"DEAR HEART" - from the “BEFORUS” fan album! Please visit unofficialmspafans.bandcamp.com/album/beforus to hear the rest of the tracks by these incredibly talented musicians!

Here's a piece for a couple that was hinted at in both Homestuck Ancestors canon (Mindfang and Dolorosa)and explored in the Beforus part of the story (yes, I ship Maryams and Serkets quite red).  While I originally wrote this song for the Ancestor versions of these characters, I was moved to offer it to represent their Beforan counterparts because it would work equally well; they are certainly both sides of the same coin, after all.  It's a romantic song and, oddly, the first HS themed piece I've used piano in.  Being the 6th and 8th trolls on the spectrum, it's in 6/8 time, with a few other 6s and 8s scattered here and there.  Very ethereal in nature, lots of harp and choirs (I never pass up a chance to use my Mellotron patch).  This is also the first original piece I have composed from the start using the virtual instruments.  I hope you enjoy it!  Hell, I'll be happy if you listen to it!

This upd8ed artwork of Aranea and Porrim is for the Beforus track and is by the excellent Danna at h0nk.tumblr.com  Go check out her lush and colourful work!
The original gorgeous artwork of Dolorosa and Mindfang which serves as my Tumblr banner is by a wonderful, wonderful woman named Mel you can find at http://melspontaneus.tumblr.com/  If you’d like to see the whole thing (and you should; the moon in the trees is just beautiful), you can find it here: http://drhicks76.tumblr.com/post/61564949528/melspontaneus-another-commission-for-dal-c


Dallas Hicks - Dear Heart

This is a cover of a song by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays from their 1980 album "As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls". This song was featured prominently in my favourite movie, "Fandango", one of Kevin Costner's first roles. It's a long one, and I had to learn a lot about jazz scales to pull it off (all I had was chord names; I eared out the rest). Probably the most difficult piece I've ever covered, bar none. Metheny is a true musical genius and he puts in the hard work to go with it. Hope you enjoy it!  P.S - I had a version up on here before, but this is a Redux version using virtual instruments.  If you've heard the old one, give this a try!  I think you'll like it a lot better!  Added a bit of my own stylings to it, but nothing that takes away from the original (e.g. strings, voices), and my own ending as well since Pat & Lyle's fades out.

Dallas Hicks - It's For You (Redux) - Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays Cover

Consider this my 15 minute long love letter to Nobuo Uematsu, the man behind most of the soundtrack work to the Final Fantasy series of video games.  Until recently the only ones I'd played were the original NES version of the first FF (yes, I'm that old) and FFVII in my late teens, but I always remembered the music as much of a part of the game as the mechanics and to me, a game is a classic when the soundtrack is memorable.  I was recently introduced to FFX by my sig other and I was hooked hard, not just by the story, but by the soundtrack.  This is the result.  Now, I gather some of you weren't thrilled with the subsequent remaster of the FFX soundtrack so please keep in mind that I'm VERY late to the party and the remastered versions (particularly Seymour's part) are the first versions I'd heard!  I know you many fans preferred the original of that one, so I kind of found a common ground between the two versions.  So, it begins and ends with FF1, uses the FF7 Victory Fanfare (because I liked it best) and the rest is straight up FFX.  

You'll also notice I made a few subtle changes here and there, like the addition of choir and electric guitar to the FF7 Fanfare; I wanted to make it more interesting than just listening to the loop six times in a row; I hope you find that it adds to the songs!  

Here's the listing:

1. - FF1 - Prelude (0:00)
2. - FFX - Prelude (1:16)
3. - FFX - To Zanarkand (3:16)
4. - FFX - Sprouting (or Movement in Green) (5:40)
5. - FFX - Auron's Theme (7:05)
6. - FFX - Final Fight With Seymour (8:48)
7. - FF7 - Victory Fanfare (12:33)
8. - FF1 - Victory Fanfare (for harp) (14:25)

Hope you folks enjoy this!  It was quite an undertaking!

Dallas Hicks - Final Fantasy Suite

VWIOLET VWELVWET - from the "BEFORUS" fan album!  Please visit http://unofficialmspafans.bandcamp.com/album/beforus to hear the rest of the tracks by these incredibly talented musicians! 

Cronus Ampora is in love with the 1950's era of Earth but wishes he could be in love with somebody.  Anybody.  This song captures the style of music from that time, starting with Cronus's generally pleasant mood but giving way to his overbearing on-the-make obnoxiousness that invariably drives people away.  This doesn't make his loneliness any less real, which is illustrated at the end of the tune by a slow, sad finale.  I grew up listening to this kind of music on my parents' radio so I really enjoyed bringing elements of my favourites from the Fifties to life in this song!  

Track art belongs to the wonderful culljoy.tumblr.com !  

Vwiolet Vwelvwet

This is "MOG^3" from the “BEFORUS” fan album! Please visit unofficialmspafans.bandcamp.com/album/beforus to hear the rest of the tracks by these incredibly talented musicians!

 I call it "MOG^3" (would you prefer MOGMOGMOG?) for Meu's frequent outbursts and as it's a suite in three parts:

1. Meulin, Obsessive Girl
2. Makara's Oddball Gaiety
3. Matesprits Osculate Gleefully
(Bonus EpiMOG: Milord's Onerous Gift)

The first part is for Meu; I went back to the same sound I used for Nine Lives, One Love, which focused mostly on the Disciple, as this is essentially another form of the same person.  It's happier and more upbeat than that song and uses a more offbeat rhythm to represent her playful personality.  Like 9L1L, it's also in 9/8 time and the opening bells tap out the morse code for MOG (two dashes, three dashes, two dashes-one dot).

The second part starts suddenly as she meets a peculiar purpleblood... one Kurloz Makara.  I wanted to go with a "dark yet fun circus" feel for him and I got a chance to muck with some new sounds I hadn't tried before.  Organ is prominent but also lots of whimsical synth sounds to suggest he's an entertainer but with a more sinister side.  The cymbals tap out 10 hits as Makaras are the tenth troll on the list from low to highbloods. 

A slow romantic transition follows reintroducing the Leijon bells over Makara's organ sounds and then into the third section.  The heavy drums pound out a heartbeat for the Mage of Heart while you can hear 9L1L's sound locking into the Purple Bard leitmotif.  You can hear voices for both him and her; Kurloz's seductive whispers and her joyous song. 

The EpiMOG: As she falls asleep in his arms, he too begins to dream... the chiming bells close my own circle of HS music as they echo the beginning of 9L1L but they represent something far more sinister now: the Vast Honk was created by REALLY slowing down a pair of clown horn honks and the high pitched ending was someone's representation of tinnitus as Meu can no longer hear his voice and this awful sound leads into the deaf silence that replaces it.

Track art by the awesome http://faisdm.tumblr.com/ 


Dallas Hicks - MOG^3

My cover of my favourite Tame Impala track and a song that now sits in my Top 10 Songs of ALL.  This is the first time I've liked my vocals enough to actually share them and while I'm quite aware they're no hell, it's taken me a long time to get them to "acceptable"; had a hoot doing the harmonies!  

Almost all of this was done by actually playing the notes, including the drum tracks; there are very few loops or clips in this song.  I wanted it to have an organic feel, particularly in the guitar solo at the end.  My vocal stylings and some of my instrument choices were inspired by the Moody Blues (again!) as they were kind of the godfathers of psychedelic/symphonic rock which this song certainly owes a lot to; the Mellotron is front and center in the latter half (one of the settings I use was inspired by the Flaming Lips version of this track and it was the one used by Genesis in "Watcher of the Skies", I'm certain) and the big finish was inspired by the Moody's "Higher and Higher".  This cover plays very close to the original but I added a few changes to make it my own; I hope you enjoy my take on this magnificent piece of music!

Runway, Houses, City, Clouds (Tame Impala cover)

This is my second entry into the Homestuck Music Contest!  This time I opted to enlist the aid of my friend/bandmate Tony A. Ward to provide live guitars and be a sounding board for my crazy ideas!  I started this one with the character of Vriska in mind, she being a huge fan of spiders,pirates and the number 8, and also the most divisive of the characters in the story.  This song starts as a cross between a tarantella (6/8 and 18/8, with lots of triplets, very rapid tempo) and something like Sabre Dance, then transitions into a suite that tells the tale of Vriska's life, death and afterlife.  There's a decidedly video game feel to parts of this one, and that's not a bad thing! Many video game soundtracks are essential to telling the story,  and this one does just that.  I hope you enjoy it!  Creating this song was a challenge to us both, and we had a lot of fun doing it. 

Dallas Hicks & Tony A. Ward - Tarantella Di Vriska

So... back in 2007, I was lucky enough to see my three favourite bands in one weekend in Montreal during a Prog Rock festival: Genesis, Rush and IQ . Pretty doubtful I'll ever get to top that, but imagine my surprise that, in 2008, after not playing there for THIRTY YEARS, Rush came to Regina!  I landed some tickets, but in an effort to upgrade them, just for laughs, I made a cover of Subdivisions and wrote a little comedy sketch to go with it and submitted it to a radio station that was sponsoring the show.  Amazingly, I did win a pair from them, but had already made a deal to upgrade what I had into 2nd Row! Gave the "won" tickets in the 2nd Deck to a couple of my coworkers so they could enjoy the awesomeness of Rush!   As for the song itself, I didn't know jack squat about mastering back then, so my vocals, such as they are, get louder and softer (I intentionally tried to avoid sounding Geddy this time). Feel free to have a laugh at my expense, but I hope you have a laugh of some kind and not at the song part! :) Wonder what the deuce the band would make of this... 


Dallas Hicks - SubdivisionsSketch

This is the remade version of the 33/8 song for Nepeta of Homestuck, "sw33t cr33per", using virtual instruments!  Primary changes involve the drums and vastly improved string and choir section (although my wife Lynnai's vocals remain in the third section).  Part 1 is "The Dreamer", Part 2 is "The Hunter", Part 3 is "The Lover".  Love to hear your thoughts!   

Dallas Hicks - sw33t cr33per Redux

The Midnight is one of the greatest new bands out there. Their rich lyrics accompanied by some of the best produced 80's sounds out there sets them apart in the Synthwave genre.  After acquiring some better synth sounds and practicing my mixing, I decided to take on one of their best, "Crystalline" (the song that introduced me to them), and modify it a bit by adding the bridge from another of their tunes, "Daytona" and a certain Police song that I know they're fans of... Hope you (and they!) enjoy it!

Crystalline Single

Crystalline

After 15 years and three attempts, I am FINALLY HAPPY with my cover of this. I know a lot of you out there really liked my last attempt but I want you all to forget that exists as it's bad and I didn't have the tech or the technique to do it properly at the time.  This time, it's RIGHT.  Ever since I was a teenager, I dreamed of doing this majestic song justice and now I finally think this will do.  I sure hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did making it.  Rest in Peace, Lyle Mays.

It's For You 2020 (Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays cover)

The mark of a truly great song is that it has been covered hundreds of times and there is not a bad cover of it out there (hopefully mine isn't the first!).  I consider this to be #3 of my favourite songs of all time and I do hope I did it justice. I was aiming for somewhere between Gord's original and Glen Campbell's excellent cover but I also wanted to put my own touch on it (which you'll hear most notably in the Outro).  Enjoy!

If You Could Read My Mind

My friend Tony A. Ward and I covered a Devo classic as a challenge made by an old friend of mine.  I think we done Devo right, eh? :D

Girl U Want

Okay, when I uploaded this, it was the last track I'd made before I started learning how to mix properly.  This is a significant improvement on that front PLUS I redid the guitar entirely.  Hopefully you'll find this to be a lot better than the last version!

Runway, Houses, City, Clouds REDUX(Tame Impala Cover)

After all these years, I finally got to go back and do this one properly.  I don't stray far from the original here; wanted to capture the essence of this song as close to where it came from as possible. A tribute to the Holy Trinity; hope you dig it!

Subdivisions (Rush Cover) 2020

Hi! Started uploading my entries to the Homestuck Music Contest in 2012.  Hopefully will be uploading some originals and covers over the next little while.  I've been playing key-based instruments most of my life.  My training has been contemporary in nature, and I've played organ, piano and keyboards, with the latter being my instrument of choice the last 25 years.  My influences are quite varied, but I love progressive rock.  I'm not afraid to dabble in multiple styles, and enjoy screwing with time signatures and playing things that are just a little bit different.  Hope you like what you hear!

drhicks76

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