I play music quite a bit.
Not just listening but also writing and performing. Occasionally you'll find me
at some open mic or open jam night, hashing it out with either a bunch of other
people or just with a quiet audience.
I'm pretty behind on updating my music page so bear with me!
I have a few projects on the front burner at the moment. One is my wife's band, The WhitneyB Band. I play guitar and sing backup in the act along with Dave Morrison on drums and Jim Danehy on bass. Whit plays guitar and sings.
My other band is Chakras. We are more of a hard rock/neo-goth act with Andrea who sings, Trice who plays keys, cello and sings backup, Jeff Conner on bass, Bill Menke on guitar and Steve Klosinski on drums. This is a pretty hard-edged act and we like to bring the RAWK. We're currently recording our first record with Ashley Shepherd at Audio Grotto.
Last but not least is my good ole act Water - who is sort of back together. Matt Flynn returned from his ten-year trip to Florida and is playing all kinds of music with us, and Whitney is singing and playing keys, while I play guitar and tweak knobs in the studio. More on this act sometime soon.
Here's some music of mine that I've been working on. Feel free to download.
All music copyright © 2003-2009 Just Add Water Music Co. except Glaze, Whitney Barricklow, So Not Blue and
So Not Drew tracks, which are copyright their respective owners.
So Not Blue
Here's some tracks I did with Drew Achtermann and
Whitney Barricklow, as So Not Blue. I play drums and bass, Whitney sings, and
Drew plays guitar on these tracks. Both Whitney & Drew sing lead on So Blue. We were together
from late 2001 until mid-2002.
Crazy is one of
Whitney's songs we did.
Kissing Song is
something Drew and Whitney came up with together.
Late Again is another one of Whit's songs. Drew wrote the music for it.
So Blue is one of Drew's tunes.
So Not Drew
I did a couple of
demos with Drew, just the two of us. Drew sings on these, I play drums -n- bass
again. Fun stuff. Drew wants to call the band Sligo, I want to call it So Not
Drew. At open mic night, we're usually the Drew and Mark Show.
Don't Go
Wastin'
Time
Mark Szabo Solo
I did this track for a contest held by Sierra for their Tribes games. I got some new mics, and it turned out really well. I'm extremely happy with this little demo.
Tribal
Here's a track I've been working on myself. I play everything on
this one. Very rough still. It's about my ex-girlfriend Autumn. (She didn't seem to like this song. How apropro.)
Down
This was a drum demo that turned into a minute and a half of perfect audio. I love this thing.
It needs to be another 2 minutes long!
Far
Away
Whew. This one's coming along. Still not finished but getting
closer. It's about getting dumped. October 2001.
Hatred
Hatred original
demo
Here's an instrumental, written in February 2000 in Paducah,
Kentucky. Fuck Paducah.
In Time
Wrote this
in December 1999, just before Heather cruised on her merry way. Strangely
prophetic but at the end of the day quite inaccurate. She jumped!
Long Fall Down
Here's another new
version of Passages - new and improved in F#. This is a pretty good
track.
Last updated 3/11/03; new tracks (harmonies and percussion), new mix.
95% there.
Passages 2003. Now there's a new mix with a Rock Solo and don't forget the one with the original solo. I'm undecided about which one is better!
An old, old
riff, done up with a couple of new parts, and given the studio treatment. Wrote
the riff in the late 90s, wrote the lyrics in Feb 2003. Not done yet, but
getting there. First rapping. Last updated 2/28; fresh mix (now in
stereo!).
Release You
Written December
2000, Sky was a little lyrical backlash after being...you guessed it...dumped.
It's amazing what being dumped or freshly in love can do for your songwriting. I
love the center section guitar solo in this song...very understated and true to
form for me. This is one of my favorite songs and mixes. It's uncommonly good.
Sky
Finally, a
drunken lyrical experiment which started with drums. Beware the theremin in this
one. I guess this is about any relationship where there's a lot of arguing.
Win
water
An oldie but a goodie. This
particular mix of TS was myself, Matt Flynn on percussion, Heather on
percussion, and Jer Morgan on bass. Matt played some Chapman Stick on it as
well. Fun stuff. We recorded this at Backstage Studios in Newport.
Tension Span
A new
take on an old Water song - Trying to be like Michael Hedges (R.I.P).
Passages, drummed on the guitar
Here's a redux of the old
Water song with me singing instead of Heather. Written back in the
mid-90s.
Passages
Here's our entire 1995 WAIF set. There's an Alice in Chains cover song in there somewhere, and there's a couple of songs that are Paul Ravenscraft's (Earthing and Gruplevision). There's also a Jethro Tull cover of "The Witch's Promise". The rest are mine and the band's. There's some rough spots in the show, but there's a lot of energy, and it was also recorded well by Duane Adams on January 1, 1995, for the Sunday Night Live show.
Take You Away - Brother - Wait -
The Witch's Promise - Earthing - Gift -
Human Nature - Onion Peelings - Swim -
Tension Span - Gruplevision - One By One -
Longsong - Passages - Miss Emma
Here's another old set - this time with the full band! This is from March of 1995, and it's a set that Toby Ellis recorded live for us. I have no clue who we were playing with, but we were in the ballroom, and they absolutely hated us. In the first song, some drunk chick yells "ARE YOU ALL DEAD???!"
Heather did an exceptional job singing "Passages" this show. Another highlight is "Red Carpet", the only recording we ever did of this tune.
Intro - Message - Longsong - Passages - Red Carpet - Take You Away - Tension Span - Gone
Glaze
More old water songs....this one worked well. Cheater of Fools is actually about a friend of mine who'll go unnamed since I still hang with 'em.
Cheater of Fools
We did a rockin' version of water's Take You Away too...when I sang this, I was screamin' it! Pretty funny. Turned out okay.
Take You Away
Here's one Jeff did. I worked really hard to make my part of this song work with what Jeffery was doing.
I'm Too Good for You
This is one rocker of a song. This has to be the funniest, metalist, campy guitar solo ever recorded by me. Extreeeeeeme!
Tell Me Why
Like Water is one of my favorite Glaze songs to play. I really enjoyed some of the cool parts we did on this song. It turned out sounding like The Cars. The harmonies at the end worked out well.
Like Water
