Internet Musician | Singer/Songwriter | Steve Chatterton

Countdown to Breakfast Television

I’ll be on BT this Wednesday morning!

For some reason, I have this brain that creates music whether I want it to or not. Sometimes it’s a gift, sometimes it’s downright maddening. Oh well, whatchya gonna do?

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in front of my TV wolfing down breakfast watching Breakfast Television (BT) on CityTV (Toronto) when one of the hosts (Kevin Frankish) mentions that their segment “Ask Kevin and Dina” could really use some theme music. I start thinking to myself that I should write them a little jingle.

Then, just as the seed is germinating in my mind, Kevin’s co-host (Dina Pugliese) says, “Ask Kevin and Dina; sometimes we’re right, sometimes we’re wrong, but we always try to help,” and boom, the song is pretty much finished in my mind. All it took was two minutes with a guitar to put all the pieces in place and I knew I had something going on.

1. 01. Ask Kevin and Dina Cue, DRM-Free MP3, 754KB, 0:24
   

This track was the first thing I recorded at my new home studio, which Tom Waits inspired me to christen “Welldigger’s Ass Studios” (it frickin’ cold down there). I’ll do up a post about it soon and give you all a guided tour (but I digress).

The above tune was recorded in about an hour (my son watched three PVR’d episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba back to back while I worked on it). I used a grand total of nine tracks in Ableton Live 6 (got to upgrade sometime soon); four for vocals (melody and harmony, both double tracked), four guitars (all acoustic) and one for percussion samples triggered by Propellerhead Reason 3 (another upgrade I’ve got to get around to).

I probably could’ve done a more polished job if I had a little more time to work on it, but that’s neither here nor there anymore, because I foolishly sent a link to the track into the show, and they actually like it and want to start using it as is, even with the hum of the furnace in the background (must remember to turn that off next time).

So, if you get that channel, I’ll be on sometime after 7 AM Eastern (GMT -5) for the grand unveiling of the new song and a little bit of chit chat with Kevin and Dina. I’m really looking forward to it (losing a lot of sleep over it, actually). If you miss it, I’ll do my best to get a video post up on this site before the end of the week.