BLACK FLAMES

19th Nov

The Road Is Long…

…”with many a winding turn” which coincidently has the exact same melody as “Nothing Without You”! That’s right! I’m sampling the strings from “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” and not just The Hollies version either, I’m sampling FOUR different versions for the strings; The Hollies version (mainly) plus covers by Neil Diamond, Kelly Gordon and Bobby Scott, who was one of the co-writers of the song. All four versions are from 1969 and 1970. The song has similar chords to my song and the Hollies version is in the same key. The strings from the Hollies middle 8 are going to be the instrumental break on my song. This is the only section I’ve done so far, here is a rough version of it:

Hopefully I can get the whole thing sounding like this. The song needs a big epic sound in order to work properly so hopefully some 60’s Hollies magic will rub off on it! I’ve sorted the vocals out, some pitch and phrasing issues mainly but most of the vocal is the same as before. This is the new vocal version I’m putting the strings on:

10th Nov

MOBY GRAPE!

I’ve been busy remixing Nothing Without You in order to fix the vocals. I had to separate the original demo track to isolate the vocal in order to get it all in tune and lost a bit of sound quality in the process but it sounds a lot better with the vocals fixed. I’m contemplating putting strings on it to fill out the sound and lift it up a bit but it will be extremely difficult. I want to get the song sounding better before finishing the video.

Moby Grape! This is a cover version from a band practice tape which I’ve also mixed. The sound quality isn’t very good but I always wanted to upload it, it was our one and only cover version. I separated the tracks and got the best sound I could. It was recorded on one of those old cassette players but this is what we sounded like live and it features our bass player Tom. The song “I Am Not Willing” is from their “69” (1969) album.

I AM NOT WILLING

1st Nov

SUMMERTIME VOCAL UPDATE

I did a new mix of Late In The Summertime to get the vocals to blend in a bit better. I added some reverb, etc to the vocal, the music is the same as before. I’ve put this new version on my Rivers page and updated it on the blog post. I’ve kept the original acoustic version on the Rivers page, it has a dreamy quality to it that I like. The new version sounds like a completely different song. So I’ve kept both.

LATE IN THE SUMMERTIME (NEW VOCAL MIX)

30th Sept

Black Flames

I thought I’d upload this song to my channels seeing as I’ll probably never finish it.

This song came to me in a dream! I woke up and still had the main melody and title in my head. In the dream the song sounded incredible like a classic Isaac Hayes track with the beat, orchestral strings, backing singers and everything, a huge sound. I sampled the drums from Walk On By and recorded it quickly before I forgot it.

This is the 2nd version where I tried adding some strings from the Chinatown soundtrack:

This is the original without the samples:

The dream itself was set in a restaurant night club like the one in Goodfellas in the 70’s with couples dining at tables with a small stage for cabaret type performers at the front. I was sat out of view at the side of the stage behind the curtain with some others when suddenly the song started and a guy got up from our table unannounced and walked to the stage and started singing the song. He was a soul singer (Marvin Gaye type) with a deeper voice like Isaac, he was doing his sexy moves while singing then he went off the stage to the ladies at the tables and started serenading them as part of his stage act, the girls were going wild, whooping and cheering him on. The song went on for 8 or 9 minutes before he sat back down at our table as if nothing had happened. That’s when I woke up.

Copacabana, Goodfellas

18th Sept

The Things I Say

The Things I Say is edited to Detour which is a low budget film noir directed by Edgar G. Ulmer from 1945 and is regarded as a classic of the genre. It stars Tom Neal as the doomed protagonist and Ann Savage as a moody femme fatale. I focused on the car journey with the 2 leads for the music video.

The Things I Say set to Detour (1945)

I’m using a weird avant-garde horror film called Dementia (Aka: Daughter Of Horror) for the Break It Down video which has unusual lyrics about nothingness so needs something off beat to go with it. I’ve also edited the openings of both Nothing Without You and Late In The Summertime videos.

Dementia is from 1955, written, directed and edited by John Parker with a story taken from a dream that the lead actress had. It’s a real oddity with no dialogue but with some stunning surreal imagery and film noir cinematography. It’s regarded as the “strangest film ever offered for theatrical release” and fell into the public domain.

Dementia / Break It Down

16th Aug

Late In The Summertime

I’ve done a Blog Post for the new version of Late In The Summertime with details and some different versions / instrumentals. It took me 7 weeks to complete the track which was edited beat by beat, note by note using samples from Just Once In My Life by The Righteous Brothers and produced by Phil Spector.

Here’s the new version:

Late In The Summertime (feat. Wrecking Crew)

Instrumental Version

29th July

Summertime Update

I’m editing this together beat by beat, note by note like a big sonic jigsaw puzzle! Lot’s of speeding up and pitch changing to get it all to fit together. I’ve been at it solidly for 2 and half weeks now and I’ve only just finished a rough drum track for it. I’m editing the strings separately so haven’t heard it all together yet.

The acoustic guitar was heavily edited to get it in time with the click track so that it all flows properly. I’ve added an extra minute to give it a climactic ending with all the instruments coming together plus I’ve tidied up the vocal track. I’ve added a vibraphone sample from Come Go With Me which is a Northern Soul track by Gloria Jones.

Whether I can re-produce the actual Wall of Sound production is another matter but it sounds pretty epic anyway. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

26th July

A righteous sUMMERTIME

Been working on something ambitious for the last 2 weeks. I’m sampling The Righteous Brothers track Just Once In My Life to add instrumentation to Late In The Summertime. It’s going from plain old guitar & vocals to full blown Wall of Sound!

Just Once In My Life was the follow up single to the classic You’ve lost That Loving Feeling in 1965. It was written by Goffin & King and produced by Phil Spector at the peak of his powers. The musicians are The Wrecking Crew who I’ve sampled before for Always Get By but this time it’s a much bigger sound with strings and backing singers!

I’m sampling the middle eight section mainly which has the same chords as my song and I’m using the drums from the verses. The sound quality won’t be great because it’s impossible separate all the tracks but I’ve got the basic instruments plus tiny snippets of strings and backing vocals to work with.

This’ll take me ages to complete but hopefully it’ll be finished sometime late…

11th July

Late In The Summertime / Carnival Of Souls

I’m doing a video for Late in the Summertime set to the film Carnival of Souls (1962). There’s some dispute over it’s public domain status but the version I’m editing from was uploaded by Cult Cinema Classics and has over a half a million views so I’m presuming there’s no copywrite strike. Not that it’ll make much difference in my case!

Carnival of Souls is a low budget cult film with an eerie gothic atmosphere and a Twilight Zone-like plotline starring Candace Hilligoss and Directed by Herk Harvey.

I was stuck for options for this music video with it being an acoustic track so it won’t be very exciting. I’m aiming for something more dreamy instead which might fit with the lyrics. I’ve done a short intro to the song taken from Gene Moore’s soundtrack which I might add some dialogue too.

The title card took me a day and a half to do on paint. I can’t add the ripple effect from the movie unfortunately with the software I’m using, so it’ll have to be still.

7th July

Re-Edited Music Videos

Here are my newly re-edited music videos uploaded in HD. Both have short intros from the films and are much better than the previous versions. I’ll put them on my other channels.

Tender Me set to The Sadist (1963)

Always Get By set to The Green Promise (1949)

5th July

Tender Me / The Sadist Re-Edit

I’ve re-edited the middle section and done a better intro for the Tender Me video, the rest is the same with a few tweaks. The original was edited too ‘on the beat’ so I’ve loosened it up a bit and now it flows much better.

It’s edited to The Sadist which is a great little B-movie from 1963 with some top notch Directing and Cinematography and a wild performance by Arch Hall Jr. in the title role. It’s based on the Starkweather killing spree case from the 50’s which also inspired the films Badlands (1973) and Natural Born Killers (1994).

The music video is like a mini crime/action flick! I’ve also completed the re-edit of the Always Get By music video. I’ll upload them both soon in HD.

1st July

The Always Get By edit

This is the crazy editing I did for an acoustic track to turn it into a fully orchestrated song with drums, bass, piano and strings. All achieved with NO instruments!

It took me 2 MONTHS.

guitar and vocals (original version)

I isolated the vocal track, played piano and 2nd bassline on an online keyboard and sampled the drums and bass from Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell. The violin and cello were downloaded as 2 second samples so I had to stretch them out so they lasted longer.

violin and cello

finished version

30th June

HD MUSIC VIDEOS

I’ve re-uploaded my music videos to Youtube in 1080p HD with the best sound and picture quality. They’re on my Rivers page and on my Rumble and Brighteon channels. There’s some copywrite issues on Youtube with Dream On, Right Now and On You but I’ve no idea why as all the movies I use for the music videos are in the public domain and have no copywrite, but I think they’re still viewable.

ALWAYS GET BY – video RE-EDIT

I’ve also re-edited the Always Get By music video using the same source material; The Green Promise which stars Natalie Wood dressed as a white rabbit. This one’s much better than the original and has intro at the start to give it some context. I’ll upload this in HD soon. I also want to do some tweaks to the Tender Me video before re-uploading that in HD. I’m well along into the Nothing Without You video and got half way through The Things I Say so I will get back to those after Tender Me is sorted.

29th June

music videos part 3

I’ve Archived the previous ‘Latest News’ as The Rivers Music Videos Part 3. There’s videos for Right Now, Freeloader and Don’t Go After Me plus my trailer for The Game. Click below for all my archived work.

Nothing Without You / Night Tide

I’m editing a music video for the track Nothing Without You using the film Night Tide from 1961 which features a young Dennis Hopper in his first starring role. It’s a weird little cult film set in a fair ground next to the ocean and has some lovely imagery in it which goes well with the song. The track is an epic break-up / love song and I’m trying to get the lyrics to work thematically with the images. I’ve done a long intro scene for this so it could top the 9 minute mark by the time it’s finished!