The new album and catching up on the last few months

    My goal is to consistently post more often about the music I create. Currently my team and I are working on the new album consisting of space rock anthems and pop rock enjoyment. I can't wait for the new Sodacon to come out and the new tracks so far have a nice sizzle. You can hear the new tracks on Reverbnation and soon to be released as part of the new album. Today I'm focusing on the 3 most recent new Sodacon tracks. Soon the new singles will be released digitally along with music videos and the rest of the tracks from the new album. Enjoy the new songs below as you read:
 

So Many Times Again

    This particular track was recorded in March and ended up being a space rock anthem. It mainly describes my feelings about the huge amount of injustice we have to face in our lives and doing anything we can to overcome hardship. It's got it's fair share of unique Sodacon vocals "Brings back my style" as the chorus repeats so many times again (no pun intended). It fades out at the end and then comes back in with it's signature riff. 

Lightning Maze (featuring David Namerow) 

     What can I say about working with David on this track. It was seamless and amazing. I first contacted him because I found his Reverbnation page and I listened to several of his tracks and enjoyed them immensely. I humbly reached out and asked if he would collaborate on a song and he was very gracious about it. In fact he was also nice about giving me time to provide him with something. It took me about two months with all of life's distractions and chores to get back to him and he was still cool about it. I started writing and recording Lightning Maze at the end of January with David in mind for added percussion.

     I knew it was going to be an epic song with an adventurous quest theme yet I didn't know it was going to be so long. I created sections where I knew David could add percussion and tried to keep the mix balanced on that factor for the parts. I was worried when I first sent the mix to David and was not sure what to tell him about the track being 8 minutes and 32 seconds. I finally decided to just not say anything and just let him have at it. He did two different takes and sent them back to me and I enjoyed them both. We ended up releasing the song digitally worldwide, am creating a music video and also plan to work with David again on more songs.

Astro Jets

   I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the latest Sodacon track. It was created quickly within a weekend and the beat and bass serve as the core and then an interesting guitar riff comes in with ambient well mixed keys. The vocals are pop rock and fit the bouncy rhythm and lyrics regarding space travel and a willingness to not over analyze anything. I wasn't even sure how I felt about this track at first, and then exactly a week later it felt really solid and now its got a permanent spot on our Amazon Echo playlist. Strangely enough people in my house and friends started digging on this track after exactly one week. It reminds of those songs you hear at first and brain doesn't know what to do with it, and suddenly you hear it again and can't get enough. Music is a strange and wonderful thing. 

Promote your mixtape at ReverbNation.com

New Music Video The Bottle Song and more...

A lot is going on at once and we'll try to summarize as best we can. Recently we launched a new music video for our single The Bottle Song. This video was a lot of fun because I had some help with set up. We did some shooting in front a white screen and even though I didn't use all the footage I like the end result in process.

We also created shots in my home studio as well as included a few stills from when we were out hiking around. There was some inadvertent and neat effects that came out in the final render. We are now excited for the next music video. Please check out our new video below, and subscribe to the new channel if you like it. Make sure to give our Google Plus brand page badge.

The next track we'll be shooting a video for is for song Accelerate which you can also enjoy below. Pick up the new album SpaceArtRock on Itunes, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play and more.

Sodacon returns with new album, music video and shows.

     Here I am composing a blog for the first time in awhile and making a post on the new blog which is now attached to the new sodacon.com home page. I'm grateful to have the blog back
for the first time in awhile, I'm also grateful to be able to bring the web site back online for everyone and to share the new album SpaceArtRock. For a long time it seemed as though Sodacon had fallen off the map. Thankfully it's not completely true. We hadn't released anything since 2011 and 2012's Songs of Summer Volume 1 was a limited release on Bandcamp only. In the background however a lot of time was going into the new album and I've kept jamming while performing acoustic in places wherever I could while sending out online videos shouts and hangouts on G+ from time to time. In fact our G+ brand page amassed over 4000 followers in the last few years. Many artists may dismiss the idea yet using the brand page yet it been great for Sodacon. I've been putting together SpaceArtRock for the better part of two and a half years. A lot has changed since then and I'm glad that it's to the point where we can start playing live again and share this special new release with fans.

   A few things about the new release. I had it on Bandcamp for a long time and would share rough draft mixes periodically on Google+. I had a choice between approximately 40 songs in this song folder and these 10 were my curated cuts. Track 1: We Begin was created as an intro for live performance and pre-lude to All Star Sci-Fi Fan. Soon to announce live shows and online streams on Stageit. In the beginning I may do more live streams as I create the new set and transition into tour dates. Rock on and see you out there :-)

Pencil Sketch 1 and Thoughts

Some guy driving toward an eyeball hill 

Trying to figure out where I left myself as my brain kept spinning  upon waking up. At least was able to sleep in that one day. I remember saying something to my significant other, she said she was off to take a bath, I told her I was going to go soak my brain in sleep. That's exactly what happened as I quickly visited the bathroom and laid down for what was close to 9 hours. I can barely remember dreams folding into dreams like a distant haze.

Today I decided that it's time to start sharing my sketches. A lot of them are quick and crude, yet fun to share nonetheless. Although I've posted tons of digital paintings I figured it would be nice to let people know that I pencil sketch all the time. I feel it's something that helps to get the imagination going and it's great practice for later when I break out the digital paintings or oils. It's also nice because every day I can't do a grand production, music videos and what not. This helps to formulate ideas and I can look back on my sketches over time to see what frame of mind I was in.

Sci Fi render art turns into Space Rock and Acoustic Traveling Bliss

I'm sharing tracks I've been working on for multiple projects. First I'll share something from the new Sodacon album called Glow Moon.



I created a series of renders featuring a mountainside, primitive alien beings and a glow moon with different types of weather and snapshots coming up and down over the horizon. This originally wasn't going to be the main album theme and then as I created 30 Glow Moon pieces I found that it all fit together nicely, even telling a story. The lyrics came easily for Glow Moon and I went into the studio recorded the song in sessions spread out between 2 days. More to come as I continue to add to this project.

The next track is from Moment by Moment, a new full band acoustic self titled project.






My original recording of this title track song took some time to adjust, mostly because I was busy working on all the other songs. Still it's moment by moment, breath by breath, one foot in front of the other we step, so I knew I had to finish. I knew which adjustments to make since it was on my mind for awhile. The end result is a track that sounds airy and fits the mold for a traveling song.

Salmon and Rice

Last night I cooked Salmon with rice including spicy cajun sauce and olive oil. I used a fair amount of olive oil in the pan and was liberal with the cajun spice both below and above on the fish, also when peeled and switched. 

Salmon in the frying pan 

At a certain point the skin is easy to just peel off. If you try to peel it at any time during cooking and it's being stubborn, come back in a few minutes. The fish will peel easily and then you can flip it for a few more minutes of finishing. 

Salmon with cajun spice and vinegar (not used in dish)

Rice with cajun spice

It helps to keep some vegetable and olive oil on hand. Always season the pan for about 10 minutes before cooking. 

After this I added tomatoes and green chilis and brought it back to a boil. At that point I brought it to a 20 minute simmer and added more cajun. Salmon and rice all done. Next time I will take more pictures of the finished product and share it again. 

Happy Friday - Digital Cactus and Moon

Here is the weekend, and I wish a happy Friday to all.  Something for you to enjoy while I'm waiting for my video to encode. Unfortunately I'm recovering from an injury. Yay, always fun when something creeps up midweek out of the blue. Still staying creative with the music and finishing up projects. I have a new video that I'll post later today once it's done encoding. 

I'll start by sharing a digital painting water color, mixed with a tiny bit of oils. I can't remember from months ago yet I believe it's called Digital Cactus.

Digital Cactus - watercolor mixed with oils 

 Lately I've been blocking in my compositions with a drafting pencil and it's yielded better results. Enjoy your spring weekend in 2014 and shouts.

Glow Moon 19

I've tried all sorts of different things with the Glow Moon series. Here is another variation.