A cover one of my favorite Genesis songs from the Phil Collins years, from their 1981 album 'Abacab'. Using Studio One 4, Omnisphere 2, AKG P220 w/ Perform-V, Yamaha DTXPL. Mike Damrath on vocals, all instruments, and arrangements.

Covers

Abacab 2022

An instrumental version of a song I have been working on for a while.

How Can You Sleep?

The Flat Earth

Smarter Years Ago

Adelynn

The Gray Matter

You need a lot of energy to make it into orbit. Have some.

Exit Velocity

Taking me back to my highschool days. Class of '82, represent!

Downpour '82

Taking me back to the days when I didn't know any better.

Salad Days (AlCapwns Mix)

Salad Days (Album Mix)

The best commute is no commute. 

12/31/23: Remixed with new bass track.

We Work By Proxy (Single)

We Work By Proxy

We're in the business of doing business. So if you're not doing your business you better get down to business.

The Paradigm Shift

My cover of the original song by Gary Numan from back in 1979. This cover is a tribute to all the software engineers that I have worked with throughout my career.

Remastered 6/26/24

Engineers

Escalation

Do what it takes to please your masters, feed your belly, and dance dance dance.

Low Hanging Fruit

A good friend suggested making it a club track, so here you go. Ogygia is a piece composed as an ode to Calypso, the Nymph who lived on the isle of Ogygia. Calypso trapped Odysseus on her island for seven years with the plan to keep him as her immortal husband.

Club Ogygia

Experimenting with some ideas. Call it a ambient electronic sketch of life in financial IT.

The Uncompromising Operator

Let's party like it's your last day at work... forever.

Party In Building 8 (Deep Mix)

Ogygia is a classical-style piece composed as an ode to Calypso, the Nymph who lived on the isle of Ogygia. Calypso trapped Odysseus on her island for seven years with the plan to keep him as her immortal husband. This is the first movement of a planned symphony. Newly recorded 4/9/2024

Ogygia (1st Movement in C)

Ogygia (1st Movement in C, New Orchestral Recording)

"Fake It Till You Make It" was my mantra throughout my professional career as a software engineer. I think it's been the guiding principle for my whole life. I'd like to think that in a lot of ways I have finally made it. Maybe it's time to stop faking it.

Fake It Till You Make It

After I recorded my cover of Numan's "Engineers", it was suggested that "I Dream Of Wires" was also a great fit to my upcoming release's theme. So I thought I would give it a shot. This has always been one of my favorite Numan songs. I hope I did it some amount of justice.

I learned electronics at a very young age from my dad and started my professional career as an electronics build and repair technician. It seems like a fitting song to be included in a record intended to be a retrospective of my working life.

I Dream Of Wires

This is what I think will be the final "album" mix of this song. This is the sound I was looking for on this track.

The album I have been working on since the "Collisions In The Dark" release last year has had a theme of being a testament to my 40 years of professional work as an engineer/software developer. This track is the retirement party at the end of the journey. Probably will be the final track on the album release.

Party In Building 8 (Wee Hours Mix)

OK, so I changed my mind. This is where this track needed to go. Slowed it down added some texture, and it's something new, so it gets a new name. This is the Future Of Work. (Remastered 6/26/24)

The Future Of Work

A cover of my favorite Brad Sucks song, from his 2003 album 'I Don't Know What I'm Doing'. My 3rd song using Studio One 4, Omnisphere 2, Perform-V, Yamaha DTXPL, Martin DCPA5 Accoustic Guitar. Mike Damrath on vocals, all instruments, and arrangements.

The Covers

Dirtbag

Abacab

A cover one of my favorite songs by XTC, from their 1980 album 'Black Sea'. Using Studio One 4, Omnisphere 2, AKG P220 w/ Perform-V, Yamaha DTXPL. Mike Damrath on vocals, all instruments, and arrangements.

Respectable Street

A parody song about the coronavirus pandemic experience written by me, based on "Hey Nineteen" by the great Steely Dan. Recorded using Studio One 4, Omnisphere 2, AKAI MPK mini, AKG P220 w/ Perform-V. Mike Damrath on vocals, all instruments, and arrangements.

COVID-19 (to the tune of “Hey Nineteen” by Steely Dan)
Lyrics by Mike Damrath

Way back when, March 2020
Life was just dandy, the same old thing
Some dude in Wuhan
Had bat for dinner
Next thing you know it
Where the hell am I?

COVID-19
Now I’m sitting in my basement (working from home…)
On Zoom in my underdrawers
And all the toilet paper at Target’s gone

Hey baby
Who’s Joe Exotic?
They’re all binge watching the Tiger King
Hard time recalling
Wearing shoes and pants now
She thinks I’m lazy
But I’m just packing on...

The quarantine fifteen
No we can’t go to the gym now (we can’t dance..)
Now we don’t work out at all
Let’s go to the Kroger with our cloth masks on

(Nice)
(sure looks good)
(mmm mmm mmm)
(my waist’s a little wider now)

The burrito bowls
Grub Hub guy’s at the door again
Let’s make tonight a wonderful thing
(say it again)
School’s still closed
I can’t remember what day it is
In sweat pants for weeks at end
Let’s go to Lowes
Work on that honey do list
Make the best of this whole damn thing

No we can’t go to the Nordstroms
No we can’t shop at all

COVID-19

COVID - 19

Instrumental song foundation. I felt like it held up well on its own.

How Can You Sleep? (instrumental)

How Can You Sleep (Instrumental)

How Can You Sleep?
words and music by Mike Damrath

How can you sleep?
When you know you’re the reason they can’t 
Leave their door 
Wondering what they’ll will be mistaken for

How can you sleep?
Safe secure inside your simple world
Aware of the storm
So scared to risk your sure and shady platform

Creating and instilling fear
Blue lights in the rear view mirror
Bright knuckles on a steering wheel 
A sister’s sight of a mother’s tear

How can you sleep?
Wise your hide has eased you on your way
Can't you see
A higher tide takes all her ships to sea

Creating and instilling fear
Blue lights in the rear view mirror
Bright knuckles on a steering wheel 
A sister’s sight of a mother’s tear

How can you sleep?
When you know you’re the reason they can’t 
Leave their door 
Wondering what they’ll will be mistaken for

How can you sleep?
How can you sleep?
How can you sleep?
I’m wondering how you can sleep?

Gizz Van Buskirk hides in real life under the name Mike Damrath. Raised in the mountains of upstate New York on a steady diet of British first and new wave rock. When I’m not drumming and singing with the band Fail East, I’m sitting in my little one room studio flailing and wailing.

Gizz Van Buskirk

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