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Tonight we had a very important recording session with J, who brings a nice bass guitar into our mix. As expected, he delivered the goods. But please don’t take my word for it. Take a visit to qrstation.com, where we have added the latest version of Easy. This version has the new bass track and we would love to hear what you think. You can leave a comment on this blog, or you could send us an email at qrstation@gmail.com. If you leave a comment here then other folks can see what you are thinking.
Now adding the bass track is not the end of the road for this song. We have to sync up some of the percussion with this bass track. So you may notice we are a little out of time in a few spots. But what we hope you will hear on this sound clip is a fuller sound.
We’re getting there and we are really happy that you have been along for the ride. Thanks for being a part of this journey with us. We are always interested in your comments.
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One of the things that has been missing from the Q.R. Station sound so far is some strong bass. We all know that bass is a key element to so many great rock songs, so this was something that was going to have to be addressed. In fact, we expected to delay the release of “Easy” until we were able to record a suitable bass-line. This problem may just have been solved.
I was at a party the other night when a friend walked in that I hadn’t seen for a few months. We started catching up on all aspects of our lives when I mentioned that I had a band and that we were nearing the release of our first single. He was pretty excited about this and asked me if we had a bass player. I said we didn’t, and he told me that he has been playing bass for years in a number of local bands. I’ve know this dude for a couple years now but somehow we never discussed music and I didn’t know he played. He said he would love to sit in on some recording sessions and we decided we would get to it this week. Now this dude is very cool and someone I always enjoy being around, so I have a very good vibe about this. It’s amazing how you can discover something new about people you have known after knowing them for so long. Maybe I just wasn’t inquisitive enough in the past, but I don’t care because we figured it out just in time to collaborate.
I think this will result in “Easy” and “Walk Next To Me” both being released in the very near future. Originally we were going to start with the release of “Walk Next To Me” and get to “Easy” sometime later when we figured out the bass issue. We’re hoping to release both of them within the next two weeks. We’ll keep you posted.
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Okay, so let me start by saying that today sucked. It was just a crappy day to begin with. And I’m not talking the weather, here, rather I’m talking about me. I didn’t feel like working today, I didn’t feel like being today, I didn’t feel like getting up today. I tried to slog through it. Usually a nice shower will take care of it and provide a fresh new attitude. Nope, didn’t work. Then I tried the old faithful – coffee. That didn’t work.
I guess I should be a little more specific so that perhaps you can relate to my predicament. Basically, the alarm went off and I had a bad attitude about the day. I didn’t want to partake in it, quite frankly. I started the day with a bad attitude – life was kind of sucking and I didn’t feel like having a sucky day today. I tried to get a good healthy lunch to pick me up a little – some nice salmon sushi. The sushi was good, but my day was no better. At some point in the early afternoon I just had to kind of chalk it up as a loss.
I decided to have a talk with Q.R. Station’s manager – FS. She had some good advice for me – just give up on working and go to the beach or go for a run. I opted for the second. Now given that a year ago I was almost hit by a van in my neighborhood while running because the nice lady driving it was too busy looking at her cell phone, I have gotten into the habit of running on the track at the local high school. Even though I got there at 6pm, it was crowded with some youth activity, so the run wasn’t going to happen. So I came back home still feeling generally crappy when an idea occurred to me – if I could channel the crappyness that I was feeling it could work its way into a good song.
So I went into the home studio and began strumming away on the acoustic hoping to find a sound that had the feel of the angst and depression I was feeling inside. I was wondering if there might be a little writer’s block in me as I haven’t written a tune in awhile. But something was in there and indeed a song was born. So the next step is going to be recording the idea tonight so that it doesn’t get lost. I’ll have to run it by SwingDoom and if we think it sounds okay perhaps I’ll put the rough recording on qrstation.com for you to take a quick listen.
The song doesn’t have a name yet, perhaps I should call it Crap. I will say that I felt a little better after writing it, but I am a little worried about tomorrow. I need to get a hold of myself here and not have another bad day. Life’s too short.
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Spinal Tap or no Spinal Tap, the show must go on. We have too much momentum only to stop because of spandex, bad hair, and fear of the fate of yesterday’s rock and roller.
The truth is, we committed to making an album and it will be done. Spinal Tap is an awesome movie and it never really impacted us in the way we implied in the last blog post – that was just for fun. I do remember that when U2 was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame a couple of years ago The Edge commented on the movie in his acceptance speech. He said that when he first saw the movie he didn’t laugh, he cried. The problem with Spinal Tap is how much the truth rings in it. If you were a young band like U2 at that time, you very well may have come away from that movie terrified.
As for Q.R. Station, we will have our first single ready soon as promised. I hope when it comes out you might consider supporting us by spending a dollar on our song. All proceeds will go towards a very good cause – the continued development of Q.R. Station.
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SwingDoom and I have been working on finishing Walk Next To Me, our first single. But something has happened that may change the trajectory of Q.R. Station.
For the first time ever, I watched the rockumentory/mockumentory This Is Spinal Tap . As a developing rock and roller, this probably was not the movie I was meant to be watching right now. It was downright scary. I mean, yeah it was funny. My favorite moment may have been when the guitarist was explaining how the volume on his amplifier dial went up to eleven, not ten like normal amps. So when he needed an extra little surge of energy, he just popped that bad boy up to “11″. So they asked him why not just make it go up to “10″ and make the ten setting louder. “Well, but this goes to 11″.
I guess I shouldn’t have gotten too depressed – Q.R. Station hasn’t whipped out the spandex outfits just yet. Nevertheless, it may be time for Q.R. Station to go quietly into the vault to avoid the potential miserable fate of the suffering has-been rock star. Now, we would have to have a few people care about us first before we could reach the stage of has-been. But why suffer such a terrible fate at all? So, on that note, Q.R. Station is signing off before we ever really signed on. Thank you for briefly listening.
Sincerely,
QR
Okay, wait, wait. But being a has-been rock star could actually be kind of cool. Perhaps we should attempt to reach rock star status so that we could then reach the next level of sorry has-been. We’ll think about it and let you know.
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