Death of a Whale

Moby Dick doesn't die but this picture is too good.
you can download my free album, The Last Sunset HERE

this is and will remain the most badass song i've ever made. the reason i think it's so badass is cuz it was completely spontaneous.
it was summer 2008. i repaired one of the guitars my brother left behind. he bought it for $15 .and i couldn't find a decent job so i was a bum. the first thing i wanted for my guitar setup was a looping pedal. $200 for an RC-2 Loop Pedal. My friend Pete O'Hare comes over and plays this eerie coplex riff. i don't remember exactly what it was but i remembered Em-C in 3/4 time so i just simplified it to its root. and i loved experimenting with chord extensions. mainly i would use M7s and m+13s at the time.
ANYWAYS.
later another friend of mine came over and i showed it to him and i just start playing and i cant stop. and i start to use an Ebow on the string and BAM!! it grows more intense. i flip the switch for distortion and POW. instant intensity. i had a couple recordings in mono cuz it was a loop pedal coming out of one amp. but when i decided to make a stereo mix of the song, there was no limitation.
i basically recorded everything dry and made sure every individual guitar riff had its own space. some overlapped but on purpose. then when everything was planned out, i just added everything to the same stereo reverb track. it turned out well. the biggest problem i had was when i hit the distortion part. i had no idea had to approach that cuz live i would just flip a switch. i made many versions of this song and the ending on the version for this album is by far the best. before i would misplace distorted guitars or make it uneven. lil things that bugged me. and when i found out how cool bass disortion sounds i just threw that in there and it sounded even more in your face AWESOME.
a lot of people have told me that Death of a Whale is not a good name for this song. i initially named it that cuz the day i made it, my mom told me this story about how killer whales are assholes and killed this baby sperm whale just to eat its jaw, huge bullies. believe when i say that Orcas are nature's assholes. A lot of people expected this song to be metal or punk sounding cuz of a name like Death of a Whale. they thought about it too much.
but everytime i hear this song i just feel the hair raise on my forearms. i can almost feel the fear of whatever confrontation is being imaginated. it just made you feel like there was a brooding entity growing into an unstoppable force.
but this was a smooth start to the album
-it is one of my best
-it foreshadows tragedy