In July 2020, I decided to record a cover of this Dream Theater ballad from their 2005 album “Octavarium” (music by Dream Theater, lyrics by the bearded god John Petrucci). I’d recently lost a few people from my life who I cared about a lot, and I was pretty down in the dumps. It’s actually quite a positive/inspirational song, even though it has a bit of a sad sound to it. I thought that recording it might make me feel a bit better, and take my mind off things.

Like a couple of my very early covers, I chose to keep it extremely simple with just piano and vocals. Even though this is one of Dream Theater’s most simple songs by far… it’s still Dream Theater, and I’m no Jordan Rudess. So when it came to learning the piano and trying to convert as many of the instruments as possible to just piano chords and melodies, it took me a bloody long time. I actually abandoned the song about half way through doing this. It wasn’t really a conscious decision… I just kind of drifted from it. Pretty much exactly a year later though, I got my arse into gear and went back into the studio to finish it.

I didn’t do anything wildly exciting or original with it: it’s in the same key as the original, with the same tempo. I did make one small change right at the end though, which I’m sure DT fans will be able to pick.

Once I was pretty happy with the song, I decided to make a film clip for it, featuring two of my closest companions. Here’s the YouTube link:
https://youtu.be/uAEHfnKV3Zo

This song is dedicated to the people we care about who we’ve lost from our lives in some way or other.

The Answer Lies Within (Dream Theater cover)

Guitars - Alex Chaney
Bass - Alex Chaney
Drums - Programmed by Alex Chaney
Vocals - Jas Mas
Lyrics: Jas Mas, Alex Chaney

Lyrics:

Stay up late they said, theres nothing there under your bed
The sound of silence unnerves me, I wont look under there
Full moon glare through my window, trees are swaying casting shadows
3 am no sleep, in the witching hour
Stricken with fear, no escape
I cant get away from here

Bump in the night, theres a creature under my bed
Bump in the night, the monsters out to get me
Bump in the night, theres a creature under my bed
Bump in the night, the monsters out to get me

Time to face your fear, pull the sheets down now that he is near
Dont give up now friend, battle it through to the end
You better get some rest now, cause he wont quit until he breaks you
And your best defence now, just put on the light
Stricken with fear, no escape
I cant get away from here

Play till late they said, theres nothing there under your bed
Its all in your head, you feed the demons with your fear friend
The wind still rattles on my window
I hear voices see tall shadows
How can I get to sleep when the demons watching me
Stricken with fear, no escape, I cant get away from here

Bump in the night, theres a creature under my bed
Bump in the night, the monsters out to get me
Bump in the night, theres a creature under my bed
Bump in the night, the monsters out to get me.

Bump In The Night [Jas on Vocals]

I have decided to upload the various vocal covers and collaborations I've done with other musicians. My mate Alex Chaney (who is quite the shredder) did a guitar cover of Bark At The Moon, and asked me if I'd be able to record vocals for it. I was happy to!

This one was done back in August 2012. I recorded a couple of complete vocal tracks for it, and chose the best bits from both for the final product. Just for fun, I decided to also add a few harmonies that aren't in the original Ozzy version.

I believe a backing track was used for the drums and bass. All guitars are done by Alex, and all vocals by myself. Alex chose to record the song tuned a whole step down from the original, so the riffing sounds pretty meaty!

Here's a link to Alex's SoundCloud, so check him out!
https://soundcloud.com/dudemanalex

We later joined forces again for a shot at the classic Maiden track "The Trooper" which I'll be uploading soon. \m/

Bark At The Moon (Ozzy Osbourne Cover)

Here is the third collaboration I've done with my talented guitarist mate Alex Chaney. Like our last effort, we "borrowed" the actual drum and bass tracks from Maiden themselves!

All guitars: Alex Chaney
All vocals: Tristan Kemp
Drums: Nicko McBrain
Bass: Steve Harris

After keeping poor Alex waiting for months and months, I finally got round to smashing the vocals out in June 2015. It wasn't actually the most pleasant experience in the studio, as I had a bit of a frog in my throat and my voice wasn't in great shape. I persevered though, and belted out take after take until I figured that I should have enough to sift through and pick out a whole song's worth of usable bits. This song was meant to be out sooner, but my voice was so bad on the couple of days I had set aside for it, that I had to give up because I didn't want to ruin Alex's awesome guitar cover with shitty "sick person" vocals! I think I made the right decision.

Anyway, it seemed to turn out rather well. This time round we did the song in the same key as the original.

Here's a link to Alex's SoundCloud, so check him out!
@dudemanalex

Next I'll be uploading the three Dio/Sabbath covers I've done vocals for. A Canadian Dio tribute band called Magika asked me to sing for them... and sing I did! Stay tuned. \m/

Powerslave (Iron Maiden Cover)

TONGUE & CHEEK

In late November 2015 I had just finished playing a gig in Adelaide, and was cruising around the city at about 2:30am with the windows down and “Africa” by Toto blasting out of the stereo nice and loud. Every time I was stopped at traffic lights, a surprising amount of random people were joyously singing along to it with me… I was surprised at how many people knew the words! It was jolly good fun. After the entertaining little sing-alongs with Radelaide’s party-goers, I headed North to get my usual pie fix at Bakery on O’Connell.

While I was in there smashing a late-night pie for the thousandth time, I was humming “Africa”, and then my fatigued brain suddenly came up with the idea of writing a song about Bakery on O’Connell, to the tune of Africa. A couple of lines popped into my head straight away, like “I smash the pies down at the bakery” (you know… truly inspired stuff). Not wanting to forget about this idea (like I do with so many others), I put a little note in my phone straight away.

That note stayed in my phone until well into the next year. It’s one of the many things that I was meaning to get to, but just never found the time. In late April 2016, I finally sat down on a Sunday arvo and wrote the whole song. That was as far as I got until June, when I managed to get into the studio to record it at last!

Normally with any project I create in my studio (be it an original or a cover), I record everything myself from scratch. Unfortunately for this song however, I knew I would just never find the time to learn all the music and record so many instruments… the song is really quite complex! So for the first time ever, I totally cheated and just downloaded a karaoke version of Africa to use as a backing track for my vocals.

Even though I basically just had to do vocals, I spent many long hours learning harmonies, recording, editing and mixing. This song is absolutely brimming with vocal tracks! The end result sounds pretty schmick though, so I’m glad I chose to do it properly. Those tasty Toto harmonies are genius!

Anyhoo… here is my finished dedication to one of my favourite places on Earth… the home of piedom in South Australia… the pride of the North side… the purveyor of baked goods to my mouth whenever I’m in need… 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Grab a pie and crank it up! Bakery on O’Connell rules! :)

Bakery on O'Connell Song

Escaping The Storm is the 6th track from Sector 7G’s 2005 self-titled EP. We were an original heavy metal band based in Loxton, and were active from 2003 until 2008. Starting off playing a broad range of classic metal covers, we eventually started performing our own songs and ended up releasing the EP, a full album (all new songs) and a few live DVDs.

We recorded the 2005 EP ourselves in a home studio, before any of us had seriously sunk our teeth into music production. The sound quality isn’t amazing, but it’s pretty good for the resources we had available to us at the time! Although we had 500 copies of the CD made, we decided (for some reason or other) not to have it mastered… so what you hear on the CD is exactly what came from our recording sessions at Loxton North.

Twelve years and countless technological advances later, I decided to use a mastering website called LANDR to do quick, simple masters of the two tracks from the EP I wrote by myself: Big Milk Daddy and Escaping The Storm. The resulting tracks do sound a bit nicer… and they’re definitely louder and punchier! The vocals are still a bit low in the mix, and probably need a fair bit of compression… but there’s not much I can do about that without the original separate recorded tracks.

I wrote this song early in the morning of Monday December 27th, 2004 (how’s that for being meticulous with my music-related record-keeping!). The lyrics are about the “adventures” of one of my best mates (who shall remain nameless… haha). It’s not the most serious of songs, though I do enjoy the main riff I came up with. Nice and meaty! I remember Head (our bass player) delighted in the 80’s glam metal-style guitar solo I jammed in there right after the soft, melodic bridge. It’s great to re-visit these songs after such a long time. Ahhh… memories! Enjoy. :)

PERSONNEL:
Tristan Kemp: Vocals, Backing Vocals, Lead & Rhythm Guitar
Ben Petch: Drums, Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jason Hargreaves: Bass, Backing Vocals

Written by Tristan Kemp
Mixed & produced by Ben Petch
Artwork: Tristan Kemp

YouTube:
https://youtu.be/1gacsrdcnzM

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/tristansmusic

Sector 7G’s old Myspace page from way back in the day (does it even still work?):
https://myspace.com/sector7gmetal

Copyright Sector 7G 2005
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Sector 7G - Escaping The Storm

Band: Outrage
From the 1991 demo Songs For A Romantic Evening
Vocals: Glen Curnow
Guitar: Michael Taylor
Guitar: Matt Gillick
Bass: Steve Anderson
Drums: David Nolan

02 - Fear No Fear

Wow, it sure has been a while since I’ve put something on here! Three and a half years after my parody about pies, I bring you… a parody about KFC Zinger Boxes! In the winter of 2020, my workmate Tom added me to a Facebook group called “Blokes and their Zinger Boxes”. It sure is entertaining, and I felt like contributing something decent.

Like some of my previous parodies, the whole song spawned from just one line that popped into my head: “We’re off to smash a Zinger Box,” replacing “We’re off to never-never land” in Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” (sorry Lars!). I eventually got round to sitting down and smashing out a whole song’s worth of lyrics in a very short time. During the first weekend of spring, I hit the studio for the first time in ages to record it.

Once again I just nicked a backing track (because I’m lazy) and recorded all my vocals over the top of it. I needed a kid for the spoken word part of the song, and my neighbour Charlie Petch obliged. I got him a couple of blocks of choccy for his trouble, which he was pretty stoked about!

I made a music video mainly consisting of photos from the Zinger Box group. Here’s the link:
https://youtu.be/8Ut6MZ88AFk

I’d like to dedicate this song to the admins and members of “Blokes and their Zinger Boxes”. Hopefully the lads all dig it! Until next time… zing on. :)

Enter Colonel

Just your average metalhead who plays guitar in his mums basement to the audience of the internet.

Bump In The Night [Jas on Vocals]

Alex C

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