My Steelpans

Missile In My Pocket - TRANSFORMATION

When this song first came into fruition it was not one of those things where I simply wanted to play some distorted pan into a nice rock tune. It was something more. In the early 90's when I first began to write songs I had several goals in mind. The first was to write from at least two different angles one being the apparent the other being another more hidden meaning. Case in point with Missile in My Pocket. I guess the obvious is a relationship song where the subject is more or less trying to get attention of a person of sexual interest however I only made this apparent to try to delve deeper into another point of view. That one being the ability for us as people to get along on this planet and human existence. I enjoyed writing this one. I enjoyed in particular the opening line "Well I like the way the sun shines today" kinda simple I but do feel that it drives a certain basic point home of the apparent simplicity of existence. The verse describes a bit more a relationship idea but still making somewhat of stab at being more general. The bridge of this is of particualr interest to me it was somewhat last minute but I wanted so bad to exploit my own lower vocal register as I have done so many times on many of my friends recordings. I hope you enjoy the pan solo it is a combination of several effects and live performance. This would not have been possible without the help and arrangement chops of my trio Jens Damm Pedersen and Joakim Øster. Be well

Greg

Rich In A Troubled Time - TRANSFORMATION

I am not one to give up. This is one of those songs that will not go away. I believe that this song is good and it has something to offer for my fans. So you may not be seeing the end of its incarnation. I believe there is one more mix of it in the offing maybe some kind of modern R&B sound of some sort. Well anyway this particular mix of this song came about one day I was given the idea of working with a local producer from Århus Denmark named Martin Ericksen. Martin and I decided that the song should have a decidedly pop sound, something that can be seen as a sort of an evergreen/forever kind of arrangement. So I took the liberty of using some tracks that I brought with me from New Orleans. Mainly the opening glissando from the Sarod (compliments of Priyo Mashumdar one my partners during my performances with Indian Sarod master Ashish Khan) and basically making a straight-up pop sounding arrangement for the song. I do believe that it was a successful approach and with the uptempo - mix of the same song came out pretty much the way I thought it would have. I loved the session as it is with all sessions of my own much it was warm and pretty creative. Martin Ericksen did most of the foot work as in the work on the mixes but I took the liberty of inputting my creativity in adding new backing vocals and rethinking the pans role in the song. There are a great many textures I believe that one can utilize when working with steel pans so I decided to go with a less is more attitude when giving suggestions as to how I wanted to hear the pan on the track. I felt as though the intrument should offer a more ebb and flow type of sound more than the hands on percussive type of sound heard on some of the other tracks. We recorded them very clean not much effects very little reverb but a pinch of compression to aid in the pan being placed well in the mix. Feel free to download it.




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Peace
Gregory Boyd

TRANSFORMATION

Hey people I am so glad that you came to the blog of my newest recording TRANSFORMATION. I was happy to release this recording as it has been a labor of love for about 5 years. Basically the recording started out as a collection of singles that I was using to get performance jobs in the US and Europe then kinda blossomed out as what thought was good song selections and decided to release them in a full fledged CD. I am happy about the outcome. I still like to call my music "World Groove" because basically that is what it is.  Music that utilzes an other than commercially acceptable musical instrument incorporating it fully into the mainstream of popular music making use of all conventional chording and current tonal approaches whilst bring to the fore newlly available acoustic considerations. "World Groove". I am a bit of a schitckler for definitions. I am supposing that you have had the chance to hear the recording or why else would you be here. Or maybe you would have come hear by accident maybe looking for something like "non-stick frying pans" or the online minister Gregory Boyd or possibly the photographer in China or the leader of the Alley Cat Theatre or any of the other Gregory Boyd's that are online. But if you indeed came here for me I am flattered and obliged to explain a little about the recording some of my exsperiences in writing the songs and shaping the sounds of the steel drum and writing the lyrics. And perhaps some of the creative inspiration that went into it. Happy reading.

Gregory Boyd
G-Pan