Ok, I haven't got any specific secrets or anything particularly revealing to share...
The songs themselves.. well I just started making some tracks for fun. Ilios was first. Then Hektor and Achilles. The story of Troy and the Trojan War is really inspiring and interesting to me, it's one of my favourite stories. The historical fiction series called 'Troy' by David Gemmell is out of this world. Obviously it takes license by expanding and creating alternate stories around the central characters of the Iliad but it's epic.. it really got under my skin and affected me. So I wanted to create some music that reflected not only my interest in the subject matter but pays respect to it.
By the time I was writing Achilles, my friend Andrew, the drummer, said he wanted to do the drums so that's why Achilles had drums. Then I wrote Mr. Badass. At this point, I was still just writing on a track by track basis with no plans for an album. At some point though, the interest I was getting on YT was making me think about an album.
I wrote another track, Hammer of Hephaistos, which also fits into the Troy legend.. Hephaistos (or Vulcan in the Roman mythos) crafted a unique set of armour for Achilles, not to mention a badass shield
Hephaistos is the God of smithing, metalwork, blacksmithery etc.. some of you sharp listeners may have noticed the anvil sounds in there.... That track was recorded in Drop D, which is reflected in the riffs but the lead work doesn't really use the low E string.
Welcome to Castle Higgy is just a kind of personal joke on my own childlike persona. If I had a castle, it would have a moat with some guard ducks. No doubt, a special donut producing kitchen as well. As a track, it's intentionally
bewildering, slightly intimidating and definitely
weird. Gitarrero and Slavenko said it was one of their favourite tracks. I'll let that joke write itself.
Sub Zero, I had written before.. many of you know it already. I even did a GMC lesson of it. I thought it was too good a song to languish, forgotten, on my YT channel so it had to be resurrected. Andrew's drumming added some extra, interesting poly rhythmic (damn, that was hard to spell) grooves to the main verses. Check out that hi-hat. I re-recorded the rhythm guitars and the lead guitars during the bridge / chorus section. The rest of the lead guitar was from the original.
Brittania... the main Em / C riff that is played on the semi distorted guitar had been with me for years.. way more than a decade. At last I found the opportunity to use it in a song. I put the whole thing together in bits.. adding a riff section and another.. drum lines and grooves all in my head at this point. Then I went through and did a basic drum track. then some bass. For a while I wasn't feeling the song but I decided to stick with it. I gave it to Andrew with just rhythm - no melodies at all. When I had the drums I put the melodies together. That's when it started to sound sexier.
Inspiration wise, I was thinking about the Roman invasion, what they saw, who they fought... and also it's just a nod of respect to our nation in general.
I'm not sure if that's the kind of info you wanted, but hope you find it interesting anyway !
Re: finding the time to put it together. Time isn't so bad, it's the motivation that usually fails us, I find. I really have to be in a good enough mood to do it. If the inspiration's flowing, I can get a lot done very quickly. 'Castle Higgy' was the hardest track to finish. I wasn't sure what I wanted to say in it.. but it came eventually. Sometimes you can try to hard, put too much pressure on. Give it a few days away and let it come to you.
Also, one thing that makes me do these projects is an attitude of 'Why the hell not ?' I can do it, I've got the means, why would I not do it ?
Regards promotion, nothing special really. YT and FB are my fave platforms and they have always brought the best results consistently. The 30 Shredders stuff has helped massively of course. I'll tell you guys what.. if something works,
then I'll tell you about it !
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You know that both him and Marty Friedman have a fondness for Japan.
