Sonic by Kenny Schick – Jazz Master Guitars were the inspiration for SONIC!
Inspiration from Sonic Youth and Kenny’s love of guitars and guitar sounds.
Released a new Kenny Schick song called ‘Sonic’. Clocking in at nearly 7 minutes, this song won’t be everyone’s cup o’ tea — not Americana like a lot of my stuff, but rather, noisy and quirky with some ‘sonic’ exploration.
This one was inspired by the purchase of my Jazzmaster guitar—a Squier actually—and specifically, the J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) version that so many rave about in terms of quality/price point. I got it with the intention of having another guitar for more ‘crunchy’ tones, and as such, I began to listen to some famous Jazzmaster players like Nels Cline (Geraldine Fibbers, Wilco), and of course, Sonic Youth guitar slingers Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo.
I went on a Sonic Youth deep dive for about a month, going back to all the albums of theirs I used to love, and ones I hadn’t heard. I got in the mood to write something in that vein, and so I came up with a riff that I recorded into a session entitled ‘Sonic’.
As I built the song, lyrics started to come, and they started to form a story of someone trying to out-drive the demons and chaos of these past several years(we all know what I’m talking about). It’s a ‘road trip’ song in the weirdest of ways…. The whole ‘Sonic’ theme made it’s way into the lyrics as well…The song was going to be called ‘Super Sonic Highway’, but I decided I’d tip my hat to original session name, which was meant to be a temporary name—it just seemed that single word was the thread that tied this whole puppy together.
Hilariously, as I’ve played that guitar more, I ended up string it up with .012 gauge flat wound strings, and often like it for clean single note kind of stuff. Though it still does the grind nicely, if desired.
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$2 Tuesday
The 5 Spot East Nashville
A week of baking in the freakish furnace of California concluded with an abomination of aviation presented by American Airlines in the form of a flight that took almost as long as it would have to drive home. I finally made it back to Nashville Tuesday morning—on time to bid farewell to the East Nashville establishment known as $2 Tuesday at the 5 Spot.
After collapsing on the bed and trying to dream away the nightmare trip home, I woke up in the kind of daze that can only be attained from being awake for 25 hours straight. I happily showered off the coating of covid, monkey pocks, polio, and plague that may have settled on my flesh and hair during the forced extra long airport experience. I put on some fresh clothes and made my way down to the 5 Spot $2 Tuesday, for the very last time.
I was meeting my neighbor and a few friends to have a late birthday celebration, so I decided to bring my small, kind-of-ok camera instead of my big, cumbersome but beautiful beast of a camera. I also promised myself I’d only shoot for a bit of each set instead of get into my normal OCD mindset of capturing ‘the’ shot.
Mostly shooting from down on the floor in front of the first row of tables, one guy asked if I was down on the floor because the shots were better. LOL … I did tell him that it’s actually not the most complimentary angle, but I was just trying to stay out of everybody’s way so as not interrupt the show.
$2 Tuesday has been a pretty big part of my social life—one of the few things that gets me out of my studio to attempt clumsy communication with other fellow humans (and some animals and various hallucinations/ghosts).
Capturing the last of these special nights in some way that was better than a drunken iPhone snap to honor a tradition was my goal. That and tradition’s awesome and humble host, Derek Hoke, as well as his long time band mates Steve Latanation and Mark Robertson, and DJ Tim Hibbs, the superior spinner of vinyl and vibe.
Hopefully, this little gallery of photos catches a decent vibe, albeit a little grainy, of the final $2 Tuesday. Enjoy!
The Evolution of a Song – this year’s workshop will take the participants from demos to masters. Kenny will talk about how a song is built and what to think about as you are creating. These workshops are always popular because they are filled with so much information. There is time to ask questions and importantly Kenny makes them fun.
The 2022 Conference is WCS’s 42nd Anniversary and the longest running continuous music conference of its kind in the country. This event and all others (15+ per month) are run by volunteers and have been for 40 years and on a shoestring budget. You will get a chance to meet fellow musicians and industry leaders volunteering their time to mentor in the full day of seminars, workshops, and mentoring sessions in an intimate setting.
Conference participants are provided the rare opportunity to:
participate in one-on-one consultations with industry leaders at the top of their game,
develop networking opportunities and meet collaborators,
attend songwriting seminars and legal workshops
learn about the latest industry standards
participate in voice coaching, sound quality & stage presence instruction,
review their lyrics with professional songwriters,
present their songs to industry professionals for feedback
perform at showcases.
WCS 2022 CONFERENCE – YOUTH SCHOLARSHIP!
West Coast Songwriters is announcing a Youth Scholarship for it’s upcoming Annual Conference Saturday September 10, 2022. The Youth Scholarship will be for 22yrs and under. Applicants must submit the form LINK below along with a an essay (250 words or less) on what they would hope to get out of attending the Conference and links to their music – website, youtube, soundcloud, etc. The application PDF should be sent to [email protected].
If you are unable to submit the application electronically you may mail a hard copy plus CD to West Coast Songwriters 303 Twin Dolphin Drive, Suite 600, Redwood City, CA 94065. Winners under 18yrs must have signed permission and release form signed by parent or guardian to participate.
The Fixer is a bit different than songs I’ve been making over the last 15 years or so.
The Fixer is a dynamic and well performed piece of songwriting. The arrangement is compelling building up and down. The instrumentals are fantastic. Solid performances and excellent musicianship. I dig the energy and appreciate the musicianship! Music On The Moon
Though some of my songs always tend toward the longer side, not too many stretch to the 7 1/2 minute mark.
I’m a fan of big crunchy guitar sounds, but it’s not a texture I use too often as the main ‘sound’ of a song. I’ve been in bands in the past that have certainly centered around this type of sound.
Fun track. I like the quality of the production, the drums sound punchy and it feels textured and intricate with the variety of percussive elements and well placed guitar melodies.The flow of the chorus is pretty amazing though, instrumentals are well synced and vocals sound more convincing there.Had a great time listening… Bregt C Alpas Records
An Instrumental Germ
This song sprang out of an instrumental germ really. Originally, the whole song was just the minute plus intro as an instrumental piece written for a tv placement. However, I wanted to hear more of the story it was trying to tell. It has a Tool vibe – that crunchy dark sound flavored with world music elements. So I started to build on the piece like the Winchester Mystery house. It had no lyrics at first, but I built it more into a song form and figured it would start to inspire some lyric writing.
I like the tension and dynamics of the guitars a lot, they create movement and keep your record interesting. Drums have a nice groove and cut really well trough your mix. I like the lyrics of the vocal a lot… TC21
Ray Donovan
The idea for the lyrics started to come while we were watching the TV series Ray Donovan: it just struck me how weird it is that there are people who get paid by wealthy famous people to ‘handle’ their sometimes enormous indiscretions & crimes. It’s curious to me that people could find the mindset and skillset to lead them to this ‘profession’. Spending my life in solitude mostly, working alone in my studio. I no longer get into any of the intense, dramatic overly-emotional situations of my younger days (lol). I find it useful to take on characters and become a musical ‘actor’ for song inspiration now.
A very interesting production here, with a nice melodic structure. The sound is beautifully constructed… Alfitude
