The Trip Around the Sun "Aries Fire Horse"

I recently contributed some guitar to Jay Tausig & Ed Unitsky's "Trip Around the Sun" project "Aries". Check out the video Ed put together for the track "Aries Fire Horse"... http://youtu.be/gmEC-fPpdBA

That's me... fire horse! A textbook Sagittarius. I'll be contributing more to the project later on in the year as I enjoy Jay's work and found it refreshing to get out to of my own head for a bit. I've known Jay for going on 15 years now - we met back during Fish's Sunset on Empire tour - he was working for Fish's label at the time and Mastermind was the support act on most of the tour. We've stayed loosely in touch ever since. I'm also an admirer Ed's fantastic artwork and we've been virtual acquaintances for some time, so I was pleased to have an opportunity work with both of them.

I'm impressed by the ambitious nature of the whole project - 12 albums in a year's time (!) - and find that to be quite inspirational. In fact, it has already inspired me to get cracking on several projects I have in various states of planning and completion. Left to my own devices I am something of a procrastinator lol... in fact, when Jay first approached me he said there was no deadline so I kind of set it aside, then he says "I need the track in 3 days!" what?! So I whipped it out with very little forethought or planning in the wee hours, a day before the deadline. If it wasn't for the last minute nothing would get done!

Musically, Jay asked for stream of consciousness approach (and video!) so I threw up two little flipcams and went for it in one take. I hadn't even listened to the track more than once before having at it. When Jay first contacted me he asked if I could do a solo on a track and I said 'sure'. Then he sends me an 18 minute track! haha.. not quite what I expected! But I was game.. why not? I enjoy a good challenge.

I look at it (the guitar) as a wandering protagonist on a trip thru Jay's cosmic soundscape, taking in the unknown, reflecting on the surroundings, calling out in this fantastic, unfamiliar place. Personally, I find it much more enjoyable to just listen and let your mind create the environment.... but it's a youtube listen-with-your-eyes world these days and Ed put together some great visuals after the fact. Also, playing with video rolling assured I would not be tempted to mess with it after the fact. That's still something of a challenge in a digital-edit-everything world, resisting the urge to tweak, but I was really into the idea of approaching it like that, so what you see is what you get.

For gear heads it's a Gibson e335 straight into a Fender Champ XT thru a Marshall cabinet with a single SM57 mic, recorded dry into Cubase. No pedals or anything fancy, just a little delay added here and there in the mix for cosmic ambiance. I really didn't expect Jay to use the whole thing and for the final album version it was edited down to go with the flow. The opening two minutes in the video is Jay's guitar work, he's an accomplished player himself. This extended version is a bonus track available to 'Trip' subscribers. To find out more visit http://thetriparoundthesun.com

Anyway, blah blah blah.. I hope you enjoy it!  -Bb