Below is a growing collection of songs and sound clips I have worked on in one form or another.
If you have an idea for something you would like to see on this page, please e-mail me here.

Click the link next to each song for a description of it's development.

1) Killafornia to Dirt by Transplants featuring B. Real vs. Jay-Z (explanation)
2) Edge of Seveneteen (recut) by Stevie Nicks (explanation)
3) Gainesville Rock City (remix) by Less Than Jake (explanation)
4) Revelator of London by Son House & Warren Zevon (explanation)
5) Last Caress (remix) by The Misfits, Metallica, NOFX, AFI, and Aerial M (explanation)
6) Shot Through the Rock and Roll by Bon Jovi and Midtown (explanation)
7) Poetic Tragedy (recut) by The Used (explanation)
8) Ignition (3rd Generation Remix) by R. Kelly feat. Twista (explanation)
9) Eye of the Tiger by Survivor with intro speech by Mel Gibson as William Wallace (explanation)

Coming Soon...
- An unrecorded duet between Chet Baker & Dorothy Dandridge -
- M.I.A. mixed up with Gwen Stefani, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the theme from Rocky -







Track Descriptions:
1) Killafornia to Dirt by Transplants featuring B. Real vs. Jay-Z
I'm riding in Dave Alvarado's car on the way to see "The Land of the Dead" at Universal Studios and he pops in the new Transplants disc, "Haunted Cities". The track "Killafornia" comes on and as it plays I mouth the beat and chorus to Jay-Z's "Dirt Off Your Shoulders" and they make the perfect match. And then I went home I Avided it up (it's a verb now). So this track is the realization of that car ride-long dream.



2) Edge of Seventeen (recut) by Stevie Nicks
Have you ever heard a song and thought it was about one thing and then read what the composer wrote it about and find it is about something completely different? When I first heard Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen" I envisioned a dark world in a violent rundown town far south of the border where a woman awakens after being drugged and kidnapped and finds herself sold into slavery in a Mexican bordello. She searches desperately for a way out, but cannot escape. My feeling was that the heart of the song came from the moment she realizes shes not leaving. I loved the desperation I felt in the song and wanted to give it more of that. The chorus is so powerful and in the original song Nicks explodes from the beginning with it (which was appropriate for her version). For my interpretation, which has a much different story, I felt it important to climax to this moment in order to to maintain the point of view of the woman as she goes through this excruciating mental journey.

During the rest of the song I tried to keep that movement continuous with each verse and chorus pushing towards something we can't see until finally the understanding is met and we detach from the woman, leaving her alone as the song trails. She is lost. There is no help coming for her. It's not a happy ending, but not all endings are.
If you would like to compare it, here is the original version of the song.



3) "Gainesville Rock City" (remix) by Less Than Jake
Anytime I fly from Chicago to Indianapolis, Less Than Jake's 2000 release, "Borders and Boundaries" is always be spinning in my discman. "Borders and Boundaries" became my flight companion not only because it's such a great album, but because it was the perfect length from take off to touchdown. As an editor I found an extra treat in how perfectly the songs synced up to the movement of the plane (what I like to call "live action editing"), and after awhile I could have sworn the album actually had been written for this purpose.

One song, "Gainesville Rock City," specifically grabbed my attention. There was just something about it. Originating from Gainesville, Florida, I assumed Less Than Jake had wanted this to be their hometown anthem. This being the case though, I could not understand why it was cut so short. When you listen to anthemic songs like Skynard's "Freebird," Meat Loaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love," or Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," each song will take your through an aural experience. Granted punk rock is meant to be short, fast and loud, but that doesn't mean that when given the right material a band can't turn a song into far more than the usual grind. If you listen to "New Day" off the Bouncing Soul's album "Anchors Aweigh" you'll see what I mean. Without a doubt we have a punk rock song on our hands, but the band has crafted it in such a way that it creates an anthem...and that's what I was after. I felt that in order for LTJ to do their hometown justice as well let the song reach it's full potential, it had to be built up more before the song climaxed. I believe what I have assembled is a more anthemic version of the original song.

When I decided to start this project, the only material I had to work with was the original fully mixed track from the store bought CD. From this point I believe if LTJ wrote an additional verse to replace the repeated first verse the second time around (that's a mouthfull...it'll make sense if you listen to the song though), the song would be perfect and would be fully capable of convincing anyone that Less Than Jake is the greatest band in the world.

If you wish to compare, you can download the original version of "Gainesville Rock City," by clicking here.



4) Revelator of London by Son House & Warren Zevon
I'm not really sure where the idea for this came from. Sometimes I'm just listening to music and certain thoughts stick. For some reason I thought these two songs, Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" and Son House's rendition of "John the Revelator" would work well together. I cut em and ended up with what you hear above. It's kinda goofy. You can call it hip-hop without the hip part. So clap your hands everybody, if you've got what it takes.



5) "Last Caress" (remix) by The Misfits, Metallica, NOFX, AFI, and Aerial M
Like many punkers out there, I'm a big fan of The Misfits. When it comes down to it, their music is just simple, fast, and for lack of a better phrase, just FUCKIN ROCKIN. Over the years I've found more high quality, recorded covers of their song "Last Caress" than of any other punk song out there. To make this remix I collected the versions of the song which I liked the best and cut them together in a manner I thought would give the song the most kick (and hopefully Danzig would approve). At first I ran into a few problems dealing with different tempos in different versions, but as an good editor will do with troublesome material, I worked my way around them and the outcome is something everyone can enjoy. If you like the song, you should get a kick out of folk singer, Aerial M's version.


6) "Shot Through the Rock and Roll" by Bon Jovi and Midtown
I didn't do much work on this track but editing is about making choices and if something good is going on, sometimes you just shouldn't cut away. Bon Jovi brings the intro from "Shot Through the Heart" and Midtown finishes the rest of the song with "Just Rock and Roll."



7) "Poetic Tragedy" (recut) by The Used
Another song I really didn't do much to, but I'm all about these small improvements. I thought the pacing on the original "Poetic Tradgedy" was off just a little bit at the beginning song, but everything else was just fine. I simply extended the first riff two more bars and let the song play on. Additionally I cut off the talking and stuido noise that was on the CD track after the song had finished (not really anything to do with the song, but when you listen to the track outside the context of the album, this part seems unnecessary).



8) "Ignition" (3rd Genertation Remix) by R. Kelly feat. Twista
Maybe it's the infectious beats or the "I don't give a shit" attitude, but for one reason or another R. Kelly's "Ignition Remix" became the official party anthem of Atwater Jordan's. We would literally listen to this song non-stop for hours, and in the rare event that we got tired of listening to it, we would watch the music video or just read the lyrics. When I heard that there was an actual remix to the remix which featured Twista, I wondered how far they'd push it. Well I've pushed it one step further with a remix to the remix of the Ignition Remix. I tacked on parts of the original Ignition to the beginning of the remix to the remix and added more bass. It reminds me of something...I just can't think of what it is.



9) Eye of the Tiger by Survivor with introduction by Mel Gibson as William Wallace
This may have been one of the first independent audio projects I took on. Back in the days when iMovie first debuted on the Macintosh, I had minimal other editing software and no way of getting footage onto my computer. I came up with the simple concept of combining Mel Gibson's William Wallace inspirational speech from the end of Braveheart with Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger." Originally cut in iMovie and then recut on Avid. Maybe influenced a little by hardcore and it's use of movie quotes with music...but otherwise nothing else special. It all just feels right when it plays together. And I think that's what editing is about.



...watch this space...more to come...