New Directions

Wow. February's gone about as fast as it came. It's the 24th already, only a few more days... does anyone else feel like the older you get, the faster time flies by? I've not worked on my solo songs for 2 weeks or so 'cause I was busy with a bunch of other projects. I've got to pick that up again next month.

Last week was great though. I went to see A Pale Horse Named Death with Sal & Johnny (Ex-Type O Negative) - they even put me on the guestlist which was very cool of them. Then I had a cool jam at the rehearsal room on thursday and worked on songs with Chris on friday. Saw the Truckfighters on friday night as well. Rock'n'Roll week! 

I fixed up my Fender P-Bass before and got some new sh*t for my pedal-board. The jam thursday night was pretty neat, we even came out with a song, but I can't tell you what that's going to be yet. Metal, but very bluesy. I loved it. It's awesome to really rock the bass again after not having done that for about 2 years. My favourite basses have always been Fenders, and right now I'm playing a Marshall amp through vintage 4x12" Dynacord speakers. For effects I don't really like to use too much, you can get really lost in that stuff. My board basically consists of a Boss Tuner, Phaser and Noisegate and a T-Rex Bass Juice Distortion pedal. I like the amp distortion as well, but the T-Rex has an extra boost which is nice if you're playing with just one guitar and a drummer. Might get some kind of graphic EQ pedal but I haven't really tried them yet. I hope we can get together again soon and write another 2 or 3 songs. This is the kind of music I really have fun playing the bass to. 

I've also been working on some gothic rock/metal songs with Chris. I said that many times before and we never really made anything public, but it's true. We've got a whole bunch of demos ready and by now we've figured out which songs to get done first. There'll be an E.P. out sometimes soon with about 3 or 4 tracks. We've decided not to do it under the name ÆTAS though. We've got another name that suits the band better and also sounds better. Can't say much about that either right now but I'm happy to finally put some of those songs out there after having worked on them for so long. We gotta get a band together and rehearse. One of these songs was written on my birthday last year, one's really old and the third one's pretty new. There'll be a pumping bass sound, heavy guitars and lots of keyboards in there. But it's still gonna sound dirty somehow. It's a rock band after all.

 


So I hope you all had a wonderful valentine's day? I sort of ignored it, wasn't even sure if it's the 14th or 15th or whatever. I haven't given anyone flowers in a real long time. But hey, to all the lovers out there: Flowers and chocolate are things that smell good and taste good, so go for it. ;-)

Summer's coming up. But where to go to? I've got to plan holidays for this summer sometime soon, but (as usual) I've got no idea where to go and who to go with. Usually I check out tourdates of bands I like and if they happen to be in a city I'd like to see, I'll just go there for a week or so. This year I haven't got a clue where to travel to though. I was gonna meet some of my fellow Dylan fans on the road, but they're all coming here now since he plays Munich in the summer, and so do Sabbath. I thought about Helsinki but then again I've been there every year for the past few years or so, maybe something else would be nice. Ireland? Or maybe somewhere sunny like Greece? Hm... I guess I'll see if the next months bring me some news about the bands I play in or gigs we could do abroad, maybe that'll take me anywhere. Or, if you've got a couch for me to crash on, I might accept invitations. ;-) 


So long, have a great week everyone! 

Dani Arrow

New Charity Single "Summer's Gone"

"Summer's Gone" is the second single (following "Some Hearts") I've released this year! 

I wasn't planning on releasing another single before I've finished a whole EP or album until I saw the the possibility to release a song for a good cause via Reverbnation. They sell the song for me through their website exclusively and great part of the sales will be donated to World Vision.

I liked the idea of being able to have Reverbnation handle the distribution and give something I wrote for a good cause, so I decided to put out this song before the album gets released as well. 

You can download it here! (right click)

The song itself was written way back in 2009 and has been a part of my performances ever since. It's never been recorded well until now though. 

I hope you enjoy it! Help me raise some cash for a good cause! 

All the best 

Dani Arrow

Back to the bas(s)ics!

Wow. January passed by quickly, didn't it? I bet this is gonna be one of those years where you're just busy getting stuff done, not noticing how fast time flies by. The weather's been bad lately which always has an effect on my mood. I'm very much influenced by the looks of the world around me, and I can't take these dull, gray skies for too long without getting depressed. It's a drag for me. I'm hoping the sun will tear up the sky sometime soon and let me see some light. Some white clouds on a shiny blue background. And some warmth. That's what I need for my energy to return. Today, it's the couch and Criminal Minds on TV. 

Recording the bass tracks for some of the songs I'm working on was the first time in a long time I actually played bass. I think I haven't done that for over a year. And it got me thinking. I'll fix that old Fender Precision up, give it some new strings and see if my Marshall still takes the feed. I've got this awesome crunch/distortion pedal, the T-Rex Bass Juice. It's the best pedal distortion you'll get for bass, if you ask me. Then I'm gonna sit down with my brother and try to get a few riffs together. Just create sounds. I want it to be like a wall that can bend. Maybe we'll get a couple songs from that and maybe we'll find someone to sing them. That would be nice. I miss playing the bass on stage, but I don't miss the stuff I used to play. I need to play something else. Something I feel!

Other than that, I'll have one more song from my upcoming record for you to listen to very soon. 

Have a nice weekend, 

Dani A.

Dead End Road (Demo)

I've wanted to share this with you. It's not done yet, not mixed or mastered or anything. I've been working on a couple tracks this weekend and this song will be the last track on the album. It's a dreamy, reflective song. I hope you like it, and I hope you'll like the finished version even more. 

Have a great week everyone! 

Dani Arrow