Heeeeey! This is just a quick update to let you know that Mister Fusty’s latest album, “Over the Rocky Mountains” is now on a few online music stores, what better way of spending those christmas music vouchers huh?
For those wondering about a CD release it’s not going to happen unfortunately, as it’s too costly to make CDs, however if you go to the Bandcamp Fusty Shop you can download lossless FLAC music files of the album and burn them onto a CD.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Yearto you all! As a special gift from us here in Fusty’s Festive log cabin please accept this free mp3 of an alternative version of one of the tracks off the album“Over the Rocky Mountains”. It’s a remix of the opening track “Rocky”, a version similar to this was to be included on the album but I decided that it didn’t really belong. I’ve had another tinker with it and here it is to download for free, here (right click and save link as).
As another bonus, using the player below, you can listen to a brand new song called “Cosmos Dust“.
Have a good one and see you next year!
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This is just a quick note to say you can now download the latest Mister Fusty opus, “Over the Rocky Mountains” from CD Baby here. Hopefully early next year the album will be on Spotify, iTunes, emusic, lala and other wonderful online mp3 depots. You shall, no doubt, be cheerfully informed as it happens. There will also be more news to come next year from my label/collective Headphone Treats. Also stay tuned for a (admittedly poor) Christmas present from Fusty HQ. I hope you’ve been good this year!
There is a rather excellent music site out there called The Sixty One. It’s a neat way to discover new and unheard music but rather than me ramble on to try and explain it head over there yourself and have a look around.
Basically it’s a game combined with encouraging you to listen and discover new independent music and it’s hugely addictive. Of course Mister Fusty has stuck his head around the door and joined the growing number of artistes on the site.
This is my page, http://www.thesixtyone.com/#/misterfusty/ I need lots more ‘hearts’! (If you have a look around the site you’ll discover what this means) so sign up and give Old Fusty some love. Thank You!
Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce you to the third album by Mister Fusty, “Over the Rocky Mountains”. It’s now available for you to listen to and download in the Fusty Emporium, Or you can listen/download/share from the player below..
It’s been mastered with expert precision by Jimmy Ether, top man of the rather marvellous Headphone Treats label, of which I am thrilled to be now part of. There will be more info to come about Headphone Treats and their lovely new website later in the year. Stay tuned!
I’m very proud of this album, it was a tough one to do as it’s the first I’d attempted with vocals. I do hope you like it. Below are some, probably quite tedious, ’sleeve notes’ I wrote about each track on the album.
“Rocky”
The title is a pun really, it’s a ‘rocky’ track, i.e. it ‘rocks out’ a bit, but also the chorus refers to being, “Over the Rocky Mountains”. I got married last year and went on honeymoon in Vancouver and fell in love with the place. We’ve been to Canada a few times and we keep dreaming of moving there. To get to Vancouver you fly over the Rocky Mountains, coming from the UK anyway, so that’s where the title comes from. Also it’s a double meaning, the phrase ‘Over the Rocky Mountains’ could also mean you are over a particularly bad or rough patch in your life. So it’s a place everyone would like to escape to at some point in their lives.
There’s a totally different version of this song which may appear at some point.
“Make a Stand”
This song has had probably the most changes and fiddling about (that’s er..a technical term by the way) of all the songs on the album. It’s had several different choruses and different arrangements until I finally settled on something I liked. I don’t know why it took so long, but I got there in the end! It’s a bit of a environmental song but it’s also about people just joining political groups on social networking sites and then feeling they have done their bit. I’m basically saying don’t just join a Facebook group, go out and protest on the streets or write to the powers that be if you feel strongly about something. Not that I ever do, though.
“Talk”
This just started out as a drum sequence and bass line then developed from there. The vocals were done really quickly (it probably shows) there’s a hushed and low feel to them as my wife, Andrea, was in the house and I was a bit embarrassed that she’d hear me! With the lyrics I was literally making them up as I went along. I don’t really know what they are about but I guess my subconscious might.
“Airport Lounge”
This is part love song, part travelogue. All the places in the song I’ve been to and the events are real. For instance I did nearly choke on the Champs Elysee in Paris, it was a chocolate bar that went down the wrong way! You’ll notice that after I sing “Barcelona…”, it goes backwards and weird. The lyric goes, “Barcelona, Sagrada Familia Fantastico!” which is a reference to the wonderful unfinished cathedral by Gaudi there. But I had trouble singing it as it’s a lot to fit in to that line. So I just reversed it and added spooky reverb, so no one will know…until now that is. “Don’t forget Berlin“, that’s where I asked Andrea to marry me.
“Black Rain”
I had the idea of having a song just based on the same chords in a cycle and seeing how I could build it up. I thought of a couple of mantra-like vocal phrases, that I made up on the spot, again I don’t know what my subconscious is saying – perhaps I was particularly depressed that day!
I was determined to include a mandolin somewhere on the album and it’s on this track. Although I can’t play it very well, it adds a bit of texture.
“Exit”
This is another song about escape and wishing to move away from the country you live. It was originally a song I gave to friends of mine (Gaz & Daniel from The Heavenly Spheres) who were going to add their own input, although I don’t think they’ve ever got around to finishing their version yet, so I thought I’d do my own. I suspect should they finish it, theirs will trounce mine.
“Thirty Seven”
This song was pretty much written, recorded and finished on my 37th birthday (hence the title).
Originally it had vocals and lyrics but at the last minute I decided I didn’t like them, also I thought it’d be good to have an instrumental track on the album in reference to my former instrumental past. (I’m a recovering instrumentalist.)
“Grumpy Like Me”
This is the only song on the album where I came up with the melody before writing the song. Usually I write a song around a set of chords or arrangement but the chorus of this song came into my head, lyrics and all, one day and straight away I tried to create a song around it. I wanted to have a funky, disco-like feel. The end features Andrea and me clapping and chanting, which made her laugh. I thought I’d leave the laughing bit in. It’s a bit of fun really. Although it’s true though, my wife and me are a pair of grumpy buggers…
“Blankety Blank”
This is one of those occasions where I came with a tune and arrangement I really liked one afternoon but had no lyrics to go with it. I was keen to finish the track but my mind was totally blank on what lyrics to have, so I came up with the daft idea of writing a song about not being able to write a song. Incidently it’s also the name of a, sadly long gone, British game show.
“Wake Me Up When The Future’s Rosy”
I managed to coerce my wife Andrea to sing some backing vocals on this. It’s a quite melancholy song about sometimes wanting to shut the world out. I think I must have written it after watching the news in an “oh-isn’t-the-world-terrible?” kind of moment. Musically it has 1980s fey indie band feel.
“A Balloon Flies Over Ruskington”
This album, and indeed this song, is dedicated to my friend Ian who sadly died of cancer last year. He was only about the same age as me. At the funeral his children let go of two balloons at his graveside that flew into the sky, and I remember watching them fly off into a beautiful blue sky. It was a moving moment and inspired this song.
You may or may not be interested to know that this album starts and finishes on the same chord, a Dmaj7.
Roll up, roll up! Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce Mister Fusty’s Download Emporium, a one-stop-shop for all your Mister Fusty tuneage. Listen to all Mister Fusty’s releases so far (no snippets – full tracks!) There’s downloads to be had (some free) in high quality mp3 or lossless varieties. You can get the first two albums for the stunningly cheap price of £2.50 each! Also you can share tracks with all that social networking malarky – Facebook, Twitter, etc. Too good to miss surely? I’ve also written new “liner notes” that probably give very little insight whatsoever into the recording process.
The new album “Over the Rocky Mountains” will appear there in the near future, more news on that to come…
To go to the shop click here or click on the “Listen/Download!” tab on the top right.
I’ve realised that I have not posted anything on the site for a while so here I am.
Hello. How are you doing?
I don’t have anything really profound to say (if ever) but I will give you a quick update on what his happening in Fusty World. I won’t mention too many details yet but I am in negotiations with a rather nice label in the US, who happen to like the album I recently completed, “Over the Rocky Mountains“. If the deal is done (I’m not demanding much – just a few jars of Smucker’s Goober peanut butter and a case of Brooklyn Lager) then all will be revealed in due course and I shall hopefully have more details, release dates etc. Until then I bid you farewell and leave you with this nice picture of a Grizzly Bear. Go Bears!
Just a quick note to say that the new Mister Fusty album, “Over the Rocky Mountains” is complete. A team of recording boffins in a secret cave somewhere in North America are poring over the tracks, trying to make them sound at least half-decent for mass consumption. Stand by for more information as it comes…
This is the last of the “Making Album Number Three” blogs. I’ve bored you enough with my tedious accounts of fumbling my way through making an album!
So I shall keep it brief.
If you want a percentage I would say I’m about 75-80% done. I have 8 tracks pretty much finished. I need to come up with vocals to 2 or 3 more then there’s the tricky task of mastering to complete.
Mastering is a fine art, which I have yet to ‘master’ (pardon the pun). Some people spend weeks over it but I am far too lazy. There are a couple of plug-ins though, like Izotope’s Ozone and TRacks that makes things easier, especially for baffoons like me. If only I was friends with Bob Ludwig ….
There’s a new song on the Myspace page called, “Make a Stand“, which will be on the album. This song has been a bit problematic, it’s had several rewrites and re-recordings of the chorus and various other bits of fiddling about (that’s a technical term BTW). Finally I’ve found a version I like. I think. It’s Fusty’s “Eco Warrior” song and I hope you like it.
I’ve also decided on a title for the album, which is, “Over the Rocky Mountains“. Watch this space for more news on when it’ll appear – wide eyed and blinking into the world.
