Along with writing, arranging, producing, engineering and mixing A Dream Between Two Fires, Carroll laid down every track. “This record motivated me to keep innovating my guitar playing and overall musical style, as well as motivating me to learn engineering, mixing, editing, programming and all other aspects of studio work. I wanted to have full artistic freedom and be totally in charge of the end result.”

In his work with “Ra”, Ben has had multiple charting radio singles. Ra songs have been featured in movies, television and sporting events. Ben has shared the stage with many of the greatest bands in modern rock, (Korn, Godsmack, Disturbed, Seether, Alice in Chains, Deftones) and has worked with the industry’s foremost producers and engineers, (Andy Johns, Bob Marlette, Toby Wright, Jason Cosaro, Paul Logus)

The ESP & Mesa/Boogie endorsed guitarist is also gearing up along with his partners, Michael Rocchio, Jaime Vendera and Greg Pettis, to launch the website for their ground-breaking comprehensive music artistry coaching, music technical training, and music business consulting firm, The RockDoctors, LLC. “Nothing like The RockDoctors exists. Our goal is to have a dramatic impact on the quality of rock music being produced now and into the future, as well as improving the quality of life for musicians in the modern music industry. The end result of what we are looking to achieve is to help artists to shift the standard of how music is created and marketed by putting creative power back into the hands of the artists while assuring that artists are justly compensated for their talents and efforts.” The American Rock Star Academy, the educational arm of The RockDoctors, LLC, is the brainchild of Ben and his long-time friend and business partner, Greg Pettis. It is an online music school focused specifically on generating tomorrow’s rock stars. The American Rock Star Academy provides the student with live, one-on-one, music instruction from today’s real-world rock stars, such as members of Shadows Fall, Ra and Megadeth.

Read more at Ben’s official website:
http://www.adreambetweentwofires.com

Order your copy of “A Dream Between Two Fires”

Black Sheep has finally changed that!

Ra’s latest record offers some new material, but also a list of gems that have been remastered for release. I know I speak for a lot of fans when saying .. it’s about time!

Get your copy of Black Sheep

Here is some information about the tracks, posted from Ra’s Myspace:

For those of you who purchase “Black Sheep”…here are the liner notes…

1. Cross of snow
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Nandi Johannes
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Bass, vox, Nandi Johannes- Guitars and Frank Katz- Drums

1994-One of the first songs to capture what eventually would become Ra’s sound. Notice the arabic influence and the stop and go chorus…just like in “Rectifier”

2. Testerday’s rain
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Nandi Johannes
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Bass, vox, Nandi Johannes- Guitars and Frank Katz- Drums

1994-Another example of early Ra developement as well as the constant references to the sun. Written about Curt Cobains death.

3. The Foundation
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- guitars, vox, Skoota Warner- Drums, Kirk Lyons- Bass

1996- In mid 90’s, rap rock was all the rage and as a band from NYC we did our part to interpret the times. While I did honestly like the movement, ultimately is wasn’t the area where Ra’s strength lay. This song landed a deal with Sony- Edel America Records.

4. Crazy Little Voices
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Nandi Johannes
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pete Williamson- bass

1999-This was a later version of the original song released by Edel America featured in the move “The Rage- Carrie 2″

5. Chained to the ground
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Skoota Warner
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pete Williamson- bass

1999-Another rap rock attempt, quite funny to me but nonetheless I always liked the chorus and most notedly, the outro is the inspiration for the outro in “Skorn”

6. Deliverance
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Skoota Warner
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pete Williamson- bass

1999- If chained to the ground is funny then this one is just stupid but i thought it had some good energy

7. Busted
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pete Williamson- bass and Dave Aaron- slide guitar

2000- This song was originally all rapped but when sung had a cool vibe to it. A successful song for Ra, it landed quite a few meetings at major labels.

8. U need me
Written by Sahaj Ticotin, Dave Aaron and Pete Williamson
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pj Farley- Bass

2004- Recorded for the “Duality” session, this is a creepy song about a serial killer who stalks his victim from his window. It later felt too dark for the record which I was instructed to make lighter.

9. What I am
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pj Farley- Bass

2004- Also recorded for the “Duality” sessions, this is a beautiful song about the deepest suicidal feelings. I absolutely love the guitar tones on this track…again it was too dark for the powers that be.

10. Who’s to blame
Written by Sahaj Ticotin and Ben Carroll
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pj Farley- Bass, Ben Carroll- Guitar

2004-2009 Remixed and mastered for 2009 this trak laments about the worst kind of dying relationship… the stale one.

11. Not in your head
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums, Pj Farley- Bass

2004- Sometimes a really good song gets lost when u record it. Digitally sped up it has some sound degradation but the elements of this song could have been great… Notice the bridge is the chorus from “Chained to the ground”

12. What I’m about
Written by Spencer Proffer
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums

2005- This was for a TV show about Frankenstein that never caught on. Always thought it was a great song though…

13. Seen all good people
Written by Yes
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums

2005- Commissioned by ESPN this cover was used on a few sports shows for the network. I thought it was well executed and should include it here…

14. Baghdad
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, Skoota Warner- Drums and Ben Carroll- guitar

1998-2005 Still relevent today the original version of this song was recorded in 1991!! When there was the first gulf war! This version was one of the first things I ever wrote on 7 string guitar and recorded the basic traks in 1998. Ben and I added the dueling guitar solos in 2005… loose production but fun anyway…

15. Supernova
Written by Sahaj Ticotin
Performed by Sahaj Ticotin- Guitars, vox, Andy Ryan- Drums, Ben Carroll- Guitar, PJ Farley- Bass

2009- When the sun dies it sinks in on itself until it reaches a critical density and releases a massive amount of energy called a supernova… it either dies or lives on to become a black hole.

Hopefully this will help u with understanding the intent of the record. We wanted to show how a band struggles with identity until it finds itself. Pick and choose what u dload if u wish but the whole record is $9.99 on itunes which works out to $.666 per song. (it really does… I don’t know if that’s good or not) Thanx to all and we love u guys.- Sahaj

From Ra’s MySpace:

On the heels of “Black Sun”, Ra releases “Black Sheep”, a collection of unreleased material going back to 1994. The album features some of the songs that started Ra on it’s road to major label success. “The Foundation”, “Busted” and others reflect the bands NYC origin as well as the scene in the late 90’s. Also included are unused tracks from the bands second lp “Duality”, an alternate version of “Crazy little voices” from the movie “The rage: Carrie 2″, a “Yes” cover and a brand new track “Supernova”. For fans of the band this is a great documenting of both the writing growth and versatility to one of rocks underachieving gems.

Track information:

• CROSS OF SNOW 5:19 (1994)
• TOMORROW’S SUN 5:37 (1994)
• THE FOUNDATION 3:25 (1996)
• CRAZY LITTLE VOICES 3:49 (1999)
• CHAINED TO THE GROUND 4:06 (1999)
• DELIVERANCE 4:08 (1999)
• BUSTED 3:21 (2000)
• U NEED ME 5:05 (2004)
• WHAT I AM 5:15 (2004)
• WHO’S TO BLAME 3:41 (2004)
• NOT IN YOUR HEAD 4:04 (2004)
• WHAT I’M ABOUT 3:58 (2005)
• SEEN ALL GOOD PEOPLE 6:10 (2005)
• BAGHDAD 3:53 (1998-2009)
• SUPERNOVA 3:55 (2009)

Also, a brand new song “Supernova” can be played right now on the official MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/ramusic

I have been a big fan of the band Ra since I first heard of them in the fall of 2000. Their first major release “From One” was a constant in my car stereo for at least a year. The guitar work is tight and heavy, and the riffs have those “hooks” that seem to get stuck in your head for a week. Some highlights off From One are “Do you call my name”, “Rectifier”, “Parole” and “Sky”. I highly recommend this record.

After From One came “Duality”. While not as fundamentally heavy as From One, Duality offered a more refined, produced sound that seemed to blend more into mainstream rock. Personally, I think Duality is outstanding and every song on that record is a hit. The guitars are not as “hooky” as From One, but the vocals make up for it. I find my self singing songs off Dually all the time. Tracks like “Take me away”, “I lost everything”, “Got me going”, “Undertaken” and “Tell me” have lyrics that I can relate to. It confuses me as to why this record was not an enormous hit, it’s clearly better than 80% of the crap out there. Needless to say, once again I highly recommend this record.

Read Full “Black Sun” Review

“This record has way more content than I originally thought it would… besides the 2 new tracks the may be as many as 12-14 old tracks. There are 4-5 unused tracks off of “Duality” alone!…the original demos for “Do u call my name”, “The only one” and “Fallen Angels”… some tracks that have been floating around the internet for a bit… “Busted”, “The foundation”, “Crazy little voices” but a whole bunch of stuff no one’s ever heard. Everything will be remastered and in some cases remixed. Just wait till u here the new tracks…”

Sahaj continued to explain how much of a challenge it has been going thru box after box to find the original recordings spanning 15 yrs!

“This stuff has been following me for years and its all over the place in random boxes. It has been really great listening to all this stuff… I can’t wait to share it all.”

Be sure to download you copies from itunes, amazon and the like on 6/9/09! This will be a great illustration of the many characters Ra has created over the yrs!

source: http://www.myspace.com/ramusic

How to Win Guest List Spots on the Up Coming Tour?

Easy, all you need to do is the following:

- Print out THIS FLYER

- Bring 5-10 Demos Per Store(more the better though, if you can give more…go for it). (Songs: Broken Hearted Soul, Faulty Information, and The First Step)

- Ask a Store Manger if they would be willing to post the flyer up, and if you can leave some demos at the counter. Mention people can “sample the cd before the buy it!!”

- If the manger agrees post the flyer. GET A PICTURE OF THE FLYER hanging in the store.

- Then Email the picture of the flyer to smelloftoast@gmail.com. Each picture taken is an entry into the drawing.

So, now…what are you waiting for???

In an attempt to quench your need for more Ra, I offer you… “One”:

Chime in if you love this record. In fact if you don’t, you need to have your head checked!

http://twitter.com/rafans

Sign in to Twitter and follow RaFans now!

Over the past many years, this site has gone through a ton of changes. Ra continues to spread and kick ass, but I have other full-time responsibilities coming up and find that I simply don’t have the time to keep the site current. I hate constantly seeing the same old content and thinking “man I need to update that,” but I never seem to find the many hours it takes to do so. This new system allows others to contribute content as it becomes available.

The RaFans discussion boards are still active and continue to grow, but the main site is going to be changing over the next couple weeks. Bear with me…