It’s my party and I’ll…

That’s right, it’s my birthday and I figure what better day than to post the first music video to be posted on Single of the Day. What better way than to start with my video. Why not? Its damn good and done by a buddy of mine Byron Turk.

A little background on this: First question most people have is, who did the artwork? Answer: my dad. His name is Kim Whitesides. Who is in the video? Answer: Me, Henrik Linde, Josh Karis, and Colin Warling; plus the artwork. How long did it take. The band was filmed in one day. The artwork was filmed in three days. The editing took some time. Byron went way above the call of duty and took the time to learn After Effects to get the final version that you are witnessing here. It’s amazing looking isn’t it? Actually there is a much more hi-rez version at my official website.

As for the song, I suppose its a little tough to talk about my own material, but here is the backstory on this song. Let me talk about the method to which I’m playing the guitar part. It’s normally a technique for bass called slap and pop. At some point a few years back a friend of mine overheard me saying that I could play anything I felt like playing. He felt there was no way that I do something in the style of Seth Horan, whom I’ve posted about before. Of course when it comes to a musical challenge I tend not to back down. So this is what I came up with as guitar part. That’s how it began and from there I fleshed it out with little extra parts to add some spice, but I didn’t want to go overboard on it. It’s a delicate song.

Getting back to the concept of my answers when people ask me if I can play something. Well, when it comes to stringed instruments my answer is always going to be yes. Case in point, a few years ago I was called up by an up and coming pop star of the female persuasion signed to a major label. She was given my number and she called to ask me to come out and audition. During the phone call she asked point blank if I could play spanish style guitar parts. My answer was, I can play anything you need. So she asked me to play the spanish guitar parts in a breakdown that were smack dab in the middle of her pop song. No problem, I went to the audition with my Don Grosh nylon electric guitar which is a fantastic instrument. It’s a solid body nylon string guitar that sounds amazing when pumped up with distortion through a Marshall (the character is very different from a regular electric guitar but sounds really cool, I’ve used it on several of my own tunes this way). And sounds like an acoustic classical guitar when played in a clean channel.

The audition itself was a little weird. I got bumped from my spot to allow Gilby Clark to go ahead of me, because he had to get to some important meeting at his label. Why Gilby was there for a pop star is well beyond me. His style for her was about as good a match as skiing and doing your taxes at the same time (name that movie for bonus points). Which matched me up with a bassist who looked like he was coming from an auto repair shop with a bass that seemed to have been dragged behind the car on the trip up. Anyway, we all me, we plugged in and started to play. I groovin along playing the parts and up comes the spanish part she wanted. I kicked onto the clean channel started playing the part. For some odd reason, I was hearing coming from not only the amp but from elsewhere in the room too. So I looked around as I’m playing the part and all the eyes in the room are on me, because they’re hearing it from the guitar amp as well as the PA. Afterwards the drummer comes over to apologize saying he didn’t know I knew the part. Apparently no one who auditioned knew the part, so they had an ADAT rig right there to play it for them. So there’s a way to make a big impression, be the only one to play the part. At which point the pop star came over and told me how no one knew it, and was amazed that I could play it and asked if I could ever show it to her – I said of course. Unfortunately I didn’t get the gig, they went with a famous shredder guy and then the band fizzled out, after the radio support went away.

There was another time where I was asked to play mandolin… You get the point. I back up my mouth even if there is a pacifier in it.

Getting back to the song. I’ve had numerous people say some amazing things about this song. One comment was it is the coolest love song to never say the word love. Other people comment on the actual technique used to play it – apparently its fun to watch me sing and play it. I don’t know why, it just is.

Falling In is on Practical Insanity which is an album I’m extremely happy with. I feel like my songwriting has finally come of age and gotten really good. I’m happy with the production. I’m happy with all the varying styles and feels I got on the entire album. You can get it now on iTunes and it will be in stores in the future. Why should you buy it? Well for one, because its my birthday and I said so. For two, because you love this song. For three, because I’d like to continue being a full time musician and not have to ask a doctor if I can have free cancer treatments because he decided to illegally download my music. You get the point. This stuff takes a lot of time and a lot of money to put together. I respect you, please respect me and all the other artists that I’m bringing to your attention.