http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/
Ghost Rider by Hartwig Koppdelaney

Hi, I hope you had some fun for Halloween. I always dress up and this year I was Palpatine, the Dark Emperor of the Galactic Empire (that’s a Star Wars thing). It turns out he can easily be mistaken for the Grim Reaper. Oh well.

Upcoming Online Radio Interview

I want to let you know that Christina L. Ibbotson, author of the novel “Love Amid Chaos.” will be interviewing me on her ChrisCross Radio show on on Saturday, Nov 21, at 7 pm EST. You can call in to chat with us too. I’ll send exact details out later. For now this is the link to her radio station:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ChristinaIbbotson

Royalty Free New Age Music Download

My last meditation instrumental music download “Autumn Boy” has surprisingly become my most downloaded song. That’s why the Internet is so interesting - I never would have guessed that. You can check it out, along with the instrumental version of last week’s “Dublin Forever” I just added on my home page.

I really enjoy creating and listening to chill out music with instruments from around the world that has a modern twist. So I set out to mix up some native vocal samples, the Indian tabla, Arabic santur (a stringed percussive instrument) and some electric guitar and world pop beats.

What came out reminded me of some of the cds from artists like Enigma so the best label I could put on this song is “New Age Music”. However, this is allot darker than more popular new age artists Yanni or Enya. I was recording this around Halloween so I was trying to come up with a scary haunting sound - that’s why I named this Riding the Banshee.

Instrumental Version: RidingTheBansheeInstrumental.mp3 - CC Licensed

New Age Music Free MP3 Download: RidingTheBanshee.mp3 - CC Licensed

Thanks to the podcast A Pagan in the Threshold for already playing Riding the Banshee.

Great New Free Sound Effects Library - FreeSFX.co.uk

The Webmasters over at FreeSFX.co.uk contacted me to see if I would upload my tracks to their new free creative commons sound effects library. They created a music tracks section just for my material, so I was happy to put all my instrumentals on their site. Many people have been discovering my music through FreeSFX so that’s awesome.

Check them out If you need MP3 files of any kind of audio sounds like machines, screams, dogs, computers, sci fi, bleeps, telephones, heartbeats or whatever else you could use for a movie or radio show. This is one of the most user friendly libraries I have come across.

A very special thank you to Hartwig Koppdelaney for the use of his creative commons photo Ghost Rider. His work is incredible - please take a look.

Peace,

Dan-O

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahandiain / CC BY-ND 2.0

Hi! and I hope you are having a great week.

Autumn has arrived here in New York and the leaves are turning. This is my favorite time of year and the fall always comes as a quiet surprise.

I have been working on a drum and bass remix. I’m playing the music production DJ on this one by mixing dance loops and samples of some gritty reggae boy MCs.

This has a  techno feel in some sections and then gets atmospheric at some points in the track. I’ll add the instrumental version to my collections on the home page eventually:

Free Drum n Bass Vocal Sample MP3 Remix:

DublinForever.mp3 - CC Licensed - More

You have my permission to download and use this song for free and royalty free on YouTube, games, slideshows, photo galleries, Websites, etc.

Just check the creative commons music license out for details.

Flamenco Dancer by Wendy Starland

Pop Star and Starmaker Interviews

I really enjoy getting to know other artists and people in the music industry.

Recently I had the chance to connect with a real up an coming pop star - Universal Records Recording Artist Wendy Starland. Check out my interview with her, she has a really awe-inspiring international pop sound, and I could not help but be impressed that Donald Trump chose her to sing on the Apprentice.

I also got to ask the ever-elusive behind the scenes mega-star Music Manager Jason Davis, CEO of Fahrenheit Media Group about what it takes to match up talent like Kelly Clarkson and hit songwriter Jimmy Messer. In the interview Davis also talks about what he thinks about the current state of the music industry.

This was a rare chance for me to get the inside scoop about what is really going with the “music business” right now. Pretty cool.

Listening to Books and Thoughts

Virtual loot…virtual music…virtual me

I just finished listening to “Play Money: or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot” by Julian Dibbell also a writer for Wired Magazine. This book is an in depth year long personal journal of how he became a trader of virtual gold and real estate in several massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like Second Life. During his best month he made over $4,000 in real U.S. dollars trading…nothing real at all. It’s true.

This book made me realize that everything we do online is really just a virtual representation of our actual selves and that even having some unreal fun - has real value. Some of the non-fictional characters in the book take the simple act of mining “virtual gold” with automated game characters called “bots” and develop an offline multi-million dollar business selling the virtual gold on eBay. Wow, and I thought I had heard it all.

Derek Sivers, Founder of CDBaby reminded me in his post Not happy with existing venues? Make a new one that my new exclusive largest venue for my music is no longer the local coffee shop, art gallery or open mic. It’s this Website and blog. So as of this month, one year after starting danosongs.com, the “virtual me” has touched at least 10,000 times more people all around the world than I did in 20 years of playing live. All this playing around online actually does have real value!

Why I am Pronoiad on my Birthday

First off, Pronoia is the not the same as “paranoid”.

This week my 3 year old son Kalen and I shared a birthday. I am not normally a fan of horoscopes but for those of you that know me, and listen to my lyrics, I still believe in things we can’t see. Could be God, ghosts, aliens, or other dimensions… I’m open.

That being said, Rob Brezsny is the one astrologer that just blows my mind with his horoscopes. You can check him out at Free Will Astrology.com.

Well Rob has a book called “PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.” and it is every bit as challenging to the current workings of my mind as his horoscopes. I got the book for my birthday and this is my favorite quote:

1. If the game is rigged so you can’t win, find another game or invent your own.
2. If you’re not winning because you don’t know the rules, learn the rules.
3. If you know the rules but aren’t willing to follow them, there’s either something wrong with the game or you need to change something in yourself.
4. Don’t play the game in a half-baked way. Either get all the way in or all the way out.
5. It shouldn’t be necessary for others to lose in order for you to win. If others have to lose, re-evaluate the game’s goals.

- Garry Hamilton

Did that make you think? That quote immediately put a few areas of my life in check.

Podcast and YouTube Props

Here are a few choice YouTube videos and podcasts using my music this week.

Tales From the Old City - Machinima - View on YouTube - a dark professional animated love story.

An Empty Sun - Is Gravity being Induced? - View on YouTube - mad professor rethinks gravity!

DJ Alan Music Hare at BRCFP - Listen on Live365 - cool dude with great music taste found me on myspace.

Pirates Week Podcast - Listen at PiratesWeek.info (I love anything having to do with Pirates, plus they have a deadly hip looking site.)

This Weeks Creative Commons Photo

Kelburn Castle attributed to sarahandiain at Flickr

Why? I was looking for a Dublin or Irish castle with graffiti on it to go with the song name.

Peace,

Dan-O

P.S. Forgot to mention my new wacky banners gallery you can use instead of a text link.

P.P.S. Oh yeah, I have been playing Big Head Boy lately.

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http://www.flickr.com/drs2biz/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Hi, this week I was watching Sting’s new trailer for his CD ‘If On A Winter’s Night…” and I was overcome by the amount of “space” and “being” in the film and songs. These are terms that I got from Eckhart Tolle that explain why people tend to be drawn to certain people, places, art and music.

I wrote previously about this and how these same ideas are what I tried to capture in the audio and lyrics for my vocal and acoustic guitar song “The World Will Break Apart” you can check out on my home page.

At the same time I have had a few requests for royalty free relaxation and meditation tracks that people can use for free as music for YouTube in their videos using the creative commons license. I have mainly been a vocal songwriting artist but now I am starting to enjoy creating songs that are more like peaceful soundscapes - its feels good for my spritual side and helps calm my mind! There seems to be allot of people in the world that enjoy listening to soothing music for reducing stress.

I have even been getting people asking for “brainwave relaxation” music. I had no idea what that even was, so I have looked into some products to recommend and I came across this wild site that specializes in binaural beats and isochronic tones CDs for brainwave relaxation. The 3d sounds are really rich and spacious and I have no idea how they do it.

“Autumn Boy” is a hypnotic ambient piece that has a mix of distant wailing guitar, various middle eastern and Hindi/Indian instruments and some haunting violin. It turned out to have what I would describe as a deep ancient sound. It also has some native American chanting samples.

Free Relaxation MP3 Music Download: AutumnBoy.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

“Ambershire” is a peaceful oriental instrumental MP3 with Japanese and Chinese flute that is very calming and great to chillout to while you listen. You could use this for meditating or in Youtube videos about buddhism, tibet, eastern philosophy and nature.

Free Asian Relaxation MP3: Ambershire.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

“Become the Heavens” is a uplifting classical track with a popular sound since it has some ambient electronic beats behind the strings.

Classical Music MP3: BecometheHeavens.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

“SilverShine” is new age style instrumental music with piano and guitar. It was written as relaxing healing sounds for therapy techniques like yoga, reiki and guided imagery meditation.

Free Relaxation MP3 Music Download: SilverShine.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

Just press the play icon to listen to of any of these songs streaming online, or right-click on the MP3 links to save the free downloads on your hard drive.

I have some ocean, rainforest and waterfall/stream nature tracks for helping with sleep and chlling out in the works. I’m looking forward to creating some natural songs for the DanoSongs.com podcast - so please check back for more!

Peace,

Dan-O

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http://www.flickr.com/eschipul/
CC BY-SA 2.0

Hey, this week I put together a new rock instrumental song called “SunSpark” with electric and acoustic guitar, piano and organ. It has a kind of a melancholy, deep grainy sound that transitions unexpectedly a few times with some more sweeping synthesizer parts.

Free Instrumental Mp3 Download: SunSpark.MP3 - Creative Commons Licensed - More

Also I have been meaning to highlight some uses of my tracks from visitors that have contacted me about their projects. I love to hear from people. You can check out all these tunes on my home page:

Clansite.us offers free hosting to gaming communities and many of my tunes are featured in their default free MP3 player.

Explorecsone.com - has one of the most colorful and creative interactive sites I have seen in a while. Their Cyber-Space Station ONE (for ONEness) is using my acoustic rock instrumental track the “Art of Gardens”.

IslandImaginations.com has some really beautiful and unique computer generated marine art that uses “Copper Mountain”, a techno world piece, for the picture gallery background music.

“The Pancakes” are a group of creative kids that made this music video for my vocal pop rock song “The Time Isn’t Right”. They say they are my biggest fans - I really appreciate that!

Eclectic Designs is using my song “Silver Shine” as intro music for their jewelry making videos on their YouTube channel. They actually asked me to make this piano instrumental and sent me an example.

Louisville Paranormal Investigations is using my songs for their ghost hunting DVD. I love ghost hunting shows so I think that is really cool.

Wiltshire Web is using “I’m Gonna Go” in their videos that show some amazing photographs of Wiltshire’s Stonehedge, castles and peaceful looking country side. I want to go there now.

I am always looking for new tips for posts in my other blogs too. Feel free to contact me with your ideas and projects!

Peace,

Dan-O

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http://www.flickr.com/mckln/
CC BY-ND 2.0

I have loved reggae music since I was a kid listening to Bob Marley songs. My favorite song is Jamming on the album Exodus - I love that CD.

Did you know Bob Marley had 12 kids with 8 different women?! What is not to like about rasta culture.

This week I decided to do a dancehall style mix with hip hop beats that gives a very modern sound to this track. I call the tune “Book of the Monkey”.

Free MP3 Download: BookoftheMonkey.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

As usual you can use this royalty free for YouTube as a background instrumental or anything else. Just check the license for using the recording.

Peace,

Dan-O

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Hi, this week I have been working on a new original video game music soundtrack. You could use it in a flash game, or just have a listen for fun - its kind of crazy. It has allot of cool pinball and carnival sounds. Parts of the track have that old classic arcade style theme - I call it “Ten Ton Matrix”.

Free MP3 Download: TenTonMatrix.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

Also this week, I have been playing this remake of the original Asteroids game and working on this t-shirt design based on my song “The Art of Gardens” which is one of my instrumentals people seem to like the most.

Have a great week.

Peace,

Dan

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I’ve been inspired this week to do a little instrumental mix of some beats with orchestral strings from some royalty free concert clips. I’m not exactly a composer here - just a remixer, arranger (sort of) and audio producer. There should be some new definition for this job. These are done with dozens of actual 5 to 10 second wav file loop samples of live orchestras which is definitely a new thing in the history of classical music. Its a lot different and way better sounding than MIDI.

The great thing is that the musicians get paid for their initial performance of these scores - but then when you use the loops in your own composition as an artist then the terms of “buy out” music is that it is royalty free. These loops come from Data Becker the other very excellent loop album provider is Sony ACID. I just thought I would provide all this information because I get a lot of question from people about making music this way, especially from kids and young people on Yahoo Answers.

I was recently listening to a book on CD about classical music’s effects on the brain and so I decided to take a new approach with this recording to see it would make me more intelligent. I’m feeling it already. This is a little different than listening to the symphony - it sounds more like a pop / rock or electric hip hop orchestra. Definitely classical music for people who do not like classical music!

As usual you can use this song on YouTube, your MP3 player, webcast, blog or in your podcast playlist. It will eventually go into my zip music library collection. It is also up on the Mininova Torrent network if you download from there. Just a reminder that my work is not in the public domain and I own the copyright to the recording and composition. However, just follow the terms in the license and you can use it free and clear online, in commercials, movies or whatever without any additional permission from me.

So here is “Become the Heavens” for your listening appreciation (hopefully)

Free MP3 Download: BecometheHeavens.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

Peace, Dan-O

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Photo © 2009 CarolBarnstead.com
Used with Permission

Hi, this week I have a vocal and new pop style acoustic guitar love song called “Love Letters”. As something new, I’ve included the vocal and instrumental version for background music and well as the chords and lyrics in a pdf file you can download.

Free Royalty Free Music Download: LoveLetters.mp3

Instrumental Music Background: LoveLettersInstrumental.mp3

Lyrics and Chords: LoveLettersLyricsChords.pdf

All material creative commons (except artwork) CC Licensed - More

Ok to share on YouTube videos, Facebook, Myspace, Websites, etc. with link back to this post or my site. Feel free to download and import into iTunes for your iPod or other MP3 Player. This might work nicely in Wedding slideshow or gallery.

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Hi, this is one of my new rock instrumental songs called “Crazy from the Message”. It has and alternative sound that gets real hard at times. There are many wild electric guitar takes, bass, slamming drums and a bit of backing synthesizer.

Free Music Download: CrazyFromtheMessage.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

This song is royalty free to download, share, listen, use on YouTube videos or to use as background for any other projects. My home page has all the details, or check out the license page if you have questions about specific uses. Please link back to my site and in general spread the word if you like the music.

Thanks!

Dan-O

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Hey, this week I produced a new hip hop instrumental with some old school jazz sax and classic funk guitar lines that you can download. There are some cool underground types of remix beats I found for this song that you can listen to or use royalty free.

Free Music Download: InTheDeal.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

You can use this mix track free on YouTube, podcasts, mixtapes, online radio, or on an album for rap or singers. Just link back to danosongs.com or credit me. You can make your own loop tracks like this using Sony ACID and their samples CDs.

Peace,

Dan-O

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