Witchking / 1998 (originally recorded as cassette master 1988)

Witchking was music that was originally composed and recorded in 1988/89. The re-issue cd was made from dubs of the cassette masters which unfortunately were lost. The equipment used was pretty minimal but it was still great gear. I did this cd in a little studio/office I rented in San Mateo, CA. It was during this time that I was warehouse manager for a commercial plumbing company  in San Mateo. I was making like $800 a week and still hated the job LOL! Actually it was a very cool job but it was a family owned business and one of the brothers was a major asshole, and he made my life hell...anyway I would get off work and escape into my little office down the road. it was during these after work sessions that most of Witchking was born. I have always loved the Tolkien books and it was fun to write some music that I felt was inspired by his genius. I think the title tune was the first one I wrote and its definately a fav, along with Mines of Moria and The Siege of Gondor. At the time I was also hooked on this Amiga computer role playing game called Dungeon Master LOL! Damn it was an awesome game, and it also ran on an Amiga 500, wow. Anyway this game was basically a role-playing game set in a gigantic dungeon and I would play it into the wee hours of the morning. When I finally would stumble out of my office like at 3:00AM, the lights in the office building I was in would all be off because of a timer and I would have to walk down these long corridors in the dark to get the hell out hehe, well after playing DM for a few hours it was a very weird experience LOL!

Why does the recording of Witchking sound so shitty in spots?

The cassette masters that I had made of all the Witchking tunes got lost when I moved out of the office space and when it came time to make a cd... all I had were nearly 10 year old cassette dubs of the master tapes. I tried to clean up the tape hiss and fix up the over-all sound quality but there was not much I could do. I even toyed with the idea of putting ambient crowd noise on another track and releasing it as a live album. That would have been fun, but I couldn't find long enough files of audience .wavs to use.

Thanks to my roomies!

While most of Witchking was recorded at the San Mateo office, I did do some of it at home. I eventually 86'd the office space and lugged all my crap back home to 216 Northwood Drive. Both my house brothers never complained once about me cranking the tunes during the 5 years we lived and played music together. I was really lucky to have such great buds! Thanks to John and Sal, and cheers to the Lodge. :^)

"Thrice he cried. Thrice the great ram boomed. And suddenly upon the
last stroke the Gate of Gondor broke. As if stricken by some blasting spell
it burst asunder: there was a flash of searing lightning, and the doors tumbled in riven fragments to the ground.

In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires
beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and
all fled before his face." - The Return Of The King / J.R.R. Tolkien

Witchking holds a special place in my heart because it was the first cd I ever burned. I'll never forget the night I burned my first copy at 1x speed LOL! (even though I have a 4x recorder, um hello?). It took like 45 minutes or something, but it didn't matter. Hell it could have taken 45 hours for all I cared. I was actually making a cd. That was incredible to me. When it was finally done, I ran out to my truck and turned on the ignition (put on my safety belt <g>) and then put the cd into the player. I spent the next 45 minutes just driving around listening to Witchking. God that was a blast. I think I wasted a half a tank of gas just driving who knows where, and listening to the cd. It was really a wild notion, that any of us could make cds, as well as share them with others without record companies or 500 minimum orders or whatever.

Witchking is also special because it was the first time I got to design some images around the music, i.e. the cd artwork part of the equation. That was really fun as well and still is 3 cds later. Making the cd inserts was almost as fun as playing the music. I'll always remember the excitement when I first started hearing from you guys about the cd. Your comments were awesome, especially Matt, Anita and Chris T. (the Professor!), I think Chris T.'s comments were the most incredible and extremely inspiring. Thanks again Bro, your words were awesome as usual.

So I guess WK is like my first love in many ways. There were so many new experiences that came with redoing this music nearly 10 years later. And when I did the "thank you liner notes," tons of great memories came back to me, and all the wonderful people that have been a part of my life. You all know who you are, but thanks again for making it one hell of a ride! :)