Elk Blog #1 - Music, Gear and the Covid

Well....well....well here we go. I'm excited to share new heavy music with the world and anyone who like fast heavy riffs.

So "The Zero Year" or ZY as I call it conversationally is a fun project inspired by quarantine and the events happening across the globe. Now I'm not a singer nor a lyricist, so when a singer gets a hold of these tunes they might have a different idea of what they are about. My initial feelings of helplessness and isolation were shared by coworkers, family and everyone in the beginning of this fun pandemic. That is what broke the writers block, ants in the pants and cabin fever for the win.

So the idea of ZY is to be a side project that I will bring session players on for drums, bass and vocals. Peter Sannicandro former bass player from Impressions in Flesh and all around stellar guy will be handling bass duties and I'm currently looking at drummers who will complete this puzzle.

The EP will feature 5 songs and will be produced by Mike Casavant formerly of The Acacia Strain and Burn in Silence. For those not familiar with Mike, he is a walking juke box. He has written more songs than you have gone to the bathroom your entire life. He is my brother and an amazing human, not only that he has the gift of an amazing ear and arrangement he is a riff machine.

Pre-Production is basically done and with Covid restrictions loosening up, recording will start as soon as things level out and everyone is safe.

---

So back to writers block for a moment. Mike Casavant as previously mentioned is a machine and could write a song falling down a flight of stairs. I on the other hand have musical ADD. Today while looking at my spotify I listened to Al Dimeola (Latin Jazz), Cosmosquad (Fusion) and Gojira in a 3 hour period. So I'm all over the place and nightly I will jam to backing tracks to every genre of music BUT METAL. When I listen to too much heavy stuff I get into "Riff Paralysis." I start putting ideas together and try to add to much to the recipe and things go sideways. So I'm actually better at writing when I'm in a headspace of not metal.

The ZY EP again was inspired by this pandemic but also inspired by the killer new Charvel I picked up. It's a 24 fret riff beast with a roasted maple neck and sounds killer through any amp I plug it into. It inspires me to play and I love when ideas flow and I just hit record and go until I pass out. So long story short, I will find the balance here from a Blog perspective and will be doing video things, talks with Casavant and other Boston metal folks and musicians to help spread good music and gear reviews and other things that inspire me. Perhaps they will inspire you?