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Dark Side of the Room

My cover of Time by Pink Floyd, originally from 1973. The drums took four tries, since having to estimate where in the song I was for over 6 minutes was difficult, and the guitar solo in the middle took around 10 attempts, give or take a few.

And while mixing, I added artificial reverb to some of the guitar parts to make it sound larger. Additionally, this was the first time on a cover that I used a plectrum on the bass guitar to get near Roger Waters' sound. 

Drums, Keyboard, Bass (Plectrum), Guitar, Melody - Connor Lyons

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My cover of Slip Away by Clarence Carter and the Muscle Shoals Swampers, 1968. The drums took three attempts, and the bass took me about a day to figure out the kind of feel needed for the song. Plus, the melody is actually many separate recordings fused together to sound like one continuous take. Because Carter's voice is very dynamic, I had to listen closely and go line-by-line to get the notes he sang (or close to them).

Drums, Bass, Keyboard, Guitar, Melody - Connor Lyons

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My cover of  Love Her Madly, from the Doors, 1971. 

The first song I recorded in 2024, a lot of preparation was required for this.

The bass line itself took two days to figure out until I was comfortable with it, and

the piano, melody, and guitar tracks each took me into the early morning hours fine-tuning details. And since I've no tambourine, I instead used a salt shaker that was almost empty to fill that role. 

 

Drums, Bass, Guitar, Keyboard, Salt Shaker, Melody - Connor Lyons

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My cover of Spooky, originally by the Classics IV, 1967. One of my favorite Halloween tunes, this is the first recording of mine that an instrument played the lead part. That, and the imitation sax solo were both done in the same take, which took a few tries. Given that it was recorded with a different software than what I use now, it may sound a little different than my other work (at least to my ears, that is), but it's a spirited attempt to show my appreciation for the song. 

Drums, Bass, Guitar, Melody - Connor Lyons

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My cover of High Speed by Coldplay, from 1999. This is actually the first song I covered, in early July, 2023. However, this isn't my original cover as I decided to give it an updated feel since I had recorded more after a few months. Every instrument took only a few attempts, the exception being the lead guitar. I wanted to record myself on video in the process, so it took longer than expected. But for one uninterrupted take I was content with what I had captured and played.

Drums, Bass, Keyboard, Guitars, Melody - Connor Lyons

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A cover of my favorite Eagles record, I Can't Tell You Why.

The amount of work that went into this was more than I anticipated, with 10 separate tracks through the whole song. Some instruments took only a few tries, while others, like the lead guitar, required more. However, that's because I learned to play guitar with my fingers first and have been learning to play with a plectrum since February. The ascending bass pattern towards the end was something that happened while practicing with the actual song. I thought it was a good way of building with the lead guitar before it faded, and I added my own spin on it in the process.

Drums, Bass, Keyboards, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar (Plectrum), Melody, Harmonies - Connor Lyons

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My cover of Steppin' Out, by Joe Jackson.

After the drums, I tried recording with my bass, but it was not coming out the way I wanted. So after finding a setting on my piano, I decided on a techno bass sound, something that felt fitting for a song from 1982 that also had a drum machine on it. Ultimately, this project took far longer than I predicted, but the end result was learning how to edit songs on the fly and adapting to new circumstances. 

Drums, Keyboards, Synth Bass, Keyboard "Celeste" - Connor Lyons

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My cover of Black Magic Woman, originally by Fleetwood Mac, but in the style of the more well-known Santana version. 

Drums, Bass, Keyboards, Salt Shaker, Food Containers (as Bongos), Guitar - Connor Lyons

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