Squidsesis--- the latest from Squids & SC work

10/09/09: From the Genesis Squids Posts

Simon and I are finally testing out a possible BAND collab project starting some time toward the end of this month. Myself, Simon, Kelley and Martin will be jamming and playing a few gigs down here in sunny south Florida. I'll post when the gigs are going to be exactly. We'll play KiD, Big Bang and other SC solo stuff, new material from the band and surely some covers of all kinds of stuff... We're mainly working on new music. But, it's always nice to pay tribute to what you love.

I'd like to make this a little bit interactive since I am on here (and I even got Simon to join the board as "KiD"). If you're a fan of Simon's or even just curious about any part of what I just said then keep an eye on this thread.

Squids!

Oh and Simon is still promoting his solo album "U-Catastrophe". No official word on dates. I may sit in with Simon at one of the upcoming shows though on KID or Big Bang. There's a strong possibility of Hackett making a guest appearance at a Simon gig some day when the right schedules align and all that. He played on Fast Forward the Future.

Anyway, I was going to post this where it'd be more visible to Genesis fans in general but I figured it's more appropriate in here. Feel free to spread the word in other areas where it could be relevant and point people who are interested to this thread. I'll keep you posted.

Squidsesis

10/10/09:

Well there are now two chances of something like that happening. One is his solo stuff which he's still cranking away at. The other is this band. Obviously it is the beginning stages so we don't even know yet if there will in fact BE a band or what it will be called... or what exactly it will sound like except that "Keep It Dark" was more of a collaboration between Simon, myself and Kelley than say U-Catastrophe which was more of a collaboration with co-producer Kevin Churko. I played some keyboards on about 4 or 5 tracks on the album - Disappearing, Unconditional, Good Son, Powerless and the most I did on the album was on "The Big Bang" where I was also credited with co-writing which to me is more production than writing but those are just labels. Basically I had the most of my style influence in The Big Bang and the rest of that album's keyboards were mostly Simon's very competent work. Kelley played on various tracks too on the album but everyone played at different times overdubbing various parts from different places around the world (Steve Hackett for instance emailed his solo for "Fast Forward The Future" while we were working on KID).

So, this approach we're experimenting with this month is entirely different. It's a bit more how Genesis would do it where they'd jam and see what comes out. I personally love that method of writing because you get the chemistry of the people involved and a great mix of spontaneous ideas. I LOVE improvisation. I also enjoy co-producing with Simon.

So, I am looking forward to doing more of that. Anyway, we'll see what happens. I just thought it'd be rare to see these sort of behind the scenes things and even if it didn't turn into anything if you could see whatever does happen... well, perhaps that'd be cool for fans of Simon or even if you just want to see all of Tony Banks' vintage keyboards which I have in the studio! CP70, Mellotron, Arp Quadra and ProSoloist, VP330, Prophet 5... Take a little trip back with those sounds.... but of course there's also a lot of modern keys and software like a Korg OASYS, SampleTank, Sonik Synth 2, Miroslav Philharmonik and Infinite Player... stuff Sonic Reality makes. Quite a range of sounds for this! Should be interesting.

11/25/09:
I came back here a couple times but the forum was down so some of the up to date blogging was missed. But to cap, the gents have left and we completed three song recordings and collaborated on a bunch of others. The sound of the band is a fusion of old and new. It's more of a raw band sound than anything Simon has done before with more instrumental bits, a big acoustic drum sound, lush CP70 and piano (with Helpinstill pick ups which are also similar to a CP sound but I mix it with the mics so you have a cool hybrid acoustic piano/direct electric grand kind of sound), a Nord, Prophet 5 and Sonic Reality samples. All together it makes a huge sound.

By the way, while we were there Robbie Gennet from Keyboard magazine had just finished doing a session with his band at the studio and he did a rough (real rough apparently... they didn't edit out anything!!! So it's loooooonnnnnnggggg) video blog of touring the equipment in our crazy studio that has many of the instruments we sample at Sonic Reality. It's like a mini museum. Anyway, Simon makes a brief cameo in it. Plus I play (granted in a very quick and HACK way) various Genesis riffs on the vintage keys Tony used to use. It's goofy but if you're into gear or you want to see Simon with long hair and a beard then check it out. It's on http://www.keyboardmag.com I'll find the exact link but it's something about Vintage Synth Geekfest at Sonic Reality Studios in the title.

Squids..
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Here's the link to the article of Sonic Reality:
http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/vintage-synth-geekfest/November-2009/103381

12/14/09:

So the guys are up in Canada working on some tracks again. I could't make it this time because I am preparing for this thing called the NAMM show which is a trade show that my company Sonic Reality does every year. All the music stores go there to look at what you've got for the year. One of the things we have is a sample project we did with Nick Davis - your forum engineer buddy. I am not sure if we're going to announce that officially in January or in March but... to people here it is not a secret.

Anyway, I was just going through some of the live jam recordings we did when they were down here and there's some really good stuff. What a sound this band has. It's a volatile thing but I hope we're able to finish the album I know we can make. There's such a refreshing mix of pop and progressive rock in it. Hard to explain and I wish you could hear it. You will in 2010. When, I am not sure.

There's this one song I've been working on that is really dramatic and dynamic. I hope we do it! I may write the lyrics for it but I have Simon's voice in mind for it. He can really belt it out and it has some powerful moments. But it has these very classical sounding bits in it and a Beatles/Queen thing in the middle section... it could be epic. Pretentious no doubt but who here doesn't like that?