Rock

You are on a hospital bed with the beeping thing and it stops beeping.  Multi-layer original composition with me doing vocals, playing guitar, old Yamaha keyboard, and EWI4000s.

Flatline

What is the Christmas Mouse's secret?  Multi-layer original composition performed by me on guitar and old Yamaha keyboard and my own vocals.

Christmas Mouse

Improvised multi-layer rock version of the classic taps military song.  Trying to emphasize that the battlefield has shifted to the digital world.  Old Yamaha keyboard, guitar, guitar effects pedal, EWI4000s.  Waveform artwork is one of my circuits I made of a functioning microcontroller on a breadboard.

Wiretaps

Improvised multi-layer rock with me on guitar, old Yamaha keyboard, and EWI4000s.  This song was later featured in a play called "Rock and Roll Mole" performed at a Chesterfield, VA library.

Now What

Colonial Williamsburg... I miss it occasionally.  This is a multi-layer improvisation of the classic carol of the bells, using my old Yamaha keyboard, guitar, and a guitar effects pedal.

Rock Of The Bells

Multi-layer improvisation with Korg Radias keyboard and guitar, and TC Helicon Voice Pedal.

Ambivalence

This is the first song of my "Nullanon" series, which kind of correlates to a depression section of my life.  Little bit of funk at the end.  If you like the funk there is an extended version of that called "Turbulence Of The Nullanon".  The Nullanon is an anthropomorphized nothingness.

LYRICS:
Behold unto, O gentle love,
The nothing, Nullanon.
'Tis said on many scroll
He knows neither fate, nor reason.
Shall his will be evident?
His image sung through gifted tongue,
(Shall his will be evident?)
A voided hope and without shame,
(Shall his will be evident?)
Regardless of his coming seen,
Bring us to thy empty shell,
Shall his will be evident?
To others, an evil anathema,
Nay man is he, nor solid Earth.
Apathia, athambia, aphasia.
Man is but self-serving.
In hobo form, or merchant storm,
A wanderer o'er land and sea,
O Nullanon, join him now,
All nightmares expound from thee.

The Nullanon

This is the extended part of the end of my first "Nullanon" song.  Just some funky blues, that's all, moderately repetitive.

LYRICS (at the end):
Let there be something new?
No, it's all The Same.

Turbulence Of The Nullanon

This is number 3 in my "Nullanon" series.  The point is there is this thing called "The Same" and everything is part of it.  No matter what you do, all of life is vain.

LYRICS:
The air we breathe is The Same.
The light shown on us is The Same.
The sounds we hear are The Same.
The ground beneath our feet is The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.
The light shown on us is The Same.
The sounds we hear are The Same.
The ground beneath our feet is The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.

The Same

When someone asks you "What's the difference?", now you know.  It's this thing that came down from the sky and changed stuff after the Nullanon disappeared for a while.

At this point, I started concentrating on generating album covers using artist mannequins.  This is number 4 in my "Nullanon" series.  Imagine a bunch of people used to doing things very unambiguously and then there is something that forces them to start making more granular decisions based on evidence.

LYRICS:
Softly, slowly, swaying in the wind,
The trees reveal a message to begin,
As if a random group of people broke into a song,
The natural and man-made objects start to play along:
What is The Difference?
The great and mighty Nullanon is nowhere to be found,
A wave of synchronicity unfolds across the ground,
The people all are silent and they open up their eyes to the skies.
There's a difference that flies.
What is The Difference?
The Difference descends in graceful hidden coup d'etat.
It suffocates the people and their will.
What once was unambiguous is now a rolling hill,
And though they're happy they will cry inside.
What is The Difference?
It shines so bright,
Look at it and love.
It came from above, it must be good.
Give it all your energy, feed it like we should.
Feed The Difference.
What is The Difference?
What is The Difference?

What Is The Difference

I love the organ melody progression in this song at the beginning.  This is number 5 in my "Nullanon" series which is depression stuff, mixed with some funk organ.  The lyrics for this song is mostly about accepting what happened already and moving forward (stoic philosophy).

LYRICS:
Everything that was is now undone.
Every time we lost, we thought we won.
Everywhere we went is just a memory that fades,
Everything we said was just a promise that we'd made,
And now those promises are broken.
It took us way too long to figure out.
We didn't seem to start,
When we did, we never carried through.
We had a chance, but didn't try.
Pick up our mess, and collect ourselves,
Gather some hope, move forward again.
Rusted old tools in the dust on the shelf,
Moments before it's the end.
Might as well give it our all,
Nothing to lose,
One final attempt.
Maybe we're spent,
But that's how it went.
Might as well give it our all,
Nothing to lose.
One final attempt.
Maybe we're spent,
But that's how it went.

That's How It Went

This song is number 7 in my "Nullanon" series.  It was made to address my late depression period, cause I'm tired of doing things that nobody cares about, especially when the thing you are doing is complicated.  It's about trying to accept that putting all of your energy into a project isn't really worth it, cause you get burned out.

LYRICS:
Can we forget?
Is it time yet?
Will there be more?
Was there before?
When it's all done,
Can we have fun?
Can we forget yet?
Can we forget?
Is it time yet?
Will there be more?
Was there before?
When it's all done,
Can we have fun?
Can we forget yet?

Can We Forget Yet

This is the 8th song in my "Nullanon" series of songs.  Same voice concept with some FUNK in it towards the end, but starting out more ambient slow rock.

LYRICS:
It is not nearly the end.
When it stops, it begins.
Nothin' you do will change it.
Let go of things out of control.
Over and over,
Over and over,
Over and over.
We do things
Over and over,
Over and over,
Over and over,
Over and over.

Over And Over

This song is not cleaned up at all.  Very little post-recording work.
The point of this song was to demonstrate just one of the processes I use to make songs on a BOSS RC 50 Loop Pedal track, and to try out making a composite music video of me playing multiple parts like everyone does at some point.  This is just my raw voice with no vocoders or pedals this time.  I kind of did an ok job on the video, but I'll let you be the judge.  I used Kdenlive on Ubuntu Linux to make the video.

COMPOSITE MUSIC VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P-yeDvhzGA

LYRICS:
Let there be something new.
Can there be two?
Can there be three?
Me and me and me?
Should there be four?
Should there be more?
We were alone with The Nullanon.
Is it better now?
Or is it The Same?
What is The Difference?
Are we to blame?
How far is Forever?
Let there be something new.

Let There Be Something New

The 11th song in the Path Of The Nullanon.  Starts out with some drone into some heavy rock, then some soul hammond b3, then some reggae to close it off.

LYRICS:
Remember when it was simple?
When everything was hit or miss?
Now it's all just ups and downs at every turn.
Did we ask for this?
One moment you're above it all,
But then you fall.
Then you wake up,
And you're back on top.
Sometimes we just want things to be the same,
But things keep changing.
Chromatic game.

Chromatic Game

Some drone with distorted guitar, then some funk, organ soul, and jazz flute.

Solipsistic Fear

Psychedelic Rock with a little bit of organ.  This is mostly what I call a "Drone" song, attempting to keep a continuous dissonant chord going through the entire song.  Lots of echo pedal.

Sudden

Psychedelic Rock on TE OP-1 Field Keyboard.

Socratic Epiphany

Multi-artist project of April 2025.

LYRICS AND ANNOTATIONS:

(Morse code for "we are just like you we promise. settle in.")
(birds)
Bones chilled in the old ghost forest,
Where the tide came in took the land away.
Hollow trees, still standing.
Knee deep in swamp water is where I stay (is where I stay).

Living lives of quiet desperation.
The haters, they just follow the herd,
Wearing masks of false inspiration,
Their festering wounds left undisturbed (undisturbed).

Running towards the pain,
The wicked voice of their disdain,
On that edge - the tired eyes reflect:
It’s only the first time we fear what’s next.

For those who live in risk,
In a society whose promises won’t stick,
Is this the end of the line?
Have we used up what’s left of our time?

In the old ghost forest, I stand tall
Like a stubborn oak tree that refuses to fall.
Empty cans and bottles lie nearby,
Artifacts from a past that will not die.

In the old ghost forest, I kneel to pray,
Confess my sins, wash them away.
In the old ghost forest, I scream aloud,
"Lord, gimme the strength to stand proud!"

(birds)
Our future's found: four circles deep.
Come slosh around; more misery, reaped.

What’s woes occurred: cursed, fate foreseen.
What does the word "worst" even mean?

A fitting gloom: stark, rank and sour.
A fetid tomb: dark, dank and dour.

We should have known how ends begin.
This is our home now; settle in.

Settle in.

(city street chatter)
We should have known how ends begin.
This is our home now; settle in!

Settle in!

We are just like you.
We promise, we promise.
Settle in…
We promise, we promise.
Settle in…

Black tar rains from a sky long dead,
We chew on rust, drink molten lead.
No dawn breaks through this crawling haze,
Just grinding teeth and static praise.
This is the hymn of bone and sin—
The sludge within did settle in.

Our tongues are ash, our limbs decay,
We march in place, still rot away.
This is the hymn of bone and sin—
The sludge within did settle in.

This is the hymn of bone and sin—
The sludge within did settle in.
(ocean sounds)

Settle In

I wrote the lyrics to this in 2019 as a poem and finally got around to using it.  Lots of voice blending me harmonizing with myself through different vocoders on the TEOP1.  I got out my old Hohner Chromonica 260 (I need to clean it, it was disgusting).

LYRICS:
We hope of false, a hope that’s false.
We toss our hope, soon to be lost.
It steals our mind and poisons our heart,
Out there among a floating nothing.
With dreams of someone to catch what’s sought,
Thrown like a rope, with hope it’s caught.
And then we pull with all our might,
In hope the rope will soon pull tight.
We pull, suspended in the air.
It seems as if there’s someone there.
And only when we realize, after pulling for your friend,
The rope has come up to the end.
You still are where you once began.
Your force from pulling was making it tight.
You reeled a fish that wasn’t there.
The smile you had was worth it, right?

False Hope

For reasons unknown but time will tell...
Multi-instrumentalist, all types of music, all types of methods.
Occasional collaborations with other artists.
Sometimes I post the sheet music if it's piano.
Lately, my favorite instrument is a TE OP-1 Field keyboard.

Rock

NOSTRUMUVA