Category Archives: Music

One of the best things about creating your own music is the simple fact that you can do whatever you want. As long as it “works” and “makes sense”, your songs can be about anything. On the same token, it’s a little known fact that songs don’t have to be in 4/4 time in order to work. This little guy here is a case of both.

Lyrically (What? Lyrically?! Yes, this track has lyrics!), this song is based on a true story. In what must have been a truly harrowing scene, my brother was out for a run one morning when he was slapped in the face by a rogue leaf. As soon as he told me about it, the phrase “vicious leaf attack” popped up and the song started to write itself.

The first thing to show up was, of course, the main riff and chorus. I grabbed my trusty 8-string and started to play… and I had that riff within minutes. The fact that it’s in 7/4 made it even more fun for me (You know how I am with odd meters). So, as a result, the whole song is in 7 except for the “verse”, which is in 9/8 instead. Sometimes I think odd meters work better when there’s no 4/4 for contrast…

So there you have it – a weird prog-metal song about getting slapped around by Mother Nature. See? You really can write songs about anything. Enjoy!

Hey, look – a new thing! Instead of a full song, though, this is just a small little idea that I’ve had kicking around for a little while. GuessI just need to get back into the swing of things, so this little guy is nice fodder to get back into the ol’ habit. I think I actually came up with this idea in a dream… and woke up that morning with a headache. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

I’ve always been fascinated by rhythmic displacement. An old formula of mine is to take a four measure riff/phrase and lop off the last eighth note to give it that sort of hiccup and keep the listener guessing. The displacement idea is also why I grew to really like Meshuggah. This thing here is sort of the best of both worlds. The last eighth note is lopped off in every phrase, but in true Meshuggah fashion, the pulse doesn’t move (the snare drum is the reference point). Instead of cutting it off early to round it into a 4 or 8 measure riff, though, I decided to see the displacement through right up to the point where it would reset… which is where this recording ends.  Enjoy!

They’re here! Those two news items I talked about in the last post? Well, websites for both are now live.

Distinct Kicking Motion can be found here: http://distinctkickingmotion.net

The website for my music education venture is live as well! I will start posting videos in the near future. Check out Guy With Guitars right here: http://guywithguitars.com

See you soon!

Hello again. After an inexplicable week off, I’m back on the Distinct Kicking Motion… uh… kick… again. ‘Twas good to get crackin’ on some new material, I must admit. I have some good (well, I think they’re good, anyway) riffs coming down the pipeline, too, so this should be fun…

So… “The Call of the Punch Bowl”. What’s the story here? Well, it’s fairly simple. This song, like good punch, was made entirely from scratch. I booted up my recording software before I knew what I was going to play – I just said “OK, it’s time. I don’t need to take another week off. Let’s go.” The first riff that came to me was, well, the first riff. I had been doing a lot of “2 against 3” ideas, so it was well past time for a “3 against 4” riff, wasn’t it? I also decided that I was overdue for a clean section, so there it is about halfway through. Overall, I’m happy with this one. Who knows – maybe lyrics will wind up extending the thing… Anyways, enjoy and I’ll see you next time.

P.S.: Distinct Kicking Motion is now on ReverbNation. Check it out!

Well, make that 3-for-3. This one definitely turned into a full song… and in pretty short order, too. Of course, that’s ironic because this is the longest song I’ve made since the last track from The Football Project.

I wanted to slow the tempo down a bit this time around – I tend to write mostly in the mid-to-uptempo range, so I thought a change of pace would be good. Luckily, the first riff I came up with for that was the main one, which I really liked right from the start. Unlike last week’s tune, I sort of let the proverbial muse take the song where it wanted to go… and before I knew it, this thing had cleared the six minute mark. Go figure, huh? Like the previous two tracks, this one needs words… and I think some synth/keyboard parts would work nicely here as well. However, I really like the riffs and how they all came together. Enjoy!

Here’s the next thing. I didn’t intend for everything that I post under the DKM moniker to be a full song, but I’m 2-for-2 in that regard…

I’ve been intrigued by the whole tone scale for a long time now. Ever since I started to write a lot of metal, I’ve really wanted to mess with it to see how it works. I’ve written a few whole tone-based riffs before, but this song here takes that idea to another level – every riff is based off of the whole tone scale. It’s kinda weird sounding, but I’d like to think that it works. Like the last entry, this one needs lyrics, but it also has background vocals buried in the mix in the second half of the chorus. Enjoy!