Archives for "Music"

Posted by admin on 8th September 2008
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6 Guitar Solos That Will Melt Your Face Off

A few weeks ago I gave everyone a sneak peak of an upcoming guitar solo called Octane. Since then many people have asked me about where some of my influences for it came from; here’s a look at some face melting guitar solos that inspired me.

Eruption – Van Halen

This solo was the turning point that made me and a million other guitarists want to get good. It has everything; tone, feel, speed, and melody and will live on as one of the greatest solo rock guitar pieces ever composed.

Frenzy – Paul Gilbert

This is a preview of 6 Guitar Solos That Will Melt Your Face Off. Read the full post (571 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)
Posted by admin on 4th September 2008
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The plan

Hey, hope you all had a great summer like I did!  I just got back from San Francisco a couple of weeks ago.  Great city, cool sites!

The 2 Fear Zero shows in August went quite well, considering it was the first time all 4 of us have ever graced a stage together in over a year.  We performed a mix of old tunes and new ones to a couple of crowds over 1,000 which was pretty damn cool!  Hopefully we can snag a nice tour with a bigger act so we can get out and play some more.

This is a preview of The plan. Read the full post (163 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)
Posted by admin on 22nd July 2008
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Fear Zero gets studio tanned

Hey everyone, just got a good head start on my studio tan.  Sorry the blog is late but we have been working like dogs for  days now getting final pre-production done on the new tracks.

Pre-pro is where the producer comes in and basically changes any song arrangements that need to be changed (minimally on these songs thank goodness) and then goes through drum arrangements to make sure every fill, every groove, every nuance of the drum track is exactly what the song needs.  Very time consuming and boring at times but very necessary for the final quality of the drum track.  Gone are the days of drinking all day, heading to the studio at midnight to pop some acid then record a whole album in one take.  Recording is a science now.

This is a preview of Fear Zero gets studio tanned. Read the full post (287 words, estimated 1:09 mins reading time)
Posted by admin on 13th July 2008
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Demos Finshed & Video of the “Octane” Guitar Solo

Hey y’all, I have finished demoing the 22 tracks that are being considered for the new Fear Zero release “Whole Damn Nation.”  It is good to finally be done this part of the process as it is the most labour intensive of all in my opinion.  I have narrowed it down to about 10 or 11 songs that are going to be considered for the 5 slots that we have available for the new CD.

In case you had not figured out yet, we are actually taking 5 songs from our last CD “In Lights” and are repackaging it with 5 new songs and a guitar solo called Octane that, if  you have been reading the blogs, you are aware of already.

This is a preview of Demos Finshed & Video of the “Octane” Guitar Solo. Read the full post (220 words, estimated 53 secs reading time)
Posted by admin on 5th July 2008
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“Eddie, Eddie, Eddie!”

Below is a solo I wrote called Octane which may be on the new CD. I recorded it quite a while ago and next week I will post a video of me playing it. This is a demo and will be re-recorded should we decide to put it on the new CD.


Octane – Fear Zero from Ken Mason on Vimeo.

Download the Demo: octane

I wrote this after a request from one of Fear Zero’s managers that I do something to “prove” what I can do on guitar. It was a real pain to record and is probably the most demanding thing I have had to play guitar-wise. The influences are pretty obvious; Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen and a bit of Eric Johnson.

This is a preview of “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie!”. Read the full post (227 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)
Posted by admin on 26th June 2008
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Making an independent rock CD – budgets.

Hey there.  Here I am on a cloudy Thursday morning in Vancouver.  I have been doing a lot of research lately on the budget for the new Fear Zero CD.  Well, technically it is not a fully “new” CD since we are only going to record 4 new tracks but as you will see, even this small of an amount of music costs big $$!

The first Fear Zero CD I made on money I had saved up teaching music for 4 years.  Throw in a credit line with a lot of favors and some lucky breaks as well as studio time late at night and voila, you have the first Fear Zero CD!

This is a preview of Making an independent rock CD – budgets.. Read the full post (563 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)
Posted by admin on 19th June 2008
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In the trenches – the making of an indie rock CD pt.2

Okay, back to now.  So far 11 songs have been demoed crudely.  I say this because I really don’t put a lot of time into the recording aspect of the demo part of the process as it is tedious when you have 17 or more tunes to try to get down.   Nothing like sitting there at 2am going, ”how the hell am I going to end this song and not make it the same as  every other tune I have written,” or “how the heck did this song go again?”  Another aspect that is difficult is, when you write something, it may sound cool in your head and may look good on paper but then you get to actually singing some lines and they just don’t work.  Then it is on the spot re-write time, which sometimes can yield some cool stuff and at the worst, you just put the tune off if nothing strikes you immediately.

This is a preview of In the trenches – the making of an indie rock CD pt.2. Read the full post (593 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)
Posted by admin on 13th June 2008
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Breaking ground pt2

Okay, so continuing on with last week’s writing, we had this recording gear but now we needed a place to record the CD.  My engineer friend just happened to be living with another friend of mine, Ken who ran a basement studio in his home called The Furnace Room.  Trouble was, he had kids….lots of kids that would run around, scream, drop things, just general stuff that children do so it was really hard to get anything done.

This is a preview of Breaking ground pt2. Read the full post (505 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)
Posted by admin on 5th June 2008
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Breaking ground – The making of the first Fear Zero CD

I want to go back in time and talk a bit about the making of the first Fear Zero CD because it really was a great learning experience. I promise I will add more info about the new one I am working on next week or the week after.

In 1998 I had begun writing a lot of songs and had no outlet for the songs, other than playing them for friends that would go, “Wow, I had no idea you could write good songs!”

I had no idea whether they were good or not, you know how friends are. :)

This is a preview of Breaking ground – The making of the first Fear Zero CD. Read the full post (450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)
Posted by admin on 29th May 2008
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In the trenches – the making of an indie rock CD.

Hello again everybody, Ed from FZ here to blog-ify you again!

Today I am going to talk a bit about the making of Fear Zero’s 4th CD “Whole Damn Nation” which I have begun working on.  Basically, if you were to compare the making of the CD to the making of a baby, we are just lighting up the smoke after…well you know lol!  Lots more to be done, the songs must multiply and grow and take shape, hopefully one day turning into offspring that can spread themselves all over the world and fill people’s ears, hearts, eyes with emotions and memories.

This is a preview of In the trenches – the making of an indie rock CD.. Read the full post (313 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)