Fake Rock

Believe it or not, but I have just released an album! Woohoo! I’m an indie artist! You never expected that, did you? Ha!

The album is called Fake Rock and appears under my anagrammatic nom-de-plum, John Miaou. It’s wholly instrumental, save some simulated choir bits. Indeed, all sounds on the album are digital simulations of real instruments, which accounts for the album title. Guitars, keyboards, piano, accordion, trumpet, flute, cello, bass, cymbals, timpanis, and so on, are all fake. I suppose I could have gone for pure electronic sounds only, but I didn’t. Maybe I will on the next album.

The advantage of using simulations is that you don’t have to deal with moody musicians and egos — other than your own, of course. The album is thus also unfiltered by performers’ interpretations, and contains pure compositions. It is music per se subsistere. Or should that be per se esse? Or just per se? Why not music a se? I never could get Latin right.

Anyway, just so there’s no doubt about it, it’s a darned good album. At least I had endless fun making it, although a certain amount of agony was involved, too. But hey, all good art comes from suffering and pain.

Fake Rock clocks in at roughly 40 minutes (classic vinyl length!) and contains twelve tracks:

• Two purple minutes (MIDI version)
• Duh Duh
• Suite 3122, pt. 1 : Verona
• Suite 3122, pt. 2 : Milano
• Suite 3122, pt. 3 : Genoa
• Suite 3122, pt. 4 : Roma
• Street smart
• Four bars
• Piano walk
• Walking guitar
• Will I ever hear from you again?
• Frantic Christmas

The music was composed and created using Melody Assistant, an impressively versatile music programme sold by Myriad Software, which I strongly recommend to anyone interested in making their own music. The finished album was subsequently self-published via TuneCore, a US-based service offering digital distribution to, well, anyone. It’s especially useful to all unsigned fringe artists, indie acts, amateur musicians, home composers, and unsignable musical riff-raff like me!

The Fake Rock album, or any of its individual tracks, can be purchased through iTunes if you live in Europe or the US. It’s not yet available elsewhere, unfortunately.