Category: Music

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For this edition of Music Everyday for some reason I took two junk guitars and tuned them to the same-ish note (whichever note would hold, they’re not renowned for their intonation) and pushed their backs together while I played, hoping to create a nice drone-y sound from the back guitar. Not too much drone action but made the crummy top guitar very warm and resonant. I might have my million dollar idea: lashing together guitars for a warmer tone. I mean, it’s not like I composed a masterpiece with this setup or anything. But it’s fun to try new things.

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Music Everyday 39 - Pushed Together
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?#?musiceveryday? 32: an idea that I should remember

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Music Everyday 32 - Once I Caught A Wave
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Here’s a raw song idea from a while ago. I’d like to turn this into something someday soon, it keeps hanging out.

*Also I want to explain what I’m sharing here since I haven’t really yet: raw, unedited music that I make shared everyday for the sake of sharing. Not for the sake of being cool or furthering my career or whatever, not to impress, just for it’s own sake on my end. So this ideally will be me each day picking up an instrument or singing something new and fresh and having the um, gusto to share it regardless of whether I am super duper confident in it. That’s the big challenge right there. I just want to find the joy in making music this year a lot more than I have when I’ve been overly concerned with what people think. You know? So take it as you like it, and thanks if you’ve read this far lol. And also thank you sincerely for taking a moment of your time to listen to this music.

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Make Music Every Day 7 - Back To Where
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Here’s my everyday creation for today. It turned out a bit weirder than I expected. It’s another from the cello in a church. Cheers.

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Make Music Every Day 5 - Another Sun
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Day 4: Just a simple idea in one ear, sounds of the city in the other

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Make Music Every Day 4
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I should record / share some music every day. Even if it’s rough and just because. Here, let’s start. #makemusiceveryday

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Make Music Every Day 1
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I’ve been sorta kinda organizing my back log of tracks now that I’ve got a good chunk of my projects sorted out. It’s funny what you find just sitting there.

This is an instrumental that is kinda wandering and pretty. Cellos swirling, as they tend to do, and a kind of trance-y beat. I must have, well I’m sure of it to tell the truth, recorded live with loops.

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I just felt like putting this up tonight.

It’s a fine Summer night. Is it the end of Summer? That’s what I hear. Me and Cinco are tending to the empty home while the rest of the pack is off at FYF Fest. Slowdive is playing. Hmm. I wish I was there. It was sold out.

I’ve mostly finished up on a big buffet of music I’m going to serve up in the near future. I’m happy with the work done and mostly the feeling of the songs.

Los Angeles for me: still and ever just past my fingertips somehow. It’s there, I push at it, brush it aside like curtains. But I have yet to pass through.

It’s a good city after all, and there are just so many surfaces you could attach your mirrors to here. Everyone is beautiful and larger than life, even if just in their own minds.

There aren’t country lanes, nature revery is rare, and the general balance leans one way and then the next, undecided. It’s menacing and inviting at once.

Blah blah poetic yada yada. Meaning: I’m here, making music in my dear studio with my dear cellos and my dear thoughts and I’m not on that damn stage at this damn point in this damn city.

That’s my check in.

Hope this version of this song fits with your time and place.

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Valley Of Gold - Instrumental Version
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Was reminded that yesterday was June 12 and thus of one of my more gut kicker songs emotionally “Week Of June 12”. Decided to put up that whole album “Still Dream” because it was requested and though I was hesitant I was happy to discover I did not hate it as much as I thought. In fact I did not hate it at all.

That might sound a bit weird, hating your own album, but albums can get to be like siblings growing up: you love them, you can’t live without them, you would do anything for them, and you secretly even like them. But you get this closeness and it’s just irritating. Especially when they won’t just go away.

Still Dream is my second full album. I wish I could tell you I remember exactly the true story of its release so I’ll tell you the true myth (I’m pretty sure this is right) of it. It was the end of my first year of college, I should say the end of OUR first year of college because in the Merrill Dorms (and beyond) at UC Santa Cruz we had this kind of incredible circle of friends. Like you do as a freshman in the dorms.

So, Week Of June 12 is a song about leaving all that. Geez I still get kind of emotional thinking about it because the thing is: I wasn’t wrong that all that was over and it was sad. Beautifully preserved in the amber minds but my inkling to resist time, which haunts all my music, was correct.

That said, no matter how much of a terrific disgrace it felt to somehow leave our 18 and 19 year old selves behind, thankfully the fear of what that meant for me transmuted into 1,000,000 other achingly beautiful moments and friendships.

In other words:
“as the lights zoom by and the sunset stalls,
wonder for me child
what we leave inside these walls
and as the passions rest
you can feel it in your chest
take your last breath left
start the breathless quest”

Hope you enjoy the album. As a PS I chose not to include two songs which I am kind of embarrassed by, but they come with the “bonus” version of the album if you buy it.

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You. My friend. Are the first. In the world. To ever. See this video.

Because you, my friend, are subscribed to the podcast.

High fives, to you!

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Take My Chances - NEW Song Live Video
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Wanted to give y’all a video-free version of the cover song I posted on youtube a few days ago.

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"Angeles" - Elliott Smith Cover - Audio
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So, if you read the post I wrote pre-show that was a major spoiler as I quite clearly blew the secret that I would perform an Elliott Smith song.

And believe me I had every intention of recording the actual live performance but among all the moving parts of playing my show I forgot to press record. Alas. You had to be there.

So last night I figured I’d record the songs I played live since my camera crew (myself) blew it so bad. This way you can imagine I’m playing a huge arena… although a cozy brick walled room with loads of friends and listeners in the heart of Silver Lake was, I think, much better.

I’ll post more songs from the set in the coming little while, even trying to get them on the podcast first to give you subscribers your due priority!

Let me know what you think of the cover. It’s such a fine line with songs you love… you want to show your love, but you really don’t want to disrespect them by ruining them either.

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This one is all yours now. Just an impromptu recording I decided to do as I was working on mixing for my upcoming albums.

This one is a little rare for me in that the bittersweet-ness (not new) is mixed with a little mean-ness (new!)…

Backstory? Hmmm. Well I just wrote it quickly after going through an old box of memories and realizing that some states of mind are better left behind as far as possible… It’s good to forgive and to move forward but sometimes too it’s good to expunge and exonerate yr own feelings.

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Wrote this song a few days ago. Been playing cello again a lot, and wanted to create something using this arpeggiating technique across the strings (string players… what is the technical term for this? Can’t remember!)

Lyrically it carries the same theme as the rest of “The Faraway”. Journeys, changes, destinations.

Funny how I thought that the lyrics for this were just absolutely impossible. I banged my head against my lyric book for a couple days, recorded several scratch tracks of improvised lyrics and then walked away. When I came back it wasn’t garbage anymore, at least not when stitched together.

The real reason I made this was because I wanted to test out my GoPro Jaws Flex Clamp. It’s so simple, yet super brilliant for capturing live music. It worked! Now I just need to get like five more and clamp them everywhere.

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E’ry so often I put ye old iTunes on shuffle and here something perfectly podcast worthy. Here’s an older live on-air performance from KDVS live in studio A. So much reverb! I believe I requested that. I can never have too much reverb.

Got that image from here, you can get a print of it even.

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Owls & Vultures - Live, Rare
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I’m a big fan of interludes and in between moments. I’m a fan of the album vs. the single, and I think these snippets create a glue to hold the other songs together. It’s a fine line and you can kill the momentum of an album pretty easily… But I can’t help myself.

It’s also a way for me to include snippets of musical ideas that maybe don’t ever make it into a song, and the why bother there is that for me albums are more about a certain period of time being captured, rather than a bunch of songs. And those little snippets tend to coincide pretty well with the feeling of the rest of the music.

ANYWAYS.

This one is called “Forge” and it’s a throwback to my ukelele addiction I suffered through last year. I listen to a lot of EDM and somehow someday I want to marry the pulse of that music’s kick drum to an acoustic instrument. For fun and amusement. For justice and glory. And stuff.

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Interludes & In Betweens: Forge
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I’m not entirely sure from whence, but this track has been getting a ton of plays on soundcloud lately. Is it possible people think it’s a cover of an Arcade Fire song? No way! I prefer to believe they are into the quoting of Saint-Saens in a rock song turned classical turned rock quartet.

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And thus concludes our magical journey through the soundtrack to “You Follow”… thanks for following.

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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'Unraveling 3'
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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'Unfinished'
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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'To Seek Is To Find'
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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'On To The Next'
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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'Unraveling 2'
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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'The News From Afar'
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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'A Dialogue'
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Where Nisha receives some sad news via letter.

Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'Cello Blues For A Sad Letter'
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The next episode. I’ll be following up with the rest of the soundtrack in the next couple days.

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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'Unraveling'
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Thought I’d gather all the pieces I composed for Shar, Nisha and Brad’s film “You Follow”. It’s my first official soundtrack! I’ll be unrolling them in rapid succession here on the site, via the podcast. Hope you enjoy…

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"You Follow" Soundtrack - 'To Be Is To Do'
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Here’s the second part of the album I made for making things to. Make whatever you want! Again what we want is ambience and a lack of drama, without aspiring to New Age.

I had a friend who had a ranch out in the hidden part of Mendocino County, and one of our past-times during an amazing Summer visit there became “rock-hopping”, where you hop down a mostly dried up creek bed, ideally reaching a state where you don’t think between leaps. For some reason this song reminded me of that.

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Music For Painting To, Part 2 - Rock Hopping
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I had the honor of working on the soundtrack for “You Follow”, a story about a woman who goes to find out about her past in India. The main character does a lot of searching and I composed this piece to be her (Nisha) theme. It was a fun and interesting project and I’m excited to go see the opening screening tonight(!)…

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Film Music: Nisha's Theme
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A while ago I made my girlfriend Katy an album. She has a certain playlist she’s created for painting and has talked about the perfect music for that kinda thing… meditative and non-disruptive, but interesting enough maybe to be listenable over and over. So obviously I created a  polka/deep-house mashup. And that didn’t fit the bill. So I tried this.

Just a live cello performance using some looping, and a very brutish beat to pull it all along.

It’s long, and it’s a pretty good quality mp3 if you are into that sort of thing.

This is the first of three parts to that album.

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Music For Painting To, Part 1 - Unfold
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When my girlfriend heard me play the early version of this she said “that’s pretty is that a Bruce Springsteen cover?”, which I took as a compliment. Nebraska is one of the most beautiful albums ever recorded. I didn’t intend to have the influence be so obvious, it wasn’t conscious, and also, if there is a sound I’d love to pay homage to it’s that one.

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Valley Of Gold
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Canyonlands Guitar Actions

Came across this early version of “You Can Get Far” (video from the album REDWOOD SUMMER here).

And it reminded me of when I recorded it, at Canyonlands National Park, sitting up on a cliff’s edge. As you can hear not a lot is different in the studio version, just perhaps a nicer mic and the absence of the sounds of rocks scraping underneath my shifting weight. And the view I had was incredible.

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You Can Get Far - Early Version
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Here’s an early version of a song I’m working on.

Last week, for Christmas I got both a new guitar and a ukelele. I was ecstatic. And immediately tried recording with them. It was nice, I was out in a little ‘casita’ a two room adobe house in the middle of some beautiful Northern California (where I’m from) vineyards. The inside was mostly tile so the sound in there was very bright and reverby.

This is what I’d call a ‘scratch’ version… The guitars are pretty good for now, though I might have to fix some issues. The vocals will be replaced. And I’d like to hear it with cello, which I’ll add soon, and maybe, just maybe some Nashville sounding drums. Good thing I know a drummer from Nashville I could call!

Lastly I may tweak the lyrics, especially the chorus, a little bit… I’m still trying to sort exactly what I’m trying to say there…

I suppose this is the first song of 2013 (kinda). Cheers to many more.

Thanks for listening…

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This song is made famous by the lovely Skeeter Davis.

We made a version of it a while back, with vocals by the also lovely Katy Unger.

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The End Of The World
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Here’s an update from a song I posted a couple weeks ago. I added a cello solo in there. It was imperative to shred. I also added backup vocals toward the end. And hand claps. Always more hand claps. Also as always I prefer the original, what do you think?

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Stardust, part 2
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The podcast was my main delivery about five years ago. Then facebook happened. The thing about facebook for me now, is that it feels WAY less personal than it somehow used to.

Also, I don’t need to share ALL my random songs with ANYONE who likes my facebook page. You, my friend, are here because you are (amazingly) dedicated and I appreciate that.

So we’re going to try to get the podcast back on its feet.

Here’s a new old song. I wrote the lyrics/melody quite a while ago, and stumbled across it in my lyric book, which happens when I’m playing little mini-concerts of old material.

It’s a bit rough, but I like the way it turned out. I’m thinking of adding a little more bowed cello, and perhaps more vocals at the end there…

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Podcast again? Let's try it.
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As always, for those just joining us, I like to post random tracks up here on the blog. I like them to be unique, different, old, hidden, lost, remixed… basically, I like to dip into the vast pile of tape that gets left out when I complete albums.

The point is, and this important: The music I post here is intended to be special, for you, oh faithful readers, as you most likely have already bought the album (what’s that, you haven’t? Never fear, go to iTunes and do it right now)

Or make sure you explore my main site here: LukeJanela.net

I’m thinking that I’ll eventually need to put a disclaimer on all my blog music posts. I’ve been advised by music marketing gurus that the thing to do is to demand your email address out of you in exchange for a song. I’m not really there yet. Emails are fine but I’m thinking if you become a fan on Facebook that will be more better for all involved than emails. More voluntary you could say.

So here is an early version of Wrecking Ball Heart. Putting this up for my brother, who says he likes this song a lot, so you can hear the early incarnation. What you hear is simple and rough, more raw, than the version you’ll find on the album, here.

Hope you like… more soon…

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I’ve been putting off basically everything working on some new music, so much new music in fact that I’m needing to break it down into its respective pieces.

This one is on an album I’m putting out that is basically electronic music meets cello. I’ve done that in the past, but the key with this one is that I more or less be able to play it live. Or some semblance of it. With looping that is possible!

So without saying much more, here is a new electrocello song. I’m likely to take it down soon, as I don’t want to spoil the fun, but love rewarding you my faithful readers…

Take care, enjoy…

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alright, you're right, it's time for some new music
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I’m thinking of remixing all the tracks off of JUNEAUREVOIR, my all cello instrumental album, or having other electronic musicians give it a go. This song is my first foray into it.

For any purists out there, this track is not pure anymore!

Which leads me to a quick note about what I do. Currently I am making music across a broad range of genres, here is my quick summary:

1. Garage Rock With Cello, Punk-Folk Action (ala REDWOOD SUMMER)

2. Highly orchestrated dark electronic influenced with vocals, cello, beats and lots of other sounds (ala Midnight Door).

3. Cello instrumentals, kind of classically influenced, kind of not, it depends (ala JUNEAUREVOIR)

4. Dark dance electronic beats with cello, instrumental and mainly live at parties and whatnot. (Album on its way)

OK, so that’s out of the way, below is the track, enjoy, and thank you.

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PS – Click here to listent to a sample of the original on iTunes