Sketch: "Machete"

This is a sketch for a kind of heavy blues funk song, for my band The New Loutonians.

Channeling a little Deep Purple, Wolf Mother, etc. I wanted to play some drums myself, as I bought a cheap acoustic kit some months back. This was partly an excuse to rock out!

Luke Gerard, the singer of The New Loutonians, pumped out some psychedelic 60's vocals in about 30 minutes!

Listen to Machete

or download Machete.mp3 (3 mb)

Sketch: "Public Bitchiness Program"

This is a sketch for a new song for my band The New Loutonians.

I wanted to try some slap bass.

I'd like to get good at playing slap bass, without sounding like a wanker.

I think it works OK in this song!

Listen to Public Bitchiness Program

or download Public Bitchiness Program.mp3 (3 mb)

Made of Dirt

This is a track that I made on my new organ, the Farfisa 257R.

My friend Brendan improvised some cracker vocals over it.

Listen to Made of Dirt

or download Made of Dirt.mp3 (13mb)

Running Away from my Life in Porn

I was inspired by the soundtrack of a classic 80's porno, starring Traci Lords.

Here's my homage...

I decided to use my MicroKorg keyboard to get some fantastico synth sounds, and I fanged out some raging bad-good 80's guitar solo action. Also gave my best-worst 80's electro drumkit setting a workout. Kaboom!

Listen to Running away from my Life in Porn

or download Running Away from my Life in Porn.mp3 (4mb)

Love is a Battlefield

One of the greatest pop songs ever written.

I was playing in a cover band with my dear friends a while back. I was loving playing the covers. I wanted to play Love is a Battlefield, so I learned all the bits and TAB'd it out.

It was great fun, and gave me a chance to give the whammy bar a workout on my new electric guitar I'd bought... a Profile Silhouette stratocaster. A whole new world.

Listen to Love is a Battlefield

or download Love is a Battlefield.mp3 (7mb)

How Long

"How long am I gonna have ta wait for you, baby?"

Listen to How Long

or download How Long.mp3 (5mb)

I wanted to make a hip hop track for my brother, and I was experimenting with a delay pedal for the first time. Now I have 3 of them. Addicted to delay!

The bleeping instrument is performed by kranking on the delay knobs to make a wavering solo sound!

I was also experimenting with sampled beats.

I haven't done much, and I'd like to get really fiesty with it one day.

Here, the sampled beat helped me realise the power and importance of syncing the bass notes with the kick drum. Uumf.

Debonair

This song is called Debonair.

Debonair

or download Debonair.mp3 (12mb)

deb⋅o⋅nair

1.	Courteous, gracious, and having a sophisticated charm.

2.	Jaunty, carefree, sprightly. 'He was a debonair gentleman.'

Tangle

Tangle is a song I wrote with a friend, Jen.

Listen to Tangle Nocturne

or download Tangle Nocturne.mp3 (7mb)

The Nocturne version was inspired by the generally slow nature of the jams we were having! I guess I hadn't played that way before. So I took the gentleness to extremes.

Listen to Tangle Rock

or download Tangle Rock.mp3 (4mb)

And I then made the Rock version. It just kinda came naturally after the chords were written, and they're such nice angsty pop chords, I had to bash some drums and lay down some bass.

Sex on Fire

I loved this song, so I did this version of it!

My brother Ev is playing the guitar leads.

Nice one Ev.

Listen to Sex on Fire

or download Sex on Fire.mp3 (5mb)

Off the Hinge!

This one is fun.

I was trying out some "trumpet bass" sounds using my Nick Nitro pedal with my Gonzales bass.

Love it. Reminds me of some 80's family tv show!

Listen to Off the Hinge

or download Off the Hinge.mp3 (4mb)

Guitar Tune

It's a malancholy number, but it brought me hope.

It was the first song I recorded into my computer, back in about 2003 or something.

Listen to Guitar Tune

or download Guitar Tune.mp3 (3mb)

I'd just bought my first mixing desk from Cash Converters, brought it home, and recorded all the instruments I could find!

With the new powers this little mixing desk gave me, I felt confident to actually do multitrack recording on the computer.

I recorded them one after another! Acoustic guitar, hand drums, bass, harmonicas!

It proved to me that I could multitrack record, and yeah, now it's one of my favorite songs I've done. Chilled out. Wistful, I guess.

And it's always just been called "Guitar Tune". It really deserves a name! But I suppose it is a sort of archetype for me. :)

Entangled

Listen to Entangled

or download Entangled.mp3 (4mb)

The Lighthouse Turns

I’m embarking on a new project with a group of other artists!

I'll be making the soundtrack, in a series of interwoven works.

I made this piece as a warm up… thought I'd let the weird out of the bag.

Listen to The Lighthouse Turns

or download The Lighthouse Turns.mp3 (6mb)

My Bedroom

Well, there's a lot of things I want to post up here, so let's get started! I'm starting off by "setting the scene", and posting a few pieces of music I've made recently.

Here's a few photos of my bedroom as it was this morning!

I just bought this Farfisa electric organ on eBay for AUD$51. It's got some pretty classic sounds, especially the crazy rhythm section machine. I just started working on a song using the mighty Farfisa last night. Shall post it when it's done!

I'm getting into pianos and organs lately! I can't really play the keyboard, but I'm intent on learning. My grandmother has always had a grand piano in her lounge room, and my brothers and I would play it as kids, and I always loved the sound of it, just dabbling away on it. And I was always drawn to the deep bass notes! I'm now trying to teach myself chords, and generally learning how to play the keyboard! Hence all the keyed instruments!

I bought this piano on eBay for about AUD$350. My room is getting a bit crowded.

I've got an electronic drum kit (Roland TD6), and I'm getting better at the drums. 

You can also see my Tibetan Singing Bowls on top of the piano, next to the trusty Yalumba Classic Dry Red. :)

This is a pump organ I just bought for AUD$76 on eBay. 

 It doesn't have the archaeological pizzazz of my older pump organ (which I've now lent to a friend), but at least it's tuned to A440, so I can play along with other instruments! 

I hope to post some work done with this soon for a new project I'm working on with a collection of friends! To be revealed soon!

Mission Statement!

Hello and greetings!

I’m Murray Lorden.

I’m a musician, as well as computer game designer, filmmaker, and photographer.

I’m a dabbler. I like to make things.

I’m creating this blog primarily to upload music that I make, and other musical musings – photos of my instruments (because I love them), thoughts and contemplations around making music, and generally trying to make sense of life!

Mission Statement

• To play and share music.
• To play music more, and learn new instruments.
• Try to write and record a song per week.

Posts could take the form of a song for my band, or just an exercise, like trying a new style, genre or technique, or to learn an instrument better, like drums, piano, accordion, pump organ, or whatever I’ve bought lately!

What you’ll find here…

Songs, jams, musical ideas, photos and musings.

Your pal, Murray.