Hot off the griddle! Here is my latest video for my song, The Marching Song. You can listen to this tune and my full album, Tapping Trees in a Trinket Box of Treasure either through iTunes or http://christineleakey.bandcamp.com 

Here is SUCH a heart warming story VERY close to home for me. ♥ One of my best friends during my teens is this great gal, Jeannette who’s parents, Stewart and Lily Jean have always shown those who know them what kind hearted people they are…

Well, they just GAVE for free this wonderful GIFT back home to performer Justin Hines… Please watch! This is happy news, something the world always has room for! ♥ 

The ARP 2600 is yet another fabulous analog keyboard featured on Tapping Trees in a Trinket Box of Treasure and performed by my very talented friend, Maurizio Guarini from the band Goblin on my track, The Day My Flower Died. He just released a solo album entitled Creatures from a Drawer that I recommend you check out! 

Maurizio asked if I it would be fine to play a midi version but I said no, to please play the authentic ARP 2600. So he turned it on, warmed it up in his studio and he and his lovely Cinzia and I enjoyed a delicious pesto meal she prepared. We spoke about the meaning of the song and then Maurizio proceeded to tap into that tune and its meaning more-so than any other could have! It was very fascinating to watch him work the patches. 

This is the Orchestron which is not featured on my album Tapping Trees in a Trinket Box of Treasure as much as I’d hoped. What was meant to be a 3 day recording session became a 1.5 day session as the keyboards arrived a day late to the studio. It was also very muggy weather which impacted the quality of sound and the studio rented wasn’t cool enough so that was a challenge for the time crunch. 

Anyhow, as you can hear, this was mostly used with Kraftwerk and some of the sounds I had intended on using for the album had never been recorded on an album before. There is a bit of Orchestron on my album that you can hear though… You will just have to purchase my CD to find out in the liner notes! ;) Or see if you can hear any of the sounds on my album here: http://christineleakey.bandcamp.com. The way I used these organs were quite delicate. 

This keyboard is similar to the Optigan that I used with disks and disks from the Optigan are playable on the Orchestron but not fully functional. This was a more serious machine for its time compared to the Optigan which I believe was created for more of a home use purpose. 

Here is a Chamberlin which is also on my Tapping Trees in a Trinket Box of Treasure album. This was my favourite machine to play of all the keyboards that I rented and what’s great about it is all of the sound samples were recorded by the Lawrence Welk Orchestra which I watched every week as a very young girl. (I loved the bubbles, the chandeliers, the orchestra boxes, the flutes and the singers. I especially loved the Lennon Sisters and Cissy and Bobby.)

The American made Chamberlin predates the British made Mellotron. I used two separate Chamberlin M1 keyboards on my album. One was the standard M1 model with the common sounds and the other was a very rare M1 model that Mr. Chamberlin had created for his own personal use which features harp sounds which you can hear on a couple of my tracks to not be confused with Sahra’s Celtic Harp. You can hear it best on my track entitled, Trinket which was an improvisational piece at the end of a long recording session day. 

It was an absolute honour to play such museum quality rarities. Here is an old demonstration of a Chamberlin Music Master model which is a much bulkier model from the M1 however shares some of the same sounds.

Another fabulous instrument you can hear sprinkled throughout my Tapping Trees in a Trinket Box of Treasure album is the Mellotron. 

I first laid my eyes on one in ‘94 at Cross Eyed Bear Studios where I was the studios first ever client. The owner, Chris Bromwich had very poor vision and so he showed me the ropes on how to use the mixing board and left the studio, letting me create a recording which I made and gave to my mother as a Christmas present. Bromwich expressed to me that he had a dream to buy a church and transform it into a recording studio. That he did and then along came Glen Marshall and Dan Achen from Catherine North Studios who brought in their gear and set up shop at the church along with their name, while Chris kept his studio in the basement. 

It was at this old church where I recorded the vocal and guitar bed tracks for my album with Dan who has since passed on. Since ‘94, I had this vision to record my solo work with such keyboards and so I was thrilled to access them. I spent hours going through Mellotron tapes, some of which have never been used on recordings and made a list along with all my other very detailed production lists which I had been working on for years for this album release. I got very, very particular as I had 14 years to steep my album making. 

Most were excited when I shared with them about my plans for the album however the engineer who approached me to work my the album (when I was about to book Canterbury in Toronto) thought renting these dinosaurs were unnecessary, troublesome and ambitious vs using digital sample versions. Not to me… Afterwards he agreed once he saw what I obtained for the album making. 

I’ve always loved the analog route where ever possible and I had always planned to use real instruments vs digital samples wherever possible. 

Here is one of the many authentic keyboards that I used on Tapping Trees in a Trinket Box of Treasure: The Optigan! Watch this guy give a demonstration and you will recognize some of the sounds I chose for my album. I spent hours going through the disks and making notes to choose what to use and where on my album so that when I had the keyboards delivered to the recording studio, I would have everything that I needed… The keyboards showed up a day late which added pressure for time to get things done… In any case, it was great fun! 

Have a look at this rehearsal from December for a corporate Christmas event that I was part of… :D And please come to my show this Friday at 8PM at the Art Gallery of Hamilton Design Annex with Tanis accompanying me through dance and Jay Burr on tuba! I will also be performing with Donné Roberts… For details see this Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/228631540610658/

stayradbmx:

new REDD KROSS = radness

goincase:

For this exclusive live performance by Redd Kross, director Tim Manning and cinematographer Ryan Baker re-imagine Room 205 as the all black-and-red cover art gracing the band’s acclaimed 2012 album Researching The Blues (MERGE Records). Crank up your speakers and enjoy this blazing, ballsy bichrome delight. (by goincase)

Had a great time at the Redd Kross concert last night! I’ve waited a lot of years to see them live and it was great… 

I adore Robert Wyatt.