Project 36: Video Evidence
The last project initiated in 2024, the assignment for Project 36 was to record a video on a phone of you performing one of your Basement Sketches submissions.
Shame by Troy Warling
Performed by Tory, Shelly, Brian, Andrew, and Neil
I wrote this song around 2002. I had been thinking a lot about the issue of shame in our culture and personal lives, how destructive it can be when left unchecked. I want to thank my friends Andrew, Brian, Neil, Shelly and Bridget for the performing and recording of this song. I had a ton of fun doing it, and I’m not ashamed to admit it!
Sign of the Times by Harry Styles
Performed by Kelly Duclos, Neil Fasen, Colby Heston, Tom Stromsodt, and Brian Eveslage
Smoke and Nothing Else by Mike Bettison and Andrew Charon
Performed by Mike Bettison, Andrew Charon, Troy and Shelly Warling, Brian Eveslage, and Neil Fasen
Mike and I originally wrote this song for Project 29, which was released almost a year ago. It was our first time collaborating, and we ended up creating something that we were both really happy about. Along the way, I learned a lot about recording. Honestly, I didn’t know if anyone had really listened to the song until a couple of months ago when Brian reached out wanting to collaborate on a live version of the song. We figured, why not give it a shot?
As we reworked the song, the dueling guitar leads at the end called for a bigger team, so we invited Troy and Shelly to join in. Stepping up to sing the vocals was outside my comfort zone, but since I had sung on the original track, it felt natural to take on that role again. Having spent more time in recording than performing live recently, I did struggle a bit with the song's tricky changes and chord progressions. That said, it gave us room to transition some parts into jam sessions, which felt more in my element.
After two practices and seven takes, we landed on a version we were happy with. The hand signals you see with the number seven? They represent the seven deadly sins—or actually, it was just take seven! We recorded with seven smartphones: one for each person and a seventh for b-roll footage. I took three audio tracks, mastered them in Logic, and then mixed everything together. Considering it was recorded with iPhones from different corners of the room, the sound turned out surprisingly good—though the lead guitar at the end does get a bit lost.
The title sequence at the beginning is a nod to Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, and the chord progression at the end is inspired by A Saucerful of Secrets from that same performance. So good. I’m so glad Brian wanted to revisit this song and that we had such an amazing group to bring it to life. Hope you enjoy!
-Andrew
Vienna by Billy Joel
Performed by Neil Fasen with Tom Stromsodt, Kelly Duclos, and Brian Eveslage
I was raised with Billy Joel’s music. He was my older brother’s favorite musical artist. In my youth, it wasn’t cool to like Joel, so I hid my affinity for his music. Later in life, when faced with a challenging karaoke decision, I discovered that my childhood exposure to BJ had internalized many of his songs deep into my soul. Vienna has always been a favorite of mine, so I created a version for a Basement Sketches project a few years ago.
I enlisted Kelly, Brian, and Tom to help me whip up a quick live version. We banged this out fairly quickly, so it’s far from polished and I think I get some of the lyrics out of order. But hopefully this provides a view into the vibe. In keeping with the spirit of Basement Sketches, this is imperfect and more about the act than the result. Fun times regardless. Appreciate these guys!
Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil
Performed by Randy Dever with Grant Eull
Gates Of Steel by DEVO, First It Giveth by QOTSA, and Life's A Gas by T-Rex
Performed by Grant Eull and friends (see details below)
What a fun idea. I really enjoyed revisiting past challenges and thinking about what could possibly be done live. A couple of these were easy, because I had recorded songs as part of Basement Sketches and a couple years later I was playing them again with bands. As part of Project 12’s playlist challenge I had recorded Gates Of Steel by DEVO; not knowing at the time that a year or so later I would actually join a local DEVO Tribute called REVO. We had the honor to play the Minneapolis Premiere of the new DEVO Documentary this year as part of the Sound Unseen 2024 Music Film Festival opening night at the Parkway Theater. Barrett and Andrew made it out for the show but I thought I would share a REVO performance from that night of Gates Of Steel as part of this challenge in hopes that a few more of you might make it out in the future. Then as I continued to consider songs I ran yet across another similar situation. As part of Project 20 twenty years ago I had submitted a version of me doing Queens Of The Stone Age’s - First It Giveth once again unknowing that I would ever perform it live with a band. However, I also recently started a QOTSA Tribute called Monsters In Your Parasol and have decided to share our version of First It Giveth from our debut public performance this past Fall at Palmers in the back yard patio as part of Palmtoberfest 2. We plan to play again Saturday January (hint hint Tickets available now : https://shorturl.at/KFYPV ) OK, now I just started to feel guilty about not having a song to collaborate with other Basement Sketches contributors and my time to actually commit to doing one was very limited do to other music commitments in Nov and Dec… but I put the request to collaborate on slack and got lucky. Randy and Tom both replied and said they were up for it. We decided we could commit one night at the BS Studio space to learn, practice and record a version of my Project 18 playlist challenge submission of Life's A Gas by T-Rex. It was a wonderful time playing together for an hour or so, and I really hope the three of us l get together to learn a few more covers to play for all of you at a live show at the studio sometime in the near future. As part of this night I also brought a bunch of electronic gear down to the space to collaborate with Randy on his version of Beds Are Burning. You can find that video on his project 36 submission. Overall, this was one of my most favorite challenges yet, because making music with others is one of the things I love best in life and to be able to share that with this group brings me great joy. Cheers to a productive new year of Basement Sketches! I look forward to viewing all the performances and seeing you all in person soon. Happy Holidays.