Cast of characters:
Surfers Like Us– @user-411502040 –Artur–composition and foundational rhythm guitar
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen–guitar solos choruses, mix, and production
J.J. Terrell– @j-j-terrell –electric piano, synth, and intro composition
K2 and the Three [and the Four]-- @k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums
Llanpsych– @llanpsych –Tez–Guitar solo in the verses
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –four string fretless bass guitar
 
This song began with Artur composing the entire skeleton, and recording it against a mechanical beat. He presented it to me, and I immediately shared it with The Eclectic Collective. Ken first replaced the metronomic beat with a real, rocking drum sound. I promptly added my four string fretless bass to it, to complete the rhythm section. Soon after, JJ added his electric piano magic, including a short solo, to the stew. Once the rhythmic framework was laid down, Stephen got to work on the choruses, coming up with solid, melodic lines for them. Then, it was Tez's turn to light up the verses with his monster guitar. When we had it mostly completed, Artur asked JJ if he'd do an intro to it. JJ came up with the whole psychedelic intro in response. 
  When it was finished, we asked Stephen if he would mix it for us, which he did with his typical mastery and attention to detail. We all really enjoy making music with Artur, and have been fans of and collaborators with him for almost a year now. If you like the sound of this song, you would do well to go check out his page, too, as he has a bunch of gems on there. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Tell Me the Truth (The Eclectic Collective with Surfers Like Us)

I'm a lifelong, multi-instrumentalist musician who records prolifically and joyfully. You'll hear me play guitar, bass (regular four string, and four and five string fretless), mandolin, banjo, keys (piano, organ, synth), lap slide, sitar and sing on my recordings here. I've been in a few dozen bands in my life, playing everything from bluegrass, jazz, rock, jam band, reggae, funk, afrobeat, Middle Eastern, traditional Irish, singer/songwriter, pop/covers, to experimental/avant garde. 
  Since I found SoundCloud a couple years ago, I've found many talented, creative people with whom to create music. However, last summer ('23) I formed a band called The Eclectic Collective with some of my favorite musicians I've met through here. It started as a loose collective of musicians and coalesced into a core group of musicians who find other musicians with whom we'd like to make music, then run their songs through our process, and in effect add a full band. That core of The Eclectic Collective includes Tez (Llanpsych), J.J. Terrel, Ken (K2 and the Three), and Stephen (Texmex Shaman), although we have also added Mark (mistermark) and The Mysterious Decibel to the mix this fall. A couple of other musicians are frequent collaborators, as well, including Artur of Surfers Like Us, and Steve Vervaet of Steve's World. The magic of music is amplified exponentially by each person adding to it. So, we really try to add our sorcery all kinds of music from all kinds of artists. Sometimes, we keep it within the group, but a lot of what we do is collaboration with other artists. In fact, 100% of what I do is collaboration, within the group or with other amazing artists like Chris Maness (@cgmaness).
  I, and we, are also available for hire if you have a song and you really want to add bigger instrumentation or a band and good production to it. 
  A small sampling of the artists whom I consider primary influences, and whom you will hear coming through my fingers include Phish, The Flaming Lips, Radiohead, Rye Cooder, Steve Earle, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Arcade Fire, Mikey Dread, Yellowman, Purpleman, The Grateful Dead, The Meditations, Michigan and Smiley, Lee Perry, Dillinger, Django Reinhardt, Impossible Recording Machine, The Allman Bros Band, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Bela Fleck, Les Claypool, Sam Bush, David Grissman, John Prine, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys, MMW, Moe., Morphine, Ween, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, John Scofield, Victor Wooten,  Cannonball Adderly, Thelonious Monk, Flea, Parliament Funkadelic,  Frank Zappa, Prince Paul, Pete Rock, Thievery Corporation, Amon Tobin, Chet Baker, Joao Gilberto, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Carol Kaye, Tame Impala, Mumford and Sons, Japanese Breakfast, LCD Soundsystem, Beach House, and Sean Lennon, but of course there are many more. I also really like and am influenced by traditional Iranian, Palestinian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Mauritian, Somalian, Egyptian, West African, and Syrian music.
 I'm overjoyed to have found my community on SoundCloud. This is a truly unique forum where everyone is sincerely trying to build each other up. The profoundly supportive and positive SoundCloud community has really opened up an exciting new world of collaboration for me. That is the main reason I'm in the Cloud, actually, to connect with other musicians and make music that I enjoy listening to, and hopefully some others do, as well. I am ALWAYS looking to collaborate with interesting musicians, mostly though BandLab, which is where I record almost exclusively. It's a solid, free digital audio workstation hub where you can share recordings, even if it's not where you make your recordings.
  Everything I do is live instrumental, not programmed, and using no computer beyond my phone. That's not to say that I would be opposed to using that kind of tool, I just don't have access to it. If you like my music, please share it. If you want to collaborate, my BandLab handle is @bingo_pajama. Feel free to contact me at cornbreadband@hotmail.com, as well, even if you aren't on BandLab.
  Recently, over the summer of '23, I formed a collective of my fellow SoundCloud musicians into a loose band called the Eclectic Collective. We have core members, but the lineup changes weekly. I basically found my favorite musicians on here, and asked them if they wanted to collaborate. It keeps growing strong. If you have some music that you think a band could bring to life, please hit me up and we'll see if we can add you, too. 
Here's a link to music I've recorded with a group of musicians here in Pittsburgh called The Northumberland Street Ramblers.
Check out The Northumberland Street Ramblers on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/fU4Me