Simon Collins, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett & Squids

[Squids]

I am sure we must have had a thread in here about Simon Collins' album U-Catastrophe that I played on and co-wrote a progressive instrumental track on the album that featured both Simon and his dad Phil drumming primal beats over Sonik Synth 2 and Cinema Sessions amtmospheres www.sonicreality.com/cinemasessions (that's coming out in a couple months).

There's an article about the album here with an interview and album review here if you're interested: http://www.musicplayers.com/features/ba ... ollins.php

If you want to hear a quick edited clip of that track, check it out: www.sonicreality.com/squidscorner/BigBangTeaser.mp3 If you want to hear the whole thing and the rest of the album which also has Steve Hackett on it (which was sent the session over to my studio while we worked on a cover of Genesis' Keep it Dark which you can still hear on our myspace page: www.myspace.com/sonicreality )

I might do a little video workshop thing showing how I did the overdubs for The Big Bang though because it may be of interest. Simon had the frame of the song, he overdubbed his dad separately and then sent it to me where I went to town on adding mellotrons (SampleTron) and orchestral effects and this middle section that is about as close to Genesis as the album gets where I actually had Simon vocal pads that I made with a sample of "Into the future" that I put in, alarms and other sfx plus I even used a Synclavier sound similar to the voices Tony Banks used on Home By The Sea... although the album itself is not as Genesisy as that moment and the funny thing is that Phil had never heard all of those parts when he played on it... I thought it was particularly sneaky of me to put in an augmented Mellotron violin chord in there a la Tony Banks from the mid 70's. I had actually had that part repeating more but Kevin and Simon trimmed back some of my prog keyboard parts. In fact, on the first song we worked on for the record I had keyboard solos all over the song disappearing and some of it even sounded like "In the Cage" but that got dialed back BIG time and I think it really WAS over the top and it didn't need it... but it was fun. I might play a few clips of that just for fun if anyone's interested to hear. But, either way, as I get my Sonic Reality TV thing going we're going to be posting a LOT of little vids on You Tube. In fact, we already have so check it out: Subscribe to it if you want to be in the loop for a lot of behind the scenes Genesis rehearsals and studio stuff I'm about to post as well as sessions with Neil Peart and all sorts of things...

[NTR]

I actually heard Big Bang when you posted it in one of the GB's. I never commented on it then, but I really enjoyed it. The drumming was intense, and the keys were icing on the cake. I did not realize it was on Simons cd. In fact, until a month ago when I heard one of Simon's songs on the radio, I didn't even realize Phil had a son following in his foot steps. I couldn't believe how much he sounds and looks like his dad. A chip of the ol block I guess. A very good thing in this case.

Now that I know this song is on the album, I'll have to go buy it.

edit- just read the article. Pretty cool. Dropped your name a few times too eh!

[Squids]

Thanks. Glad you liked it. It was fun to do! Keep it Dark was supposed to be on the album too as a bonus track but it didn't make it. I did the most on that one but I managed to squeeze in some parts here and there on his new album. Probably the most being on The Big Bang because it had the most room for something to happen. I wanted to play on the track with Steve Hackett as well but it had so much in it already that I didn't think it needed anything.