Recording - April 2015 - 33

~ singing through a transistor amp, and
recording via headphone jack
~ my two pedals: flange and tremolo
~ backwards tape
~ mono drums through SM58, sometimes
doubled with 2 takes panned hard left
and hard right
~ Fed Ex envelope with plastic to sound
like snare drum played with brushes
If it can be done once, it can be done
again
After 9 Demos was released, I was
approached by two labels in the UK that
wanted me to re-record some of the songs
with a full band. They said some of the songs
could be strong singles. Really? I've always
held British music in high esteem, so it was
quite the compliment, but they wanted too
much, and I wasn't interested in giving anything. However, it did give me confidence in
my writing, and made me realize that maybe
I could make good melodies on top of experimental music and get somewhere with it.
March of 1998 rolled in, and that
tumor in my chest made itself known. I
was to have six months of chemotherapy,
so I decided to make the next album a
window into that realm. The cover was to
be my nurse holding up a needle, there
would be a medical theme in the artwork,
etc. However, there had to be a foundation of catchy, hooky melodies and

sounds. I thought I would document with
sonics what it's like to be pumped full of
chemicals, but my love for catchy tunes
and my love of film music could not be
eclipsed. So I spent March to October of
1998 somewhat confused, with burning
veins, vomitatious urges, and debilitating
chemotherapies, writing and recording
whatever would come out. The result was
a critically acclaimed album called I.V.
Catatonia.
By now I had acquired a few more pedals and was given a Korg Trinity keyboard
workstation for my birthday, but I still loved
breaking things. There were vocals recorded through a cordless phone with an
SM57, sound effects from toys, big brass
antiques being banged on through a
flange pedal (unbeknownst to my mother...
sorry, Mom), answering machine messages, my mother looped telling me to take
my vitamins (sorry again, Mom), seagulls,
mono drums through a flange pedal,
church chanting... it was great fun, and all
of it was licensed to MTV for use on multiple shows within a year or so.
On top of that, it had national college
radio play, international acclaim with multiple reviews, and not to mention, a groovy
box set of medical products. Have a listen to
some of the lo-fi madness in this release at
http://bit.do/RecordingMagEAIVCatatonia
if you're curious.

The takeaway
Yeah, this might look like a big advertisement for two albums, but they are
great examples of the following:
~ creating unique content
~ focusing on substance and the creative
process
~ working hard at skills
~ budgeting
~ determination
~ focusing on overcoming roadblocks
~ promoting oneself
~ confidence in one's work
~ embracing the whole artistic package
~ having something to say
~ being open to everything
~ dropping the ego
If you keep these concepts close, I
believe you will achieve success in your
creative efforts. Hey, it worked for the
young man with the tumor.
Eric Alexandrakis (alexandrakis@record
ingmag.com) is a highly successful songwriter, producer, and recording musician.
He has had several Top 40 hits on the
Adult Contemporary charts, has licensed
hundreds of songs for film and video, and
is currently working on a multimedia project with fine artist Sandro and actor John
Malkovich. Learn more at www.eric
alexandrakis.com. Oh, and he's been
cancer-free since 2000.
http://www.ericalexandrakis.com http://www.bit.do/RecordingMagEAIVCatatonia http://www.ericalexandrakis.com
Recording - April 2015

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