Mastering the Odessey Odyssey…

this evening i am finally going to have my odessey odyssey mastered for proper release!

a song by me. what do you think? a little zombies-esque?

I have just found out that Chris White from the Zombies heard my version of Odessey and Oracle and said, “Very impressed - except that he sings in tune on ‘Butcher’s Tale’!” 

the artwork is coming along…

ok. i’m done. that was fun. a lot of work, but fun.

did i achieve what i wanted to achieve? kinda. i still cant play the piano as well as i’d like to, but i am much better than i was. i have definitely honed my recording techniques and learnt a hell of a lot. all in all i’m really happy with the outcome of this project.

now what…??

well, i can now concentrate a bit more on writing and recording my own music. if you’re interested in hearing that, you can head over to my bandcamp page and my facebook page. you can also stream my odessey from start to finish there.

there is also a chance that my odessey with see a release on vinyl. if you would be interested in getting yourself a copy of that, please join my mailing list here or email me at benpaulmason@gmail.com and i’ll let you know when that happens.

thanks for all of your encouragement and thanks for listening!

ben

song # 11. care of cell 44.

here it is… finally!! the first song from the album, and the last song of my project.

amazingly, when care of cell 44 was released as the leading single from the album, no one seemed to care. now days, it’s probably most people’s favourite song from odessey and oracle and has been covered by elliott smith, of montreal, matthew sweet, and now me! it’s certainly been the song that people have been asking me about the most!

i recorded my version of care of cell 44 in portland, oregon, with my good friend dave depper, who inspired this project in the first place. we tracked the piano, the bass and all of the vocals in his house where he also recorded his RAM project. i then came back to melbourne, australia where i did the drums, mellotron and mixed the song.

i had started teaching myself this song on piano back in november when i started this project. i wanted to make sure it was going to be my best performance. i was pretty sure i’d nailed it. when i got to dave’s house and played it to him, he showed me that i had actually been playing some of the chords wrong. there was no way i was going to be able to relearn it on the fly, so i did the best i could. all in all, i’m pretty happy with it. i could keep mixing it forever, but i think i’ll just let go and say that it’s finished.

song # 11. hung up on a dream.

it’s been a while between songs. sorry about that. you see, i went on holiday to portland, oregon. i have a bunch of friends there, including dave depper, who inspired this project with his own RAM project. 

i had this track almost finished just before i left, and had every intention to finish it before i left, but i ran out of time. not to worry. i’m glad i didn’t rush it. i always knew it was going to be the trickiest song on the album, and it certainly was! the piano part was challenging, the super high backing vocals towards the end were hard work, and mixing the whole song was a lot of work. but i’m pretty happy with the outcome. it was another one of those songs where it seems like there is more going on than there actually is. i think that’s a testament to some incredible arranging and production.

while i was in portland, dave and i worked on the very last song, care of cell 44. i know a lot of you have been hanging out for this one. it’s not far away, promise…