by on

$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!

by on

The Fixer – the EPIC rock sound & Video!

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.

LISTEN TO FIXER

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 

by on

Steal This Dance

by Kenny Schick

Steal This Dance – Written, Performed (Vocals, ALL Instruments), Produced, Orchestrated, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick.

Video was made by Jessica Fong ADAPTED CREATIONS.

Artwork & Backing Vocals by Sabine Heusler-Schick BASEMENT3DESIGN

Kenny Schick Steal This Dance

Kenny Schick Music Page

Kenny Schick Music Producer

by on

Falalalalalalalala!

To our dear family, friends, artists and clients we were honored to work with this year!

We wish for you a lovely holiday season and a better 2021!

Falalalalalalalala! We know every single person in the world has been struggling to some degree this year. It’s been tough, it’s been hard, it’s been sad, it’s been frustrating and downright crazy. However, there were good things too: watching and re-watching great tv shows, learning to use zoom, growing a garden, cooking more, nurturing a love of wild birds and discovering tiktok. I’d love to say we did more or learned many new skills and crafts, but the uncertainty of the world put inspiration at bay. Kenny did have time to produce a few of his own songs, and we released videos for them, so that was good.

We are lucky to have always worked from home/studio, so that was not so different for us. As we did not travel this year we really miss our family and our friends in California more than usual. We stayed home, we stayed safe, wore masks and kept our distance from other humans. We still went for walks at Shelby Bottoms park, but could not pat every dog that walked passed us (which was super hard) and we had to psych ourselves up sufficiently to buy essentials from the supermarket.

What gave us joy was still being able to work with wonderfully creative souls who all made fantastic music this year! Surprisingly and thankfully, we were busy.

So onward to a hopefully better year! We wish for you a Happier New Year and hope you enjoy this different kind of holiday season! Make yummy food, nap, go for walks, call and zoom friends and family, watch movies, play and/or listen to music.

Kenny enjoyed making this Christmas Song for ya’ll – (as with all his songs he did everything, production, performance, orchestration, mixing & mastering) hehe, my sister Jessica Fong in Australia made the super cute video (in record time) with the help of my niece Caitlyn and I (Sabine) did the graphics. A very family affair!

WATCH ‘FALALALALALALALALA’ ON YOUTUBE

Sending lots of LOVE to you all, stay safe!
Kenny & Sabine xxx

by on

C’Mon C’Mon C’Mon

by Kenny Schick

c’mon no one else can sing your song

Written, Performed, Produced, Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Video by Jessica Fong – Adapted Creations

BUY it on BandCamp

LISTEN on Spotify

GET it at AppleMusic

Start of life

C’mon C’mon C’mon started its life on a different trajectory than it ended up on. Originally, I was writing a song for a placement opportunity, and the basic feeling was supposed to be ‘nostalgic’. I got that part moving along just fine, and as it’s written now, that part would have worked out. Samples were given as an idea for the type of sound and feel they were looking for which lent toward a melancholic pop/indie vibe. Usually, that is right up my alley, as well as those familiar music know. But when I’d play the song, which at first was just on acoustic guitar, I kept playing it at a certain speed, and that speed took it out of a melancholic feel. I tried to slow it down and make it more weepy, but nope, this song wouldn’t have it.

I abandoned my initial mission, forgot about the placement, and served this song as it wanted to be served. It just wanted to be kind of a Brit pop type thing—a hair punky, with an upbeat feel. There was a whole other section of lyrics in the bridge, which is just instrumental now—where the widdley-woo guitar solo is. They were cool, but it was murky and just wasn’t working, so I went for some guitar fun, which fits the theme of the song, as it ended up being about my musical journey in a way, and it was ripping guitar riffs that pulled me into music in the first place.
The idea of the song is that musical styles, and even fashion styles (which often accompany music styles) always seem to repeat and come back around again… what was in style once will likely come around again—I mean, how many times has punk rock come and gone now?
We saw a time in the 90’s when the old swing sound came back around again (and everyone sounded like an updated Cab Calloway), rock-a- billy had it’s day again in the 80’s and brought with it that 50’s fashion, and here in Nashville on our favorite local radio station, Lightning 100, I hear so many bands that sound like they’ve revisited the 70’s and 80’s again for inspiration.
I’ve had a few questions asked of me regarding the line ‘the drink and then the sound is brown, ’til the strong and clear take down the town…’ — the brown drink is whiskey, the brown sound was what Eddie Van Halen’s sounds was labeled. Both of those fell out of favor at some point, but now we know bourbon is the big thing again after the years when strong, clear liquors became popular and almost destroyed the bourbon industry— and the 80’s saw that more clean sound (drum machines, clean guitars, etc.) swallow the big guitar sound. Then came the whole grunge movement and ‘alternative’ bands like Tool, Dinosaur Jr., and Smashing Pumpkins that brought back the wall of sound again.
And so it goes…round and round… what you like may pass out of favor, but it will come back around.
So sing your song!
WATCH THE VIDEO

LYRICS: C’Mon C’Mon C’Mon by Kenny Schick

Verse

Yesterday or years ago
it’s all the same and we don’t know
that time’s moved on
and nothing’s gone
we talk away the day and so
the night walks in and steals the show
it’s been too long
still sing that song

the one that’s always dances in my heads
the tune that always gets me out of bed

chorus

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na

C’mon C’mon
Life’s as short as the day is long
c’mon c’mon
no one else… can sing your song c’mon c’mon c’mon

Verse 2

the latest style it’s all the rage
it flies away and leaves the cage
and then it’s gone
but not for long
the drink and then the sound is brown
’til the strong and clear take down the town
for today
but it’s ok

cuz it won’t be long ’til we see you again
and the coolest kids will want to be your friend

Bridge

it’s new, it’s old, it’s bought and sold
the salvage yard then solid gold
and should it stand the test of time
rewrite the lines repeat the rhyme