Stormcellar Band Home Page

Sooooo...I came across an idea in the wild, brought it into the greenhouse to see what would happen.

Taken me a while before I opted to share it but this is the sample mix i have sent out today to the boys, so yes that's right, you get it too.

I figured it might be another side project piece, this time 'The Michael James Band'. Why? Cos Mr Wizard doesn't always share my penchant for torch songs LOLOL. I love'em.

Little did I realise that the boys would be into it. Paul S. really produced some excellent guitar ideas and synth parts. Theo wants to add drums, and to my great surprise Paul R loves it. Go figure.

I am aiming to release this as a single, the first for The Michael James Band, my new vehicle for songs Mr Wizard thinks are too...umm....well....not macho. Paul's idea of a singer is Paul Rodgers from Free, making it amusing that he has chosen to partner with me.

Paul Rodgers I ain't :)

Friend of the band and ginormous brain Dion W. explained to me it's not my occasional foray into 'feminine' sounds that bug Paul, but instead, the idea of vulnerability. I guess I have the advantage of being comfortable with vulnerability. Over the years various folks have commented that I don't sing in a way they expect. Heh. Le Oops.

The benefit of having our production in house, and our obscurity, is the opportunity follow the ideas as they come to you. I have ventured into Norwegian eurosynthwave with our mate Tobias in Skypta Vind, 'Liquidator' from STURMKELLER has given us an outlet for a foray into heavier sounds (one I hope to explore further) , so why not an outlet for some...um....whatever this is.

Paul S. shares my interest in Synth, Theo's into it and and even Mr Wizard thinks there's something to it.

What a great time to be making music. What rules are there to follow?

I expect we'll add more stuff to it but I have done as much to it as I can until i get drums done, which might be a few weeks yet. It's possible it might get another section and i'd be up for recording the vox again in the studio.

Lyrics:

By myself without you

As I walk the halls of memory

Where the chiseled past is stone

And the weight upon my shoulders

Pressing me into unknown

I don’t want the pain to tell me

That I need the things I’m shown

All these hand me down emotions

That I still don’t want to know

But I don’t feel the way you feel it

I don’t feel the falling down

I don’t feel the way it used to

And I can’t say it out loud

All the memories now are burning

Leaving me to stop the hurting

Am I by myself without you

You can never leave me now

Don’t wanna hear about it

When it feels like it’s forever

I know only here and now

haul your ship across the ranges

til you learn to put it down

when you wrap your arms around me

I wish I could feel them now

all the times that you are with me

and I’m still alone somehow

but I don’t feel the way you feel it

I don’t feel the falling down

I don’t feel the way you used to

And I can’t say it out loud

To know the lessons aren’t the learning

And the pain is not the hurting

When I’m by myself without you

I can never leave you now

Don’t wanna hear about it

Support us on Patreon to hear the inside production mixes for the current Stormcellar album and side projects!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/by-myself-you-115784557?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

It has been a time let me tell ya. Paul S. dinged himself, we've had all sorts of ups and downs and I now have done several hundred mixes of Psych Surfer.

So close. So very close.

Meanwhile, I still have a lot on the desk waiting for attention...

Gonna have to hustle to get something out in the 12 month time frame.

Also: where's the bloody instrumental album?? All i gotta do is rename some files...(sigh).

Videos: Want'em. haven't got'em done.

Screenplay: Paul's keen. I still reckon it's a ways off yet.

Touring? mini tour in Dec.

Local shows? just had to cancel one due to injury. bugger.

Plenty to do... We could do with a little good fortune at present :)

Sad to say we're cancelling the gig on Friday at our spiritual home, the townie, after Paul S. dislocated his shoulder. Sending big healing vibes to Paul, hope to be back on deck shortly.

First artists announced for 7th Annual Country Roots and Blues ftesival in Cooma! Liva and local is the theme this year! Hosted by returning champions, your friends in the stormcellar.

So you are really now seeing the teeny a little to the left, a little to the right stuff.

This song might be about to take a massive haircut. I can't be certain. As producer I kinda gotta make a call on when theyre trying to make a song do something it cannot.

Paul wants a middle 8, theo wants half the chorus removed. I think the straight forward nature of it is hypnotic, Theo thinks it's boring.

I have tried 3 'shortening edits' taking it down from 4:45 to 3:15/3:45 respectively.

I like it as it stands, but...unless there's some key reason, taking input and adjusting it is why this is a 'band' not a solo act.

My thoughts are that it shares the repetition of 'hate to see you go', the Little Walter number we have done for years. Cutting the choruses in half/ dropping the number of allrights just feels out of symmetry to me. Whereas to Theo it's just too samey for too long.

Adding a middle eight? Cutting choruses? Borrowing from one of Mr Wizards comments from early in our recording career, write a new song.

Sometimes it just has to be how it is. 'Hard rock' shares the same format. It's simple, it's danceable.

Theo says 'if you want it on commercial radio'...i could offer up american pie as a counter or I could point out that terrestrial commercial radio seems to be a 20th century artefact or I could...

Keep editing and sending out variants.

Welcome to the stormcellar folks, this is how we make the songs sound the way they do. Some of the work is very process oriented and you gotta have a certain vibe to keep repeating it until you get it right. For me it's like carving or painting. It's stages until it's 'just right'

We aint there yet. Expect more variants/mixes to come.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/psch-surfer-kick-114538498?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link