An old Means to an End song that is pretty much one of my complete efforts I brought to the boys. In the beginning Donny wrote most of our songs, but a few years in I was also contributing to the original songs heavily as well. Matti brought some riffs to practice too & Mark ALWAYS laid down killer drum beats to everything we played! He was & still is a heavy hitting drummer & sometimes my shitty rig (a Fender M-80 half stack w/a Squier Strat fitted w/a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pick-up) just could not keep up with all the other sounds in that practice studio we had! This particular song here... all 3 parts were written by me before I brought it to a band practice one day. It is a bitch for me to play these days as that opening riff requires me to stretch my hand quit significantly to hit those notes, but it sounds great! Donny had lyrics & sang but I can't recall for the life of me what we called this song??? He also had me (for the 1st time?) singing back-up vocals during the chorus part. As I remember it, I was just basically shouting "Gotta be! Gotta see!" a couple of times. I always had a difficult time playing guitar & "singing" at the same time on stage. Sometimes I just wouldn't do it much to Donny's annoyance lol. As for the technical aspects this song is played at 105 bpm's in 6/8 time signature with the end slowed down a tad to 98 bpms. Guitars used were my ESP/LTD EC1000 along w/my Squire Jazzmaster. It has some great P-90 pick-ups in it that sound super punchy when distorted. It really helped pronounce those chugs! Both were ran through my Line 6 amp with some tracks utilizing the Keeley Parallax Spatial Generator pedal. For Bass I used my ESP/LTD B-204 ran through the Spark. I may attempt to throw some lyrics down to the best of my ability, but I have no good recording of this song to decipher what Donny was singing & I will have to make up my own. I really just wanted to get the music down. I always really liked this song & was very proud that I wrote it & I figure Mark & Matti will get a kick outta hearing it again 25 years later!

MTAE One of Mine (2025)

I have played guitar since the age of 14 (around 1990 give or take) & I still play to this day... only now instead of playing live or seeking to be in a band, I record my own music at home! I use Audacity software (free!) & basically use a mic to record my guitars, bass & vocals through my various guitar amps. Drums I "program" by downloading tracks from youtube & chopping them up to suit my needs. I write my own music as well as record covers. I'm not a singer & all of my vocals are achieved by doing multiple vocal tracks to create a harmony that is otherwise lacking. Sometimes the results are ok, sometimes it sucks. Either way, making music & taking care of my cats are the 2 main reasons I am on this Earth. I hope you enjoy some of my stuff!

MTAE One of Mine (2025)

Jeff Swinderman 4