing some writing in the descriptions.

Dan Jams

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