Announcement
- Working on new songs in the studio. :)
My blog
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Video's up from the dirt star rock show at Backstage
Tuesday, Apr 21, 2009 12:12AM / Standard Entry
Back from Hong Kong, and as always had a great time.This time was in town for my show at Backstage, a great venue in Central. Wow, what an awesome place! Yoyo and Abe were super, and manage an incredible venue for live music!I was playing this time with Liang Ying, a girl from Shenzhen I've been recording. And she definitely surprised a lot of people with her new sound, a mix of electronic beats, samples, scratch and acoustic guitar.
She's a great guitarist on her own, and she rocks an impressive solo acoustic set. She's really trying to push her music to another level right now, and the results are starting to show. And Liang Ying gave a stellar performance.
Liang Ying rocks a mean guitarAnd then it was my turn. Well, my band's turn actually. So awesome to have my full band rolling again! I've been playing solo for a while, so it felt really good to have a full band.For this show Yenhui flew in from Taipei to play on bass. William Money cut and scratched it up on the turntable. And Philip the magician set the tone with his solid drumming.And well, there's a video. :) Looking forward to rocking on a stage near you soon.Rock.
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Dirt Star Show at Backstage - April 17
Tuesday, Apr 7, 2009 8:52PM / Standard Entry
Got a Hong Kong show coming up! Can't wait
Playing with Liang Ying, and it should be pretty awesome -- it'll be the first time she'll be playing songs from her new album in Hong Kong.
Really excited about my set too -- I'll be playing with the band for this show --- my long time collaborator, Yenhui and new drummer Greggo are flying in from Taipei to rock on bass and drums. And William Money will be showing off his button pushing techniques with our brand-spanking new custom-made sampler.
I've prepared a set of songs spanning my last two albums, and songs from my upcoming release.
And can't wait to kick off the new series of visuals I've been working on over the last few months. That's a project I've been working on, using footage from CC Creative Commons, Archive.org, and the Prelinger Library.
Hope to see you there :)
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Recording Liang Ying -- In the studio
Saturday, Feb 14, 2009 2:53AM / Standard Entry
Liang Ying
Working in a recording studio can be kind of frustrating -- it's fun to go out with friends, and have fun. But if you want to get an album done, you basically have to sit at the mixer, and mix. Pretty simple, but it's a bummer when everyone else is at the party of the century up the street. I know I'd love to hit up more parties -- the flyers for the Yumla, Underground and Pimpin' parties lately look pretty enticing!
It's all worth it though when you're working on a project that you love. And I'm lucky that way! I've been working with a singer in Shenzhen, named Liang Ying 梁颖. She has a beautiful voice, and writes awesome songs. It's hard for her to get her songs out there for people to hear, because she is based here in Shenzhen and is caught up in the local bar performance scene. That means, lots of cover songs, in bars where people don't really appreciate her music and talent. I've been working with her to change that, and I'm pretty sure you'll agree one day that she has something special.
breakfast on the balcony before hitting the studio
The recording basics
I've been helping Liang Ying to record and arrange her tracks. She has some great song ideas, but no one has ever sat down with her to try and get her ideas recorded.
So a big part of what I'm doing is talking with her about what kind of sound she's trying to get, and making it happen. And its happening.
Liang Ying in the studio
We've been recording in Pro Tools and Ableton Live, two software programs I use in my home studio. I have a relatively quiet space set up, so we can record conveniently. Liang Ying lays down vocals and acoustic guitar to a basic beat. And then, I add in programmed beats, samples and other goodies. It's a lot of fun to see the songs take shape.
the sound studio - dark and groovy
Jimmy Nickles, an incredible bass player in Taichung is collaborating with us, laying down his parts across the sea. And we're managing the entire process using Google Sites, which has a great and easy-to-use system for keeping track of all the songs we're working on. It's perfect for projects like this. We tried out Soundcloud for sharing files, but the basic user only has a limited number of uploads available. So we switched to drop.io. Have you tried out this site? It's awesome! It's a blessing for sharing audio files on projects. I'd love to work with other people on similar projects in the future. Let me know if you're looking for a producer for your next album
Currently we have 10 songs in the works -- and we're down to the final mixdowns. I'm really excited, the songs are brilliant. Looking forward to letting everyone hear them soon!
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Squirrels from Hong Kong - Live tonight @ Geckos
Friday, Jan 16, 2009 2:09PM / Standard Entry
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16 Dirt Star Songs now online
Sunday, Nov 30, 2008 3:54PM / Standard Entry
Dirt Star's Music
Stats
- Dirt Star's sound has been described as a mix of Electro-fied Beetlemania in silver martian space suits, a mix of infectious pop music mixed up in with a taste of street culture. ...
- Occupation: Musician , Director , Music Producer
- Gender: Male
- Total visits: 47,412
