Cast of Characters:
xian3-- @xian3 – Christian -- vocals and lyrics
Holger Engel—bass, seed idea
J.J. Terrell-- @j-j-terrell—JJ-- electric piano, synth
mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark-- electric piano
Llanpsych-- @llanpsych -- mix, and production
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)-- @josh-clary-1 – guitar and four-string fretless bass
 
This song began with Christian's friend Holger Engel coming up with a melodic bass line and sharing it with him to use as a seed stem for a project. Having collaborated successfully with him before, Christian thought of Josh and decided to pass it along to him to see what he could build with it. Josh was excited to work on another of Holger's creations. His bass line was in a high octave on the instrument, so Josh added a similar, complimentary bass line on the low octave to give it some heft. He invited Ken onto the project, and after doing their little rhythm section give and take, Ken laid down some powerful, yet tasteful drums. Mark was brought in next, and added some very fitting, wonderfully melodic electric piano, which he added in the choruses. Josh also asked JJ to add some electric piano to the verses and synth to the whole thing, which he did in a very mind-bending syncopated way. Josh then added some guitar to the high end to thicken things up a bit.
  We then sent the finished product back to Christian to add his thoughtful, inspired lyrics and signature vocals to his song. This is what Christian had to say about how the lyrics came about. 
  "[Being an avid reader], I came along the sentence, 'We write and make art to show our wounds to the world,' reading an interview with Paul Auster (1947-2024). He died earlier this year, yet his novels are legendary. There was talk about creativity, manifoldness and what the personality consists of. 
  "I can’t remember where that interview was and basically I wrote the lyrics around this sentence attributed to him. 
  "I quote another writer, Goethe (1749-1832), with a famous quotation from "Faust,“ 'Two souls, Alas, housed in my breast...' That points in the right thematic direction in my opinion.
For sure the lyrics also contain other layers of meanings, much more personal…
I am also happy about the title of the song 'We Are Many'. I think Tez came up with it. I was unsure for very long, what’s the name of that song… :)"
  After we had it in the bag, we asked mix-master Tez to produce and mix it, so what you hear is also his creative vision for the project. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed creating it.
 
Original "We Are Many" lyrics by Xian:

1
To me it seems very obviously
That my I is not a unity
Rather a bunch of personalities
I got a problem with multiplicities

ref
We write and make „art“ 
To show our wounds to the world
We write and make „art“ …

2
I am no self-contained identity
Cut off by other possibilities
No border guards set up at the boundary
Enforce the claim to exclusivity

ref
We write and make „art“ 
To show our wounds to the world
We write and make „art“…
„I“ writes and makes „art“
To heal the wounds of the heart

3
„Two souls, alas, housed in my breast…“
We hope, that if we do confess
To get rid of this fallacy
And collect the splits of personality

ref
We write and make „art“ 
To show our wounds to the world
I write and make „art“
To heal the wounds of my heart

out
There is
A consolation in round things
There is
A consolation in round things 
A consolation in round things
Oh, ohh,
„I“, „I“,
Oh…

We Are Many (Eclectic Collective with Xian3 and Holger Engel)

Cast of Characters: 
TexMex Shaman–@texmex-shaman –Stephen– Taylor acoustic guitar, mix, production, and mastering
J.J. Terrell-- @j-j-terrell—JJ-- Yamaha Genos 2 piano solo
K2 and the Three [and the Four] -- @k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1– Warwick 4-string fretless bass, Korg piano, Collings mandolin, and vocals

This song is an old Jerry Jeff Walker song from a live album that Josh's dad played countless times while driving around in his his old pickup truck while he was growing up. Josh decided this year's musical gift to his father would be a recording of this song, which his dad has always loved. When he asked his bandmates in the Eclectic Collective to help him with it, they all generously and enthusiastically agreed to do so.
  Josh began the song by laying down the piano you hear throughout. He then added the bass before asking Ken to lay down the drums. Ken learned the song very quickly, and added perfect drums to it. Stephen then added his solid foundational guitar. Then, Josh went back in and added the mandolin before singing the whole thing. Before it was done, however, Josh tapped JJ to add the piano solo after the first chorus, which he did with grand style and flourish.
  Once it was in the can, Stephen was kind enough to mix and master it in his always professional manner. 
  Josh is very grateful to his bandmates for helping him give the gift of music to his dad once again this year. His dad has alwasy supported him with his music, from the time he was a little kid, and is very proud of his musical skills to this day. We hope you enjoy listening to this gift as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

The Pickup Truck Song by Jerry Jeff Walker (Eclectic Collective)

"Magic is what we do. Music is how we do it." -- Jerry Garcia

Welcome to my page, my peers, associates, friends, and musical family. 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, in the summer of '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), Stephen (Texmex Shaman), Chris (cgmaness), and Mark (mistermark). 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. Therefore these days, 100% of what I do is collaboration, within the group or with other artists on the side.
  I, and we, are also available for hire if you have a song or lyrics 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, The Grateful Dead, Radiohead, Rye Cooder, Steve Earle, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Arcade Fire, Mikey Dread, Yellowman, Purpleman, 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, Sean Lennon, and Billy Strings, 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 welcome anyone who plays non-western music to contact me for a collaboration, too.
 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 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 recording projects, 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, it's just not my preferred medium with which to paint. 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.
  If your music is primarily AI, please don't come around my page, as I'm not at all interested in complimenting a machine.
  Here's a link to music I've recorded live 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

New tracks tagged #full band with vocals