Dan Barracuda: Inside A Musician's Mind

Although I'm always pretty secretive about the music I'm working on, there are 2 people who I confide in to give me their honest feedback about my progress: my brother Mario and my partner Erica. They both provide different types of feedback, both so so valuable. I recommend having an "inner circle" of some sort when it comes to the music you are making. People that can tell you how they feel straight out, and if they think you could perform, record, or mix something better. I'm outrageously grateful for them :D 

As we approach the release (which I have yet to figure out!), I will slowly start revealing more things about the new album. Here are 2 preview snippets of Song #9 - "True Love On A Mental Plane" - only isolated bits!

Here are my thoughts on how I'm going to content-market the release of my upcoming album (thinking early-mid March). Video is key - and quality video at that. The visual needs to be up there with the music this day in age. Make interesting visual content to coincide with your new songs!

Last week I had the idea to come up with my own acoustic arrangement to this song - it was such a blast to do! I highly recommend coming up with stuff like this: acoustic arrangements of simple songs you like. It really forces you to think about how you to approach the melody and harmony. It challenges your relationship with the fretboard. Do it!!!

Mastering is the final step to the music production process, and it can cost anywhere from $0 to thousands of dollars to master an album. There's a lot to learn in this realm, and I'm still finding my way with it. One day I definitely want to learn how to do it myself, I just know it requires a ton of ridiculously expensive equipment. I think I found someone to master my next album: Andres Mayo. Check him out!

Happy Monday guys! Today I want to share with you one of my favorite improvised guitar loops I created last year in 2018. It was at Erica's art show where I had the opportunity to provide some light background music for the event. I used it as a chance to write a ton of music, and I wrote 10-12 five minute guitar loops of some pretty awesome ideas! Hope you dig this one, it's called "Gold Dust Over"

I have 6 out of the 10 songs tracked for the new album (for Vox, that is). In this episode I want to share with you guys how I approach vocals in both the recording and editing phase. It's a bit nutty but it works real well for me! 

I highly recommend this little gadget if you are into looking at your guitar in new ways, and to force yourself to be creative. Regular chords get thrown away when you put this thing on and really use some interesting capo-formations. I've written some really cool riffs with it - listen up!

Giving my thoughts on IG Engagement Groups - what they are and in what ways you can benefit from them. At first I was skeptical, but I've come to realize that they are very effective!

Happy Monday guys! Today I'm sharing with you the 5th Track to my 2nd album. It's called "Twirling In The Shine", with words by my great friend Alex Andreosatos. He had a series of poems that he shared with me, and this one particularly caught my eye. It takes place in a beautiful, heavenly garden. Lying on the ground looking up at the sky.