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Voiceless

What is it that I love? What is it that I feel? What are the words that I want to say But probably never will What do I believe? Am I a man with a stone for a soul? What makes me fall in love.... Desire or no self-control? Because this all means nothing to me And it seems to mean nothing to you Is there something you believe? Or are you voiceless too? What is it that you love? What is it that you feel? What are the words you want to say But probably never will? Kelly Panter

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On April 14th, our friends Hand Drawn Records will be releasing the 'Bedrooms and Backdoors. Friends and Neighbours' complilation cd featuring our first release since 2010. The track we submitted is very different than anything we've recorded in the past. HDR asked if we had anything "chill" for a submission. We didn't, but we were excited to have a new challenge for this compilation album.

We constructed a poem set to music titled 'Voiceless'. Seems kind of appropriate on many different levels right now. We hope you'll check out the HDR compilation and appreciate this poem for what it is and what it asks.

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The cat is outta the bag

In case you didn't know... http://handdrawnrecords.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/the-bands-hdr-compilation/

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We're happy to be a part of the 2012 Hand Drawn Records compilation Vol. 1 to be released in April. Our newest track, a musical poem titled "Voiceless", will be included along with others by local DFW artists Exit 380, Secret Ghost Champion, Igneous Grimm, & Fou. If you look closely, there are also 2 names under my branch not recognized by most. Something old, something new. All shall be revealed in time. KP

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Voiceless

10 hour studio session completed today for submission to upcoming Hand Drawn Record's 2012 compilation release. We worked on a new track titled 'Voiceless' which is more of a poem than a song. Totally different than all other music done before. Needing something to fit within the concept & vibe of the compilation album, Evan & I both reached into our past to find something that may define our future. He brought the music and arrangement & I used an old poem that I always wanted to set to music somehow. Details & info coming soon on the compilation release through Hand Drawn Records.

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Exit 380 cd release review via Jordan the Music Enthusiast

After that, it was onward to Club Dada.

It had been a little over a year since the last time I saw Exit 380, due mainly to their lack of shows for most of this year and it seemed like when they did do them I was unable to go. But tonight they were finally releasing an album that had been…

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Inside look at the latest studio recording for new album. 

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You never what's laying around that can become your next musical instrument. Got some crazy sounds out of this to use as a sample in newest recording.

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Keyboards

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Finding My Voice

Maybe it's because I've given up on waiting to hear my phone ring. Maybe it's due to exhaustion of searching for that needle in the haystack again. It could be partly due to the frustration of having to explain how to express and perform the melodies and lyrics that I write to someone else. Or I could just be feeling inspired by the upcoming solo album by one of my favorite guitarist/songwriters, Noel Gallagher, who is finally taking the lead vocals duties on his own songs. But whatever it is, I'm building my confidence up to sing vocals on the IL recordings that have been in the works. I put down some trial vocal tracks on 'The Valley' a few weeks ago with the help and extreme patience of Evan. I learned a lot about the techniques and tricks to singing that I never realized before. Granted it was just an experiment, but it was a baby step and got some decent results and feedback. Evan gave me some good advice that I just need to learn to find and accept my own voice. Once I do, maybe others will too. It's a new musical challenge and one that will take some time. But there are some things with these songs that can't be expressed by someone else. The next part will be getting some training and practice. I'm not a natural singer. I've always thought that I have a "songwriter's" voice and then handed the duties over to the singer. Well since I can't rely on a decent one (that's a whole different rant), I'll do it myself. Edit by edit. Couldn't be any worse than Radiohead.

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Rock? Yes please

I've been playing ALOT of country music recently for an up-and-coming artist named Ashley Lee. We've been getting ready for a showcase and minitour in Tampa on Labor Day weekend. I've had to learn almost 30 songs to do a 3 hour set, which includes mostly covers. Since I've never really listened or played country before, it's been interesting to learn some new tunes and techniques to songwriting. But I was relieved to finally get back to doing some recording with Evan at the lab. We've been working on a new tune called The Valley. We hit a small wall because we needed a drummer to put down the beat for tracking. After asking some people and not getting the results, we decided to try something new. I'm glad we did because it sounds great. We basically digitally recreated how our drummers from the past would have approached the song. Gotta say those boys at BFD know what they're doing when it comes to their drum software. It was so much easier than expected and could be the future for tracking more songs quicker and easier. It felt great to get back to doing the style of music I love most. After we had the drums done, Evan had put down the rhythm and bass tracks using a Mesa Roadster dual-rectifier. Sounds so mean and big. I didn't have any solid ideas for the lead parts to do so we just experimented. We built a very sweet solo that I'm proud of and just hoping that I can actually play live someday. Used the Paul Reed Smith through the Marshall JCM for a warm, bright British tone. Next we worked on some texture and transitional pieces using some ambient MIDI tones. Very cool when combined with the guitars. So now that just leaves vocals to do next.....stay tuned on that.

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Stage intro sample made awhile back. Called it "Baby Beat". Not sure why.

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Just a taste of the new track "The Valley" that we're writing. Scratch drums & guitars so far. It's coming along piece by piece.

The inspiration behind the lyrics seemed to just hit me while driving home & listening to "Gallow's Pole" by Led Zeppelin, which is about a man making offers to the hangman before his execution. I started thinking about the death sentence that the State of Texas uses for some of its worst criminals, what my own personal views on the death sentence were, and all of the emotions & thoughts of someone if they were on death row BUT were actually innocent. That would be a living nightmare. Ironically, I found this article online that night:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3472872.html Did Texas execute an innocent man?

Evan had named the song "The Valley" before we even had any lyrical concept. But when I read this article, I immediately thought of Psalm 23 : "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;". When I presented the lyrics to Evan and we worked through them, he pointed out that the story took place relatively close to the valley region of Texas. Weird, huh? As I've written earlier, sometimes inspiration finds you.

"In the valley....of the shadow of death,

I never wanted my life to go to waste like this.

In the valley....where they'll lay me to rest,

I pray my soul is saved with my dying breath."

The Valley

Lyrics by K. Panter 2011

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handdrawnrecords:

W.A. Fite “Carney’s Lake” Poisoning the Medicine Tree Hand Drawn Records / El Villa Films Fite Lite Productions © 2011

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Studio session 12

Evan has dropped a bomb on the whole recording process. And a good bomb that is. He's updated the drum sampling software to BFD2 and has started integrating it into into the existing recordings. Sounds so good. The capabilities are endless for achieving limitless varieties of tones and textures for the drums. This will definitely change our approach to tracking and open up new possibilities. I love that our recordings are a hybrid of the standard analog recording techniques and the new generation of digital tracking.

We started tracking on a new song written by Evan. Working title is 'The Valley'. This song makes me play air guitar like a kid on a Pop Rocks sugar rush. Can't wait to finish this one up.

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More on the way from the Fite-ster

handdrawnrecords:

W.A. Fite “Carney Lake” Video promotional shot by Dustin Blocker

Hand Drawn Records 2011 ©