Learning 2 Sing?

It's been years since I have sung and recorded it. I really hate how I can never play with a singer, so I have started to work on my vocals once again. This is probably my 20th time I've done this, but I tried something different this time around. I have downloaded a audio book for vocal lessons. It's something like Singing On The Go. Something cheesy like that. Last night I was doing some of the lessons and picked out my range. That has been the hardest thing for me. I could never really find my singing range. Well, last night I finally found it. So knowing this new great range, I began to re-learn Time of Your Life by Green Day. It's a easy song to sing and I know it by heart-ish. Anyways, I put on my capo to change the key of the song that suited best for my range.

This is the first take I sang and really the only good one out of the 10 I recorded. The singing isn't all that great. I can't hit the notes straight on. I can bend up to it and hit it, but I can't singing it like how it should be sung. Anyways, I do hope to do more of these little covers and work on my singing again. I do love writing songs and hate that I can never have a singer sing them. So, I'm giving it another try.

Time of Your Life.

Download

A Song About Parents.

Here is one of my early songs that I wrote. For some reason my Dad enjoyed it and since I suck at singing, he added a great charm to it.

Mom & Dad (Just Don't Understand)

Download

The chord progression is totally stolen from  "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" by The Ramones. It worked.

I Wear My Jeans Dubstep.

At American Eagle they have this song that plays on the tv in the back of the store. It's a song about all the jeans at American Eagle. Everyone who works at the store thinks the song sucks and I have to agree. I mentioned how I could make a remix of the song to one of the managers and she said to do it, so I did it.

Download.

Everyone at work would have to agree that my remix is better.

Rub a Dub Dubstep.

Remember how I've been working on this Dubstep song. Well, here is a short demo of what it is going to sound like. Mainly I need to show my boss at Hot Topic what it sounds like and see what he thinks about it.

The Music Gods (Demo)

Download

Let Angus Go! [EP]

I was in a band called LAG for most of my high school days. Before it was LAG, it was called Frottage. Anyways, we recorded a EP and here it is.

Jonno: Vocals
Parker (Me): Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar & Bass
Aaron: Rhythm Guitar
Stephan: Drums
       Guest - Keith: Shaker

Download The EP.

1. Let Angus Go
2. Cow Bell
3. Fun While It Lasted
4. To The End of The World
5. Scattered Pieces

Jonno had a friend that was in a college recording class and they had to record some stuff for a project. So we all got together to do Two all nighters and record 4 songs.

 

Aaron and Sean a former bass player is in a band right now called A Cold City Night. They have been doing pretty good for themselves. It's some good punk pop music. Check it out.

Standing In The Rain.

I drew this awhile back in Two Thousand and Six and I was just now trying to name it for this post and thought of the song Standing In The Rain by Billy Talent. Ever since Billy Talent came out, I fell in love with Ian D'Sa the guitarist. I've always been pumped to hear a new album from them because I think Ian plays his guitar in the coolest way. It reminds me of a blues guitarist, where they would play rhythm and lead at the same time, but Ian does it 10 times better. There is countless of songs where he plays lead type melodies while playing the rhythm.

I remembered destroying my ink brush inking this, but I felt it was worth it. Anyways enjoy.

Billy Talent - Standing In The Rain

Bon Dia.

I while back ago I wrote a Music Video called Bon Dia. It's probably the most viewed video on my youtube and I would agree, It's fucking epic and I feel like it's a video that carried the music very well and I guess it talks to people , in a way. My friend Travis and Natasha really like it and they both wanted to download the song. So, here you go guys, here is where you can download it.

Download MP3

The song was recorded in one night and then I went back home to see an old friend of mine in Arlington, VA. The first shots were of my walk going to the Ballston Station and the last long shot was me going to meet my friend at like 7am on the train from Glenmont. Of course, Bon Dia means good day, so I guess in the video I'm saying good morning while I go and visit an old friend.

Also my friend Travis has a really great YouTube channel where he takes a lot of his favorite music and makes short little videos out of them. Sort of what I do but, a little bit better.

Funeral and A Good Time By Charles Roe (My Father).

Download Song

Right Click, Save Link As...

There is tons more music slash photos slash things on his website CharlesRoe.net

You would say this is the very first music video I directed and filmed in away. My father said he would like a music video, it took awhile to get an idea I liked. After I thought of this it was pretty easy and also the very first time I used a green screen. Although the green screen is really just a greenish bed sheet that my roommate had to divide our living area so we would have some privacy.

The song is longer, but since when I filmed the video I couldn't really think of an idea to fill the space in the one minute plus during the solo bit. So, I took it out since it was like a spacious bridge slash solo thing.

Anyways, Enjoy my dad's music and his first video that I made for him.

Just Sitting Around.

When I was 16, I did a lot of recording. I wrote countless of songs and recorded them as soon as possible. Back then I didn't accept reality and the reality was that I sucked at singing. But, I was young and it was my first year playing songs and I just wanted to write songs. Everything was new and I was just starting to get my hands dirty in writing and recording songs.

The sad thing is that I don't know if this album is all of the songs I recorded for this album. I don't have the original album or the art work I made for this album. My friend Grace e-mailed me all the tracks and I hope I got everything. Also, what really sucks is that this is only a hand full of the songs I wrote and recorded during this time period. I had 100's of songs and I tried to save them all but the disc I burned it to didn't work, and I didn't realize until all the files were long gone.

The song Hey Baby (Do You Mind) is a love song and the chorus goes like this:

Hey baby, do you mind.
Do you mind if I hold your hand.
Hey baby, do you mind.
Do you mind if we walk together.

So this song helped my friend ask his crush out on a date. They are now married. I feel kind of weird but it's cool.

Hey Baby (Do You Mind)

Download Song
Download Album

 I've been working on a Revisited album, and I got a few songs left to record. The composing has gotten a lot better but the singing hasn't. Here's that same song but redone years later.

Download Song

Demo.

Ever since I heard about Sigur Rós from my good old friend Grace. I fell in love with ambient music. I really can't get enough of it, Chris may have his Interpol, well I have my ambient music. For the past few months, I've been listening to a lot of new stuff other then Sigur Rós. My friend Jeremiah got me into the KEXP Radio YouTube Channel and he told me it's a great place to get awesome music. I'm always looking for awesome music and I found this song by Ólafur Arnalds and it felt like listening to Sigur Rós for the very first time. For about a few weeks, I would always zone out to them while biking to work. I would play it with the volume maxed out and just watch the cars pass by. Coming home from work was so much better because it would always be around 10:30 and no one would be on the roads. It was beautiful. I know I teared up from the extreme calm feeling I would always get listening to bands like Sigur Rós and Ólafur Arnalds.

Also for the past year, I've gotten really into City and Colour, Dallas Green's side project from Alexisonfire. The album Sometimes is just so pretty. I've always wanted to do something like that. So, last night while I was rendering Voice Mail I came up with the rhythm guitar part pretty quickly. I learned a few of City and Colour songs and tuned my guitar kind of like how Dallas Green would tune it for "Save Your Scissors". The 5th string is tuned up to a B and the 1st string is tuned down to a D. The 1st string tuning down to a D is a trick my Dad would use time to time and I also used that trick on the song The Greatest Fear

Anyways, This song is sort of like blending both styles together. I'm going to use this song for a video. It's going to be like a romantic video and I hope my girlfriend will be up for being the star in it.

I know it's getting kind of long, but if you can tell, you will here me sniffle a bit time to time. Joe Pass is a Jazz Guitarist I've liked and in his tracks you will here him breathe from time to time and I've always liked that and felt like almost every band should have a breathing track while they record a soft song. It just adds so much and it's so real.

Moving On (Demo)

Download

Guitar Harmonics.

I've always loved using harmonics on the guitar, but I've never really used them for a song until now. This song is nothing but harmonics. The left hand would be playing fretting the notes and my right hand would be holding the guitar pick with my middle finger and thumb while my index finger would be barely touching the string at the same position my left finger is at, only an octave up on the fret.

The video contains a message from my boss from Hot Topic, I was at American Eagle at the time, so that's why I wasn't able to put up the phone. I did get the message and when I was on my break I walked over there to see what was up and everything was just fine. The second message was for my Roommate/Biffle Chris. Mani was his Boyfriend in New York and he thought it was a touching message, so he told me about it and used it.

Download MP3

A Concept Album on Paper.

About a year ago, I had this idea for an epic concept album that never got off the paper. I have all the ideas written out and the concept of the album is all there, but I just didn't have the write people to do it. I met a great singer on Craigslist and we met up a few times and started playing some really good sounding covers. I had this idea and she was totally on board for the album. But, I always get the great talented people that don't really want to work hard for free and for their hobby. So, I'm stuck with this song that isn't complete and an album that is on paper. Expect for this song. The main idea is there, but I just need to fine tune some things.

The album would have started off like a old radio drama. Here back in the day before television, you listened to the radio.  The main boy is getting a ride to her mothers friends house to be watched while his mother went to work. The mothers friend has a daughter and if you hadn't guessed by know, it's the girl he falls for. Really the other way around, because in this song, the main characters are in high school and this song is where the girl tells him her feelings for him.

I was listening to a lot of dance music, mainly Cascada's Every time We Touch. I love that song so much and it felt right to have it her song to tell her feelings to him. So I wrote a song a lot like what I've heard on that album, and came up with this.

Ten Years Later

Download

After the song, The girl asks if he wanted to go to the dance and he said yes. The school bell rings and they head to sex education and It would start out with an old sex education tape from the 1950's and this really groovy riff would come up and the song was really like a love groove. The main chorus would have both of the characters screaming out "Let's make love!"

Then the girl gets pregnant because the condom breaks and she decides to keep it, but wanting to put it up for adoption. So really the rest of the album plays out like a love comedy movie, but it being a concept album.

I hope one day I find the singers to play the characters in this concept album, but until then, it's just an epic album on paper.

Patience and Prudence.

One of my favorite movies is "Ghost World". And, One of the cutest songs is in Ghost World and that song is "A Smile and a Ribbon". I really hope one day I can write a song that cute and awesome. Anyways, I just love that song and I drew this just because I wanted too.

Patience and Prudence. "A Smile and a Ribbon"

Download

Mad Island.

If you ever seen Waking Life then this kind of style of art would be known to you. It's called Rotoscoping. Anyways, after watching Waking Life and getting my hands dirty with Photoshop, I started taking some photos I found and Painting over them. This one is of my friend Keith Sinclair. I've always liked this piece.

Scooter Fruit.

We only recorded one song together. A cover of Mad World by Gary Jules, and that's a cover from the Tears for Fear version. I've gravitated more towards the Gary Jules version. I starting to really get into finger picking on my guitar so I learned the piano part for mad world. I was playing it one day in the band room and he was like I know the vocal parts. We recorded it and here it is.

Mad World

Download

Keith has his own band right now, that's doing pretty well. Check them out his band No Island, here's their MySpace. We plan to get together when we are both famous and write a epic album together. We said that a few years ago and I still want to write that epic album. I really hope we do one day.

I'm a Mad Man.

A few years back, I was living in Brazil and met some pretty awesome people at my school. I had two bands going and wanted to record some stuff with one of them. Annie Oakley were one of the bands I was in. I recorded some what of an ok first recording. I had to write out a midi track for the drums and bass in Guitar Pro 5. I put them in FL Studio's and added the guitar to it later. I recorded the singer and put it together. It sounded pretty ok, but the mic for the vocals was total shit. But, I still put it together and for an idea of what could happen, it sounded nice and I wanted to record more.

I was sitting on this riff for a couple of years and always wanted to have a good singer add some poppy vocals to it. So like the last song I did the same thing. But, This was just the idea of what it could be. I wanted the drummer and the bass player to record their parts. I just made this so we could have a strong rough draft and it was easy, it only took a night. I showed them the song and nothing ever happened after that. I began to get bullied by the bass player and the singer would sometimes join along. The drummer was busy, so he couldn't make practice or even talk to me. Nothing happened and they pretty much kicked me out of the band. The bass player started to play guitar and began to cover Nickelback songs with the singer.

Ever since then really, I have been doing everything by myself. It's easier because I can only depend on myself and I can do whatever the fuck I want to do. And I have the fucking talent to pull it off. I've still tried to put some bands together when I moved to DC, but again, it never worked out. One didn't have the time. Another one jammed with me but, never called me back to start something and joined another band. The last one texted me once about hanging out. The thing is that all these people are really talented.

I don't understand it. Is it because I want something no one has ever heard of and they see me as a mad man. Or, my ideas are so random that people won't understand it and we wouldn't make money. Is it that I give off that vibe that I can do everything and I don't need anyone to play parts.

Well, I call this song "Gato Gato". Gato means cat in Portuguese. In slang it's used for Foxy. She's foxy, Ela gato. Enjoy the unfinished song.

Gato Gato

Download

Best White Boy.

My Best Gangstar Friend had a birthday a while back, and her present from me was this Music Video. Since we started hanging out, she would call me her best white boy. Since I was really her only white friend and being the best at being white. I am called the Best White Boy or BWB for short. I went to House Warming Partying she was having and all of her family and friends were there. She would introduce me by my first name and then my nick name she gave me. Apparently after meeting me once everyone since then has been asking me and wondering when the hell I would ever come over again. I'm trying to make a visit, but it's been kind of hard with have two jobs and still trying to make payments. But, I will visit them again and I can't wait.

You can download the song if you want.

More videos at my YouTube Channel.

My Lullaby.

When I was a baby my dad wrote me a Lullaby. I believe it was played on a 12 String SG Gibson. Of course he is playing it with a slide. He showed me this a few years ago and I just came across it again. I like it, even though I don't get what he was trying to say with this song. I don't understand the song and why it's my Lullaby, but it has my name on it. So, it's mine to keep and own.

Parker's Lullaby

Download

Everybody Is Fucked, But It's Ok.

Download Album

This album took about 4 years to write. Mostly due to the problems I had and the tons of moving. When I landed in Lima, Peru with my Dad. I had a lot of time on my hands and I began to record and polish some songs up. It's mostly a instrumental album. This idea was mostly a test and a practice run to see if I could pull it off and write some cool themes and play around.

Here is a taste of one of the many genres in the album.

Funk A Dunk

Metro Town.

Sky & I

I fucking love this photo. It just brings back so many memories of being in that mall "Metro Town". We would rarely ever hang out. But when we did, it was extreme. We would hang out for 10 hours straight on a Saturday. I remembered hanging at the mall and riding the Millenium Line from Metrotown all the way around Twice.

One time we were hanging out at the mall and we were listening to each others ipods. I noticed she had Suck Great Heights by The Postal Service and I had the Iron & Wine cover version. I got the great idea to listen to them at the same time and see what they sounded like. Later, I edited them together on a track and it sounds like this.

Download

Here are some photos I took from one of our many epic hang outs.