Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. This post is just to let you know I’ve released an EP containing 6 new songs. I call it: Head Space.
Your continued support means the world to me 🙂 Please consider buying the MP3 version from Bandcamp (at 10USD or more):
Or you can stream it on your favorite platform:
Hello everyone! I’m happy to be writing a new blog post for the first time in a while. I was busy making this track and some others for a new album I call “Cruelty Free”
This track started out with the drum beat. Some of you might recognize the OP-1 synthesizer, from Teenage Engineering. I’ve used the stock drum sound called “Maple” (If I remember right).
Well, funny story: There was a blackout a while back where I live. I don’t have a cell phone and during blackouts, there is absolutely nothing to do. So, I pulled out my OP-1 (Because it runs on batteries) and worked out this drum beat out of pure boredom. The next day I thought wow, that’s not bad! So I recorded that, onto my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)
The Bass line is what Bob Ross would call a “Happy accident” in that it was not what I intended but just sorta happened. It’s played with a Keyboard controller through some Bass guitar VST on my computer. I had an idea in mind, but it just wasn’t working. Then I started moving the MIDI notes around with my mouse, pretty randomly I must say, played it back and thought, wow, I don’t know what I did, but I’m saving this, and won’t touch it ever again. Everything else came after that.
Visit my Spotify or Apple Music page for more music 🙂
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:
I’ve been (seriously) making music for about 3 years now. Along the way, I’ve uploaded tracks to BandCamp, Spotify, iTunes and Soundlcoud. I’ve made countless Youtube videos, tweeted about my music and tried to promote myself via Instagram and Facebook.
I haven’t made much in terms of money, yet. Some sales here and there, some Stream revenue now and then, but nothing major, or at least not profitable.
What I do have however are Statistics. Loads of them. Number of likes, shares, downloads, comments, listen or watch time average, subscribers, followers, re-tweets and everything else in between.
I haven’t made a full-proof, scientific analysis of all these numbers, but, intuitively, out of the 30 some tracks I’ve put out there, one, in particular, seems to stand out.
“Egyptian Wedding” is an Electronic Rock track, with a Middle Eastern inspired drum beat. It’s instrumental, but has enough melodic elements to catch the attention of listeners. At least, according to my stats.
I hope to bring more attention to it, by writing this post, maybe help it makes it’s way into your ipod or iphone, who knows. In any case, if you like it, you might also appreciate the “Best Of” album I put out, featuring this track and others, that all, have shown signs of movement, by topping my own personal statistics charts.
I’m adding songs with a little bit of singing to my Soundcloud profile these days, because I’ve got this idea in my head that people would rather listen to that than instrumental music.
This one’s pretty simple, the whole lyrics are: “Hey Brother, you’re doing it on your own” repeated, looped and cut.
At first, the lyrics came out different, it was “Hey Mother, I’m doing it on my own” but I changed it because I didn’t want people to think I had “Mommy Issues” (Which I do, but I’m working on that, don’t worry) Now I know what you are thinking, you’re thinking: “You shouldn’t be worried about what people think” and you’d be right, except, I am worried (I’m working on that also, don’t fret)
I have no idea what style of music this is. I want to say Trip Hop? I’m not sure. All I can tell you, is that it was made with an instrument called: The Korg Electribe Sampler. I made a video a while back, using the same song structure and lyrics and it got liked a lot, if ever you are interested to see:
This is a music video for my latest instrumental song “Time Opera”. It offers a glimpse into how music is made, using a computer. Only the base beat is an actual instrument (The OP-1 synthesizer, from the Swedish company, Teenage Engineering) everything else is virtual.
Hello! I’m Roxton Fone. Before I started making music full time, I worked in tech. I remember how helpful it was to have a good instrumental playlist (Or a stack of CDs) on hand to listen to while coding or doing work that requires a lot of concentration. And so I used that experience to make this Science themed music album, I called: “Background Radiation”. Its clearly Electronic music, but NOT dance music. It’s rooted in Rock, Blues and Progressive-Rock music.
Track list:
0:00 Cosmic Rays
4:21 String Theory
10:15 Red Shift
14:46 Background Radiation
19:50 James Clerk Maxwell
23:51 Sun Spots
You can find it on Spotify too:
For example, when I was watching Davis Guggenheim‘s documentary it might get loud I heard Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin, Guitar) talking about one of his early influences as he put on a great track (IMO) by Link Wray, called “Rumble”:
Well, that was the first time I heard it, and I loved it immediately, so on it came into my regular rotation, like any other recent release.
Another example that happened years ago, was when I discovered the song “Born on The Bayou” from Creedence Clearwater Revival. I was watching Jean Claude Van Dam’s 1993 movie Hard Tagret when the song came on, during (If I remember correctly) a motorcycle chase scene. (Someone made a tribute video on Youtube)
To be honest, what immediately drew me to that song was the “Vibrato” (Or is is tremolo? I always mix those two up) effect on the guitar riff, but that’s a whole other post.
I became a die hard fan of CCR after I started researching their music a little bit more.
There are a lot of different ways to discover good music, no matter how old it is. You don’t have to (only) wait for your favorite band’s next album, or listen to the coolest radio station, or read the most current music blog. The world is full of (old) music you never heard of, look back sometimes, you’ll make new discoveries.
I made this! I’m not very good in evaluating what genre this or that song is. I just know what sounds good to me or not. When I submit a track to journalists (Music blog editors) through Submithub I have to carefully choose the blogs according to the genre that they prefer. That has been a problem for me ever since I started. So, I’m asking for your help on this one. Does this one fit any category you’re familiar with? Let me know in the comment section.
Roxton Fone 