STATE SHIRT

Nostalgia 1989: Yamaha SY77 demo

State Shirt — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 05:35:33 +0000

I’ve lusted after the Yamaha SY77 ever since I was a kid, but could never afford one until recently. I just picked this one up on eBay. It’s beat up and a few things are broken, but for $300 it was a steal. I hadn’t thought about this instrument for years—and it’s weird finally being able to play through it considering how much I wanted one as a kid.

Demo at the end features Strymon BigSky and Strymon Deco. Signal chain is SY77 » BigSky » Deco. Putting Deco last in chain gives a unique vibe—the Tape Saturation really mellows out the rough edges, and the Doubletracker can add some nice 80s sounding modulation. I didn’t spend any time writing any patches for the SY77—I just used some factory sounds and whatever the previous owner had already saved.

Kawai K5 and Strymon TimeLine demo

State Shirt — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 05:41:54 +0000

You’ll never believe what we found sitting on the curb in our neighborhood a few months back. This fully operational Kawai K5 digital synth! A neighbor put a few keyboards on the curb and posted an ad to Craigslist. I guess the original owner got sick of additive synthesis. So we took the Kawai home and fired it up. It’s a digital synth made in 1987, and seems to have it’s own unique sound. I decided to plug it into my trusty Strymon TimeLine delay and see if I could come up with a few sounds and some song ideas for my new album. After many months, I finally completed the demo of the two together.

My Mobius Looper Setup

State Shirt — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 05:46:14 +0000

Some of y’all have asked me to put together a video about my live looping rig. So I finally did! I hope this answers some of your questions. This vid goes into the gear that I’m currently using, how things are routed, and a few Mobius Looper parameters.

Creative roadblock? Simplify. Add deadline. Then Fight!

State Shirt — Thu, 01 May 2014 16:15:12 +0000

When you’re inspired to create something, and there is some mental roadblock keeping you from executing on your inspiration, I’ve always found it’s helpful to simplify. Reduce the number of options to you. Force yourself to create something with just a handful of tools. Or just one tool. Just one color. One instrument. One theme. And it’s helpful to have a unmovable deadline, forcing you to make creative decisions quickly. Looking back, some of my songs that I like the most were written and recorded in one or two days.

I knew I wanted to write something today. So I turned to one of the best sites to give you instant inspiration and force you to make creative musical decisions quickly—SongFight! They give you a title, and one week to write and record a song. No prizes, other than knowing that you just created something. It’s been a while since I entered the ring, so let’s get this shit started. This week’s fight title is “Bitter Monday”.

steal this song

Make sure to check out all of the songs in the fight and vote for your fave.

Lyrics:

Sunday was your favorite
the smells of the ocean
the swells of the sea
cascading over the sand
when the light began to fade
you knew it was over

high above,
Sunday will live on.

you never followed your heart
it burned through your soul
you believed what they said
that you wouldn’t amount to anything
one simple thing
kept you down all these years.

For the gear nerds:

Lead vocals: Audix OM7 mic. Backing vocals: Shure SM7b. Vocal effects: Line 6 Pod Farm Analog Delay w/Mod » Strymon BigSky Reverberator. Keys: Wurlitzer 200a » Strymon BigSky.

Working on the new album.

State Shirt — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 19:19:13 +0000

I’ve realized my life travels on the path of a sine wave. I’m once again making my way out of the trough and heading up towards the crest. Finally knocking some musical ideas out of my head and carefully arranging them into ones and zeros.

I’m incredibly excited about this album. These songs have come to me easier than anything else I have written. Looking forward to being able to share them all with you later this year.

Album artwork idea.

On Top of a Hill – live looping improv / demo

State Shirt — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 19:58:30 +0000

Here’s a song that I’d consider, using music industry vernacular, a “demo”. I wanted to start out with a completely ridiculous sound and try to turn it into a song. This is the result. Maybe this will turn into an album track, I’m not sure yet. Hope you enjoy checking out this work in progress.

buy steal

Gear list if you’re interested: Circular Labs Mobius looping software on my Macbook Pro. Vocals: Line 6 DL4 » Strymon TimeLine. Keys: Wurlitzer » Strymon BigSky. MIDI: Behringer FCB1010.

Live Looping Improv [Mobius looper, Strymon TimeLine delay]

State Shirt — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 18:19:19 +0000

Woke up this morning and had the urge to do some improvisation. Here’s a live looping improv that I just recorded. Beatboxing, distortion, and weird vocals. Everything was recorded live, nothing pre-recorded. Music gear nerds: There is a gear list below if you’re interested.

Using Circular Labs Mobius looping software on a Macbook Pro. Vocals: Line 6 DL4 » Strymon TimeLine. Guitar: Fender Toronado » Strymon OB.1 Optical Compressor » Sarno Earth Drive » Strymon TimeLine » 1980 Silverface Fender Twin. Keys: Wurlitzer » Strymon BigSky. MIDI: Behringer FCB1010.

Sorry I Ruined Your Life [music video]

State Shirt — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 18:41:24 +0000

Here is the music video for my new song “Sorry I Ruined Your Life”. Working on a new album now!

buy steal
[mp3j track=”Sorry I Ruined Your Life@https://stateshirt.wpengine.com/audio/videosongs/stateshirt_sorryiruinedyourlife.mp3″ flip=”y”]

This one was fun to put together. It started off as a simple video song in my studio. But the song is about destruction so it morphed into a music video with a sledgehammer and some busted walls. I built a $20 DIY Snorricam (see a photo on my Instagram page) and looked ridiculous while shooting a bunch of these scenes. Good thing I enjoy looking ridiculous. Thanks to Angela Heine for shooting the sledgehammer destruction scenes.

Lyrics:

no more good ideas are
in my head i’ve spent them
all on other things I don’t care about

wasting away clearing leaves
out of gutters and cracked sidewalks
crumbling in my aging hands

don’t you see me
when we die you can blame me
don’t you hate me?

always thinking of how things could have been
or how they will be when
someone else solves this for me
forgetting there is a here and then.

anxious about things i’ve
never tried some slight guilt
about all the times I’ve lied
the times I’ve lied

Strymon BigSky, TimeLine, and Mobius demo video songs

State Shirt — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 23:45:26 +0000

So as some of you may know, I’m the marketing guy over at Strymon, and I write and perform many of the audio clips for Strymon products, including writing the music for the BigSky, TimeLine, and Mobius demo videos. A bunch of people have asked me the names of these songs and if they can download them. Well, I guess the songs don’t really have names. But since you asked, you can now download the songs here:

BigSky song:
download

TimeLine song:
download

Mobius song:
download

And in case you haven’t seen the vids, check them out below.

Looping Tips and Techniques

State Shirt — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 19:50:07 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to contribute an article for Premier Guitar magazine. The topic? Something very dear to my heart—looping tips and techniques!

“If you want to take your looping from four-bar bedroom jams to a performance environment, start thinking of your looper as an instrument, not an effect. Creating engaging loop performances can require the same type of effort that you put into learning guitar. Really get to know your looper until using it becomes second nature.”

Head on over to the Premier Guitar site to read the whole article:

And if you’re interested in seeing some of these techniques in practice, please feel free to check out a couple of my recent looping vids on YouTube.