Free (Old mix w/ new bass overdubbed)

Video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EJhxkS-WDA

Haji's Kitchen Bass Playthrough Medley

"2 In Me" off of the debut Haji's Kitchen disc, 1995.  First serious attempt at a solo in the middle of the song.  

Gear:  Ernie Ball Music Man 5 string.  I think this was recorded at Eddie's apartment direct out of a Trace Elliot head into a 20 bit Tascam DA-88... then down converted to 16bit ADAT because Tascam released an under-tested piece of hardware that went to shit on us.  It may have been shoved into ProTools after that... it's just been too long.  Regardless, I'm not overly fond of the tone.  I do miss that bass, though.. :(

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Haji's Kitchen - Self Titled - 2 In Me

Face Down off of "Sucker Punch.  2nd attempt at recorded bass solo.  Much better effort here, I think.  It sounds like there's several punches, but I actually got it in two pieces.. the punch is right before the big picking lick around 2:45.   It's a bitch of a solo; I wish I'd had time to practice a bit more and get a cleaner, more in-the-pocket- take, but you know how it is when you're rushed.  I still like the intro here, too (which is double tracked and panned hard right & left)... even if it is a lame Rocco Prestia impersonation!

Gear:  Kenneth Lawrence Brase 6 string.  This was recorded at Maximedia Studios through a TL audio preamp, iirc.

Engineered & Mixed by Eddie Head

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Haji's Kitchen - Sucker Punch - Face Down

Somsara is another band Rob & I were in together for a few years.  Really proud of this disc.. this is one of the heavier tracks.  Contact me on my facebook page if you want a copy.. I've got plenty and they're going cheap!

Bass recorded at my apartment in Lewisville.  Gear:  Kenneth Lawrence Brase 6 string into a BSS audio direct box.  Out of the direct box simultaneously into both the Avalon 737 and an old Pearce BC1 preamp with the Sheehan hi-gain mod.. out of both preamps into a ProTools Mbox1.

Track mixed by Braxton Henry in Garland, TX; mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side in NY.

Somsara - Chaos & Soul - Named

Somsara is another band Rob & I were in together for a few years.  Really proud of this disc.. this is one of the more chill tracks.  Contact me on my facebook page if you want a copy.. I've got plenty and they're going cheap!

Bass is double tracked all the way through.  The bits I didn't get tight around the beginning bug me at this point, but whattaya gonna do?

Bass recorded at my apartment in Lewisville.  Gear:  Sheldon Dingwall Prima 6 string into a BSS audio direct box.  Out of the direct box simultaneously into both the Avalon 737 and an old Pearce BC1 preamp with the Sheehan hi-gain mod.. out of both preamps into a ProTools Mbox1.

Track mixed by Braxton Henry in Garland, TX; mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side in NY.

Somsara - Chaos & Soul - Fallout

^^YouTube "Track Video" link above is to the full song.^^

Remixed - 2-18-12.  (Mostly drum stuff.. only changed a little eq on the bass)

Bass & Drums mix of "A Legend's Avalon", again, because that's all the tracks I've got here, and the copyright filter catches the full audio track from the cd..  

Cool groove, but nothing overly difficult until the solo section, which I really love.  Rob's drum part there is completely off the wall, and it's always fun to write to things like that.  I remember having a bit that was even more bizarre than this, but discarded it in favor of the slap-arpeggiated chordish bit.   The low "G" at 4:23 is a punch in.. I really wanted to hit that note coming out of that section, but couldn't play the whole track with it like that.  I have NO idea how that out of tune chord (4:19) slipped through into the final mix. *facepalm*.

Gear:  I used my Sheldon Dingwall Prima 6 string for this one. (Tuning:  A-D-A-D-G-C)  Avalon 737 preamp into a ProTools 001 at Michael's house.   Plug-in wise, I've just got a bit of eq & comp on the bass.

CD Mixed by Sterling Winfield & mastered by Gary Long, both of Nomad Studios here in Dallas

Thought Chamber - A Legend's Avalon - Bass+Drums - Remix

^^"Track Video" link above is to the full song on YouTube^^

Remixed 2-18-12.. all drum stuff tho.

This is probably the most difficult bass track I've ever written.  Some of these parts are just stupid hard to get clean, and the transitions are pretty brutal as well.  But... Michael asked us to go crazy with the stuff, so we did.  

Yes, there are punches in here.  Please forgive... I was in a hurry to get the disc done, and had more tracks to write to & perform.  I believe Michael engineered this particular session for me.

Bass & drums only here because the copyright filter catches the full audio track from the cd, and the raw bass & drum tracks are all I have here at the house.  Bass is double tracked and panned hard R+L in the solo spots.  One day I'll do a play-through of this for YouTube.

Gear:  I used the Kenneth Lawrence Brase 6 string for this one.  Standard tuning.. B-E-A-D-G-C.   Avalon 737 preamp into a ProTools 001, iirc.   Plug-in wise, I've just got a bit of eq & comp on the bass.

ThoughtChamber - Accidently On Purpose - Bass+Drums (Remix)

^^Link to full song on YouTube^^

Again, bass & drums only because those are the only tracks I have here.

This is definitely one of my favorite bass lines I've written, to one of my favorite songs I've been a part of.    I just felt like I did a really good job helping to guide the track where it needed to go. I'd love to say it was a "first take", but I distinctly remember taking about 4 "final passes" at this one before I felt like it built with the song & did its job.

Gear:  Kenneth Lawrence Brase 6 > Avalon 737 > Digi 001 or Mbox.  Tuning was A-D-A-D-G-C.

Thought Chamber - Sacred Treasure - Bass+Drums Remix

^^ Link to the full track on YouTube^^

Hoo boy... Michael wrote this one as a musical interpretation of some poor guy going insane.  I'd have to say it's bang-on... absolutely bugnuts crazy!  I don't think I've ever had so many parts in a song to pull off.

Gear:  Kenneth Lawrence Brase 6 into an  Avalon 737 preamp into either a  Digi 001 or Mbox.  Standard B-E-A-D-G-C tuning.

I rolled the pickup balance all the way towards the neck to get a bit of that Steve Harris type P-bass tone (I usually prefer the halfway in-between spot on this bass).  He's probably my biggest influence as a player, and I've never ripped him off more than I do in this song.

Terrorizing legato lick I doubled in stereo at the 3:00 mark.. another one of those things I wish I'd had more time to spend on to get it a bit tighter.  But... even though I was doing these either at home or Michael's, it was a case of writing the most difficult stuff I'd ever performed, practicing my ass off for a few days, getting it recorded and moving on to the next track.

Thought Chamber - Mr. Qwinkle's Therapy - Bass+Drums Remix

This is one of three tracks I guested on for this CD; the other two songs being the title track and Dreaming of Death.  Their keyboardist Bobby Williamson, who did quite a bit of keyboard work for us on the Thought Chamber disc, asked me to return the favor because their bassist Shawn had hurt his hand and they were in a bit of a rush to get things done.  The material and musicianship were both top notch, so I didn't hesitate to jump in.   I'm very happy I did.. the stuff turned out really good, I think!

Gear on this track:  Ernie Ball Sting Ray 5, Avalon 737 preamp and ProTools Mbox.

Mixed & Mastered by Jacob Hansen.

Visit the band here:  https://www.facebook.com/eumeria or www.eumeria.com

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Eumeria - Rebel Mind - Delusions

^^ Link to the full track on YouTube ^^

We'd (Michael, Rob & myself) done an instrumental version of this on Michael's solo disc "Distorted Views", but Michael always wanted it to be a vocal tune.  (These raw bass & drum tracks are from the "Angular Perceptions" sessions, although the parts themselves are largely unchanged)

Again, bass & drums only here as those are the only tracks I have access to, and the full version gets refused upload due to copyright.

Song notes... holy crap this is some difficult stuff!  The last half of the solo at 4:56 in particular.. both the legato tapping lick and the ending slappity phrase might be the most difficult flurries of notes I've ever pulled off. (yeah, I punched on both sides of the tapping lick when we recorded it.. sue me.)   The tapping bit at 4:06 is something that's easy for me, but apparently pretty difficult for other people.  In the full track, that bit actually under Michael's guitar solo..  it's really busy, but somehow worked to our ears.  I also like the subtle bit with the harmonics at 1:00 ; no idea where the inspiration for that came from.  Myung and Lifting Shadows maybe?  Totally different context though.  The picked sextuplet licks at 2:10 and 2:28.. the ensemble lick at 3:39.. and the outro lick at 6:35 that was missing from the session for some reason; all that stuff was hard.  Good times!

Gear:  Signal path was the usual Kenneth Lawrence Brase-6 (B-E-A-D-G-C tuning) / Avalon / Digi001 for this album.  Tone is lacking in the main bass track of this song in comparison to the others though, and I have no idea why.  It just doesn't have the balls & punch it does on the rest of the disc; probably mis-twiddled some knob or other somewhere.  I don't really like a lot of the performance here, either.. the main verse riff with all the pulloffs just isn't as solid as it should be. *shrug*.. I hate having off days!

Drums:  Rob shredded it up on this tune; there were lots of cool bits to play off.  LOTS of editing on the session as per usual. (the drum sessions from this album are an unmitigated mess!)  Kick is completely sound replaced with a sample of Rob's kick we used elsewhere on the album.  The 8, 10 & 12" toms are mainly internal mic sound replacer samples (same drum kit, which was Rob's red Pork Pie), but are layered with the old external toms to varying degrees.  The internal SR samples sound better, and also match the internal mics on the 14" tom and gong drum from the original sessions.  A bit of the external mics were added to keep things from sounding quite so mechanical, especially in the really fast bits.  Nothing special plugin-wise.. eq on almost everything, compression on the snares, overheads and ride cymbal mics (if you don't mic them, you can't pan them!), and verb on the bottom snare and external toms.

Thought Chamber - Transmigration Of Souls - Bass & Drums Remix

I found a bunch of crap on the ol' hard drive tonight.. For the extremely curious (or extremely bored), here's the process of me writing the bass solo for Sidhartha.   I'd love to say I improvised the final take, or at least put it together in an hour or so, but I'm just not that cool!  

It went through three major versions before we settled on a final, which I've detailed here.. 

The first bit is the first reasonable pass I took, after which the universal opinion was "Seriously Cool... Play More... Make it longer!"

In the 2nd version, (around 1:00 or so), the first part of the solo is essentially the same, after which I improvised some pretty crazy atonal stuff.  I still like the bit in and of itself, but it's *really* outside the harmonic minor tonal center, and I don't think it's particularly good for the track.   I played with the notes trying to make it conform, but never hit on anything that sounded both "cool" *and* "tonally correct" , so I just ended up ditching it.  The picking bit between that and the two-handed legato tapping stuff was improvised, but I spent a good amount of time on all that tapping stuff getting it phrased the way I wanted, and the bit afterward that leads into Eddie's solo was worked out as well.   I also played with pasting in some of Rob's drums from the intro underneath the faster part of the solo, which again is kinda cool sounding, but binned it because it interfered with the groove & flow too much.  There are also some extra improvised tapping bits during Eddie's solo in this take, but they ended up more "walking on" than "sitting underneath" like I'd intended.  Some of it we kept because it turned out like a cool "call & response" thing though.

Third major (and final) revision.. (about 3:07).. after ditching the atonal middle section, I went back to the first half and embellished/reworked some things to make it a bit cooler, and took that straight into the faster bit, which was unchanged from the 2nd revision.  This take is probably an attempt at a final pass, but I couldn't tell you if it's what ended up on the disc.  (I did an absolute fuck-ton of passes looking for the the "Super-Take")

4th bit.. (4:21).. this is an uncompressed, uneffected solo pass.  Again, I couldn't tell you if it's the take that ended up on the disc, but for you peeps that dig this sort of thing, or want to try & learn it here it is.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.. I just wish I was one of those guys who could get it done in an hour or so!  

Sidhartha - Bass Solo Process / Timeline

Greetings!  Derek here.

ALL OF THE SONGS HAVE THEIR OWN SET OF NOTES!  Details about gear, recording methods, my opinions on the track, etc.  I'm always happy to answer any questions, but it seems a lot of people are unaware you can get more info by clicking on the track name.

This is my personal page.. things that get here may be works in progress, miscellaneous wankings, alternate mixes, or none of the above.

I have played bass for Haji's Kitchen (1993-current); Thought Chamber (2006-2011); Somsara (2005-2008).  I also played 3 tracks on the Eumeria debut disc (2011)

PURCHASING MUSIC! (what a novel idea..)

If you want a copy of the Somsara disc, e-mail me on Facebook and I'll do my best to hook you up.  $5 including shipping for USA.

The first Haji's Kitchen disc is out of print, and only (legally) available digitally on iTunes.  Sucker Punch is available on CDBaby.com or iTunes.. just click the "buy this track" button.   The Thought Chamber disc is available on iTunes or Amazon.. again, click the "buy" link.  Thanks!

Derek Blakley

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