Out of the drawer now!

Hi again folks, 

I'm not sure about you, but whenever I have an idea for a new song I record it. Even if it's just a guitar riff, or something I've come up with while noddling with the keyboard, I record it with my DAW or whatever is at hand (my cellphone, for example). This way if I need to create a new song for a project I don't need to start from scratch. I just have to search among these demos that suits what I need and use it as starting point. 

From time to time I like to navigate through my hard disk, checking all these demos. Just for the fun of it. I have a pretty bad memory, so it's not unusual for me to find something there and say: hey, thats sounds cool! 

That's exactly what happened last week. I found an almost finished song I created last summer (July 2021) for a project which is not finished yet. It mixes orchestral and metal sounds to get an epic result (hopefully). I decided it was time to give it a final touch and release it. So here it is. Well, in fact I've made it available both YouTube and BandCamp. Hope you like it. 

 

 

 

Happy new 2022 and a new song!

 Hi again folks!

so, 2021 has passed and we have a brand new year to waste. And with it comes a new song! The Fighter Pilot Podcast requested a new song to be used as theme for the whole 2022 year. Once again it had to be a metal song, so that is what I created!

The final version wasn't the usual song though. It had been created to be easily editable by the podcast production team so it could be cut or looped to created the bumper of each episode depending on the needed lenght. Thus it had a long 45 sec loopable intro, followed by two different sections separated by a few seconds so the trails of the first one didn't overlap the second section and they could be used independently or merged, depending on the needs.

Once finished I created this edited version which you may consider a "normal" song. Anyway, here it is:

Hope you like it. As always, take care out there and see you here again soon!

Regards

Iron Flag

 Hi again folks,

I almost forgot about this one... I finished it back in May. If was created to the be theme of the Iron Flag Part I campaign for DCS A-10CII Tank Killer simulation. But the campaign hasn't been available until today. So here it goes:

 If it sounds familiar to you is because they asked me if it could be inspired to certain song of the most famous heavy metal band from England ;)

Here you can listen the song as the soundtrack of the trailer video created for the campaign (note the guitar solos at the end are different that the version I post above):

 

And with this I'm going to wrap 2021. I hope you've had a good year (all things considered). See you in 2022! Have a nice Xmas and a Happy New Year!!

Kindest regards

The 80s are back!

 Welcome back folks!

In case you didn't notice: the 80s are back. Haircuts, clothing, movies and of course... music. Yes... even John Mayer has released an album with sounds, art and videos like the ones we had during the eighties.

So... believe it or not my next song had to be inspired by that decade. I can't deny I dig a good amount of the music and movies that were done back then (others was utterly bad though). I listen or watched them quite often, and for some time I have wanted to create some music with the kind of sounds we were listening on the radio or as movie soundtracks then. But I didn't really sit to do it. Until I was offered the opportunity to create a theme for a new podcast focused on the F-14 Tomcat. If you don't know what that is: does "Top Gun" rings a bell? Yes... that airplane :) So, the podcast is called "F-14 Tomcast" (I love the name, hehe), in case you feel inclined to give it a listen.

Anyway, with that movie in mind I created this song, "Catapult". The name is descriptive enough if you're interested on jet fighters, aircraft carriers and that kind of jazz. And for this special occasion I've even created a music video. Here it goes:

As always the song is also available as audio streaming on Bandcamp:

 I have to say that despite it's not perfect  I'm quite proud of the final result. I think the goal was achieved (sounds like the music you may expect hearing while watching a jet fighter movie from the 80s) and I think my recording and mixing are improving. And I kind of like the song itself too.

Enough talking... hope you like it.

See you on the next one!

So... that was fast!

 Hi again folks,

a request for a new song for the Warbirds series came out of the blue last week and I just had a few hours to create it before leaving for the weekend. 

 So I came up with a couple of ideas: a hard rock song that was discarded, and this one. Is just a simple metal song, and I created, recorded, mixed and master it in around three hours, so... that was fast! and also that means it's not that well rounded, but a deadline is a deadline! :)

Hope you enjoy it anyway!

See you soon!

"The Raven". Or a proper epic song.

Hi again folks,

 

 Summer is already here, and is time to show you some new music!

This new song is quite different to the ones I've been releasing lately. Instead of a fast paced, direct 2 minute long song this one is not short by any means (6:36 min), and is the kind of song I love: longer, with a lot of different sections and music styles and epic.

It has been created to be used in the Digital Combat Simulator F-18 Campaign "Raven One", created by Baltic Dragon and based on the book "Raven One" by Kevin Miller. I had less than a week to complete it, so there's a lot of space for improvements and I'd be glad of change some parts and do a proper mix if I get the chance of releasing an updated version. But you have to accept how creating music for a specific project works: a deadline is a deadline.

You'll see it is anything but boring, and it gets better as it gets going... It starts with a short and calm rock guitar section (which I'm not totally happy with but I reached the tight deadline before I could replace it with anything better) and then turns into a progressive metal section, which I like quite a lot, despite I'd have liked to get even better...

 

But don't worry, if you're not into metal it doesn't last long anyway: at 2:35 the songs leaves behind all guitars and drums and becomes an orchestral theme, similar to some song you may hear as part of the original soundtrack of a movie. It starting quiet and calm, but it evolves constantly, reaching at the end its most epic section, with the whole orchestra, including the choir and all the rings and bells (literally). 

 

Be patient and listen it untill the end, you'll see why I wrote that it gets better as it gets going. Hope you like it. Enjoy your summer! :)

A new decade, a new podcast and more rock!

Hi folks!

Xmas is already over and we're well into 2020 at this point. With the new year and decade comes a new song for a new podcast: the Air Combat Sim Podcast.

Despite is different to the Fighter Pilot Podcast this one is also focused around combat airplanes, but from a different perspective: PC combat flight simulator, as DCS, IL2 and the likes.

The team behind it requested me a rock song to be used as main theme and I came up with this idea after several tries. It sounds like a 80s guitar hero song, as that is what comes to my mind when I think about that kind of thing (yep, I grew up watching those cheesy 80s air combat movies...)

Hope you like it! :)

Xmas is almost here, so let's drop some bombs!

Hi again!

December is "Bomber month" on The Fighter Pilot Podcast, and for this mini series I was asked to create a specific theme.

Being bombers not particularly fast or agile I had to create something resembling that. So, some old school heavy music was needed.

I was playing guitar in my parents' garage back in the 90s when I came up with a riff that was that kind of thing. Despite I didn't intend to do such thing it sounded (to me at least) like Black Sabbath. I remember recording it on cassette with a friend playing some home made drums (don't ask) and it sounded great on that big space, reverberating from wall to wall, which contributed to make it sound even heavier.

When I was requested to create the bombers' month song I remembered that riff, and thought it would make the trick as bomber themed song. So, I recorded and mixed it trying to sound similar to the earliest Black Sabbath albums of the 70s.

The overall recording, mixing and mastering process tries to bring that vintage sound back too: how instruments sit on the stereo spectrum, the tape noise, etc. Is my personal XXI century homage to that sound!

The guitar, which uses the Laney amp model Tony Iommi used back then, is doubled and panned to the right, while a saturated bass is panned to the left. The guitars' reverb is panned to the left too to create a wider guitar sound, which was a mixing trick used back in those days.

I kept a heavy sound for the drums with a lot of reverb also. No fancy playing, just "caveman" playing and fills.

The song was used for first time on the first episode of the Bomber series: The B-17 Flying Fortress.

Anyway, hope you like it!

If you want to listen the full episode click HERE.

Kindest regards

Back from holidays and new song!

Hi again folks,

summer holidays are almost over for me. Just came back from a couple of weeks of relax away from the city, but before leaving I left one song ready to be released (well, it was more than one, but the rest will be released later). As always it's a one minute long metal song. But that's what bumper music for fighter pilots' podcast is all about, isn't it? :)

If you want to check the podcast episode where this song has been featured click HERE. The episode is also available on all big streaming platforms, including Spotify and YouTube.

During this two weeks of holidays I've been playing guitar around 6 hours a day, so expect to have new songs comming soon ;)

I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer. I'll be back soon, that's for sure...

Enjoy the song!

New song and Happy Summer!

Hi again folks,

 Summer is already here and here goes a new bumper song for The Fighter Pilot Podcast.

This one is inpired on a renowed german industrial metal band, and despite it wasn't originally meant to be used as song for the spy aircraft episodes Vincent prefered it to the one I created for them. So be it :)

This song was composed and recorded on February 2019, but hasn't been released until the SR-71 Blackbird episode has been published. I love this amazing spy aircraft since I was a kid, so I'm extremely happy to be involved somehow in something related to that rocket-like plane :)

Hope you enjoy the Summer. I'm keeping myself really busy creating more music, despite that isn't showing up here. But it will, eventually... :)

Kindest regards

Ridin'

Welcome back,

another ten days have passed and I've released another song. This one is a metal cover of the famous Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", which is part of the second opera of the "Der Ring des Nibelungen". The fade in and fade out sections are original though:

Story behind is: there were plans to feature helicopters in the Aircraft Series of The Fighter Pilot Podcast, so we needed a song which could be linked to them easily.

It didn't take me too long to remember the famous movie "Apocalypse Now", where the original song was played through loudspeakers mounted on US helicopters while they attacked a North Vietnamese village.

Again, I didn't have a lot of time to record and mix this one, but It worked OK for the episode. Hope you like it.

As always you can get the full podcast episode here. The song appears at the begining and the end of it:

www.fighterpilotpodcast.com/episodes/040-h-60-black-seahawk/

And metal is back!

Hello again,

funny thing, the song I'm introducing today was in fact created to be "The Fighter Pilot Podcast" October's episodes song, but it was kept in the vault because the astronaut episode was going to be released first and we needed to have the "Space oddity" on it.

But here is the song:

As you see it's the usual one minute long straight forward metal song :)

It appeared for first time on episode 30th "Expendables" (November 11th), but there was edited during the mixing the episode. Once more Vincent surprised me with his editing skills, looping or cutting sections of the song so it fit the lenght needed during the intro and outro sections. But the version I'm uploading here is the one I created originally.

Hope you like it! :)

Regards

August's song

Hi again folks,

a new song has been released today. Featured on The Fighter Pilot Podcast episode 22th, it will be used on August's episodes.

Once more is a short one minute long metal song. This time I slowed the tempo and used a seven string electric guitar for first time, so it sounds a bit more modern, and kind of heavier, I guess. You can listen it below:



I hope you like it. Have a nice summer! :)

Kindest regards

New music!

Hi again,

I know haven't published any new music lately (despite I kept playing and composing). But today is the day music comes back to this blog! :)

Just a few months ago I started to listen Vincent "Jell-O" Aiello's The Fighter Pilot Podcast, a cool podcast about fighter pilots, their planes and that kind of stuff.

Fighter pilots and planes? Yep... since I was a kid I've loved jet fighters and warbirds, and despite in real life I never had the chance of being too close to them I've enjoyed them on simulators and books all my life.

Thing is I'm enjoying that podcast so much that I offered Vincent to create music for it. And he accepted! It's going to be focused only on metal/rock genres, so don't expect to find any orchestral songs there. But for me is exciting anyway because as you already know I love these music genres too!

Here's the first song I created for the podcast. It's going to be featured as intro and outro (there're two differents versions of it) on episode 16th, which will go online on June 1st. If you want to listen it just click the "Play" button below:



And that's all for today! I'm sure I'll be back very soon with more music created for The Fighter Pilot Podcast :)

Kindest regards