lekowala!

This song is about flying free and igniting your imagination (or the other way around). I felt the song in my mind so it was easy to write it. Its raw though and needs the fine engineering touches of Ivan

Read more at the band’s page.

There is something fascinating about whales and dolphins. I remember giving a lecture in school on Lipids (an ‘A’ level biology subtopic) and as a digression, I told the class a story about Whaling in Nantucket in the 18th century. Its somewhat related to lipids as the whaling industry was mainly based on the lipid found in the spermaceti of the sperm whale. A large whale could provide up to 3 tons of that valuable wax which was odorless and non-oily to the touch.

Anyway, I played some sound clips of whales singing (yes, they do sing and in different dialects too, depending on which pod they belong to) and after that auditory experience, the students (about 300) clapped and cheered. There must be something mesmerizing about whales in our human psyche. I was glad to know that most students displayed a sense of biophilia, sensu E.O. Wilson.

Scientifically, Cetaceans are animals belonging to the Order Cetacea, which, include whales, dolphins and porpoises.

Actually the reason why I am posting here is because I came across this article about whaling in Japan and its just inexplicable that whaling still occurs. Hey, I understand if the Iñupiat Eskimos do it to survive (see my post on a book I read about Eskimo whaling) but to state scientific reasons for whaling is entirely beyond reasonable acceptance. Its like killing cats randomly and saying we need data.

Note this statement - “Over a six-month period, it will kill 1,000 whales as part of what it says is a scientific research programme.”

I am no whale fanatic but they are just lovely creatures. I have had nice dreams about dolphins and whales too and those were deep and meaningful ones for me. They at least represent the wonders that nature has produced. And at most, are inspiring to many people. Scientifically, the are really peculiar and interesting ends of the evolutionary tree. See link below about the recent fossil discovery that shed new light on the evolutionary research to trace which extinct land-dwelling mammals were the probable ancestors of Cetaceans

Ivan’s Dolphins Galaxia and Into the Deep feature some whale and dolphin sounds. They are so enchanting and give a sensitive dimension to the music.

My point is “Stop Whaling!”

“genetic mix…”

finally got a new electric guitar about a month ago, its a modest one with one a single double-humbucker.   But its an ibanez with a nice feel.  The fret board is pretty smooth and nice to the touch.  Action is pretty low so that means the fingers don’t feel raw after playing for long stretches.

Its suppose to be composed for some science open house for my colleague to present slides with.  But because I was in such a relax mode to compose it since it wasn’t suppose to be in the album, I think there were some creative juices that flowed into the song.  I decided to work on it abit more after I felt I had used too many GB loops in the song.  So I changed the second part so that there was a chord change!  The first version didn’t have one cos it was suppose to be like some short jingle for powerpoint slides.

Spent the better part of 1am to 3am to add in some stuttering guitar leads but overall I am quite happy with this.  Its quite a feat to play the guitar half-asleep.  I remember going into the room and getting ready for bed at 1.30 and then waking up to add more guitar parts…. until 3 am.  then Josh wakes up 5 am tearful and says he can’t fall asleep so we moved to the couch outside and camped out….  eventually he got some sleep but woke up bug-eyed..

So this song is dedicated to teeming life in the sea and the world, the Burmese and also to the poor japanese man who died in Burma.

Thanks to Ivan for tips on layering the guitar leads and most of the fancy stuff I know on Garageband.   Also thanks to Siva for reacquainting us… viva la Ang Mo Kio Sec.  Several more songs to go before the album is complete.  As expected Ivan’s been prolific and providing a good balance to the album as it shapes up.

“Sea anemone” is dedicated to seashore life and preservation of the coastal environment— also to my wife cos of the late nights I kept with this and the kids for sometimes neglecting them….

Just managed to put the finishing touches on this one. This is a rather technical piece , at least for me cos it the focus was on the melody that is more structured than I can normally handle.. and it was planned to repeat quite a bit. Hopefully it sticks like a splinter into the listeners head. Also, the lead guitars are at the forefront- a little intimidating since I am so used to being in the rhythm part of the band… Made the improvements from my other songs based on comments from Ivan.

For this song, I started with the chords and the beat in Garageband and then started to mess around with a few melodies over the tracks. Its a bit plastic cos it doesn’t have the sit at the void deck or by the beach kind of feel “seashore days“or “starfish” have but its a bit neater and cleaner and something one can tap the feet to.

It took a while to finish this cos there were other things in the way… the usual… have to eat and go out and work and stuff like that. But got things done nocturnally. Didn’t like the way it was so repetitive I finally put in a verse with different chord progression to save it - that really too a bit of time.

Hope to do about 8-10 songs by the end of the year to compile an album called “Seashore days”.

This music is dedicated to the sub-littoral zone where the creatures have provided so much for us, especially a sense of wonder to students young and old.

You can download it here. Remember to think about starfish walking beneath the surf of the ocean as it meets the land as you listen to it..

Starfish

Ivan’s the Rambling Librarian.. he is also my secondary school classmate… I had lost all contact with him until Siva inadvertently reunited us, since Siva knows a LOT of people. I remember he score lots of points with the ART teacher Chikgu Rahim because he could do some real nice water colour paintings while we were trying our best to use stencils to draw “No Smoking” and trying not to paint outside the lines… we were art morons in his presence.

I knew he was doing stuff on Garageband, so when I got hold of a neat Macbook recently, I dabbled with GB a little and got hooked. Saving up to buy my new axe… cos someone borrowed my Ibanez and never returned it and I can’t remember who. 24 frets some more… sheessh. Well, I guess that’s that…Anyway, the neck was warped beyond tune and the action was way to high so fretting was a bit painful on the fingers. It was also getting old and giving me random electric shocks..

So I did a few things with Garageband and jammed out an acoustic melody with some strumming here and there with the good old ovation one sunday morning and decided to send it to Ivan. I was quite impressed by how he added the lead… I don’t know what effects he has but the harmonics at the later part of the solo just agreed with me. The mashup was clearly a 1+1=3 kind of situation.

He gave it a neat title too… read more on his part here

Here’s the podcast

1st podcast - get it here

This is raw, done on Garageband with a Macbook, Ivan’s planning to do a mash-up with some lead guitar.