With so much going on, both personally and musically on side projects, the Cats have been sadly neglected…
But no longer! We are back in the studio, aka the ManCave, aka my place, to revisit a number of songs. They are being re-tracked as they were never had more than a homespun demos, with programmed drums and bad bass by me.
Having learned a lot more about mixing also pushed towards that outcome.
The opportunity to review, and in some cases, rearrange the songs is very exciting. New ideas and approaches, key changes, and a desire to capture better performances rather than just get the thing down should make these new recordings much better than the old demos. That’s the hope anyway.
So below is a brief video of one of our sessions. Thanks to Chris and NeMo for their talent, energy and Sunday afternoon.
I don’t know if it’s laziness or lack of practice, but I have not been doing due diligence to this blog.
Sorry!
Let’s try it again, shall we?
There have been side gigs, even doing sound, to keep me distracted, and some recording has been happening as well. Not like I’ve given up on music. In fact, I hope to have a few singles out shortly as soon as I can the guys into the ManCave to cut their tracks. I should have something to announce on most social media; Facebook, Instagram, Threads, BlueSky too now, but definitely not X. Those who know me get why.
Gigs are intermittent, a tribute to the challenge of performing all-original material, but thankfully, a tight network of mutually supportive musicians helps when possible. One such occasion is this Saturday, November 23 at the Black Swan Tavern on Danforth. The Cats have played there many times and it’s always a great venue. We’re opening for Sal Indigo aka Salabama aka Fishman with special guest Bruce Moore subbing on bass as NeMo is out of town with Reggadiction. I would not be surprised if others grace the stage as well. You’ll just have to come down to find out!
We’ll also be backing up so a full gig! Please note this is a late afternoon gig starting at 4, which could be great benefit for bar both hoppers AND early-to-bedders. Hope
Plenty of highs and far too many lows on a personal level. Here’s hoping the latter are passed.
It was also quite a year for variety, as I expanded the opportunities to play with other performers and unquestionably grew and learned from that.
Perhaps it was a bit distracting though.
So 2024 is resolved (so far, ha!) to be a back-in-the-saddle year for Félix & the Cats. The last month or so have been dedicated to gear upgrades and rationalizations. The voice lessons with the awesome Jaclyn Serre are starting to pay off too. A bit more commitment to getting the word out (yes we have stickers – thanks to Simon Quayle) and hustling gigs are also on the radar, as is a recommitment to this blog.
I don’t have very good pitch control when it comes to singing. That’s all on me as I should spend more time exercising it. I did pay for the lessons after all, and might still be attending had my coach not moved out of town—good for her too as she has started her own studio and is engaged as well.
To make up for the most flagrant warbles, I have gone over to the dark side and started using what my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) calls Flex Pitch. When applied in moderation, pitch correction helps correct slight (ha!) variations from true pitch, but when applied more thickly, an exaggerated correction results in an effect made initially famous by Cher in her smash hit Believe, and heard ad nauseam in modern tunes ever since, the infamous auto-tune.
I’ve also had a hankering to haul out my underused Danelectro 12-string electric (shown at right) and write something old school riffy.
Why not put both together? Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Add to that the ever-present phenomenon of someone ignoring a conversation when “lost in a good phone”—or how some audience less-than-attentive audience members behave—and you have the foundation of this latest original. This version for now is limited by me on all instruments, except drums, which are programmed on Logic. I’m hoping to update once the boys in the band can apply their magic. Hope you like it.
At some point during the pandemic, the idea came about to compile a bunch of COVIDish songs by the Relish Sunday night open mike, well known in Toronto musical circles as Stir It Up Sunday, hosted by David Macmichael and Paul Brennan.
Stir It Up Someday is available on Bandcamp Producer – David Macmichael Artwork and Production- Shorty Brybry Mastering and Production – Ben Wood Executive Director – Dan Boggs
Here is the story as told in the liner notes:
This album is dedicated in loving memory of Steven David Morrison.
Stirred. Not Shaken.
Their single mingled voice emphatically proclaimed “Please join us next week when we will do something similar…yet somehow…completely… different!”
Cohosts Macmichael and Brennan’s signature sign-off capped February’s final Stir It Up Sunday same as all five hundred and something antecedent Sundays. Then came COVID.
Beauty blooms from the gloomy darkening of East Toronto’s premiere long running weekly open stage. For ten years Stir It Up Sunday at Relish Bar and Grill is where some of the city’s most creative songwriters and musicians gather weekly to sing, play, dine and drink.
Listen as this eclectic collective of artists comes together to create the wonderful Stir It Up Someday. The show that will not be shaken.
The playlist is impressive! I am humbled to be in such amazing company: (the late) Steven David Morrison, Dan Boggs, Jace Traz, Julian Taylor Band, Super Not OK, Mauve Grove, Arch Rockefeller, Mudlust and the Short Walk, Timothy Sheldon, Felix and the Cats, brilliantfish, Paul Brennan, Tom Rich, Sandra Bouza, Die Geschichten von Bargrave Willianhurst, Sal Indigo, Tyler Ellis and Mark Thackway, Ben Wood, Mr Kyle, Michael Cuddy, Liniaro & JP, Dean McKinnon, GardenOf, David Macmichael, Fraz Milne, Chris Scian, Bryan van Dusen and Johnny Ness.
I want to thank everyone involved in this project. For me, it’s especially momentous as it’s my first real song release. Particularly special thanks go out to Dan Boggs and Sal Indigo for having the Cats, Neil, Chris and I, “bigify” your songs. I learned a lot, and still have long way to go to make my recordings sound really pro, but I’m trying! Finally, a huge thanks to Joanne Clayton of Relish for the crucible!
Not everything with six strings is a standard guitar. One of the lesser-heard variations is the baritone guitar. Although the strings are tuned the same relative to each other, the overall pitch is a fourth lower, making the lowest string a B instead of an E. The neck is also longer.
Why would anyone want this?
Well it’s the tone in the baritone. There is a particularly unique resonance with this guitar that lends itself particularly well to single twangy notes, often heard in surf music and spaghetti westerns. Some of the best examples are Diane Eddy’sPeter Gunn and the B52s‘ Rock Lobster. Other examples can be found here.
I’m hoping to incorporate this guitar into at least one of my songs, but we’ll see how that goes. Thanks to Sal for the loan!
Back in 2016, those alcyon days, I posted about a song written even earlier, and the only original done with a cover band at the time.
Although I have performed it a few times with the Cats, I never felt it lived up to its potential, and have tried to alter it to see if that would give it the spark I was looking for.
Still working on that, but just for fun, here is the iteration I posted in 2016, plus two others: one redone as a blues shuffle, and the other most recently mostly to accommodate a key change, a hook, and more interesting chord changes.
Compromise – Earlier demoCompromise – Blues ShuffleCompromise – Latest
A few weeks ago, good friend Salabama got in touch to see if we could produce a “full band version” of a song he had written for and performed at East York’s (a former borough of Toronto pre-amalgamation for any of you non-local readers) Canada Day celebration. However, the pandemic put a wrench in the works, so the organizing committee changed the plan to having a celebratory website in order to maintain social distancing. A key component of this would be a recording of We Love East York.
Initially, Sal sent me an iPhone recording of live captured vocals and acoustic guitar. NeMo, Chris and I were able to add our parts after the fact, to the point where the recording was sufficiently fleshed out to submit to the committee for approval, pending a better recording.
Once we got the go ahead, recording the song while staying apart posed some challenges, but since many of those had been worked out on other demos with the guys, it went smoothly. Here was the process.
First came the basic guitar track with a click track/software drum track just to maintain a steady rhythm. This was sent to Chris and NeMo who recorded at home and added their parts (replacing the provisional virtual drums). These files were Dropboxed to me and flowed into the master mix.
To re-record Sal, the bed tracks were bounced and transferred to Garageband and copied to an iPad mini so I could go to Sal’s and do a remote recording. I set up on his back deck and ran the mic inside to record vocals, then changed the setup to mic his amp for the slide guitar overdub (geek note: Sennheiser MK4 for vox, Sennheiser e609 for amp, iRig Pro interface).
The chants and handclaps were dubbed after the fact and duplicated to create the “crowd” effect – thanks NeMo and Bender family! Could not have done this without you. Also many thanks to Sal for trusting me with this!
This project was a lot of fun to complete, and meaningful too. It’s always a treat to work with Sal, and East York, while not my community by only a few blocks, was where I first started working in education before the TDSB was formed. Below is the video produced for the song, and here is the link to East York’s Celebration site.
Social isolation has led to many encabané songwriters composing pandemic-themes odes, including Dan Boggs’ excellent Bunker Town featured here. As promised a few posts back, here is mine.
Thanks to Neil Morris (bass) and Chris Bender (drums and backing vocals) for playing on it and feedback. Hope you like it!
Yesterday was a big musical day.
First off, there was the Winterfolk XVII volunteer meet up at the Tranzac Club, which is the new venue for this popular and enduring musical event. Check out the link above for details. Anyway, this year, I will be mixing sound in a couple of the rooms, so you know who to blame if things go awry.
But sheer coincidence, Matthew Davies and Dave Stoyles of Monkey Fighting’ Snakes were scheduled to perform later in the afternoon, so it seemed a no-brainer to stick around for their show. As the Tranzac has almost non-stop programming, I also had the chance to catch a set by artists who are also on the bill for the above-mentioned festival, notably Howard Gladstone, Lynn Harrison and Laura Fernandez, very ably accompanied by Bob Cohen, a fave sideman of many artists I know. I look forward to more of their songs at Winterfolk.
Laura Fernandez, Howard Gladstone and Bob Chen
Lynn Harrison with Bob
After their set, Dave and Matthew set up to accompany John Victor. Opening for them was Barbara Lynch, new to me, and quite a revelation. Her poignant and often humorous songs were supported by great blues/ragtime/boogie virtuosity. Below is a sample of a song that some involves “locust” and “boogie” in the same title, and you can listen to her studio album on Apple Music or other tunes captured at the Tranzac on John Victor’s Facebook timeline.
Following her set, John, Matt and Dave performed a tasty set of original tunes, which you can listen to in rehearsal on his Facebook page. I had the opportunity to chat briefly with his John’s brother, Juno award winning producer Michael Wojewoda, helping out on sound. Wow!
Dave Stoyles on bass, John Victor on guitar and Matthew Davies on Dobro, guitar and banjo
As a bunch of other musical types showed up for this, we were hungry, and it was Stir-It-Up Sunday, we all transited to Relish for a fun evening of open-mic’ness.
Dave and Matthew insatiable for more playing, along with the superb Paul Brennan on drums.
It was a chance to première a brand new song, and play a familiar one. I got home a bit late…
Oh, and some kind of sport thing happened too.
Go Ti-Cats!
Gig Update
The previously announced show at the Dock on Queen has to be deferred due to scheduling conflict. A new date is in the works.
Step right this way!
felixandthecats.com 