music. beats. whatever.

ABC 20/20 Oscar preview show

steve — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:10:16 +0000

I wrote a lot of the music underscoring the 20/20 interviews with George Clooney, Sandra Bullock, and Penelope Cruz.
Basically anything that sounds vaguely funky was written by me. The music was mostly buried underneath the actors talking, but in this case, with this crew of actors, I don’t mind at all.

http://tinyurl.com/abc2020

“Over My Head” on General Hospital

steve — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:06:40 +0000

This is a very beautiful and melancholy ballad I wrote with Rie Sinclair a few years and ago and had completely forgotten about until somebody sent me this link. Typically there is no mention of the composer and producer (that would be me) and there is a frightful amount of heavy breathing and heavier dialog, but the song still sounds pretty danged good underneath it all.

The Holiday People – new Christmas songs

steve — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:12:32 +0000

“Snowflakes Are Falling”, and “Christmas – It’s The Season” are two perfectly nice, sentimental traditional-style Christmas songs I wrote with Sandy Stein for “The Holiday People”.
If it was 1973 then Karen Carpenter would be singing these songs. But, it’s coming into 2010, so we got Laci Culvey to sing “Snowflakes”, and Lori Lynner for “Christmas”.

Listening to these merry tunes is a way better antidote to the blues and the blahs then drugs, alcohol, lithium, prozac or vanilla swiss almond ice cream

If these songs do NOT put a smile on your face, then you have probably got some serious emotional issues and you may possibly be lacking a functional, beating heart. Or maybe you just need to turn on the sound in your computer.

Dance: Killing With Karma featuring Seda Aybay

steve — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:18:28 +0000

This is some radical abstract-modern dance featuring Seda Aybay, choreographed by Seda with Sarah Berges, of one of my Killing With Karma compositions; “Terminal Zen”.
The performance is from a dance studio in Hollywood Ca. The lighting was the existing lighting for the performance, so the video is a bit dark and nourish. But then, so is the music…

Japanese Gothic Hiphop: Shinku

steve — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:19:06 +0000

Also know as “Deep Rose”, for the Anglophone world.
This is some scary stuff, although it still manages to be sexy. Neither Meyou or I dabble in hallucinogenics and we are both pretty happy people so I really don’t know where this dark, ominous, hip-hop gothic dirge came from. The Japanese language rapping is virtuoso caliber, with a subtle vocal performance that is deceptively sweet in its multi-layered complexity. This was on the first Meyou CD released in 2002 on RNC Japan, LTD. (Catalog YRCT – 21004)

The MP3 Effect

steve — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:39:10 +0000

It’s “good enough”!

Some typically brilliant writing by Clay Shirky in Wired that explains a lot of why the digital media world, for better or for worse, is the way it is.

No reasonably aware person would claim that the MP3 sounds better than uncompressed hifi digital audio or 12” vinyl.

And that’s exactly the point – the MP3 isn’t trying to be the best sounding audio format, it’s just totally convenient, has a small file size – perfect for sharing across networks and mobile players, is customizable, and is low – or no cost. Me? I’m still waiting for that ipod 12″ vinyl player…..

Deep Dawn Radio Show

steve — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:29:57 +0000

“Deep Dawn Theme ” is a musical theme and voice-over project I wrote and produced for the (not yet) launched Deep Dawn radio show. We did it in 4 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and English. Spanish, Portuguese, French and Farsi are next on the agenda.

Here is the instrumental version without those intrusive voices:

“We Are All Alone” on General Hospital

admin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:29:07 +0000

Somebody sent me this link which was helpfully uploaded to youtube by a loyal fan and is mercifully less distorted than the typical youtube upload. I always loved this song and am glad General Hospital is using it. Rie explained the lyrics to me once-upon-a-time but I still only have a vague idea of what she is singing about. But it doesn’t matter because the feeling of song is so thorough that I just ride on the vibe. At least, you know, until I want to get happy again. Then I stop. It really comes down to that familiar youtube distortion…

Orpheum Theater Los Angeles

steve — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:17:26 +0000

“Orpheum Theme” is part of a score I wrote for director Jeffrey Hornaday for a short film he shot in, around, and featuring the historic Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles. http://www.laorpheum.com/

The music is meant to convey a melancholic sense of the glorious past being ever present, even in Los Angeles, a city not noted for it’s reverence towards days-gone-by… And there is a lot of the past, as well as some present and future too, if you know what I’m sayin’, since the early days at the Orpheum were all about vaudeville followed by Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington into Tony Bennett into the Everly Brothers into Alanis Morrissette, the Mars Volta, and the Fab Faux. Oh – and American Idol.

“Aigan” Remix by Shinnosuke & Soul’d Out

steve — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:16:29 +0000

This was on the first Meyou CD released in 2002 on RNC Japan, LTD. (Catalog YRCT – 21004)

Never mind that oddly placed apostrophe in the title. This guy Shinnosuke – aka “Trackmaster”, did a fantastic remix of Aigan and I am unashamed to admit that his remix kicks azz all over my original version. Soul’d Out are consistently one of the bigger sellers on Sony Japan and I would love for them to remix everything I write.