Performers:
Chrissy Updike - Vocals
Andrew Okolowski  - Guitar
Darren Rosenstein - Guitar & Bass
Steven Schaffer - Drums

Them Bones (COVER)

Please Touch Me (Tim And Eric Cover)

Constellations

No one was home today so I quickly wrote random lyrics, plugged in my tascam, and recorded this random depressing "choir" song. I know my vocals are pretty bad. Just wanted to try it out...

Finding Within

I recorded this song for my first project of the Spring semester 2018 at Bloomsburg University. The rules of this project was to basically recreate a grammy winning song from any year and make it as close to the original as possible. After we chose three songs we wanted to do, our professor chose one of those out of the three for us to record. I was hoping the entire time that he would choose "What A Fool Believes" and it turned out he did. I'm not sure if he knew about my past endeavor with this song or not, but either way it was a surprisingly challenging thing to map out at first. It was very fun to do though. I was lucky enough to have Aaron Eldred play piano, synth, and bass on this track. He was very professional and quick. Probably one of the smoothest sessions I've ever done and he was a pleasure to work with. I also had my friend David Falacko on guitar again as I did on the previous Nick Drake cover from last semester. This dude is a really talented guitarist and he knocked out his part really fast as well. The guitar in the song originally is kind of a background instrument (surprising for a rock/pop song) so he doesn't get to shine as much as Aaron did, but he made the whole process fun and fast.

What A Fool Believes - Doobie Brothers (Cover)

Original song by Bern Callaghan
Vocals- Bern Callaghan
Drums, Guitar, Bass, and Synth- Jacob Logan

Lost In Space

Operation P.R.O.V.O.L.O.N.E. is a song written by Kendal Thompson with lyrics written by Jacob Logan. It's a song about astronauts traveling to the moon and finding out that there is a conspiracy involving what the moon is actually made out of: cheese.

There was a lot of in line processing on this particular track. I used Drawmer 69,  68, and 1176 as compressors for the kick, snare, and overheads.

I used about everything I could on the racks in Studio A. After recording the drums, I printed and processed the toms through the 611 EQ and the 525 compressors to give them a more punchy sound. They were very low in the mix after everything was recorded. Which was something that was bound to happen with a mix that has everything run through in-line processing except the 3 tom tracks.

Musicians:
Kendal Thompson - Guitar
Aaron Eldred - Bass, Keys
Mike Shaw - Drums and Vocals
Jacob Logan - Lyrics

Lyrics:

Approaching the moon,
It glows yellow
We will land soon
On the rock below

The closer we get
A pungent odor infects us
What have our noses met
A stinky cheesy must

"Houston, Houston we have a problem
The moon is made of cheese
A squishy yellow gem
Help us understand this please"

"Now you know too much
Farewell men you've served us well
The truth unraveled like a babybel
Free from the fake wax shell"

The truth is revealed and we are damned
We have been left all provolone

The story of the moon has been a scam
Our chances of survival through the void they have flown

I would've thought a lunar eclipse would make the earth a nacho
But I was horribly mistaken
I walked around thinking I was macho
But goddamn the Gouda has me shakin'

As I come to terms with my mortality
Never shall I hear the wind in the trees
Never to see my friends or family
All I will ever see anymore is cheese

Operation P.R.O.V.O.L.O.N.E. - Doviov

Liner Notes:
Beat IT (Metal Cover) (5:41)
From the Album "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (published 2/14/1983)
With/
Mike Shaw: Vocals, Drums, Guitar, Bass Guitar

Album Art from www.pinterest.com

My second project in my Audio 2 class was to pick a Grammy Record of the Year song and attempt to cover it in a creative manner in any desired style. Only the lyrics had to remain unchanged. I chose "Beat It" because I thought it would be interesting to turn a light rock dance song into a heavy metal song. The vision for this project was to retain the same structure of the song, but transpose it to a minor key, altering the rhythm, and adding a multitude of different elements that are present in metal music. Mike Shaw played all the instruments and sung vocals on this track, so big thanks to him.

Michael Jackson - Beat It (METAL VERSION)

Liner Notes:
Nutshell (4:13)
Written by Alice in Chains
With/Mike Shaw: Guitar, Vocals
Ryan Schaffer: Drums
Steven Schaffer: Bass

Album Art from www.pinterest.com

My first project in my Audio 3 class was to mix and master an album from a class pool of songs. I chose Nutshell as my third track, originally recorded by myself. When I was looking in the class pool, I had the idea of making an album with an upbeat opening, a slow, heartfelt middle section, and a powerful, emotional ending. Nutshell is incredibly emotional, with incredible instrumentation and musicianship. I think this track fit my vision perfectly.  Big thanks to all of those involved in the original recording of this cover for making this possible.

Nutshell (Remastered Cover)

For Special Topics class during my 2nd to last semester, I decided to make a rap/hiphop kinda beat with heavy usage of effects, panning, and automation. Everything you hear is manipulated (sometimes extremely) samples I gathered. 
I also added various clips from youtube. Particularly Carl Sagan's voice in some spot parts. The more "quiet" parts are supposed to be reserved for vocals. I was going to make a chorus with me singing during the horn/flute sections but being in an apartment with wall to wall neighbors right now doesn't really allow me to currently do that. So I guess this is the "first draft" of the song. Instrumental only.

Enjoy...

And if anyone wants to use this beat please just ask me.

Pinky Promise

Here is another track for my Spring 2020 (COVID) semester at Bloomsburg University. Of course with everything going on I had to make a happy song (Hehe).

I think this genre is darkwave? Though not too sure, I never dove too deep into that, but I do like Ulver, which is kind of the influence of this song. Not exactly the same, but drawing from influences of some industrial, dark, kind of futuristic, dystopian themes...

Maybe think Blade Runner, or 12 Monkeys, something like that.. I'm thinking of making a video for this song as well as the other one.

This one is a little more involved and longer, kind of like a story I guess. The first "half" of the song is the City creeping and rustling around. I like to think the 2nd half is when the listener departs from that setting, or the city finally sleeps, similar to how this pandemic has made places that once used to be packed with visitors mere ghost towns now.

Indecision in Rhythmic Cycles is used from a very short, simple poem I wrote earlier in the semester which goes like this...

"Pumping, churning
Patience burning
Excitement fading
Will we be craving?
A hunger at times...
More than ever before
Or not at all..."

Finding Within

MikeAsHimself