A couple of friends and I got together yesterday to try out how well my new microphone would record a live acoustic set, so I've got some recordings for you. One of them is actually a teaser for a song the three of us are working on and which should be released within a week or two. The final recording obviously won't be acoustic, but we got requests from friends to record an acoustic version, so here it is, along with a few covers.
Articorse - The Denial (Featuring Katya and Rumen)
Well, I'm back from the dead. Work and lack inspiration have sapped what little life this blog might have had in the beginning. But hey, this is as much a blog as it is a database of all my music. So, here's the latest addition! How many of you have heard of Andy Rehfeldt? Chances are, you've heard of his smooth jazz version of Metallica's Enter Sandman, or his "radio disney" version of Cannibal Corpse's Hammer Smashed Face. If you haven't heard of him, you're in for a treat! So, I recently got in contact with him and offered my services as a death metal vocalist. And a very short time later, here's the result!
It's been a while with no updates, but that was pretty much it for my listenable back-catalogue, so these last two post mark the transition into completely new stuff. I only just finished working on this piece and I'm really happy with how it sounds. Has a sortta pre-classical feel to it. Anyway, enjoy!
I've got a really special update for you guys today. It's my very first commissioned song! For those who know me, I'm sure it'll be quite a surprise, and for those who have actually read anything on the blog, you'll know that I'm trying to branch out into more positive-sounding music. I think I succeeded with this song, it's pretty upbeat and, I hope, it prepares you for a fun time. The lyrics are pretty tongue-in-cheek, too.
This is the intro for Jesh Nyx' internet review show on blip.tv - Movies in Bed. He's only got a few episodes out right now, but they show a lot of promise and he's a really cool guy, so I hope he gets loads of views. You can find this video and his blip channel right here. Show him some love, guys!
Time for some more shameless plugs! Here we have two more songs off the band Bloodlines'(Facebook) demo. Hopefully by the end of the year we'll have entered a proper studio to record our debut album. In the meantime, enjoy these terrible-quality demo recordings!
My catalogue of previously recorded, listenable songs is drawing to a close, so I'll have to start recording some of the old ones and composing some new ones, which means updates might be slower from now on, but I'll try to update once a week at the least. Sorry, but making music is a pretty time-consuming endeavor. I hope everyone's been enjoying what I've posted so far. I'll try to post some more 'positive' sounding songs, but I don't have a lot of those and most of what I compose is usually more mellow or melancholic or outright depressing. Or metal. Or just plain weird.
A big shout-out to Dimitar Vasilev for composing the violin solo for this song. For anyone into death metal, check out his band, Impenitence(Facebook). Dimitar is a very versatile musician, who dabbles in quite a lot of styles, hence the violin solo and playing in a death metal band.
So for today's update, I've got something special. It's a cover I made of some friends of mine's band. I wanted to see how different I could make the song sound without removing anything from it. And for the most part I succeeded, I just removed the solo. I'm actually really happy with how this turned out. The drums could use some more work, but otherwise, I think it's pretty good, considering the gear I used to record it. No downloads again today, because the mp3 is on another computer. Sorry! I'll edit this update and include a download link as soon as I can!
Roadlife (Mental Destruction Cover)
And here's the original version for comparison! The band is really good, so check them out if you have time and you like thrash metal! :)
As promised - an update! One more theme with two variations on it that are pretty different, I think. This is, once again, from my attempts at making an RPG soundtrack, though these two are definitely not just background music for wandering around, I imagined them being used during a scene of great personal loss. The only difference is that the first one has a glimmer of hope in it, while the second one is bleak as hell. Enjoy!
And as an apology for the oversight in the original post, here's two more versions of this song. One is more violin-centered, the other is more piano-centered.
Anyway, I neglected to include download links for my previous three songs, so here they are. Well, two of them, at least. The third one I'll upload a bit later, since I don't have the mp3 on the laptop I'm posting from right now.
I guess I should introduce myself. I don't really like talking about myself a whole lot, so I'll keep this short. My name is Chavdar Zhechev, I'm 25 years old, from the city of Burgas in Bulgaria. If anyone actually reads this thing, I'm sure all two of you are wondering "Where the hell is Bulgaria?". To that I say - Google is your friend and will explain it better than me. Short version: Tiny country on the Balkan peninsula in Europe.
I'm a musician and I mostly specialize in composing stuff. All kinds of stuff. Well, not all kinds, but quite a few different kinds. I also sing and play guitar, though recordings of me doing either of those will probably be rare, at least for now, until I can get a better microphone and figure out how to use my line6 pod without making my guitar sound like shit.
I'm sure the both of you are already bored to tears, so to show my appreciation for being so patient, here's a small sample of the music I make:
Solitary Mind
This particular song is pretty old. I originally composed it at least 4 years ago and I made this ambient arrangement about a year later. Then two more years passed and I decided to finally uploaded to my channel. Like most of my music, it was just and experiment to see if I could make something ambient. I'm pretty happy with the results, though I definitely could've spent a bit more time working on the mix and mastering.
Calm Town Theme
This song is quite the departure from what I usually do. Even taking into account that I usually experiment. I was trying to compose something you might hear in some kind of old-school JRPG while your party was in a town. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. This was probably my first recorded venturing into the sadly still-not-well-known to me major key. I'm working on composing more light-hearted and, dare I say, 'happy' songs.
And the last addition for today would be my band's song Fearless. I compose all the music in the band and perform lead guitar/vocal duties. The quality of the recording is pretty terrible, but it was made with some extremely cheap gear in my own home. I also did the mixing and mastering. In fact, this was my first ever attempt at doing that. For a first try - I think I did okay, but objectively speaking, the sound is absolutely terrible on this. The recording process was also quite rushed. Couldn't do more than one take on the solo, vocals were supposed to just be temporary until I could go record them with a better microphone, stuff like that. So yeah, I'm still a little pissed about the vocals. It's like having a writer publish their original draft with all the corrections, typos and etc., instead of the final one. Oh, well.
I am SO not kidding about the 'cheap equipment' thing...
I guess I should end this first post by talking about why I'm making this blog. I'm trying to get my music out there, get noticed, and possibly get a job composing soundtracks. Particularly video game soundtracks. I realize I'm nowhere near good enough to be working on AAA titles and such, but if any indie developers need a tune or two for their game - I'd love to help. If this blog gets off the ground, I'll probably use it to rant about stuff other than music, but most of it will definitely be music-oriented. I have quite a few more songs to upload, so check back for those, I'll be uploading them periodically. I might even take requests for songs to do.
