Recordings​

What makes the Sound unique is the opportunity to record music, sounds, and sessions along the way while learning how to become a musician. I guide individuals of any skill level based on their interests and encourage them to be themselves. I pride myself on striving to help people be authentic and original all the while learning how to make music. Many of my long time clients have moved from strictly taking lessons, to being collaborators. I am happy to share some of these songs, sounds and moments with you here. To me it's not about perfection, sounding like other bands or musicians, or trying to get famous, but capturing the moment and having fun. There is a mountain of music on my computer that was recorded here at the Sound, and this page aims to provide a glimpse. These are all collaborations with myself captured at the Sound!

2023

A new year and we're right back at it! We've been writing and recording right out of the gate this year and there is lots of great things happening at the studio! Here's some highlights:

The Unkindness by  SPāDE 

A song about Ravens that is meant to be played loud!

Bridges

Solomon Hergesheimer

Solomon's newest collaboration with me at the Soundspace is an epic doozy! He arrived one Thursday afternoon with a new riff, and I lowered my gaze and said "this is a very good riff." We agreed to really work on this song and "flesh it out," as they say. He went away to write lyrics and they too - are great! We worked out the arrangement over a few sessions until we were both happy with it, then recorded it live off the floor, adding multiple guitars. Great vocal by Solomon too! So proud of this one! 

When you leave

Look in my Eyes

Shelena Mooney

Shelena (formerly Lance) is back with another amazing song. Despite playing any instrument at all, Shelena has a great sense of melody and amazing lyric ability - what I would suggest is the two most important factors for a good song. As producer, I listen to the melody, and find the chords behind the melody she is singing; sometimes tweaking keys and arrangement - usually suggesting a bridge. I build the song up and get the thumbs up or down from Shelena, then we record vocals.

One small thing

Brielle Taylor

Simon Cameron
Brielle is an amazing young singer and songwriter, who is learning what it means to produce as well. She wanted this song to have a certain feel, and after communicating it, I laid down an arrangement, and she went away and wrote great lyrics and a melody. I wanted to have the track fully realized before she sang on it, so she would be inspired to belt it out, and belt it out she did! Super proud of this and really happy to work with Brielle and help her realize her potential. 
The great Simon and Steve collaboration strikes again! We put a lot of thought and work into this one! A song about not letting a traumatic experience slow you down! Steve on the piano and Simon on the ukulele, and we arranged the heck out of the tune! Mark Cameron once again on the drums! Fun and creative times, not to mention ear wormy!

Lance Mooney

Your own bed

The Shield
Another great collaboration with Lance. This young musician really can write good lyrics and a melody! As usual, we worked on the song together and seeing as Lance has melodic ideas but doesn't play an instrument, it was a matter of co-producing together to get the vibe we were both happy with. This was a pleasure to work on. Enjoy. 
Lance wanted to do something sonically heavier to reflect the lyrics he had written about these trying times we live in, from his perspective. It's always my honour to guide  young people in how to creatively express themselves. Plus I like heavy rock. Win, win.

Legacy

Perfect

Daphne Sutherland

Oskar Erlenbusch
Daphne started coming to the Sound for piano lessons, and as we like to learn through the act of creation here, we quickly settled into a chord progression, and co-wrote some words and melodies. Daphne really had an intention with this, to really highlight the idea of how tricky it can be to be a young adult and trying to figure out what you want to do in life. I think the chorus speaks to what a lot of the youth of this generation feel: they want to be a part of something meaningful  not just a cog in the machine. Well done, Daphne!
Go where you focus and get what you buy
I wish it was simple like grabbing your slice of the pie
Sometimes I take back the things I have said
Only to turn around and wish that those words they were dead

I’ll stand here and you be there
That way we won’t need to care
We can just be by ourselves
And try to figure out this puzzle

Killing me Softly

Exile

Brielle Taylor

Ryder Hulls
Brielle is a great young singer, who also improvises songs! So happy to connect with a young powerhouse like this and help her continue to find her voice and express herself! We've started on our first original song together, and this Roberta Flack classic, done in our own way is our first recorded collaboration. Brielle is a joy to work with. 
Ryder has been coming to the sound for about 5 years, and it shows. He's upped his playing of the drums at home and now comes into the studio each week with exciting ideas and great drum parts. 
As usual, a song written around a jam, with Ryder coming in with a planned drum pattern. We added a few more bits, worked it up and hit record, live off the floor with drums and guitar. I added bass and Ryder OK'd the lyrics. Students writing their own lyrics is still the final frontier, but having them engage in the creation of original music is one step closer.

The Flame

Solomon Hergesheimer

Screens

Devin Rae
Solomon and I have been learning together for many years now. It's been amazing to watch his progress and help him out along the way. He played all the guitars on this track AND wrote all the lyrics, AND sang which is rare for students here. I was super pleased and impressed. He loves music and it shows. I can hardly wait to hear the musician he'll develop into. 
 Devin has been coming to the studio for about a year and he progresses by leaps and bounds each week.  He plays at home, and with a band. Nothing can replace learning like hours put in. Even if you're just making noise on the guitar, you're practicing. This song was born out of an exercise of switching between two Major 7th chords, and when he showed up playing them fast I went, yes!!! Devin tracked all the guitars (I think 10 in total!) and I played drums, bass, and wrote the words about AI and how it might affect art making. Devin is a pleasure to work with and mentor!

C  H  E  E  S  E 

Blindsided

Hazel Hovanes

Sol Battaglio
That's right pop punk fans, it's a song praising cheese. It was time for Hazel and I to record our first track and when I asked her what we should write a song about she said "Cheese!" and off we went. We wrote the words together and Hazel played drums and we brought her family in for shouts of "cheese!" and various other shouts. So fun to make recording a family affair!
I've known Sol for a very long time and he has been a student a number of times over the years, and I'm thrilled he's back and we're having a blast! When you have a personal family vibe with another musician, that connection is infused in the music. Sol is on the drums, and we worked up this song together. Working on the little details in verses, choruses, bridges, and lyrics, gets us out of our heads and into the moment, where we rock!

2022

Spade - Title the Document

A band forged over eight years at the Soundspace studio - Spade released their debut full length release on June 1st, 2022. Written, performed and produced by Steve Wright and Spade Hoile, this melodic hard rock epic release was mixed by Ryan Froggatt (Neko Case/Kevin Kane) and mastered in Toronto by Caleb Stull.  
Picture

← Web Player links →
Recordings from collaborative sessions
Lance Mooney

Night Swings
The Coldest Night
Lance Mooney is a talented young artist, who is quickly becoming a great producer. This is the third collaboration we've recorded. Lance has a great sense of melody, and is serious and excited about his art. It's a pleasure to produce him and help him realize his musical visions. To finish off this track we decided the only thing it was missing was a single match strike. Done!
One of my favourite songs we've written together. Lance had the melody and some lyrics, which I helped him focus in a more direct way. I produced the music and Lance's singing. Recorded using the Ableton program.
Oskar Erlenbusch

Sound Spirits

Gaslight
A song with 14 year old Oskar on the drums. We worked up several parts and recorded drums and guitars, with overdubs and vocals coming later. Based on a lesson of how to play a rim of a snare...this is what evolved. I had read the line about "everything having a spirit" a few days prior to writing the lyrics and thought it was a cool concept.
Another track that came hard and fast during a 30 minute session. I played a riff, Oskar started bashing, and I started yelling into a mic. That's pretty much 90% of what happens during sessions with teens here at the Sound. This one is clearly about people's beliefs systems, and what they may or may not be based on. 
Kieran Fink-Jensen

The Convoy

Crazy Emotion
The news of the day often makes it into songs here at the Sound, and this is a good example. Keiran played guitar and bass on this one, and I did the drums, lyrics and vocals. A song about the recent trucker protests in Canada's capital city Ottawa.
A song based on a great bass riff that Keiran came up with. I made a beat for us to play along to, and wrote some words quick and ta da! Needs a bridge, and moving forward we may play this with a band and flesh it out!

SPāDE

*new*

Edgy Novel

Something we collaborated on in-between recording and mixing our 2022 release. A song about having a relationship in the public eye...
Simon and Mark Cameron

Hey Kid
Max Pasieka-Beck

Max Blues
Considering some songs are whipped up, and often recorded in a one hour session (or less!) this song is definitely an outlier. Worked on over weekly sessions for about four months, Simon had a grand vision for this one, with obtuse chord changes, sections falling out and exploding, dialogue breakdowns, tempo changes...you name it. We recruited Simon's Dad Mark Cameron (from Old Yeller) on the drums, and refined it to a place where we were all happy with it. Really cool to have a family jam happening in the studio, and recorded live with Drums (Mark) Piano and Vocals (Steve) Ukulele (Simon) with Simon and I digging around and finding things to layer afterwards. Check out the epic track!
A miracle track! We banged this out in a 30 minute session, with Max arriving while I was playing this riff, and he joined right in on the drums. One run through, and two microphones set up to capture a demo, and viola! I added bass and organ right after the fact and sent it to Max before he arrived home! Sometimes you gotta just go with two mics in a studio. I think we captured something raw and magical here. Improvised words, of course!
Old Yeller

Time Bender

ALL THE GIANTS
Recordings with house studio band Old Yeller. We meet once a week for an hour and make up songs on the fly. Time Bender was based around an E minor add 11 chord if you really want to know, and the lyrics were improvised by myself. ALL THE GIANTS came quick too, and was a live off the floor recording. We've got some great songs on the boil, and plan on playing live in the near future!

Solomon Hergesheimer

Here forever
Chris Crosby

Christmas in Albania
Solomon and I have been working together for many years! About 7 by my estimation. He's a great songwriter and like me, likes to work fast. He came in with an idea to do a piano/guitar rocker and we picked some chords and off we went. Solomon went away and came back the next week with fully fleshed out lyrics, and sang this one twice (doubled his vocals) I played piano and synth after we recorded it with guitar and drums live off the floor.
Because there has to be at least one Christmas song a year produced here! A song dreamt up and realized in a one hour session. Needless to say, Chris is a big Dua Lipa fan! ;) Chris and I do it all: jazzy stuff, experiments, electronic dance stuff, rock operas about medieval characters, and piano ballads. Awesome to have (and teach) the freedom to collaborate on all of the above.

2021

Some highlight recordings and moments from the 2021 season!

Hold the line

Wes and I wrote this song on Remembrance day. It just flew right out. I like to think that my Grandfather was in the session with us. I did some research on Alf Neely combined with the stories he had told me while growing up and we hit it live off the floor. We got it so good. I also reached out to some distant cousins who sent me some bagpipe recordings that I put into the track. It's a family affair!

Hold the Line

Hinterland

I'm an old rocker at heart, and this is the proof! Kind of a tool meets Black Sabbath meets Steve and a young teen basher on the drums!

Ryder has been with me for three years now every week, and we have had forays into remixing electronica and playing a few Nirvana covers. 

This one is a basher. Fun that I get to do overdubs in my "off hours" and play bass too. I love it all. 

We wrote the music together and recorded it live off the floor with guitar and drums, and then I added other bits afterwards. If memory serves, the lyrics are inspired by the Egyptian book of the dead. 


Nicolai Petrov

A song sung by a Russian gangster, and it should be noted - dressed in legit black adidas outfit with accompanying dragon necklace bling. Chris is committed to his characters and music!

Looking Back


Young Lance came to me with scribbled lyrics on folded lined paper in hand and a passion to rap. The next week he showed up and sung me a verse of a melody he had written, and I was super impressed. I came up with a chorus on the spot and Lance goes "Oh, so you're really good at this hey?!" We wrote the lyrics together, and I produced him singing. He "doubled" his vocals which is a tough thing singing into the mic for the first time! Super catchy song with powerful lyrics, way to go Lance!


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Masterpiece

Oscar has been with me for 2 years, playing the drums as a beginner. He's now 13 years old. Here's a track to demonstrate how far you can come when you stick with it, practice and enjoy playing music. 

We worked on this one over about 4 sessions, refining the parts and getting tight. As usual, I made up the lyrics on the spot, and in this case went back and wrote some new ones that I felt fit better with the vibe. 

A song about believing in yourself, no matter what circumstances come your way, or others opinions about you.

Rock on, Oskar!

Four 5 second songs


​This could well be a whole new genre of music!

That's right, it's Five second songs!

We have been working together and collaborating for many years now and Larkin always has his creative mind going and here's the result this time.

The beauty of these is it's literally one idea and the parameters are they have to be no longer than five seconds each!

Here's four!




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Stalker blues

This is Max. We usually like to rock out, improvise songs, and play the odd cover from time to time. Max is really interested in the process of music and always game to try whatever I throw at him, whether it be a time signature, or a musical idea.

On this occasion he wanted to try playing the drums with the brushes, so I gave him a few tips, and off we went. We came up with this in a 30 minute session, and both agreed it was dark sounding and needed some dark lyrics to match. I took a few notes from the original improv lyrics, fashioned these up and a song is born.

I love the space in this one, not to mention the great kick drum sound we got!

SPāDE

Funky Jam!

SPāDE is my longest running student here at the Sound, and we are currently working hard on a BIG rock record to release this year, so I'll only post a few bits here. 

This one was a one off jam we did and like the rest of our songs, it's SO fun to play!

We write a song per session these days, unless it's complicated and we spend a bit more time on it. 

We write all the music together as well as the lyrics. 

Utopia (mix 1)

An alternate faster take of Utopia from "title the document" by SPāDE and one - admittedly - I couldn't figure out at first. When student becomes teacher! 

SPāDE came up with this crazy drum pattern and I couldn't figure out what the beat was or where the "downbeat" was. After much teasing and coaxing, I finally got it, and then I shredded! 

I defy anyone to get it on first listen! The demo video is below the picture to the left, and you can hear the pattern in the song above! 

As with most of our songs, we collaborate on the lyrics as we did this one.

2020

Some highlight recordings and moments from the 2020 season!

Computer Song

An exploration through music using only computer sounds. Oh and a synthesizer. Larkin played everything and co-produced. When we came up with the stuttered  alphabet sounds I wondered aloud if anyone had done this before. A good lesson that there's always new sounds to discover.
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In the Middle

One of my favourite lyrics I've written over the last few years. This tune is from a short lived band thrown together to give students the experience of playing together in a group situation. Chris was on the guitar, and August on the bass. I played drums, and directed them from there. We came up with this song, structured it a bit more, added a synth after and I wrote these lyrics and sang it. If you know anything about law of attraction and manifestation, then this should resonate with you. 

Costello's lounge

Chris and I have done everything from Metal songs about Egyptian God's, to House music with a Russian accent and all points in between. Chris was inspired by me making up lyrics and melodies on the spot and began to to the same. Here's a great one, done live off the floor.  


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Rockets

Done with former student Sam McGarry on the drums. 

Save your soul, it’s forever, not a waste of time    You’ll be glad, you’ll be better                Set your state of mind Set it to full
Full of the joy
Listen to your blood and what it whispers    Oh boy, you’re in control.       Your intentions dictate where you really want to go          On the map, off the grid or somewhere in between.                      Understand how your feelings make you make mistakes That you can’t erase, and that’s ok
Shoot your rockets skywards and watch them Watch them fly, So far away
You’ll have names for all of them if you name them all today
So, this is your soul Holding up a mirror to your goals
Oh this is your soul Reaching out with rockets leading where you want to go
Rocket Desire Rockets of love
The rockets are yours in the sky above
Rocket of faith Rocket of hope          Rockets of fear swinging on a rope
Save your soul, it’s forever​                Rockets away

All the way

It's rare when a student wants to help write lyrics, but Ryder had some verses for a song, so I helped him make it fit a bit more, and we wrote another verse and here it is!

Another basher! We love melodic hard rock at the sound!


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Shabackdoo

Often we like to experiment at the sound and record the results. The great thing about trying things out with no expectations, is you always happen into new territory which is exciting, and then ideas start to flow. Our human pattern seeking brains like to organize things, and that's exactly what we did here. Weston messed about, and I lined things up a bit to make it have some kind of flow. So fun to play with sound.

2019 Soundspace recordings release!

Available on all streaming platforms worldwide

The Soundspace featuring Sunshine Coast Youth

 BIG exciting news! In July 2019 the Soundspace studio unveiled THREE discs (ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS!) created at the studio during sessions with students. Thirty-six tracks ranging from all out rockers to audio experiments and improvised songs to carefully crafted teen expressions of being alive and making music! Super proud of all of this work, and excited to share. All proceeds from these releases will go to the Sunshine Coast Arts Council to further support them in their efforts to highlight more youth oriented programs, music and art! 
Thanks to the Coast Reporter for some local press HERE.

School through the ages

School through the ages
I recently found this with Larkin, one of my long time students and we laughed the whole time listening to it. It really was such a smart and creative concept by these young people - switching genres depending on what elementary grade they wanted to reflect on. Kindergarten is wide-eyed, playful and naive, and by the time they get to graduation in Grade 7, they are school veterans and have been through it all. So proud to guide these creative ideas and young minds.
​Enjoy the journey!

2018

Gretch Thumb Loop

Young artist and producer Gretchen Hergesheimer co wrote this, sang it beautifully, and co-produced it! What a lovely little fun warm track it is!

Homegrown

The 2018 Emerging Sounds event was a smash success, and the Keys to the City opened the event with the song "Homegrown." Featuring Solomon and Gretchen Hergesheimer, Elliot Laviolette and myself on the drums, we knocked it out of the park live, and decided we should record a studio version a week later. Enjoy the Homegrown vibes!

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Tom's Rattle

Happy accidents are lovely. The previous recording session had microphones set up on the drums, and when Shamus and I started doing a beats based improv with Ableton Live and turntable, we could hear the drum sticks left on the floor Tom were rattling. We immediately needed to record! So we kept the mics up and went for it. 

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The Track

This is a song featuring a vinyl record we use a lot at the Sound. SKargo band and i put together this track, recording it live off the floor with drums, bass, guitar, vocals, turntable, sampler and ipad! Nothing like capturing a performance live! Well done, lads.

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Performance Rules

We are Kanye West fans here, at least in following the sometimes interesting things he does and says. For his recent release for "The Life of Pablo" he held a fashion show at Madison Square Gardens in New York, and a copy of the "rules" for models was leaked to the internet. We took the list of these very demanding and contradictory rules and made a song out of it. As we do. The mighty Sjkate! Enjoy.

In B Flat



​An improvised track with myself on guitar and voice and Shamus on the website "In B Flat," a great community sourced website where individuals uploaded videos of themselves playing random sounds in B Flat. You can do your own by clicking HERE! Try it out!
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The Tourist


​This is an amped up cover of a Radiohead song from OK Computer that Kai (on drums) and myself worked up in one session and recorded it in the next. I went back and added some bits. A great live off the floor recording with lots of energy!