Happy 2023 and a new song!

 Hi again folks,

first of all: Happy New Year to you all!! 

Oh God...Another year has passed... but I guess that's always good :) So long 2022, and welcome 2023! Yes, I know: the World has gone completely nuts during 2022, hasn't it? But hey, there's always space for hope, right? So let's wish this brand new 2023 brings some sense and good stuff.

So... here is my little contribution to that! "The Fighter Pilot Podcast" has decided to jump from the audio realm to full video glory on YouTube, and the guys needed a new theme for the show. So here it goes: this new song is call "Firewall":

 

The song started as a 10 sec hard-rock jingle as requested by the team. But I thought it was a pity to leave it like that, so I created a longer version of it that might be considered as a song. It has a "80's guitar hero" intro section which evolves into a hard-rock theme similar to the ones you probably associate now with the show.

Here you can watch the video where it has been used for first time:

As always, I've also uploaded the audio version:

Hope you like it! :)

Regards

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!

Back to composing orchestral music. Well, kind of...

Ahoy friends,

so, next song on the "To-Do" list was an aircraft figher dedicated song. But putting it short, after I finished it Vincent thought it would probably fit better as music for other kind of aircraft. I'll talk you a bit more about that song very soon, as will be used in an episode which will be available probably later this month.

Anyway... Let's back to the song I was actually going to talk about, shall we? It's the "Antisubmarine aircraft" song. Thing is: the next podcast episode on the list was going to be focused on the S-3 Viking, an antisubmarine aircraft, so I was asked to create something that could fit there. Kindly enough Vincent suggested me to go towards the kind of music you can hear on submarine movies like "The Hunt for Red October" or "Crimson Tide".

Frankly this was unexpected. Until now Vincent always wanted to have rock songs for the podcast, but the soundtracks of these movies were orchestral. Not that I had a problem with that... actually it was quite the opposite! I was really happy to have the chance to visit again the kind of music I created for games and documentaries in the past!

Is worth saying Vincent pointed out also that he'd like to have a more punchy section during that song, and I imagined he'd like to have some rock there, so I focused on trying to blend both things in the same song.

Thus I decided to create two demos: the first one was basically orchestral, while the other one had a lead guitar with the orchestra supporting it on the background. As I anticipated Vincent prefered the second one. From that point the song evolved into a full "guitar hero" song, but I really had problems fitting the orchestral section among the drums, guitars and bass.

By the time I finished the song I got two different versions: on the first one the orchestra followed the chords of the rhythm guitars. The second one had an orchestra that didn't follow the guitars but had their own melody lines. This one also had a slightly different lead guitar track. In the end this second version was the one I sent to be used on the episode (due lenght limitations it had to be cut though).

But before sharing the songs with you please note the following: due I only had a few days to create the music for this episode I'm afraid to tell I don't consider it as a full-final version. I had to do my best with the time I had, so I just tried to get something acceptable enough to be used. Even if I got a finished structure for the song (which of course could be improved) the mixing and the mastering had a lot of room for improvement, as I had very little time for them by the time I finished the recording process.

Anyway, here is how the song version used on the episode sounds:

In the case you want to know how the other version sounds (the one with the orchestra following the guitars chords) here it is too, but remember: this one was never used on the show:

Hope you like them!

Two new songs for the start of the new year!

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year even if January just passed!

so... yes, this should have been published at the begining of January, but sadly I've been too busy to do it until now. Sorry!

The thing is that after I had a videocall with Vincent regarding what's coming on '19 for the Fighter Pilot Podcast it became clear that this year's schedule was going to be even tighter in terms of music needs, so I had to start working on new stuff right away before even posting here what I've had been doing during December.

Anyway, during December I was working on two different songs:

1. The first one was the "UFO song". This song appeared for first time on episode 35th (January 2nd), which featured an interview with a retired fighter pilot who had an encounter with an UFO during a training mission back in 2004. The events that unfolded then are well documented so you can read and watch videos about it all over the Internet.
   
   Going back to the music the idea was having a song that could fit on that theme. Besides it should have an intro section which allowed to introduce the event and create some atmosphere. Thinking about it I thought it would be cool to have a synthwave style song for this one. I've been listening a bit of that music lately and I think it fits the UFO theme quite well (may be because I grew up during the 80s and there was all this "E.T", "Third phase encounters", etc. all over the place at that time.
   
   I only had a few days to create this one so it's not that polished, but considering the time I had I think It didn't turn that bad.
   
   
   
   
   
   The full episode can be listened here (is also available on Spotify, iTunes, etc):
   
   www.fighterpilotpodcast.com/podcast/035-ufos/
   
2.  The second song is what we've called "the jingle". The idea here was having a light piece of music that could be used to play in the background while announcing sponsors on the show. Vincent sent me an example of the kind of song he'd like to have and I ended up creating this kind of bluesy song, featuring a lead Hammond organ and a blues guitar on different parts of the song.
   
   
   
   
   
   The song appeared for first time at the begining of episode 35 also:
   
   www.fighterpilotpodcast.com/podcast/035-ufos/

 I hope you like both songs. Rock on!

Happy "rock" Xmas!

Hi again folks,

I'm back and Xmas is back also! This month I was requested to create a "Xmas holiday themed rock song" to be featured for first time on Episode 32 of The Fighter Pilot Podcast.

This is what I came up with:

Sounds familiar? :)

As always I created two different versions for the intro and the outro. The outro is longer but also has a different ending.

Hope you like it. And I do really hope you really have a nice Xmas and a terrific 2019!

Rock on! :)