To celebrate the official release of my new single ‘Let Me In’ I have updated my Fringe Rock playlist with some awesome tracks from Confyde, Billy Nomates, DEADLETTER, The Rebel Yell$, You Want Fox, Kelsey Cork and the Swigs, Pricey (ex The Chats), Amyl and the Sniffers, Surfbort, Hoon, The City Kids, The Wristslitters, Mortimer Nyx, Verity White, Inward Strange, Maggie Foley, deep tan and loads more!
So, if you fancy a change from the generic rock music you’ll hear on the radio this afternoon, stick on Spotify and download this playlist.
My latest release, ‘Let Me In’ is a darkly humorous song that follows a criminal and his search to silence a witness to one of his crimes. Behind the dark satire, the song hints at how justice is never fulfilled when you enter into a perpetual cycle of violence. With an ominous bassline and deadpan vocals, the verse sets the mood for a chorus filled with a crescendo of craziness as the narrator descends into paranoia.
The song is due for general release on all major streaming platforms on 22nd July. However, you can listen and download it for FREE right now on my Bandcamp page!
Surprise! For you beautiful people that follow me on Bandcamp, here’s a pre-release special of my new single “Let Me In”. It’s not due for general release for another 4 weeks but you guys can have it now – totally FREE!
If you enjoy the track then any sharing would be very much appreciated ahead of its general release on 22nd July. For now though, please let me know what you think of my latest Fringe Rock offering.
Let Me In is a darkly humorous song that follows a criminal and his search to silence a witness to one of his crimes. Behind the dark satire, the song hints at how justice is never fulfilled when entering a perpetual cycle of violence. With an ominous bassline and deadpan vocals, the verse sets the mood for a chorus filled with a crescendo of craziness as the narrator descends into paranoia.
This song is one of those that just wrote itself. I wrote it one evening in January 2022, in between working on tracks for my first full-on debut album. It was cold and dark and I was daydreaming about the summer to come.
I was remembering my wedding and honeymoon in Las Vegas and how I’d ended up with a swollen face because I’d spent too long sunbathing around the pool at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. This was two days before my wedding but that’s a story for another time! It was ferociously hot and I felt my skin literally cooking in the sun.
I started writing the lyrics taking in cues from this memory and merging them with a satirical poke at the favourite pastime of us Brits to complain about the weather, no matter what the weather is doing. We’re never satisfied, it’s either too cold, too wet or in this case, too hot!
The music is written around the bass line. Something that I have decided I should do a lot more of as I am predominantly a bass guitarist!
The drums are a simple program that I put together using BDF2 (I’m recording on a PC from 2008 running Cubase 4 Essential remember). I remember trying to be a bit too flash and ‘realistic’ sounding when I was recording Condor Leader and I was never really satisfied with the results. I decided that if it wasn’t to be real drums then I shouldn’t try to hide the fact that this is a drum program, created by me, a non-drummer.
I recorded the track in between working on other music during January 2022, putting the final touches on it in February 2022. It’s my first attempt at producing, mixing and mastering a finished song entirely myself (that wasn’t intended as a demo).
*I’m not a fan of ReverbNation and I rarely update it with new music as I don’t believe it represents value for money (not least you can’t upload anything larger than 8mb without a pro account). If enough people actively engage with me on that platform I might reconsider my stance on the platform.
About a month ago I was involved in an interesting music project that targets toxic masculinity. Although the part I played was very small, the message is an important one.
At the beginning of April, I took my first trip to a proper music studio in over a decade. I was already a little nervous and thinking back to how long it had been since I was in a pro studio didn’t make my anxiety any easier.
Luckily the project was for Confyde, the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Martin Jackson, who just happens to be a really nice guy. Labyrinth studios, where the session was being held is run by a couple of really nice guys too, so my nerves were quickly eased.
My task for the day was to sing with a group of other guys who had been recruited for the same goal; to create an epic vocal crescendo for the end of Confyde’s new single “Man Down”. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to sing in a group like that. In fact, even though I’ve sung in professional studios before, I’d not sung in a group like that since I was at school back in the 90s!
I won’t go into the process any further, that would be for Martin to divulge if he’s so inclined. What I will do is introduce to you my New Music Friday pick of the week, which (drum roll please) is of course Man Down by Confyde.
Wow, what an epic track! I am so pleased to have been part of it, even if it was a very small part indeed. The song is out today (May 6th) on all major platforms but I’d head over to Confyde’s Bandcamp page and buy the digital download first.
My second track featured this week is this raucous number from The City Kids, It Should Have Been You. The music video can be found below but it won’t be available on Spotify until 13th May.
The track is from their upcoming album “Filth” and shows that their songwriting confidence is growing. Frontman JJ is also growing in confidence as a singer and it really shows on this track. It must also be mentioned that, as a bass player myself, I fully endorse Berty’s crunchy outro riff.
Finally, the wonderful Aussie group The Chats dropped this glorious 2-minute Pub-Punk ode to a classic muscle car. I love this band’s enthusiasm and spirit. They’ve got no fucks to give and there’s a lot to be said for that kind of attitude.
The tracks featured have been added to my Fringe Rock playlist (below). Why not give it a listen (save and share if you enjoy it) and then add these tracks to one of your own playlists? Every such action goes towards these artists being picked up by the Spotify algorithm so they reach more people.
That’s all for New Music Friday this week. Next week, well next week I’ll be banging my own drum as I bring you my new single “Cookin’ in the Sun” – (Which you can pre-save here)!
On New Year’s Eve, I decided not to go out and party. It got to around 7pm and I was bored with the TV, so I decided to set myself a task. Could I record an entire track in one evening, my last recording of 2021?
If you’ve followed me for a while, then you’ll know that I managed to crack that task and a stripped-back, acoustic version of ‘Condor’, the title track from my 2021 mini-album Condor Leader, was the result.
Well, that got me wondering if I could continue the one song per-day challenge and cover every song on the album? So, I went ahead and tried and Condor Dealer is the result!
Condor Dealer is out today and available for FREE download through Bandcamp, including bonus digital content.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what you think of this release. It’s a bit of an experiment, really. Is it possible to put out something pretty raw, that people actually want to listen to? Only you can be the judge of that! I’d love to hear from you with your feedback. Drop me a line in the comments or find me on social media:
5-Star Rated Mini-Album, Condor Leader returns with stripped-back acoustic versions and a new title, Condor Dealer!
You may have already heard that Dazzle Rebel spent his New Year’s Eve recording an acoustic version of Condor Leader title track, Condor? He managed to accomplish it in one night and in less than 5 hours. Well, he found the exercise so liberating that he decided to carry on and record the rest of Condor Leader, one song per day.
The result is this raw, honest and stripped-back version of his sophomore collection of songs. Condor Dealer is out now and available for FREE download through Bandcamp, including bonus digital content. If streaming is more your thing then it’s also available through all major streaming services.
5-Star Rated Mini-Album, Condor Leader returns with stripped-back acoustic versions and a new title, Condor Dealer!
You may remember last week’s press release announcing Condor Dealer, a stripped-back acoustic version of Condor Leader? Well, I just thought that as today is New Music Friday, I’d stop by and personally thank everyone who has already pre-saved the release on Spotify and Apple Music.
It is also worth mentioning that Condor Dealer will be available for FREE download through Bandcamp, including bonus digital content at midnight on 25th March 2022. If you’re not already following me on Bandcamp you can head over there and do that now, or you can click below to subscribe to my latest posts, as I’ll be posting the behind the scenes story when Condor Dealer drops on 25th March.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what you think of this release. It’s a bit of an experiment, really. Is it possible to put out something pretty raw, that people actually want to listen to? Only you can be the judge of that!
5-Star Rated Mini-Album, Condor Leader returns with stripped-back acoustic versions and a new title, Condor Dealer!
You may have already heard that Dazzle Rebel spent his New Year’s Eve recording an acoustic version of Condor Leader title track, Condor? He managed to accomplish it in one night and in less than 5 hours. Well, he found the exercise so liberating that he decided to carry on and record the rest of Condor Leader, one song per day.
The result is this raw, honest and stripped-back version of his sophomore collection of songs. Condor Dealer will be available for FREE download through Bandcamp, including bonus digital content at midnight on 25th March 2022. The mini-album will simultaneously launch on all major streaming services.
Dazzle ☆ Яebel 