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"

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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