Day 4 - Rage and the Ballad of Max Boost!

Day 4 - That's the story

of the Power-Ups, bro

Songs of the Day

6. Ballad of Max Boost

8. Touch of Rage

Hmm, today it's a little more tough one to explain why these two songs are grouped together. The only thing they have in common besides both being on this album as that they are both very stripped-down and "lo-fi" in terms of production. Ballad of Max Boost has just bluegrass instrumentation (upright bass, banjo, mandolin and acoustic guitar) and essentially no effects on anything other than a bit of reverb and some tape noise for a vintage feel. Touch of Rage is a much heavier song, probably best described as Garage Punk but also has a very minimal level of production, with just one track of guitar, bass and drums, with a little bit of a crazy synthesizer thrown in on one part. So we'll call this the Lo-fi day!

On this Page you'll find:

  • A welcome video

  • Download and streaming links for the songs, including an early stripped-down demo version of Touch of Rage and a "one vocal" version of the Ballad.

  • Annotated Lyrics to both songs

  • A full studio recording music video of Ballad of Max Boost

  • Vlogs about my bluegrass/folk days and the instruments and about my favorite grunge, punk and hard rock music as a teenager

  • Random Max Boost Trivia Tidbit

Track 6: Ballad of Max Boost

Before Max Boost and the Power-Ups Man,

I was backin' folks up in their old time bands

My Bluegrass and Folk Days

The Ballad of Max Boost is a true story, lol. Prior to starting up this solo project, I had primarily been a backing musician for other song writers. There are always jokes about how bass players don't get any of their songs into the band's repertoire, and while that wasn't entirely true for me, I was certainly never the driving force behind any lyrical content for my bands. Once I moved from Columbus, Ohio to Memphis, TN I started working a little bit more as a hired gun, just filling in on upright bass for acoustic bands or accompanying solo singer/songwriters. I do enjoy doing that, but it wasn't fulfilling as a creative artist with something to share.


I always knew I wanted to some day record an album of my own material, though to be honest I don't think I ever expected to fully commit to a solo music project the way I have for Max Boost and the Power-Ups.

Here is a video about some of my thoughts on this subject and how that lead to the creation of this song.

Lyrics: I got some synthesizer and learnt to sing

Lyrics

Before Max Boost and the Power-Ups, Man

I was backing folks up in their old time bands

I always knew there'd come a day

When I'd have my very own songs to play

I'd take what was in my brain and bring it to you

Now I'm doing my own damn thing

I got some synthesizers and learnt to sing

Well I step in to my studio

I hit record and away I go

I take what's in my brain and bring it to life

Well thats the story of the Power-Ups, bro

If you didn't before, well now you know

I got a mixed up, mashed up, gritty ol sound

'cept for times like this when I'm messing around

so come along, lets see what comes out of our brains...

Take what's in my brain and bring it to life...

I can't remember exactly what prompted me to sit down and record this song. I participate in several online music communities, some of which are primarily composed of electronic musicians. I must have been discussing the fact that I play all the bluegrass instruments.

A traditional bluegrass band is composed of 5 instruments: guitar, upright bass, banjo, mandolin and fiddle. I own and play all of these except a fiddle (I own one but CANNOT play it). So I just decided one morning to quickly film myself recording a short bluegrass chord progression on all 4 of my instruments.

I initially had no intention of making this into a full song, I recorded it specifically for sharing a video on social media. I posted the instrumental video along with some text on the screen telling the story about how I used to play in other people's bands.

Some time later I figured I might as well just take the ideas that I had typed into the video and turn them into actual lyrics. So I went back and recorded vocals as a 3 part harmony and that was that!

Studio Recording Music Video of Ballad of Max Boost

Studio Recording Music Video

As mentioned above, I had actually filmed the recording of all of the instruments in this song when I first recorded them. I recorded the vocals much later and didn't think about setting up video to record that process at the time. Usually when I am recording my vocals, I do a bunch of takes and stop and start throughout the song to get everything to sound as perfect as possible. This doesn't always make for the greatest video.

But for this album experience, I wanted to be able to share a video with you that had the vocals, so I went back and filmed myself singing through the song in one take. This version doesn't have any back up vocals or any of the editing that I normally do for my official song releases. So while this is not technically a live performance, since the instruments were recorded separately, this is a good representation of my natural singing voice. Hope you like it!

Max Boost Trivia Tidbit! -

All my old bands and new collaborations.

Old Bands

So like the song says, I was "backing folks up in their bands". Over the years, I've been a bass player (and occassional mandolin/banjo/guitar player) for a bunch of bands. Many of them made records of one kind or another, but none of them ever had much of an online presence. Here is a list of the band names and genre, in chronological order to the best of my memory:

Sprung Out Early (Jam-band Rock, Grateful Dead/Radio Head/Bind Melon Covers)

Wholesale Assault (Heavy Metal, Riff Rock)

The Love Hate Euphoria (Hippy Folk)

Come On Fun (Recording project for several theme parties...)

Spaceship Awesome (Alternative Rock)

Bernadette (Americana Rock)

Old Worlds (Shoegaze/Post Rock)

The Song Birds (Folk/Americana)

Buckles and Boots (Folk/Americana)

El Mustachio Del Diablo (Local Super-band playing Songs about mustaches....)

The Memphis Winslows (Funk, Jam band) - I still play with these guys sometimes

In addition, I have played upright bass to accompany a bunch of singer-songwriters over the years as well, probably too many to list here.

While I don't rule out the possibility of playing more with bands or other song writers in the future, I am currently much more focused on collaborative efforts with other music producers. I released 2 songs in collaboration with the British Electronica producer Jack, aka Err:Rawr (check him out here!) where we remixed each others songs. I released a collaborh and have 4 upcoming collaboration

New Collabs

While I don't rule out the possibility of playing more with bands or other song writers in the future, I am currently much more focused on collaborative efforts with other music producers, all of whom I've met through the awesome community that is the amazing Rachel K. Collier's Patreon supporters.

Here is a list of my recent and upcoming collaborative projects :

Err:RAWR - I released 2 songs in collaboration with the British Electronica producer Jack, aka Err:Rawr (check him out here!) where we remixed each others songs. My hope is this will be an on going collaboration and we will release more things together in the future.

VIZAY - For a "secret santa" collaboration, I was paired with Swedish electronic producer and DJ, Peter Lamperud (aka Vizay). We collaborated on a wild and demonic mash-up of Carol of the Bells and Deck the halls for Christmas 2022. It was the start of a great partnership and Peter actually ended up mastering this album for me!

J-men - London-based Drum and Bass musician Jaimen Lathia (aka J-men) asked me to do guitars and vocals for a cover of Princes of the Universe by Queen, which is also the theme song for the Highlander movie and TV show. It was probably the most difficult thing I've ever tried to sing, but it turned out great! Our cover is set to be released in the March 29, 2024, just after this album experience ends!

Dand3lion - In another monthly challenge, we were tasked with remixing a song by another producer without them knowing. 7 of us ended up remixing the same song, The Whale, by Denver Colorado based Rachel (aka Dand3lion). All of these remixes, including mine, will appear on an EP set for release in April 2024.

Elemi - I worked together with Leah, another Denver CO resident, on a dark and brooding cover version of "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by the Darkness. Official plans for the song's release haven't been made, but it will likely be released in Spring or Summer 2024.

The Activity of Water - One of my lab mates, Michael Hughes, is a super interesting guy, he has lots of great things to say about philosophy, extra-terrestrials, the fundamental physics of water and much more. I asked him if he'd like to collaborate on some songs by doing spoken word vocals and we've got a few ideas started so far.

Track 8: Touch of Rage

My punk rock roots

For another monthly challenge in my producer group, we were asked to make an “angry song”. I probably could have submitted any number of my songs lol, anger is kinda my vibe in a lot of my tunes. But this time I wanted to try something a little more direct. I channeled some of the attitude of the grunge and punk rock type music I listened to in my younger days. I really wanted to scale back my production and capture something that had a more raw, minimal vibe, with out all the extra layers and sounds most of my music tends to have. Here, I just set up a drum beat and recorded one pass through on my bass guitar and a single guitar part, both of which were not entirely planned out prior to hitting record. There are only minimal background vocals and the only other element is a synthesizer that I wanted to sound like an old school theremin (see video below). The idea was to get it sound like a real band had recorded this song in a garage, rather than it just being me, by myself in my studio. So this is my tribute to the grunge era, which is where I found my earliest favorite bands.

***I actually spaced a little bit thinking of bands when recording this video. I never really listened much to Pearl Jam actually lol. Here are some of my favorite bands from the early 90s:

Primus, Tool, The Offspring, Alice and Chains, Nirvana, Megadeth, NOFX, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Silver Chair, Stone Temple Pilots, Blind Melon, Rancid, Soundgarden, L7,

Lyrics: Them rose color glasses well they started to fade...

Lyrics

Chorus:

I feel a little bit angry now every day

Don’t know how long I’ve been feeling this way’

Some times it comes in waves and some times it stays

But I feel a little bit angry now every day

Once upon a time I always got my way

I was living it up, no work and all play

But like Pony said to Johnny nothin’ gold can stay

And them rose colored glasses well they started to fade

Where it all went wrong yeah, I can’t really say

But my debt came due and it was time to pay

Ain’t got nobody but my self to blame

But that don’t mean you ain’t gonna hear me complain

Chorus

Wasn’t ready wasn’t ready wasn’t ready to change

I went a kicking and a screaming and full of rage

But after a time that started to fade

To just little bit a anger now every day

So I keep it locked up and hidden away

Ain’t gonna see no big ol' fiery blaze

Nothing but little bitty smoldering flame

Just flicker of light cutting through the haze

Chorus

Woah yeah there ain’t nothin wrong with a touch of rage

Keep me going everyday, every day

I never really learned how to play the game

And I never gave a fuck about no fortune or fame

But to tell you the truth, I’m a just little bit vain

And I play these songs so you remember my name

I been told that there’s gotta be a better way

But I stay motivated with a touch of rage

Maybe Someday I’ll feel a-okay

But for now I’ll take little anger every day

Chorus

Trading in teen angst for... Middle age rage?

Unlike many of my song, this one actually started out with the vocal hook of the chorus, but originally the lyrics were: “I feel a little bit nauseous every day…” It was a lyric and melody that just popped into my head one morning. Then when the idea for the angry song challenge came up, I swapped it out to “a little bit angry..” and the rest of the lyrics came pretty quickly from there.

The song I suppose it about just coming to grips with the often frustrating monotony of dealing with every day adult responsibilities that you settle into in life with things like a day job, bills, marriage, home ownship, parenthood and all that. The stuff Millennials call "adulting" I suppose.

I did manage to sneak in a literary reference to SE Hinton's "The Outsiders" (Pony Boy/nothing gold can stay) which is itself a literary reference to a Robert Frost poem.

As I often do, the song does reference itself "I play these songs so you remember my name". One of the motivations behind this song is the feeling I sometimes get that I don't have enough time to work on my music stuff, whereas I seemed to have so much more free time just a few years ago before I started this solo music project. But, ironically enough, that sense of frustration actually ended up fueling a lot of my hustle attitude and provided the inspiration for several songs I finished in 2023.

Max Boost Trivia Tidbit -

Oops, I sang a "typo" in my lyrics

So if you read my emails, look through my website or follow me on social media, you may have noticed that I'm not so great at proof-reading. In fact, there is a good chance there are a number of typos on this VERY PAGE lol.

But even for me, this is a new one. The lyrics in the first verse Touch of Rage are about being young and doing whatever you want, and so they are supposed to say "I was living it up, no work and all play".

When I was recording the vocals for this, I kept tripping up and saying this in reverse order as the more common phrase is "all work and no play". Apparently, during the editing of the vocals, I didn't realize that in the take I used for the final version, I sang it wrong. I didn't recognize this error until several weeks after I had released this song, so it was already up on Spotify and everything, and thus too late to correct.

😅 oops 😅

The the mistakenly sung lyric is highlighted in the section above.

Behind the Scenes Studio Look #4:

Creating and evil "Theremin" sound for Touch of Rage

Sound-designing a theremin

A theremin is an electronic instrument that is 'played' without actually being touched. It has two antennae that act as sensors, one controlling the pitch and one controlling the volume. The musician changes the pitch and volume of the emitted tone by moving their hands closer to or further from each antennae. I wanted to approximate this instrument for the bridge section of Touch of Rage. I created a software instrument where I could manipulate the pitch and volume by adjusting knobs in the same way you would do with the antenna of a theremin. I'm not sure that the end result sounds much like a real life theremin lol, but I'm happy with how it turned out. The sound has a wild and chaotic vibe that really fits the song well. Watch the video here to see the details of how I created this virtual instrument.