I review my own song: “Ears On You” [Funk Rock]

I made this a few years back, but I only released it recently.  I get a sense that this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a more mainstream rock form in that it has a chorus, verses, a solo and even a pre-chorus, which is something I’ve always liked in other musician’s songs, but had difficulty reproducing in my own music.  The pre-chorus is the sort of build up,  a bridge if you will, making the transition between the verse and until the chorus.

I would call this style: Funk Rock.  Primarily because of two elements: The drum beat and the funky wah guitar.  You may be reminded of Red Hot Chili Peppers or Jane’s addiction (But that could also be just in my mind).  I’ve also heard from a fan that it has an 80s vibe, due in part by the synthesizer solo in the middle I would guess.

I was inspired to make this (and this is supported by the lyrics) by the sampling trend in the 90s.  Artists like Beck took drum breaks from little known songs, and layered their own music on top (That is very true of his song “looser”).  A lot of the time the end result was danceable, funky, heavy.  When I started listening to these, I became transfixed.  Maybe it’s because my primary instrument is the drums, in any case those break beats really spoke to me.  In this song I don’t use samples (Because copyrights) but I try to replicate the funky, heavy beat of those days.

I’m a solo artist, and so I write and play all the instruments your hear.  I also produce everything myself, and this includes mixing and mastering.

The vocals are run through an instrument called a Leslie amp, which is a mechanical revolving speaker essentially.  It gives the vocals a vibrating feel.  But don’t get too excited, Leslie amplifiers can get pretty expensive, so I only have the software version: a plugin which imitates the real thing.

The song is part of an 8 song album called “Cross Talk” released in January of  2019.

“Cross Talk” Album on:

Bandcamp

Spotify

itunes