Hey everybody, this is Justin here, aka Demonic Sweaters, and this is the Demonic Sweaters Podcast, episode number 72. And I know I haven't been uploading any episodes here for a long time, and I apologize for that. It's been a very, very hectic season here for me, holiday season. A lot of companies, rather, are sending me new gear to test and review. as well as I've had a lot of students in person and online. And yeah, I've just been super busy and I haven't had any time to make any podcast. Well, I probably could have had some time there, but I just didn't do it. I need a break. So yeah, just wanted to come on and make a quick episode here. This is gonna be a short one. I don't have any guests, but I wanted to show you guys my brand new band. I have a band called Snecks and you can follow us on Instagram. It's just instagram.com slash snecks underscore band. And snecks is spelled S-N-E-K-S in case you were wondering. We will have one song coming out on the streaming services in the next couple of days. It's going to be called Evil Ed.
And that song is also on my YouTube channel, Demonic Sweaters YouTube channel, Live Performance. And the same version will be released to the streaming services. Now, the reason why I went ahead and released this song... Not that I'm not proud of it. I think it's really great. But it's, you know, it's a live version. And we didn't really, you know, spend a lot of time recording it except for, you know, I mean, we practiced and stuff. But it's not like a studio version is what I'm trying to say. But the reason why I wanted to upload it right away to the streaming services is I didn't want anybody to take our name. Right now, there's no snacks on any of the streaming services, which I was surprised because if you're not sure, snacks is like basically a slang for snakes. And it's just kind of a silly way to say snakes. And I thought for sure there'd be a band called snacks, but there wasn't. And so that's why I did that. So that'll be on the streaming services. So check it out there.
You can check it out right here. I'm going to play one here that I haven't posted anywhere yet. This one is called Long Distance. And what's really cool about this band is we're just a duo. And actually, I was really inspired by my podcast with Damon Che, where he was talking about his new band, Yesness, who are also a duo. And hearing how amazing they sound, I was like, you know, I'm tired of waiting around looking for other band members. And in fact, when me and Eduardo, the other member of Snacks, we've been talking for a while. And I was, you know, I was trying to put together a band with more people.
And we had organized a session in a studio with five people other than me. So six people total. And out of all of those people, Eduardo was the only one that showed up. So we were like, okay, so I guess it's just us. You know, we're the only ones that really care. So, but it's going really good. Eduardo is an amazing musician.
And we have similar tastes, I think, even though he hasn't heard of a lot of stuff that I listen to because he's younger than me. And likewise, there's probably a lot of stuff he knows that I don't know of. But it works. Our tastes align, even though we listen to probably different bands. But when he plays a riff, I'm like, that's really cool. And same with when I play something, he really likes it too. So we click really well, and I think it's going really well. These live versions, I'm sure they'll get better, but they're good. I'm a perfectionist. I like them to be...
Ultimately, I want everything to be really, really amazing. But I think they're really good already. And this is our, I want to say like our fifth practice probably that we did this. Fifth or sixth maybe. So we've written six songs. I think five of them we'll probably keep. And we're working on a sixth or seventh one rather, or a sixth keeper. So I'll shut up now. I'm going to play long distance and I'll be right back. And this is next.
All right, that was Long Distance by my new band, Snex. And the way that we work on music, or at least part of the time, like the songs that I'm composing, the way that this is working is all of those synth sounds and everything that you heard there, those are all loops. And I'm basically creating the loops. on my computer in Ableton. And once I have loops that I like and that I think will be the good basis for a song, then I'm importing them onto my sample pad, my PD708 by Avatar. You can check out my latest video on that if you want. So once I get them all imported onto there, I have it set up so where I can basically trigger a loop from the sample pad by hitting a pad. And then I can trigger the next loop by hitting a different pad and that pad will stop the first loop. So I'm basically, we're not playing to a laptop or backing tracks.
I'm triggering these loops in real time as we play. And what you heard there was actually live. So basically what I'm doing is, you know, I'll come up with a pattern, you know, of like different loops that I'm playing and create an arrangement and play drums. And then I'll send that to Eduardo and Eduardo listens to it. And he starts coming up with his guitar parts and stuff like that. And he also has a looper as well. Well, I don't have a looper, but he has a looper. And, you know, he can layer things on there too. Towards the end of that song, he's layering some guitar parts.
over top of the various synth parts and like the leads that he's playing on guitar. So it's a really cool setup. And then like the other way we're doing it is Eduardo's composing some stuff too. And like I said before, he has a looper and he can kind of layer parts. And, you know, he also has like an octave pedal where he can do some bass parts and things like that. And so we're kind of both, you know, working on stuff together separately on our own and then sending them to each other. Then when we get together, we work them out. And, you know, I think so far the system is working really well. And it's really fun to play drums.
you know, and have like these sample loops to be able to trigger them from the sample pad. It's a really cool thing. It's super fun. But the only problem with it is I just cannot make a mistake. If I make a mistake, like if I hit the wrong pad or start the wrong loop, then it just completely screws the whole song. Or if I miss a pad or, you know, hit the same pad, my mistake, that stops everything. So that has happened a few times in rehearsal.
But it's happening less and less. But it does put quite a bit of pressure on me to where I just can't make any mistakes. But that's cool. I mean, I'm sure it's fine. I mean, when we do play live, we're looking to book something in March. I know it's pretty far off, but with everything that's going on, Christmas holiday, you know, traveling, and then in January. Oh, actually, let me stick to this thought, and then I'll tell you guys about that. But, you know, just a lot of things going on, very busy. And then the band we want to play with, there's a band here.
in new york city called strawberry uh glass strawberry glass rather um who are really really awesome and uh i've been talking to them for a while here you know online and we wanted to hook something up together but uh they're bass player slash singer is going to the Philippines for like, you know, a couple of months or like a month or something like that. And they won't be back until March. So we're looking to do something with them. And plus that'll give us a lot of time to rehearse and, you know, figure out exactly how we're going to do it live. Because here in my home studio, I'm playing my custom, you know, e-drum kit. Like those are all electronic drums that you heard there. Even though they sound pretty real, they have like samples of some of my real drums inside of them.
I'm using a TD-17 module, but you can actually do that on the TD-17. You can import your own samples. So a few of the cymbals and the snare drum is one of my old snares. That's actually my old Tama Imperial Star snare that I recorded some really nice sounding samples from that a long time ago. And I found it and decided to try importing it on the module and I thought it sounded really good. And it's combined. Like I layer it with, you know, the best way to do it is to layer them with sounds that are already in the TD-17. That's how you can get your most realistic results. So you have like multi-layered samples. So I have it layered in there with a couple of sounds from the TD-17.
And then same with the cymbals. My ride cymbal is a, it's my Pisces 22 inch blue heavy ride, which that thing sounds incredible. It's just such a cool sounding ride cymbal. And so it really sounds like it on the sample too. Like it's got that nice ping, but it's kind of dark too, which is really cool. And again, that one too, I layered, you know, there's a slight layer to it underneath. So it gives it just a little more depth. It actually makes it sound more like the real cymbal. If you just have just one sample in there and you're playing that, then it tends to, you notice like machine gunning more and it just sounds more like a, you know, more like a basic sample. So it's really good to layer them.
Anyway, what I was saying, the other reason why I won't be available through part of January is actually I'm finally going to the NAMM show in Anaheim, California, and I'm super stoked about that. And in addition to that, while I'm out there, we're going to LA for a couple of days beforehand and going to see Yesness first gig. Yesnesses? Yesness? What's the plural for Yesness? Or how do you say the...
the possessive of yesness. Anyway, I don't know. Damon Shea's new band, Damon and Christian Dunn from L1011, their new band. If you haven't heard the Damon Shea episode of the podcast yet, definitely go back and check that out. It's really good. Damon's so amazing. I'm a huge fan. But I will be seeing their first show. So I am super stoked about that. I already got the tickets.
And another little fun bit of info here. I was helping Damon. We were looking at drums because first he was talking about shipping his drums out there to California because they're doing a West Coast tour first. And, you know, I was helping him look at shipping costs and, you know, weigh his options. And I suggested, well, maybe you should get, you know, just look for a used Pearl export because that's what he plays on Craigslist or in the area, you know, because I'm sure he could find one like for cheaper than it would cost to ship yours out there. So he started doing that and then he found this kit that's, well, I don't want to give it all away. It's a really...
I mean, I'm sure Damon will be able to get it to work. It's similar to a Perl export. It's almost like a generic Perl export, but it came with all the hardware and everything. So it was a good package deal. And I'm sure he's gonna make it sound awesome. So I'm looking forward to seeing him play this kit that I helped him find. Yeah, so anyway.
Well, actually, I tried to talk him out of it. But I was like, maybe look at this Tama Rockstar. You know, I sent him a couple Ludwigs and Thomas and stuff. But he was, I think that the attraction for him for that one was the fact that it had the hardware. And, you know, it was, it is a good deal. When I first looked at it, you know, I didn't look very closely. And it just looked very generic to me. And I was like, I don't know about that. Like, I would see that thing flying apart. But then, like, after I looked back at it, I did notice the stands where, you know, there was like a Pearl stand and a PDP. And, like, there was some good stuff in there. So he had a better eye for it than I did originally.
So anyway, I thought that was a cool little fun bit of information that I would throw in here. And yeah, so I'm going to be going to the NAMM show. Hopefully I'll meet the Avatar people out there. They told me they're going to be there. And hoping the Simmons guys will be out there. I don't know if they're out there or not. I asked one of them, Jeff, who works for Simmons. But maybe he just didn't notice that in the message. It was like, I included a lot of things in that email. So he responded to most of it, but maybe he didn't see that part. I'll ask him again. But I'm not sure if Simmons makes a presence at the NAMM show because they're like a guitar center company.
But it'd be cool if they were out there. I'd like to meet them in person. I've only talked to them online. So, yeah. I don't know. What else can I play for you guys? I'll play an old song. I'm going to play something off of the album The 2080s, which is an old Demonic Sweaters album. I listened to it myself a few days ago. I hadn't heard it in many years. And this is a really unique album of mine, I think, because it's kind of like it was one of those albums that I put together from various songs and stuff that I was working on at the time, you know, mostly for YouTube videos.
you know, just various experimental projects. So it's kind of all over the place, but that in a way is what makes it pretty cool. So let me see, which song can I play off of there? I'll just tell you after I play it. I'll pick it out and then I'll tell you what it was. All right, here we go. This is something off of the 2080s by Demonic Sweaters. All right, that song was called Charles DeMar. And like I said before, that's off of the album, the 2080s. Now that song was a very insanely meticulous song to create.
What you're hearing there actually was created all on the program Amiga Pro Tracker. Now, if you're not familiar with Amiga Pro Tracker, this is a very old piece of software that was made in the 19, I want to say late 80s probably, early 1990s possibly, for the Amiga computer. And I think I was running that. Somebody had ported it to Windows, and I think I was using the Windows version. 8-Bit Bugsy, or Bubsy, actually, is who did that. So if you want to find it, I think it's still out there. If you're looking for it, you can download it. Just Google ProTracker 8-Bit Bubsy, and you should be able to find it. Anyway, that was made with that, and this is like a tracking software. And if you're not familiar, the way that they work is all of the different four tracks that are available are basically, they are...
vertically aligned on the screen and you have to type in little bits of code basically to you know make the music and all the samples in there that you're hearing were meticulously sampled by myself that is my entire Tama Imperial Star drum kit, the same snare, actually, that I have in the song that you heard previously. That's that same exact snare drum, but it's just a different sample. Actually, it might even be the same sample, but it's been, you know, withered down to 8-bit, you know, and just squeezed in this little file, so that's why it sounds pretty different. But, yeah, so that whole drum kit is my Tama Imperial Star. All the cymbals, all of the drums, the bass drum, the toms, everything was all sampled from there. All the synth sounds were sampled from my Kawaii K1 and my old Korg Micro Korg. And...
The vocal sample, the speaking sample, is taken from the movie Better Off Dead, and that's where the song title comes from. The name Charles DeMar is a character from the classic John Cusack movie, 1980s Cusack movie, Better Off Dead, and played by the amazing Curtis, what's his name? Curtis Jackson? Is that it? The guy who played Booger on Revenge of the Nerds, same actor. He played Charles DeMar, and he's just a hilarious character in that movie. Now I have to look up his name. What is his name? Hold on. One second. I've got to make sure I get this right. Booger actor.
Curtis Armstrong that's his real name did I say that no I don't think I did but yeah he's great he was just in so many of those 80s movies and was always hilarious and everybody loves Curtis Armstrong but yeah so yeah that song was first you know I had to sample everything And then I had to get all the samples imported into Pro Tracker. And then I had to actually program it. And the programming of that song, the beat, like the drum patterns in that song were extremely meticulous. I think that was the most involved I ever got in using Amiga Pro Tracker. Like I really spent a lot of time on this one, as I recall. And I do think it came out really good. It's one of my favorites that I ever did in the program. And the drums, I think, sound really cool. They're definitely the highlight. And there's some pretty insane fills in there.
And all it feels, you know, I had to program as well. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun. Not to toot my own horn, but it was one of those things, like, I don't have the patience to do that these days. I don't know what it was, like, about me, like, 10 years ago or however long ago that was. You know, I had a lot more patience to do stuff like that. Now it's like, I don't know, I get less enjoyment out of doing these hyper-intensive programming things for music, whereas now I'd much rather just play it, you know, and record it and get into the mixing. I'm not lazy with it at all. I just, you know, I prefer to do things in a more organic way these days, whereas back then.
you know, it made for some really cool results. I'll give it that. But looking at how tedious that was, thinking of doing that right now, I'm just like, no fucking way. I'll just press record and play guitar, you know? I don't know. Maybe I'm getting boring or less adventurous.
But maybe one day I'll get back into ProTracker. But for now, no, I'm going to focus on snacks. Anyway, I think that's going to be all for this episode, everybody. I have other stuff I have to do today. And yeah, thanks for listening. Don't forget to, you know, follow the podcast. I was about to say like and subscribe. I have these things that are programmed in my brain, you know, like automatic when I make YouTube videos. And sometimes it's fly out of my mouth when I'm on the podcast. But yeah, follow us. I mean, I guess if you're listening to this, you already are, but maybe not. Maybe you're hearing it on YouTube or some random place. Who knows? But yeah, definitely stay tuned, though. There's going to be more episodes coming. It's going to be a pretty long break here.
All of December I'll be off, but I will be back probably in early to mid-January for a couple episodes at least. Anyway, have a good one, guys and gals and everybody.