News

Website Music

Michael Fisher — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:46:18 +0000

I am putting together some music for a friend's website, where he's promoting his IT Consultancy services. I have been asked for 1-to-2 minute backing tracks for the three different thrusts of his business: Strategic, Tactical and Operational. I've identified pieces that I will adapt for this:

Strategic will get a stripped-down version of Jacuzzi (with the percussion and a lot of the production bells & whistles removed.) Thoughtful acoustic feel.
Tactical will get an edit of The Last Reel. Mixed acoustic & electric textures, more active.
Operational will get an edit of Cliffhanger. Controlled chaos.

More specific links will be provided as this takes shape.

New mix of an old song: Absolution

Michael Fisher — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:40:10 +0000

This piece came to me in 2004. I created it entirely in Reason, and set it aside thinking it needed guitars added. This month I gave this piece a listen and realized it was complete in its current form, and so made a couple of final tweaks and generated this remastered version.

I give you Absolution.

Repertoire

Michael Fisher — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:27:18 +0000

There are some very fun and interesting songs that have been added to the Paso Robles set list, ranging from Peter Gabriel "Burn You Up, Burn You Down" to Reverend Horton Heat "Baby I'm Drunk." We are becoming a formiadable operation.

Red-hearsals

Michael Fisher — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:22:14 +0000

Mark and I have been working on material for the next Paso Robles performances, and today things came into excellent focus for the King Crimson tune "Red." Right now it's just bass and guitar - we will bring a drummer up to speed - but it's extremely exciting material to be playing. My bass and amp were built for this - the bottom end is dark, swaggering and very dangerous.

New song idea: Beltway

Michael Fisher — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:00:05 +0000

This is a demo I completed in October 2011. The idea showed up on bass guitar, and this recording has no guitars - 2 bass parts, sequenced drums and sequenced organ. Retro fun...here's Beltway.

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Michael Fisher — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 02:53:36 +0000

I have been actively focusing on my emerging role as a bass player, working in a couple of different collaborations. One is with guitarist Bill Forth and drummer Eddy Donato, where we're working with edgy prog-funk originals. The other is assembling and learning a setlist with guitarist Mark Perry, based more in covers of blues and rock from the '70s.

I love being the Bass Player, even though I've spent 4/5 of my life as a guitarist. Curious but really fun.

New Bass Amp

Michael Fisher — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:01:51 +0000

This week I took delivery on a new bass amplifier. I picked up the Behringer Ultrabass BXL3000 300W 1x15" Bass Combo amp, and I am delighted with it. The amp in combination with my Ibanez SR505 5-string bass sounds *amazing*...I have barely scratched the surface with this amp and the sound of my playing is already transformed. And it's loud enough that I can hold my own in any band rehearsal or small club venue. And with the ability to take a line-level signal out of the amp, I can use this to shape my bass sound for recording purposes as well.

Update to 48 Hour Film Project

Michael Fisher — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:42:10 +0000

I composed, recorded, produced and submitted the song for this project, calling it "Cliffhanger." It's included in its entirety (as well as carved into sections) in the 6:20 film called "Wishlist" what was completed and submitted for the Greensboro 48HR competition.

The guitars and bass were played live. Organ parts were played and captured as sequenced MIDI data. The rest of the sounds (drums, congas, flute and wah-wah) are all loops and samples. It's bouncy and catchy, but with some urban grit underneath...and the whole thing was realized and completed in about 24 hours.

Here's Cliffhanger.

48 Hour Film Project

Michael Fisher — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:52:30 +0000

I am gearing up to participate in the 48 Hour Film Project, a competition in which teams of aspiring filmmakers are given a three components - a prop, a character name, a line of dialogue, a genre - and then have 48 hours to write, film and edit a short film. THis weekend there are 48 Hour FIlm competitions being held in Austin, Fargo, Greensboro, Philadelphia and Seattle.

I am signed up to provide music for one of the teams in Greensboro, and starting this evening I will be eagerly watching my email awaiting information about the genre of this film. early Saturday I will get a script. Then I start scrambling to assemble underlying music...lots of MP3s flying back and forth, lots of changes and trims and revisions, and hopefully when it's all done a fine short feature film propelled by my music.

This will be fun!

New Song: Pennyroyal

Michael Fisher — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:35:08 +0000

This is the piece I mentioned on June 8. It first emerged on guitar in about 1984 and has been lingering around ever since. Smooth jazz, maybe? Not my usual genre of work, but I like it anyway. Here is Pennyroyal.