Mark Hansen Music - LDS Rock Music - Free Downloads

Mark Hansen Music - LDS Rock Music - Free Downloads
Get the new CD, "The Third Time" HERE




WARNING: Listening to this music doesn't require parental approval. It's a bit of clean rebellion. It keeps your outlook up and your hope alive. It's got strong drums and screaming guitars. It pumps you up and drives your life. It's a hunger for exploration. It chooses the right and returns with honor. It's music you don't have to confess to your bishop.

It's not your parents' "Saturday’s Warrior".

It's "A Joyful Noise"

Friday, December 30, 2005

Wow! I've just finished the preliminary mix of "How Beautiful" and I'm very very excited. I'm trying not to let myself burn the finals just yet!

Three ladies from the LDS musicians list came over and cut the soprano parts, the final piece of the puzzle for the song.

Then, I set it up and mixed it. I took a slightly different approach this time. I set the lead vocal up, then mixed the choir around it. Got a pretty good blend, both with the choir parts in relation to the others and in relation to the lead vocal. Then, I muted the choir and started with my traditional mixing of the Kick and Bass with the lead vocal. I got a good instrumental mix in relation to the lead vocal, and then brought the choir back in.

I think it feels pretty solid. But we'll have to see when my ears are more fresh and I've spun it on a few other systems.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, December 22, 2005

What a cool morning! I woke up at about three, unable to sleep. Finally, at about a quarter to four, I got up and came into the studio. I checked my email first, mostly out of habit, but then I got to comping the vocals I'd cut the other night.

"Beautiful" is a difficult song to sing. It is right in my range, but it's one of those songs that's vocally-based. I mean, it's not a guitar-driven song, so I have to be much pickier on what makes the cut on the singing. But I think I've put together a track that I'm pleased with.

Then, I put down a live bass line, to replace the synth one I've been using for so many years.

And it HAS BEEN YEARS. Literally. I mean, I wrote this tune in '01, and started recording it not too long after that. There's been three attempts at the choir, this last one finally being the one that works. At least so far. We still have to cut the Sopranos...

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, December 19, 2005

OK, it's been a seriously long time since I did any real music. I've been doing some mixing for Linda, my old voice teacher, and she's promised me some lessons in exchange. I'm pretty stoked about that.

But tonight, I cut some lead vocals for "How Beautiful". I think there's actually some keeper parts. I'm pretty pleased, if I do say so, myself. The high part at the end is pretty scary, tho. I think I'll have one of the sopranos cut it as a sort of ostinato. It's just not coming out right when I do it. :-(

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, November 25, 2005

Hey, today was a fun day. My dad is in town, and tonight he came over an cut the baritone and bass lines for the choir parts of "How Beautiful". It was very special for me to have my dad sing something on one of my tunes. I'm glad I got to share that with him!


MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Sunday, October 30, 2005

So, yesterday was a pretty crazy day. But it did have some musical success in it!

I finished "Play the Cards". I got up in the morning, comped the vocals and did a rough mix. The mix was pretty much straightforward, nothing fancy or tricky about it. Then, after a few listens in other systems, I made a few tweaks. The kick drum and bass were a tich hot.

And then I burned the mixes.

That makes five new songs since "Generation".

The other night when I was playing the insomniac, I was browsing through old studio blog entries. I kept finding references to some of the songs I'm working on now, but they're, like, a year or two old. I kinda find it funny thinking that these are "new" songs, but in a way, too, they are, because when I record them, or finish the recordings, I'm breathing new life into them.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

I cut some lead vocals for "Play the Cards" tonight. I think at this point, all that's left is post-production kinds of things. Comping the vocals, preping the tracks, and the final mix. I could have it done by next week! Woot!

Jordyn Mathis, the girl that came over a couple of weeks ago to add some harmony vocals to the country tune I was working on, wants to interview me for a paper she's writing for class. She sent me some questions, so I thought it would be fun to post them and my answers here.

1. How many instruments do you play?

How many do I play, or how many do I play well? :-) I primarily think of myself as a singer/songwriter first, and a producer second. Then, I think the next best thing I do is guitar and bass. Usually, however, I’m thinking of those in the context of the song. I usually write on the acoustic guitar, sometimes on the electric.

On my first CD, “One United Generation”, I only played a few of the lead guitar parts. Some friends of mine put the rest of them down. On my new tunes, however, I’m finding myself being much more confident in my lead playing, so I’ve played them all so far.

I can kinda punch out a keyboard track, and do OK with it, but I don’t really consider myself to be a “piano player”. If I want a piano track, and it’s got any elaboration at all, I’ll have someone else cut it. Block chords on an organ or pad sort of sound on a synth, I can handle that, pretty well! String lines, horn parts, weird synth bits, too. But I’m not a pianist by any stretch of the imagination.

I grew up playing the cello in my school orchestras, but I haven’t touched one in over 20 years. I love the sound of it, though, when it’s played well.

2. How long does it usually take to record the music using all the instruments?

Start to finish, a song can usually take me about 20 hours or so to complete. Not bad for a five minute song, eh? Once I’ve worked out the words, the melody and the chords, I’ll call up my music program on the computer and usually lay down a very rough drum part. It’s more to get the feel and be a metronome than to be anything particularly special. In fact, on most of my songs, I’ll have a live drummer replace those early rough tracks anyway.

I’ll usually lay down a synth bass part, too, so that I can keep track of the chord progression and where I am in the song.

Then I’ll cut some guitar parts, depending on what the song is like. If it’s a rock tune, they’ll be electrics. If it’s a more mellow tune, it’ll probably be the acoustic.

Then, I’ll sing a scratch vocal line. I usually don’t do that more than one take, because it’s mainly to guide me with the melody while I’m adding other parts. It won’t stay.

At that point, I have the foundation for the song. I’ll listen to it over and over and over and over. I’ll let my mind wander on it, thinking of other parts to add, other ways to shape the song. One by one, I’ll cut them. I’ll also cut keeper guitar tracks. Some songs will have as many as ten layers of guitar tracks, each adding more texture to the mix. If I have to bring in other players to play certain parts, like the drums or the horns, I will.

The lead guitar is usually one of the last bits of the instrumentation that I do.

3. How long does it usually take to cut a song after the music is recorded?

What I’ll do is set aside a one or two hour block of time and I’ll set up 8 or so empty tracks. Then, one by one, I’ll sing the song over and over again, filling all of those 8, sometimes 10 tracks. I’ll also usually cut a few harmony vocal tracks, depending on how tired my voice is.

Then, I’ll go back and listen to each take of each phrase, and pick the best one. I’ll pick the one that’s in tune the best, that has the best expression and inflection. Then I’ll composite a full vocal track (called “comping” in the industry) from all those parts. That can be time consuming.

The lead vocals is the last thing I cut.

At that point, the song is ready to mix. Getting the right mix and blend of all the instruments and the voices usually takes me a couple of tries, at one or two hours apiece. I’ll do a mix, and then I’ll make a CD and listen to it lots of times and in lots of different sound systems. That’ll usually tell me things that need to be fixed. I’ll come back and tweak it some more, then burn it and listen again. “Millstones” took me four tries to finally get it right. That was the hardest mix of all in “Generation”. The strings were constantly competing with the guitars!

Then I make my files and put it on my website!

4. What made you decide to produce your own music?

Lots of factors—

One, the fact that I can. I know what I want, and I think I do a pretty good job of getting it.

Two, it’s fun. I really enjoy doing it. I really like the songs that have been inspired to me. I like making them. I love the process of bringing a song from just an idea to a fully fleshed-out recording. And I like listening to them. I really do listen to my own tunes, in spite of the flaws, almost as much as I listen to other artists.

Three, it’s a lot cheaper. In fact, if I had to pay someone else to produce me, I wouldn’t be able to afford to do it at all. So, over the years, I’ve kinda had to do it myself, or it wouldn’t get done.


5. What do you want audiences to feel when hearing your music?

I want them to think, to feel, but mostly to have fun. The lyrics I write are, I think, thought-provoking, but overall I’d like to have people leave one of my shows feeling energized, cleaned out, and thrilled.

6. What is the most important thing to know about the studio when you are recording....? ( this ones not very specific I basically mean how do certain things work like the mic and the headphones etc....)

Well, that depends a little on what your role in the recording process is. As the producer, it’s important to have a clear vision of what the ending song is going to sound like, and what elements you’re going to bring in to make it happen. As a singer, it’s important to know the song, and to be practiced. As the engineer/recordist, it’s the technical. The mics, the instruments, the software.

The studio is a tool, or better, a tool box. And like a carpenter knows how to use the tools to build the house, the producer knows how to use the studio to build the song.

The song really should be at the center of the focus. And by the song I mean the words and the melody. There are some people that create background music fully produced, and then they write the lyrics. I can’t imagine working that way. If I don’t have the core song worked out, there’s no point in recording anything. It’d be like eating a full meal of side dishes with no main course. What’s the point of it all, without the message that the words and the melody bring? So, everything in the arrangement has to support the core song. If it detracts, then throw it out.


Thanks, Jordyn!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Sunday, October 23, 2005

I'm crazy.

That's right, it's official.

Completely nutzo.

My wife and I went Christmas shopping today, and I got to thinking how cool it would be to put together a Christmas single for my family and friends. Wouldn't that be great!?

Well, the trouble is, that it kinda centered around this hairbrained idea I'd had a long time ago to do a sort of Bobby McFerrin a capella version of "Silent Night". The problem that I forget is that Bobby McFerrin is an incredible singer! I gotta stop this nonsense that I do from time to time by thinking I can tackle a project that I'm not up to yet!

The tracks I cut tonight will have to be scrapped, mainly because it was in the wrong key for me, but also because they were simply not good enough.

Stretching? Like I said, I gotta be crazy. Because I'm going to work on it and see if I can't pull it off!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, October 20, 2005

I shoulda done this years ago!

For literally three years, now, I've been trying to get choirs together, rehearse them, and record them singing the choral parts to "How Beautiful". It's got that Gospel sorta call and response thing goin on that John wrote for it.

Well, I finally decided that I would try it again, but this time I brought in two altos, and line by line, bit by bit we recorded the alto part. Twice. And it was sooo easy, and it worked so well, and it only took us a little over an hour.

I'm amazed. Now, I just need to do it with the other three parts. I can't wait until Thanksgiving and Dad comes home to record the Bass part! Fun!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, October 14, 2005

Today was a kind of fun musical day. I've been thinking about adding a section of songs to the music page. I think it would be fun to re-release some of my really old stuff as singles. I mean old stuff, like from back in the "Joyful Noise" days. I figure I can put it out on my site, like once a month or so, when I don't put out a new tune, to kind of keep things happening at the site.

So, I've been listening to all the old stuff, and I'm really proud of the writing and the arranging on most of those tunes, but some of the vocals are pretty atrocious... I'll have to choose them carefully so as not to frighten away my audience!

And then, tonight, I did some more work on "Dancin'". I started out by just laying down another scratch vocal. I thought I'd reworked the lyrics and so I'd do it again... Also, I've been working out almost every day, and doing my vocal work as well, so I went into it pretty confident. But I was still surprised. Just a coupla takes and I've got an almost keeper track!

Then I added a few more bits of harmony vocal, and played with it to create an up-rush reverse reverb at the beginning (it was fun to figure out how to do that...) and then some roughs on the horn parts.

On the horns, I couldn't get my sampler to play right, so I finally gave up on it and just loaded up a soft synth and pulled up any old horn section patch. It was pretty cheezy, but it held the notes. When John comes in and plays it, it'll sound much punchier.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, October 10, 2005

Kind of a musical weekend, except that I spent Sunday down sick. I was mopin' around pretty bad, then. I had a bum tooth, a big headache, and I was trying to catch up on my sleep. More about that in a minute.

Friday, after work, I went to Matt Whitney's to help him track some of his tunes. We worked first on "Moment of Choice", cleaning up some of the piano tracks he'd been working on. Then we tracked the piano for "DC Tonight". This is seriously one of the best tunes that he's ever done. Certainly the most commercial.

Then Morey showed up and we got his kit all set up and miked up. Unfortunately, I had to leave as he started the tracking. John also showed up to play some trumpet parts. I didn't get to hear those, either, but he said they went well enough.

Then, Saturday night, my tooth hurt a lot and I couldn't sleep at all. So, rather than lying in bed counting the holes in the cieling tile, I worked on "Dance With the Devil". I put down a live bass line, and then some lead guitar licks. I'm excited with the way this one's turning out.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, October 03, 2005

After a guitar lesson today, I pulled out "Play the Cards". I haven't worked on this one in a very very long time. Well, actually, since July. I guess that could be considered a long time. Especially when you consider how close to being done I really am.

I cleaned up the drum track (it didn't need much cleaning) that Steve Hill had added while Jodi was in Tucson. Did the same for the horn parts that John had cut. I added a distorted organ in some of the later parts to help fill it out.

Basically, at this point all it needs is some timing clean ups on the bass and some guitar parts, and a lead guitar. And then it'll be ready for the final vocals. I'm not sure that I'll even want harmony vocals on this one. I'll have to see.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, October 01, 2005

It's done! I just finished the final mix of "Drivin' a Ford"! My first paying gig in a long time is done! Here's to many more!

It really felt good to be able to feed back into our family's budget with money made musically. For such a long time, it felt like I was just leeching time away from family. And I guess I am. So, it feels good to give back to the family in some way. And it came at a very necessary time, too.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Stu came over this morning and he cut the vocals for "I Was Drivin' a Ford". I had sparkled up the drums a bit last night, as well. He was pretty pleased with the results. It's always nice to have a happy client.

Jordyn came in and added some tasty upper harmonies, as well.

So, now all that's left for this tune is the final mix and I'll be able to deliver it.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Got a little more done on "Dance with the Devil". It's really coming a long. I've got the entire structure of the song laid out, and the electric and acoustic rhythm parts recorded. They feel like keepers.

I changed the key to A. Normally, A is a bad key for me to sing in, but this time the melody is fitting nicely in my range. It feels a lot better on the guitar, too. John will be surprised to read that... :-)

The lyrics are still troubling me, though. And I've finally figured out why. The first two verses are in past tense. "The devil CAME whispering in my ear...", "The music PLAYED, and we DANCED some more..." Then the chorus is in present tense: "I don't wanna dance with the devil anymore..."

The third verse is also in present tense, and then the outro choruses are the same.

The problem is that the first two verses feel like they should be in the past, and the reset should be in the present, but the transition is really really clumsy.

The harmonies that I've laid down for the chorus rock. I've got some pretty decent scratch vocals for the guide track, too. It'll all be re-recorded because there's some pitch problems, but it'll blend very nicely.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, September 22, 2005

I just had Jordyn Mathis in my studio, cutting some songs. What a voice! She's not quite polished, but she's strong! Remember, when you're buying her CD's out of Deseret Book in a few years, you heard her name here first!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Well, after a really stressful, horrible, no good day at work, I came home and got to unwind with my boys a bit. Then after that, I thought some music would help me feel better.

There are a lot of projects I NEEDED to work on, but I decided instead to just have some fun. So, I threw down some scratch tracks for "Dance With the Devil". There's really nothing keepable on it, especially since I'll probably shift the key. But it's a fun, heavy rockin' tune.

Here's the lyrics, even thought they'll also get revised a lot before I'm done.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Sunday, September 18, 2005

My friend, Diego, who designed my CD cover, has been talking about doing some CD-Rom development, and asked me to come up with some music loop demos. So, tonight, I sat down and did one. He was looking for one in a sort of retro feel. So, I had this cool snappy clean guitar riff with a slapback echo on it, and I threw down some chords in a 12 bar blues sorta feel, and it ended up being a kind of cross between Peter Gunn and the old Batman theme.

Unfortunately, there's probably too much similarity with the batman theme. :-(

But I did learn how to do swing quantizing!


MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I replaced the bass track on "Drivin' a Ford", that country tune, tonight. Kinda fun! Now that Cubase allows me to tweak the timings of even audio tracks, I like playing the bass tracks live instead of MIDI. I can make it just as tight, but still keep the deep and punchy sound of a real bass guitar. Synth bass can be cool for some situations, but it's just not the same.

I run my bass through my V-amp, and this particular combination of amp and dials gave it a tich of distortion, which I kinda liked. I'd rolled off most of the high end on the bass itself, so there wasn't much up there to begin with, but there was still a hint of distortion in the upper midrange. Pretty cool sound!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Last night and this morning, I've been reviewing the mp3's that Jason Jones recorded of the LDSIM Fest. He managed to record much of the show, and Neal over at LDSAudio.com mentioned that he'd love to review anything we got to post over there for sale.

Well, I'm pretty excited about the possibility of our stuff being promoted over there, so I'm in the process of splitting it out into individual songs (each performer was one long mp3 file) and doing a little bit of mastering sorts of things on them. Nothing much, just adding a little tweak of compression to goose a little more volume out of them, and since the sound came straight off the PA, adding a twitch of reverb.

Jason really did a great job of recording the tunes. I'd love to see them get some circulation, and promote the artists.

The first one I've been working on is Sam Payne. What a show he did! He's really quite the entertainer, and a great songwriter, too. It's fun to hear the verbal intros to the songs, because that's where you get the context for what his tunes mean.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, September 12, 2005

It's been literally years--count them--YEARS since I worked on a country tune, before this project came up. I've kept my ear to it, to be sure, just to hear how things are developing and changing. But to be honest, it was a lot of fun for this old rocker to play some good ol' boy licks on his gee-tar the other day.

I got my studio back in relative working order. That means that I can record in it, and I can see the floor, but it's pretty much still a mess. There's no desk space and the shelves are disorganized clutter. But I can still put some notes to bits!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Woo Hoo!

After a week of chaos and destruction, my studio is once again active! Jodi decided she wanted to shift her scrapbooking room, and in the process of doing that, we decided that the studio and the bedroom needed to be moved as well.

So, even though the room I'm in is slightly smaller than the other room, my speakers are better placed, and I have much more shelf space. So, I'm doin' pretty well. Unfortunately, right now, very little is on the shelves, as most of it is still in a huge pile taking up most of the floor.

I've already thrown out or given away much of my stuff. Probably about a fourth of my stuff. OK, I'm a pack rat, I accept that. And it was tough getting rid of some of the memories and souveneirs I've acquired over the years, but have never actually done anything with.

But now I'm starting fresh, and I'm psyched. The speakers are better placed for better mixes, everything (except the MIDI keyboard) is plugged in and tested, and I'm good to go!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, August 29, 2005

This last weekend was our sixth annual LDSMusicians Festival. It was by far the best ever, in all the years that I’ve been doing it, guiding it, experiencing it, this was a year of major growth for me. Here’s my report.

Friday

Friday afternoon was crazy. Earlier in the day, I had a flat tire, we had to get Jacob to the doctor, lots of things getting in the way. In retrospect, I think it’s very similar to the things that happen every time we get ready to go to the temple.

Pretty soon it was evident that we were going to miss the 3:30 session that we had planned as the start of the fest. So, I called and let them know to not wait for us. At that point, I considered bagging it, but I knew that I needed to do it. I needed to consecrate the weekend, and starting it in the temple was a part of that, whether or not I actually got to do that with any of my musician friends. Jodi and I would go through anyway.

It turned out that Julie was also running late, so she went through with us.

That temple session set the tone for the entire fest. Many times, over the course of the weekend, I would simply feel the swelling of the Spirit and I would tear up. Even at the stupidest of moments. It’s tough for guys when that happens! :-)

From there, I crossed the street to the UDC chapel to set up for the workshops. I had prepared a workshop called “Scriptures for Musicians”, based largely on the blogs I’ve done over the last few years with that subtitle. As I’ve been reading the scriptures, I’ve been amazed at how many of them have jumped out at me as referring to my musical efforts.

I was concerned about the turnout. Julie had made arrangements to have Jeannine Laskey to come and give us a songwriting class and critique. She’s very involved in the NSAI and a very accomplished songwriter, and I was concerned that we’d have enough people to make it worth her while.

It turned out we did, although the people tended to trickle in on “Mormon Standard Time”! There were even a couple of people not on our email group, that had heard about the workshops from ads or other promotions. They were fun to meet.

I did my presentation, sharing those scriptures, and talking about those verses having just come out of the temple was very spiritual for me. I got to share many of the experiences that sparked those personal revelations, and it felt great to me.

Jeannine’s presentation was wonderful as well, and she shared some of her early, difficult life, and how that impacted her songwriting. One of the reasons why I don’t usually like critique sessions is that, too often, the guest will critique from the perspective of commercial songwriting, and not acknowledge that there are other reasons for and methods of writing. Jeannine embraced that and helped everyone take their songs to a newer level. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday

Saturday began when I arrived at Morey’s house. He’d called me earlier to warn that he’d not been feeling well that week. When I arrived, he was not looking well at all. I was quite at a loss. He’s our lighting man. What would we do in the evening show? But, he was willing to carry on. I gave him a quick blessing, we finished the loading up, and we were off to the Amphitheatre.

When we arrived, Cole was already setting up the sound. I suggested Morey rest while we waited for more folks to arrive and help unload the lights. They arrived very quickly and we began the process. Matt, Marshall, Zack, many others arrived, and work began.

This is one of the parts of the fest that I like the most. As people begin arriving, some from great distances, we meet, embrace, chat, then get to work. Brad from Border Crossing, our group’s original founder from Idaho. Kent from Arizona. Dorshan from Nashville. Many of the people that arrive are folks that I’ve been virtual friends with for a long time, but had never yet had the chance to meet face to face.

Things start happening, the show and the stage start to come together. Some clean up, some set up the sponsors and the CD sales tables, some sweep the amphitheatre, each dives in and begins the effort.

At about noon, we break for lunch and have our “song circles”. That’s a tradition that grew out of our first fest. As we were having lunch on the lawn by the amphitheatre, guitars seemed to jump out of cases, and we started playing each other songs and jamming. We’d share what we’d been working on and just having a great time.

Soon, at around 2:00 or so, we start to see audience trickling in. Many are family and friends of performers. The afternoon show starts. Frankly, too me the afternoon show was a blur. I was spending a lot of that time walking around, checking on this, working on that, making sure that things were going smoothly. I’m sure that there were some great performances, but I didn’t absorb many of them. Tom Halverson showed how incredible his bass playing was, Lloyd Plum showed some guitar pyrotechnics both in classical and hard rock. Dorshan sang, and many others were there as well. I know I’ll get in trouble for forgetting many people, but I was just too distracted.

Not long after we started, clouds started rolling over, and the winds began to pick up. I got really, really nervous. I thought, at first, that the storm was going to miss us. For the most part, it did, but the clouds seemed to hover over us for a long time. We did get one rain squall which lasted for only a minute or two. Not much to worry about. But I did, anyway.

About halfway through the show, the clouds cleared. It turned out to be very nice that way, because it had kept the hot afternoon sun out of the amphitheatre, and not done much raining.

Soon after the clouds cleared, I had the chance to go on stage with Matt, Morey and John and play with Random Tangent. It has been so stinkin’ much fun working with those guys this last year. I’ve learned a lot from each of them. By this time, Morey was feeling much better. Certainly not feeling WELL, but much better. We were all grateful for that.

Then, with the afternoon show done, we began setting up for the Evening Showcase. Connie had suggested that we start and close the shows with a prayer, and that sank in and felt very good in my heart. I was a little nervous how it would transition, a solemn prayer, and then my rock tunes (I was starting the show), but inside, I knew it would work.

So, that’s how we began. Pat Arp gave a beautiful opening prayer, and I ripped into “Turn it Up”. The show was off and running!

I was amazed, one at a time, at each of the following performers. It was still a blur for me, as I was the MC, and coordinating prize drawings with the sponsors and the CD table, getting artists ready, moving things on stage, etc…

I was amazed at how Eric Herman had all the kids (and especially mine) in the safe and fun palm of his hand. He’s found his niche, and he’s got it nailed. Brendon and Jake have been singing his songs ever since.

In spite of EnZign’s technical troubles, they did a great performance.

Crinna Hill is just constantly getting better and better. It was especially cool to see Dad Roberts step up with his electric slung low and wail. Man! What a guitarist, and I’ve always loved what he writes.

I’ve always been amazed to watch how the two Border Crossing guys can have an audience captured so easily and so calmly.

And I’ve always raved about Sam. What an incredible and adaptable performer. At one point, there was some tech troubles. He told his band to groove a little while he tried to get his instrument working (Inside reference: Thanks for forgiving me, Sam!). When they did, he picked up on the tune they were playing, grabbed a little bit of hand percussion and sang a song they’d not planned. They could have gone on and on and on, and I wouldn’t have minded a bit.

After the strike, I was hammered. I felt like I had been run over by a truck. I was hobbling because I could hardly walk. That’s OK, that’s what happens every year, when an old man like me runs up and down the brick steps of the amphitheatre too many times, and hauls too much gear around.

But we had to go to the after party. That’s where a lot of the fun is. And it was. Swapping songs in a circle (even if Brad and Steve never played my request, Dave did…), and laughing a LOT. Making new inside jokes (we do have the holiest crap of all, don’t we?), and mostly being amazed and feeling both tight in a loving circle of friends, and like an outsider not worthy of hanging with all these real musicians and truly spiritual giants. And it’s especially cool, if I can digress, to see just how much their spirituality comes shining through their music, even when they’re playing silly songs and making me laugh until I’m not sure if I’m crying because I can’t breathe, or because I’m being touched so deeply.

Finally, Morey and I went home. I got to bed at about 4:00

Sunday

And yet, I still somehow managed to get up and be on time for church the next morning. Go figure.

The last event of our fest, for the last two years, has been the Sunday Devotional. This year, it was headed up by M Ryan Taylor, and he did a fabulous job. Not only with his own work, but in conducting the meeting with heart and Spirit.

One part of that I especially enjoyed was being able to sing some of Bruce “Bruceman” Forbes’ hymn texts as the break hymn and closing hymn. It was a real moment for me to finally give voice to his many contributions to our group over the years.

I learned a lot this fest. I saw people giving time, money and effort (some did all three), even when they had little promotional interest in the fest. I saw many go over and above the call of what was reasonable to get it accomplished (Thanks, Morey). Those contributions and the incredible performances were very humbling for me. I enjoyed very much renewing old friendships, making virtual friendships real, and even finally repairing a broken one, releasing a grudge that my own wounded pride had clung to way, way too long.

Starting and ending the Fest on a Spiritual high bookended the weekend beautifully for me. Many many times my eyes welled up. I guess I’m just getting old and sentimental. I really grew a lot this year. It was our best show ever, but it was way more than a show for me.


MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, August 25, 2005

Yesterday was an interesting promotional day. If you read my moboy blog, you'll notice that I spent the morning getting my fifteen seconds of fame on Channel 13 promoting the LDS Independent Music Festival in American Fork this weekend. That was fun, though a bit nerve-wracking. I've never been interviewed on TV before. The band EnZign got to play songs three times for the broadcast. You can't buy that kind of publicity.

Behold the power of the press release!

And last night, I was interviewed for one of the two existing LDS-themed podcasts. What fun. I really love it when the interviewer is really good. Dallas Robbins, of Latter Day Slant was doing the interview, and though he claimed to not have any experience at it, he did everything right.

If you ever want to be an interviewer, here's the rules:

1-Do your homework. Find out about the interviewee as much as possible beforehand. Read their book. Listen to their music. Check some of their other press. Become aware.

2-Prepare areas you want to discuss, but don't plan a list of exact questions. This is one thing I don't like about email interviews. They don't have the spontenaity of a face-to-face conversation.

3-Make the interviewee feel comfortable. I don't like confrontational styles of interviewing. I don't like being on either side of that table. I don't think it gets the kinds of answers anyone wants.

He did all these things. And he did them better, I thought, than many of the "professional" reporters I've had to deal with.

And the fact that I enjoy talking about myself didn't hurt, either... :-)

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, August 19, 2005

Well, last night we had what may well be the last "Random Tangent" rehearsal ever. I put that in quotes because I imagine that in one form or another, we'll all keep getting together, but quite possibly not as RT. See, John's going back to school, and the rest of us already struggle to make rehearsals fit into family and work times.

It's a real shame, because it was also one of our best rehearsals ever. The tunes flowed pretty nicely. I hope it goes half that well when we perform at the fest next weekend. I know it won't, but I can dream, right? It always seems that the songs go about half as well as the best rehearsal run-through...

We're doing "Moment of Choice", "DC Tonight", "Dancin' Their Lives Away" (one of mine), and "We Get What We Want".

We might get together and do some recording this fall. That would be cool, but also surprising. I just doubt we'll be able to pull it all together, timewise.

I met with Stu, the country singer, again today. He's given me his revisions for "I was Drivin' a Ford". I can get started on it, now. Doesn't that sound so much like a country tune? It'll be fun to work with!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, August 12, 2005

About a month ago, I was contacted by a country songwriter to do some arranging and producing. It got me kinda excited. I was a little nervous about it taking more time away from the family, but it turns out that the family really needs the money right now, so it'll be good for us, too.

He's hard-core traditional country! Truck Drivin' songs and all!

Well, we've been playing phone tag, back and forth, and we finally settled in on a song to start with. I started playing with it tonight, just some rough drums, bass and guitar, to let him listen. It was kinda fun, except that there were more MIDI problems in Cubase...

So, anyway, I'm pretty excited to be back doing music production for money.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, August 11, 2005

I tell ya, I so, so needed today to happen!

I don’t know if I mentioned it before here in the blog, but a while ago, “One United Generation” got picked up by a distributor (Windriver Distributing). And I’ve been pretty excited about it. They took a whole bunch of CD’s to the Nauvoo Pageant, and sold a few.

Anyway, today, they got me into the LDSBA show! For those that don’t know, that’s the Latter-Day Saint Bookseller’s Association trade show. It happens every summer. Publishers and distributors and creators set up booths to show off the latest and greatest in LDS stuff. The thing is, it’s a closed show. Not open to the public. It’s primarily designed as a time where manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors show off their wares to retail store owners. And they come from all over to buy their inventory for the next year. There were some from England and Australia there today!

So, Windriver had gotten a booth (their third straight year), and invited their artists and authors to arrive and do signings. I’ve been wanting to go to this show for the ten+ years that I’ve been trying to do LDS music. So, I wasn’t about to miss this opportunity.

So, I took the day off work, and spent the whole morning in their booth, signing CD’s and getting my sales pitch on! I finally got to meet JB Howick, the owner, and his wife, and they’re great people. And it was wonderful to show so many people my style of Mormon rock! There were a few retailers that placed orders that included my CD on the spot, and I understand that most of the ordering happens in the week or two that follows. That’s as people get home and start sorting through all the swag and free samples they got.

It was great to interact with people, and to get so much positive feedback. I really needed that, especially after the small turnout at the American Fork show, and the almost complete lack of responsiveness at the Raspberry Days Festival performance. I’d really felt down these last few weeks.

So much so, in fact, that I hadn’t blogged about either of those two events. Sorry about that! But today kinda restored my faith in pushing forward. I mean, I know that I’m going to keep on keepin’ on anyway, but it’s sure a lot easier when you feel like you’re makin’ a splash somewhere…

I got to meet some cool people, too. Like John Moyer, the screenwriter of “The Singles Ward” and the “RM”, and now the director and writer of “Mobsters and Mormons”. I can’t wait to see that one!

Anyway, I’m back at it.



MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, July 22, 2005

I think I've finished the mix of "Where's My Soul". I've burned all the requisite copies, anyway (wav, mp3, and wma for weedifying). With any luck, it'll be on the site by the show next weekend! I hope to see lots of you there.


MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, July 21, 2005

I just finished a preliminary mix of "Where's My Soul". I've tried something different. Instead of gently compressing the overall output, to make the final print a little louder and control the overall volume level, I put compression (sometimes radical compression) on almost all of the individual parts. It's an interesting sound. I'll need to compare it side-by-side with my other mixes and with other CD's.

Hmmmm..

This IS a really fun tune. It's so dramatically different from anything I've ever done before, especially in the vocals. It'll be interesting to see and hear the reactions I get from others.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005

OK, this is crazy. I don't know why I stay up so late, but I do. Insomnia, whatever...

I started by cutting some quick guitar parts on "Where's My Soul". I wanted to split the chords on the turnaround into stereo so it would sound bigger, then tighten up again in the verse groove. That worked pretty well. Then, the only thing that was left was to sparkle up the drum tracks a bit. Pretty easy to do.

Now all the tracking is done. It's all post-production and mix that's left. Comping the vocals, blending everything and putting it all done. Probably a total of about 5-6 hours. I don't know when I'll get the chance to do it, but maybe over the course of a few nights...

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, July 16, 2005

OK, I'm doing Karaoke tonight, at the Draper Theatre. It's a family place, right? Not a bar. And this girl gets up to take her turn singing a song. She's 11, may be 12 at the most. She starts to sing this boppy little love song. It's got a fun groove to it, and the girl's got a killer voice. Pretty soon the audience is all moving along with her, including her dad, who's running the karaoke machine.

Then she hits the second verse. It's got some words to the effect that the singer doesn't care that the partner is wearing someone else's ring, and that he/she doesn't feel guilty at all. Then it comes to the chorus again about "I'll be the one to tuck you in at night..."

And all this is being belted out by this little girl, who's probably still in elementary school!

I look over at her dad, sitting at the karaoke table, and he's just grooving to the tune and singing along.

Hello! Am I the only one that has a problem with this? Help me out, here...

On a happier note, I got to see Crinna Hill perform down at the Brigham Young park tonight. They did a great job. They get better every time I see them. Austin's becoming quite the drummer. I might just have him do some tracking for me in the future...


MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, July 15, 2005

I got a lot done tonight on "Where's My Soul". That's the fun one with the growled vocals. In fact, I did the lead vocals tonight. I still need to comp them, though. I can work on that bit by bit over the weekend.

John made up some really fun horn parts. This one was interesting, because I didn't have any real ideas for them first. With most of the other songs, I've already got them input as MIDI notes first, then we replace the sampled sounds with real horns. But this time, it was all John. His ideas, his playing. And it's really coool.

So, now I just have to recut some bits in the rhythm guitar, and I'm thinking I'll bring in someone to sing some little backing vocal bits. I'll have to see if maybe Sherri can come in.

I also have to sparkle up the drum tracks. It's pretty much a loop right now. The song is supposed to be pretty stiff and mechanical, so I'm not going to go overboard to make it sound natural, but there are some spots where it needs a snare fill and some crash cymbals.

I've been practicing a lot getting ready for the gig on the 30th, too. I'm very excited to do that one, and I hope I can get a fairly decent crowd. We'll just have to see...

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Sunday, July 10, 2005

I played the gig downtown today, and that was a lot of fun. I think that, tops, we had, maybe 10 people listening at any one time. Still, I thought my performance went pretty well.

I tried out "Today and Yesterday", and "Turn it Up" in the set, and I was glad I did it today. I was a little nervous about them both. I've been practicing them a lot, especially in the car as I drive to and from work, but I'm always nervous about forgetting the words. Sometimes that happens, even with songs I'm really familiar with.

But I didn't and that was cool.

Also, with "Today and Yesterday", I wasn't sure just how the "whispered" vocals would impact my sung vocals. I'd cut them after I'd cut the regular lead vocals, so I wasn't used to singing the song with those echoes going on. But it didn't throw me in performance, at least not this time.

In fact, the only song I had troubles with was "Toy Soldiers", because if I talk or anything at the beginning, then I lose count of how many measures of drums happen and I don't come in at the right spot.

"How can you tell if there's a singer at your door?

"He can't find the key and he doesn't know when to come in!"


:-)

Then John and I went to the SLC Jazz festival where I was completely blown away! I'll write more about that over at Mo' Boy, though...

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, July 08, 2005

John came over tonight for the first time in I don't know how long. I think it's been since the Tooele park gig we did as Random Tangent...

And after visiting, he cut the trumpets for "Play the cards". It's going to take some comping of that, too. I keep writing parts way up in the stratosphere of the trumpet's range, and that makes it tough for him to play. But, like a trooper, he gives it his all, and usually nails it, with a minimum amount of post-production cutting and tweaking.

Then we started listening to the "Turn it Up" mix, and we realized that it was way too cluttered and not "breathing" right. I pulled the distortion off the bass, and re-EQ'ed the guitars (they stand out pretty strong, now, but still don't compete with the vocals.

As we were listening after that, John says, "That synth patch isn't right". So we started loading up other synths and trying other sounds. We found one, and with a little tweaking, made it work much better than the one I was originally using. Then we ended up playing it through a tube distortion simulator plug-in, and that both fuzzed in with the guitars, but also made it a bit "warmer". It sounds great, now.

So, anyway, that mix is done. I've even sent it to be weedified.

At work today, I came up with a new song, off a snippet of a chorus that I'd been writing on and off for a long time. Here's the first draft:

Dancin’ with the Devil
By Mark Hansen
7/7/2005

The devil came whispering in my ear
Words that I knew I didn’t want to hear
You don’t have to serve me he said with a smile
But you and I can dance for a little while

And as we moved across the floor
It seemed so easy, I was sure


The music played and I danced some more
Suddenly I wasn’t where I was before
The place looked different, but familiar, too
Suddenly alone, no one close that I knew

And as we two-stepped across the floor
I knew it had to stop, I knew for sure... that...


Chorus:
I don’t wanna dance with the devil anymore
I won’t take a chance with my soul anymore
I won’t take my glance off heaven anymore
I don’t wanna dance with the devil anymore


It’d be so easy just to step away
If it wasn’t so easy to dance this way
I feel my heartbeat, I feel my fear
I’ve gotta let go and run away from here

I’m not the devil’s partner, I’m not his man
And now I’m gonna break off gonna make my stand


Chorus:
I don’t wanna dance with the devil anymore
I won’t take a chance with my soul anymore
I won’t take my glance off heaven anymore
I don’t wanna dance with the devil anymore




MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, July 07, 2005

So, I get home after a long day at work, all excited to work on the tune. I pull it up and I start comping the vocals. Great stuff... It's sounding good. Sometimes it's hard to decide which take to choose because they're all just about as good as each other. In other passages, it's a bit easier as one stands out as the best.

I dub all the vocal parts down to one track, then double that for a bit more fullness.

Then I start prepping the site for mixing. Setting up the submixes: One for the two lead vocal tracks, one for all the rhythm guitars (there's five tracks of those, including the acoustic), one for the lead guitars (four tracks), one for the bass (two tracks-one main and one EQ'ed very high and distorted, for a little growl), one for the drums (six tracks), and one for the backing vocals (four more tracks). Now do you see what I mean when I say I'm a kitchen sink kind of arranger? :-)

I start with the kick, the bass and the lead vocal. The rest of the drums follow. Then I start adding in the guitars, finally the keyboards and the harmony vocals. Last of all, I dress it up with some reverb. It's basically the same overall process I do everytime I mix a tune.

Then after I've tweaked it and tweaked it to death, I burn a copy to a wav file. Then I'll make a CD of it, and listen to it in my car, on my work computer, all over the place and that'll help me decide on the final mix, when I'll make my last adjustments and call the whole thing done.

Then it gets weedified, and out on the website for your enjoyment. Expect it to be there sometime next week. I'd really like to do this one at the gig on Saturday. I think I'll be ready for it...

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Hey, I was all excited the other day to notice that some of the songs off of LatterDaySongs.com have been selling! And, a couple of the weedshare songs on my website have sold, too. Yay for me! Yay for us!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, July 04, 2005

Man, this tune rocks. I mean it rocks. Then, it keeps rocking and then it rocks some more!

OK, let me back up. I started this afternoon just spinning "Turn it Up", and thought I'd work on it, since I didn't have to be to work today (holiday and all). So, I hooked up the bass and played the part live, to replace the synth bass I'd been using all along.

I've always liked using synth bass because I can quantize it. I really like my bass and drums to be locked solid in step, and I just don't think I play precisely enough to pull it off. But the sound of a live bass guitar is always punchier than a synth. What to do?

Well, it turns out that with the time warp features of Cubase SX 3, you can tighten up the timing of audio as well as MIDI. It means you have to open up the wave and edit it directly, but it can be done, and it's not that hard. It is a little more time consuming, though.

So, I did it. Then I thought, "While I'm here, I'll cut the bass for 'Play the Cards', too." So I did, then I tightened that one up, too.

Then, I thought, why not add the lead guitar back into "Turn it Up"? Because of the way I wanted to mix it, I ended up adding four tracks of lead guitar. One spot in the intro, to be panned center, in the same place as the lead vocal, some fill leads to be mixed just behind the lead vocal, and then the main solo. That one is really two solos, trading off, and I'll pan those slightly L and R, like dueling guitars... :-)

At that point, I put down a synth line. I'd been debating putting that in the horns, but I just was having a hard time hearing horns in this tune. It just wasn't working for me. But with the synth, it really brings in that '80's hair-metal sound this song is beggin' for.

Finally, I'm thinkin' that I might as well go ahead and cut the lead vocals. So, I do my warm-ups, and cut a buncha tracks. I haven't comped them yet, but it felt right in my zone, right in my range. It's an amazingly easy song to sing, so I was able to really let go and have fun with it.

Then, some harmony vocals.

So, now all I have to do is to comp the lead, and mix it. Another song to be done. I'm hoping to have it all done by the end of the week.

Then, when I finish up one more, either "Play the Cards" or "Where's My Soul", I'll be back on track to my goal of two new songs each quarter.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, June 30, 2005

I looked into my Weedshare accounts this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find a few purchases! That was exciting as I was starting to get down on the whole weedshare thing. I just wasn't seeing the activity. But there is some!

I also, on a whim, put out the new song on my myspace.com site. I've discovered a really active undercurrent of LDS teens and young adults there. Hey, that's my audience! I posted the song, and the bulletin to all my friends late last night, so I haven't seen any response yet. Let's see what happens by this afternoon or tomorrow.

Jodi and the boys are coming home for the weekend tonight! I'm very excited about that. Hope they get home safe.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Well, I think I might have finally nailed the mix. Only three tries, really. I was still having troubles getting the bass in the right spot. When I make it sound great in the studio it tends to boom in other places, so I have to remember that and adapt it accordingly.

There was really a lot of different elements to add in this time, and I'm a bit afraid that it might have gotten a bit crowded. I pulled everything way back in the first mix, and then when I did it again, I kept bringing certain elements back up. The electric piano, the spoken vocals, the scat vocals, the strings. I hope it all doesn't crowd the lead vocal. I think I've got it in place.

I shipped off 35 copies of "One United Generation" today. WindRiver Distributing is taking them to the Nauvoo Pageant. I hope they sell. I hope the music gets out there into the ears of people who need it and will like it.

A large part of both songwriting and creating musical art is communicating. And I, possibly moreso than many other musicians I know, need to know that I'm connecting with people. That's why I love it when I get emails from people who've heard the songs or gotten the CD. I love it when they tell me that a certain song teared up their eyes, or made them smile.

I love to hear an audience shouting after a really energetic show.

For a long time, I felt like I was dropping stones in a well and hearing no splashes. It's kinda nice to start to hear some coming back up. I'm not sure why it is that I crave that kind of validation, but there it is. Can't seem to change it, so I gotta roll with it!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Sunday, June 26, 2005

Well, I'm pretty excited. I just finished a preliminary mix of "Today and Yesterday"! It really sounds cool! I can't wait to get it posted on my site.

This tune is another one of those "Kitchen Sink" arrangements. Someday I'll learn simplicity... I just keep hearing more cool things to include.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, June 24, 2005

I've cut the vocals (harmony, scat, and lead) to "Today and Yesterday" tonight, and I've got about two thirds of the lead vocal comped. I'm really excited about this song. It's really coming together. It sits very nicely in my range. There are only a few bits that climb up into my bridge or my head voice.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, June 18, 2005

Last night at the karaoke was fun, but not so much so as last week. There weren't a lot of people there, only about 8, including myself. I thought about how odd that was. A bunch of social misfits with nothing better to do on a Saturday night, but stand up and sing.

Now, last week, it was a big party. Everyone was getting friendly and having a great time. It just didn't have the same feel this week.

But since there were fewer people, I did get to sing more songs. I did two of mine, "He's Out There", and "The Taker" (which I tanked), as well as some from the Karaoke CD collection. I did "Behind Blue Eyes", "Silent Lucidity", and "Burning Down the House". "House" is pretty high, but it didn't cross my bridge, so I felt like it came off pretty well.

My parents are in town from Indiana, and they and my sister and bro-in-law came over. So, I wasn't able to get to the tunes as much as I'd like, but after they left I did manage to do a little work on "Today and Yesterday".

I added some handclaps to the instrumental transitions (that really sound more like a chorus, in some ways), as well as play with the rough mix a bit more.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, June 11, 2005

Another fun morning. I went over to Steve's house (I sound like a little kid--"Can I go over to Steve's and play?) and he cut some drum parts for me this morning. He's great. He just rips through them. A few clean-ups, a few punch-ins, and the track is done. And we have a lot of fun with it.

It's really amazing just how much a real drummer adds to a track. I mean, it cooks along, and even though we're recording it as MIDI, it still feels much more real than it does with me just hammering them out on the keyboard.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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It's been a long time since I posted here. Frankly, it's been a long time since I did anything musical. Life's been pretty hectic.

But tonight, I went and had some fun. I went to the Draper Historic Theatre and did their Karaoke night! It was so cool to finally find a place to do karaoke that's not a bar! I guess people figure that you have to be drunk to be crazy enough to get up and sing in front of a crowd. Not so.

There was a big crowd there, too. I was pretty surprised. At its peak, there were probably 30 people there, of all styles and abilities. Not all were singing, either, but there were some pretty impressive voices there!

I did "Here in Me" and "Toy Soldiers". They were received pretty well. I don't really know how well I did. It was kinda hard to hear. I don't think the monitors were up very loud, if they were even on.

It was a lot of fun. It was sort of a big party atmosphere. I'll definitely do it again!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, May 21, 2005

I'm soooo stinkin' exhausted, but exhilerated at the same time. We played our gig in the park. We couldn't have had a better location or better weather if we'd paid
God for it. Warm, sunny, but with lots of shade and breeze.

We got set up quickly, and we had a great time. About 35 people there, as John counted. I was very pleased to see some folks that I'd invited, even some that had travelled all the way out to Tooele from Salt Lake, one family even from Sandy!

We played pretty well. There were a few songs we oopsed, and only one we bungled. But we still managed to end that one together, anyway. Not bad for guys that practice only once or twice a month together.

Ever since the gig, I've had Matt's "In DC Tonight" going through my head...

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, May 16, 2005

What a bummer!

Jesse, an online friend that's been following my musical efforts, had contacted me some time ago about the possibility of performing for his stake's youth conference this summer. What an exciting opportunity! I've been wanting to perform that kind of show for years and years. He's also the same guy that got me the gig with the Liahona Academy last fall.

So where's the bummer? The timing. Their conference is the same weekend that my family (Jodi and both kids) are coming back from six weeks in Tucson. I can't do a gig that same time. I wanna be there to welcome them home!

In reality, it was a long shot anyway. Their youth conference is in Missouri, and making travel arrangements would have been difficult at best.

*Sigh*

But it was fun to think about, and maybe some other year. Thanks for all the effort you've given me, Jesse. It's fans like you that really give an artist encouragement!

On another note, I did get a bit of recording done last night, the first I've done in a long time. I put some string parts down on "Today and Yesterday". I'm very glad I'm not doing a guitar solo on that one. All the tonicizations and key borrowing would make soloing a nightmare!

So, all I need on that one is the real drum parts, and the lead and harmony vocals. It's almost done!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, May 14, 2005

I'm really exhausted, but I had a great time this afternoon. I went downtown and sang in the Club Cubase Songwriter's Showcase. It was setup by one of the guys in CC, and he contacted the city, got the permits and held the event in the amphitheatre outside of the downtown library. Gorgeous place, but no shade.

It was fun. I did about a 40 minute set. I think I did pretty well.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, May 13, 2005

I'm very excited! There have been a lot of people contacting me off the site to do performances. Just within the last two weeks, I've had four requests for bookings! I don't know how many will come to fruition, but it's exciting to get contacted.

One of the ones that I know will work out (it's already booked) is July 30 at the American Fork Amphitheatre (where we have the LDS Music Fest every year). Matt Whitney, another Random Tangent, will be there as the opening act, and John and Morey will also be helping with additional instruments.

Obviously, I'll be keeping the shows page up to date as we go along, too.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, May 06, 2005

I'm exhausted.

But it's a great feeling kind of exhausted. We hashed through so many more songs tonight (Random Tangent, that is), working the bugs out of the old tunes so that they're ready for the gig in two weeks.

We worked on a lot of my tunes, like "Dancin' their Lives Away", and "Bats in My Belfry" (I really have to memorize the lyrics to that one in the next two weeks), as well as some of Matt's. And, of course, "Booka Mo", John's swing arrangement of "Book of Mormon Stories". I think that one's kind of our signature song.

Matt's "Moment of Choice" is absolutely incredible. It's a huge song, full of grandeur and testimony. A very powerful song of personal redemption. And his new one, "D.C. Tonight" is killer, too, but in an understated sort of way.

Poor John wasn't feeling very well, but he really gave it his all like a trouper. I was kinda worried about him. After blowing out on "Bats" he looked like he was going to pass out.

I tell ya, if we play only half as well at the show as we did tonight, it'll be great.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, May 05, 2005

I've decided that Today and Yesterday will be the next single, so, I pulled it out and started working on it today. First, I started with a rough remix, because I'd been feeling that the verses were sounding a little empty. Then I'd thought that it might be because of the mix rather than the arrangement, so I brought the keyboards a bit forward, and it seems I might have been right. I'll have to experiment with it for a while and see, but I think that made the verses more full.

Then, I went to add some string lines, so I set up the sampler for strings, and started to play with it. It's a tricky song because there's so much tonicization. It's really moving around in a lot of keys, especially in the bridge which was where I was focusing at first. But, it never really cadences in each new key, so I can't really call it a modulation, just a temporary shift. More of a tonicization.

Anyway, that makes it tricky to just throw down an improvised string line. So, I work something up, and I put it down, then I go to save it, and Cubase just dissappears. Shut off entirely, with no save, nothing. I freaked.

I go to reopen it, and thankfully the backup procedure had captured my mix efforts and the setup of the sampler, so at the very least that was working. So, I replayed/rerecorded the string line, saved it, and all was well in the world again.

I really, really, really love my computer... (imagine me gritting my teeth as I say that...)

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, April 29, 2005

I just got back from practicing with the guys. "Random Tangent" we're now called. Pretty cool, eh? We chose that name because from one moment to the next we can't be sure what we'll be talking about. We just have fun playing off of each other in conversation that way.

We had a good rehearsal. It's been about three weeks since our last full rehearsal, with all of us there, so it felt good to put things together tonight. We had to almost relearn a couple of songs, but they gelled pretty quickly.

They'd have to considering we're playing in the Tooele City Park on May 21, and we've only got two reharsals before then!

You're all invited to come out, too.

We put a new one together tonight, one of Matt's. Actually, the others had learned it last week (I wasn't able to be there), so I learned the bass part and we did it all as one, and it is so sharp. It's a protest tune, but I'm not sure what the title is, something about "In D. C. Tonight"... Really smooth. Most of Matt's tunes are really big and bold, but this one we're playing minimal, understated. It's tasty. One of my new favorites.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Sunday, April 24, 2005

Church was kinda fun today. As I was going through the halls between classes, I kept bumping into people that would say, "Hey, I saw you in the paper!", or "Nice article!" or whatever... It was kinda fun!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, April 22, 2005

A couple of cool things happened today, musically speaking. One was that an article about me and "Generation" appeared today in the West Jordan Journal. It's a smaller community newspaper that services West Jordan. It came out as a result of those press releases I sent out a few weeks ago. It was fun to read how the author had put it all together after our short phone interview. It'll be interesting to see what that does for traffic to my site. Or orders...

Another was that I got to talk to my old voice teacher. I'd given her a copy of the CD about a week ago through her sister. So I got to visit with her for a minute about the CD. It sure made me feel good. A lot of the areas and parts that I'd been the most nervous about were some of the places she pointed out as having the most progress. That sure made me smile!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Tuesday, April 12, 2005

I haven't done much recording lately. What little musical time I've had available has gone into making more "Generation" CD's. But I think I've finally caught up with myself on those. I'm excited to see people wanting them, and to get them sent out the door. I've also been excited by the buzz I've been hearing about the CD on the LDSM list.

I did spin through some songs the other day and think of what needed to be done to finish them. That was cool. But I still haven't done anything to finish them! :-)

But it's also time to get back to making music.

First, though, I've got to clean out my studio! It's gathered a lot of mess in the time that I've been lagging. I don't know how it happens. Stuff just sort of materializes. :-)


MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, April 01, 2005

I got some of the pre-release copies of the CD sent out the other day, and so some of the LDSM folks that received it are starting to report to the list. It's really exciting to read the mini-reveiws. Here's two of them:

“I got my copy in the mail yesterday! I had to put away Josh Groban to listen to it. Mark, it's awesome! My very first impression was that this was NOT a home-grown album.

“Now you all know that rock is not my forte... I'm the quiet, dull hymn writer of the group... But Mark's album is awesome. He is the one who introduced me to Inspirational Rock about four or five years ago, and whether he knew it or not I was secretly a very skeptical and hard sell. But it only took the first of his concerts at his wardhouse to sell me. It's been a long wait for his album, and it's been worth the wait! All musical expressions have their place and all messages have a way to be expressed. Just because I'm a dull, boring hymn writer doesn't mean I don't enjoy Mark!

“You rock, Mark!”

Bruce “Bruceman” Forbes



”Hey I just got my hot-off-the-press copy of "One United Generation" in the mail today, and WOW! Mark, it's very very cool. Rock on man!

“I'm head-bangin’ to "Millstones" right now. Other tunes of special note: "He's out there" is kind of an endearing reassurance tune. "First Step" is light and folky, which works for a baptism song. Nice break from the energy of most of the rest of the album. "Pharisee" is a great tune, very catchy, ironic, really good production and heavy message! And the finally the title tune at the end is a powerful finale.

“There's a great variety, but there's a rock power that really should get noticed. This is not Peter Brienholt's LDS music, or JKPerry's. This is much grittier and edgier that almost anything else out there, but the message is strong and good.

“Wake up, teen mormondom, this is your music!”

Marco Davis, of Pearl Award Winning group Fiddlesticks


It's exciting to hear a bit of a buzz getting started.

Last night was way fun, too. For the first time in probably a month, or month and a half, we had all four of us at practice. We finally got all the way through the "Gettysburgh Gigue". And by the end of the night, it was actually sounding really really good. It was one of those musical moments that charges you up.

Which was nice because I probably shouldn't have even gone. What with the FCMA workshop last week and all, I've been neglecting the family. So, thanks to my wife for the sacrifice. Fortunately, it's three weeks before we can schedule another jam session, so I can relax a bit.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, March 26, 2005

Yesterday was the first day in the FCMA workshop weekend. The workshop is a fun event where LDS Musicians gather, have panels, network, schmooze, and generally have a great time. I've been every year for the last five or six. Always fun for all.

There was a special treat yesterday. Chance Thomas got to speak. I met Chance when Jodi and I were first married. We'd just moved into this ward, and Chance was there, and we were kinda drawn together as musician types seem to be. We quickly became fast friends.

He introduced me to Jim Anglesey and Clive Romney and the SLC studio scene, and gave me lots of encouragement and indirect instruction. What a guy.

So, I haven't seen him in some 12 years, and it was a thrill to give him a hug and a CD.

Then afterward, I stopped by Lindy Kirby's home for our annual Pre-Workshop LDSM party. Got to see Steve Brown again there, and surprised him by knowing both the chords and the harmonies to "Who Am I?", one of his songs. Julie Keyser and a few others were also there. Got to hear some new songs, hang out, have fun.

So, now it's time to get showered and ready for the real workshop. I'll probably report on that more over at MoBoy...

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, March 19, 2005

Guess what I'm doing, right now, even as I type?

I'm printing and assembling the first run of "One United Generation"... My first CD!

I'm so stoked. As I look at them, though, they still seem a bit surreal, like I'm not sure if it's really happening yet. What a milestone for me, personally!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, March 12, 2005

It's been a crazy few days, and I haven't had a chance to catch up with myself. It's gonna get even crazier for the next couple.

Thursday, John came over and we cut some horn parts on a song for Jeanni Gould. I still have to do a rough mix for her and drop the files to wav on a CD.

Then, last night was our ward talent show. I got to set up my small PA for it, and sing "I Will Sing this Prayer", and then I had to leave because... Jodi and Jacob came home! After 6 weeks gone to Arizona, they're back! And it's great to have them here. It's like, we're a whole family again. It feels great.

Then this morning, I finally finished up the tracks for "Carry Me" for Jason. I got those in the mail already. Good to have that done.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Tuesday, March 08, 2005

There's a song I've been working on for a couple of people on the LDSM list, and I finally got around to getting some of the tracks cut tonight. An acoustic guitar track, some rough drums and a bass track. The guitar was tough. It changes key all over the place and the chord changes come pretty quick. But I finally got a good keepable take.

Once these three tracks are done, I'll send it off to them and they'll add the keys and the singing. Kinda fun. The paino player wrote it, and I was just called in to do some of the tracking. Kinda fun to work on someone else's song and just be a musician rather than arranger and producer all at once!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, March 07, 2005

Diego showed me the designs he had so far for my CD, and we printed them out and made a prototype jewel box. Pretty schweet. I kept staring at it like it wasn't quite real. Then tonight, I spent a bit of time, after Brendon went to sleep, testing my CD printer to see what sorts of configurations worked the best. It's exciting! It's happening!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Sunday, March 06, 2005

What a fun time tonight. After I got Brendon to bed, I came down and cut vocals for "I Will Sing This Prayer". I've been practicing it for about a week in the car, and I was surprised how much that paid off. It usually takes me three or four takes to get "in the singin' zone", but I was feeling pretty strong even with the first take. The fact that the song sits nicely in my range had something to do with it, too, I'm sure.

Then I sparkled up the drums. That turned out pretty well, but was kinda frustrating, because the computer kept doing weird things with the notes I'd play. It would put them on the grid, like, a 32nd note before where I played it. So, I had to go in and move every MIDI note I played. Clumsy. But it's done. Now I just have to comp all the vocal takes and do a mix!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, March 05, 2005

Where am I!? I've been lax!

I forgot to tell you about the thursday night rehearsal of the project! It was the first time since before Christmas, I think, that we've all been there! There's been several where we were only three, and the missing one has changed each time, but it's been a long time since there's been all four!

And the perfect attendance award goes to...(drum roll)...Morey!

Oh... Wait... It's his house. He has to be there.

Oh, well. We'll still give him the cheers.

Anyway, it was great fun. We worked on "Dancin' Their Lives Away", one of mine. Actually, that was the first time we've all played it together, too. Fun. We just kept running it until it all rocked. And we worked up one of Matt's called "We Get What We Want". It's this cool kinda theatrical power ballad about how what we get in life is want we put into it. We literally get what we ask for, even though it might not be what we think we're looking for.

Anyway, fun tune.

Then we revisited some old stuff, like "BookaMo", John's swing version of "Book of Mormon Stories". It was way rusty at first, but we got into the swing of it (pun intended).

Today, I got to go to our monthly Club Cubase meeting. That's always a lot of fun. Sometimes it's tough, what with family or work requirements, I get to go about once every 3-4 months.

I ran into Ron Hill there, aka "Laconic Funk". He'd just finished his CD, and he gave me a copy (autographed it, too!). I got to spin it on the way home. I'll probably review it over at my moboy blog, too. It was exciting for me to see him make the leap of faith to finish his mixes and put them out there. It's kinda scary, and I can sure relate!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, February 28, 2005

I'm home again!

This has been a very long week, and I'm glad to be back home. But there were two events, no... three musical events that were very special to me. I can't thank the people responsible for them enough. Their superhuman efforts on my behalf made for some very memorable times. Thanks to Kent, Sam, and their families.

Last Thursday, I had the chance to drive up to Phoenix from Tucson, where I was staying with Jodi and Brendon. There, I got to hang for a while with Kent Olmstead, of Fast Sundae fame. We took my kids through the Phoenix Zoo, and talked all kinds of cool music ideas while we did.

After that, he took us out to dinner, and we met with a couple of more guys from the LDSMusicians.com email group, Clay Whipkey and Jeff Valenta. Those of you who are MRKH superfans (both of you) might recognize Jeff's name as the one who played the lead guitar (smokin' stuff) on "Thank You" and "The First Step". It was a lot of fun to meet with them both and talk musical stuff for the night.

The next wonderful event happened last night, as I was driving back from Arizona. Not wanting to do it in one gruelling day, like I did on the way out, I was lucky enough to find lodging at the home of Sam Payne. He's one of my songwriting idols, BTW.

So, that night, as my kids and his were becoming friends in his "Jedi Knight Training Space" (his family room), he and I played songs to each other. Great fun.

Then, he asked me to come and perform for his seminary classes (he's a teacher) at the Tuacan School for the Performing Arts. So... Let's look at this. I get to play my songs, in front of three seminary classes full of student musicians, dancers, and actors, with one of my favorite songwriters of all time....

Yeah, I think I'm down with that.

He also let me do some guest lecturing in a couple of those classes, going over D&C sec. 4 and talking about how it applies to the creative arts. Cool stuff. Ask me about it sometime.

Then, he posts this to the LDSM list: "Hey Gang! Guess where I am right now? I'm watching Mark Hansen teach my seminary class! No kiddin'! Nothin' cooler. I'm thinking of hiring him full-time : ). It's been music and the gospel all afternoon. Lovin' it."

What an opportunity. What a day! One of the musical highlights of my life, to be sure.


MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Wednesday, February 16, 2005

I woke up very early this morning. Like, at about 3:00. Not much sleep for Mark tonight.

But, I came downstairs and worked on some ideas for Diego's website. He wanted some 20-30 second clips he could loop. It's fun to produce those, but in some ways it's challenging, too. Trying to fit some interest in so little time.

But I did two of them. In retrospect, I really don't like the first one. It's way to dark and plodding. But maybe he'll like it. I actually got to use the Delay Lama on that one. That's this funky freeware plugin that sounds like a Tibetan monk, sorta... sorta not... But it sounds cool, and the plugin has an actual picture of a monk that changes its mouth as you shape the sound. For free, you just can't go wrong.

But the second one is simpler, and has some guitar bits in it that make it exciting. I like it a lot better. We'll see if he wants to use either one.

++

Shameless plug: I'm featured in this edition of Latter-Day Songs! Along with Fiddlesticks and John Newman.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Sunday, February 13, 2005

Oh, man Yesterday was a crazy, crazy day. I'm not even sure where to begin.

Well, it started with a very messy house. I woke up with a lot of kids in my house (Brendon had a sleepover the night before), and the living room was a wreck. That was a problem, becuase I had people showing up to sing "How Beautiful" in only a couple of hours. Add to that the fact that it was the final recording. If you've been following the blogs, we've been rehearsing it for weeks, now!

So, I got the living room cleaned up. It wasn't too bad, actually. Then I moved my computer upstairs into the living room, set up the mics. In between all that I had to call everyone that had been rehearsing and confirm that they'd be there.

We had nine people show up to do the recording, which we triple-tracked for a nice big choir sound. It really fills that song out wonderfully! Now all I have to do is recut the lead vocal (which I probably won't even attempt until I get back from Arizona in a couple of weeks).

Then I had some down time. I was really nervous because I had a house concert that night out at John Newman's. But, I'd been fighting a cold, with a sore throat and laryngitis for about 3 days or so. Thursday night, at band practice, Matt and Morey had given me a blessing, and that helped a lot. Plus a lot of cold remedies... But by that afternoon, I was feeling pretty confident. I ran through the songs one last time and did some vocal warmups, and then got things loaded up in the car.

No keys.

I could not, for the life of me, find my keys. Anywhere in the house. I searched for 40 minutes or so. I called Jodi to ask if there were extras. Turned out there was. In her purse. In Arizona. No help there... :-)

But calling her did help calm me down, and she suggested that I call her dad and borrow his car. Which I did, but there were a few errands that had to be run with that. I had to buy and pour in some anti-freeze, and then fill it up with gas. By the time I'd done all that, I was leaving West Jordan at the time I'd wanted to BE in Tooele (about a 40 minute drive).

Fortunately, I'd wanted to be there early enough to help John set up. I called him and he said not to worry, that the room was already done and ready. So, Brendon and I drove out and got there about a half hour before the show. Plenty of time to unwind and calm my nerves.

The show itself went great. There were times when I could tell that the cold was effecting my tone, but it never stopped me from singing. I did about a 45+ minute set, and then John and his family (I guess his son is a big fan) started requesting songs. Many of them I'd never really arranged for acoustic guitar and voice, like "Bats in my Belfry" and "Where's my Soul". So I tried them, then I ended with "A Happier Day", which put a perfect capper on it.

Gave away a few Pass-it-On's and got some names for the list, too, so I'm happy with that! And it was fun to meet John's friends afterward. One of them is into the same geeky webcomics that I am. Cool. Or scary. Not sure which... :-)

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Thursday, February 10, 2005

A crazy day. I need everyone to pray for me. These last two days I've been losing my voice. I'm only nervous about that because I've got that house concert this Saturday. I hope it's cleared by then. After practice, I had Matt and Morey give me a blessing. Just need some extra faith on my behalf.

Tonight's practice went well, though. We worked on one of Matt's songs. Of all the tree of the other guys in the project, I've known Matt the least. But I'm quickly becoming very close friends with him. He's got some real honest power inside him. Plus he's incredibly funny! Writes good tunes, too.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, February 07, 2005

OK, I'm catching my breath.

I just spoke with Diego, who'd designing my CD cover, and I'm blown away. I can't wait to show it to everyone. In fact, I'd post it here, but I need to have him approve that first. It just sends chills up my spine.

He took my idea of a hand holding the Iron Rod, and just turned it up to 11. What a design!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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I've been up quite a while, now, working on "I Will Sing This Prayer". I think that I'll focus on that one and "How Beautiful" for my first quarter songs. I started by simply cleaning up the piano tracks.

Then I added some melodic guitar lines at the end. I set them up with heavy distortion. But with the reverb and the distance in the mix, rather than sounding heavy, it sounds "delicately large". It gives it a majestic sort of feel.

I also put some lead in the outro. Lots of distortion as well, but that makes it smooth, like the other parts. Playing solos in a major key also adds to the majesty, I think.

I also added some strings into the ending. It just makes the whole tune so huge. But not like a "big and powerful" kind of huge, more like a "full and spacious" sorta huge.

Also, a while ago, my wife said she was wondering about the new songs I was working on. I promised her a CD with all the ones I've been working on. But she doesn't know the titles, so I slated this one with the name before it.

The vocals are all up in my nose, though. Of course, those are only scratch vocals. Still, I want them to be good. This one I'm going to have to practice because the vocals will have to be dead on.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Saturday, February 05, 2005

On the LDS music list, we've decided that for the season of '05 we're going to put out a Christmas compilation. I'm pretty excited about that.

A few years ago, on Christmas Eve Eve (that would be in the wee hours morning of Dec 24th - not before Christmas Morning), I was awake, and a song started coming to me. So, I got up and wrote it, like a good little songwriter. Then, the next night, The Real Christmas Eve, my sister came over to celebrate with our family, as is our tradition. I premiered the song for them there.

That was two years ago. Now this morning, I actually put the thing down. I did it first with just the acoustic guitar all the way through, then added the vocals (scratch, of course - c'mon it's 7:00 in the morning!). Then, I realized that it was too low for me.

So I played with it a little and changed the key. First by trying to play different chords, but I ended up in the key of B flat, which a guitarist can't do without a capo.

Then I recut the guitar, and the scratch vocal, and now I'm much more happy.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Friday, February 04, 2005

An open letter to other LDS bloggers:

About four years ago, I did some major shifts in my recording studio. Up until that time, I had a relatively functional analog setup running a Fostex 16-track deck sync’ed up to a computer running my synthesizers and drum machines. It worked well enough.

I was also seeing that I needed, for my own benefit, to notch it all up. I needed to become a better producer. As a part of that, I got a new computer, sold off much of my analog gear (even gave away some of my toys, including my Proteus), and bought Cubase. I’ve never looked back.

I decided that I would take the time with each song to make it ready for the world, instead of just being demo-quality.

And I would produce a CD.

Now, after those years, the dream of that focus is about to become reality! And I’m sooo psyched. I’ve finished all of the songs, we’re working on the design, and I’m making arrangements for the printing, pressing, and publication.

My ideas of LDS rock music have evolved over the years. I’ve been writing songs since high-school, but since I returned from my mission, I’ve focused more tightly on rock for an LDS audience. Over the years, I’ve written probably a little under a hundred songs. I’ve demo’ed or recorded about 40 or 50 of them. 11 will go on the first CD, to be called “One United Generation”.

· Here in Me
· He’s Out There
· The Taker
· Thank You
· Toy Soldiers
· What’ll Save Ya
· Millstones
· Out of the Chapel
· The First Step
· Pharisee
· One United Generation

My first batch of CD’s should be done by the end of February. I know that many of you that read this blog are bloggers as well, and I’d love to enlist you folks in spreading the word. If you’re reading this, and you’re a blogger, please go to: http://markhansenmusic.com/fans.htm Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the email form there, and tell me your mailing address. Alternately, you can just use the email link below. I’ll send you a free copy of the CD.

It’s also my way of thanking you all for letting me into your lives via your blogs. You’ve all made me think and feel, and I appreciate that.




MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Some exciting things going on. As I've been facing the challenge of figuring out how to actually GET copies of "Generation" made, I've had some good advice from some good friends. We found an Epson printer that will print photo quality right on the CD's. Only $80 and change. I shot some pictures the other night and Diego is now working eagerly on the cover art.

But the part that has amazed me and touched me the most is this: In an effort to raise the money to buy the printer and the basic supplies to do this, I put together a special web page as a part of my site to pre-sell copies of the CD. I sent out an announcement to my family and friends, to my fan mailing list, to the LDSM group. In two days, I've sold 7 CD's. I've gotten back numerous letters of congratulations and excitement, some of which have almost brought me to tears.

It really has been a challenging 4 years making this CD. It has been also marked and moved forward many times by the intercession and encouragement of good friends. I think that's one of the things that I've learned most of all doing this. I have a LOT of friends.

Also, last night, I remixed "Millstones". I haven't checked it yet, to see if I still "respect it in the morning", but I was pretty pleased then. I think I finally got the strings and the guitar to stop competing.

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Last night Brendon wanted to play in the studio, so we did a little bit of silliness. Then, we started to put all kinds of filters and plugins on his voice just to see how silly we could make it sound. It was a great bit of father/son time, but it also showed me what a lot of those plug-ins were capable of! Nice bonus...

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, January 31, 2005

I've just gotten another mailer for "Latter-Day Songs" prepped. It goes out tomorrow! There was a whole buncha signups over the weekend, which is really exciting! The site hasn't been up more than three weeks, still isn't either indexed or at least not ranking well on the search engines, but it's already generating more traffic that my own music site!

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Sunday, January 30, 2005

We had another "How beautiful" choir rehearsal yesterday, and it was fun! I think we're going to try and record on the 11th. We'll have to see if that works out.

One of the choir members, as we were winding down, pointed out something I said. I'd been talking about the line in the final chorus that goes. "How beautiful/ How beautiful my soul/ When I say to Zion/ Your God Reigns" I was talking about the dissonance that happens between the choir, the melody, and the guitars at the end of the second phrase, at "soul", which creates powerful tension, and is resolved at the first syllable of "Zion".

Anyway, one of the singers mentioned, "Did you hear what you just said?"

Uh, no...

"You said, 'The interesting part of this line is that there's a lot of dissonance in 'My Soul' which gets resolved in 'Zion'!"

When I told that to John (who wrote the choral parts), later on, he said, "Wow. That's like the traveller who unpacks his bags, and finds something there that he didn't start the journey with!"

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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Monday, January 24, 2005

Well, I got up this morning and I was so enthused for my work last night that I did a little more playing. I'm still working the bugs out of having Cubase on a new computer. It seems like every time I launch it it hangs for a different reason, and it takes sometimes three tries to make it stick. Frustrating.

Then, I'd gotten this email from a friend of mine who lives in Europe (I've never met him face-to-face) about doing some collaborating, so I started working on some quick samples to send off to him.

One of them is called, tentatively, "I don't wanna Dance With the Devil" All I have so far is the chorus. Here's what I've got so far...

"I don't wanna dance with the devil any more
I won't take a chance on my soul any more
I won't take my glance off heaven any more
I don't wanna dance with the devil any more"

So, I'll send that off to him and see what he can do with it for a verse...

MRKH - Mark Hansen
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