Behind the Scenes - Cover Art for Eyes That Say I Love You

As I continue to work with Square Spiral on a refreshed mix of Eyes That Say I Love You, it's a good time to get cracking on a new single cover for it.  My original cover art was a scan of the sheet music that inspired the song.  My target for this song is a track on iTunes so I need a royalty-free source, and since I've got a shoestring budget, FREE royalty-free is what I am looking for.

This is the original cropped cover from a photo of the sheet music.  I've seen this version enough, either a lot of people had the same idea I had, or my image has been getting a lot of replay value as other people make covers of the song:

As I tried to figure out a new version, I stuck with the eye theme and went to Pixabay.  I started with this "Model Girl Pretty Portrait Lady Woman Exotic" (Click to see original) and just cut out the area around the eyes, in the spirit of the original sheet music cover.  I did some color correction to make the eyes a little more discolored and bloodshot.

While this is better than I would come up with on my own, it still looks just like stock art plopped in there.  I went on to look for something grittier, less realistic.  I found this set of drawn eyes that took things in the opposite direction.  I did a fill on the white background to make it red and added some noise to make the next iteration.  (Gaussian 73%)

While this has a more artistic style to it, I missed what I was imagining with "Model Pretty Girl".  After another week I took advantage of a great deal (free) to get Perfect Effects 8 and while playing with the filters in this program, it occurred to me to try combining the images as layers.  I set the drawn eyes at about 60% and applied two layers of effects (Holga Cross, and Red Dirty) to get the end result below (Click it for the larger version):

With that bit of work out of the way, we need to put the finishing touches on the song itself.  Chris (of Square Spiral) just shared his latest mix.  While I am naturally biased, it sounds amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on the final audio so I can get the iTunes process going.  This will be my first song on iTunes so that will be another learning experience.  If you'd like to be one of the first to get your hands (ears) on it, please provide your address in the "Follow Rich by Email" box at the top right of this website, for the latest news.  I promise I won't sell your email address or do other evil things with it!

Time Machine: 1993 - New Tensions Rising

In 1993 I assembled the tracks of my first album/collection, New Tensions Rising (NTR).  NTR was made entirely with a Tascam 4 track multi-track recorder (424 or 464), that used standard cassette tapes.  As I remember it, I used the 2 stereo tracks to record the accompanying sounds from my Yamaha PSR-500 and the main vocal, using a Radio Shack (Realistic) microphone, while the other two tracks held backup vocals.

These songs were performed at school variety shows and community events.  My favorite of the bunch was Our Love Begins Today, but I don't recall getting the reaction I expected from it, even with two girls dancing (choreographed) on stage.  Maybe rural Iowa wasn't ready for it!

I've hand picked some of my favorite NTR tracks for your streaming pleasure:

Title Track: New Tensions Rising, Copyright 1993 Richard Thomsen

Arms of Love, Copyright 1993 Richard Thomsen
Our Love Begins Today, Copyright 1993 Richard Thomsen

Reflections on Reality Past, Copyright 1993 Richard Thomsen



End of the Road, Copyright 1993 Richard Thomsen


Background Details:
The Yamaha PSR-500 keyboard that generated the sounds for these tracks had a MIDI 5-pattern recorder that allowed me to cook up verse/chorus type parts by simply picking a style and playing chords.  The PSR-500 helped me create a relatively consistent sound for NTR.

I can't remember what I used for the reverb I applied to my vocals.  I went through several effects units: first a Zoom multi-effects unit, then a Digitech multi-effect pedalboard, then a small Sony box that I used for the next 5 years.

I sweetened the recordings with a BBE Sonic Maximizer.  I don't recall what happened to it, but I think these recordings sound pretty good given the equipment I used.  The other thing to keep in mind was that I was a high school student in rural Iowa (population 2000) and do not remember getting any guidance on recording beyond the product manuals.

The labels were printed on the family inket printer, an HP Deskjet 500, using the Microsoft Publisher software.  I remember my father carefully cutting those sticky labels as we prepped them for the cassettes.  I sold NTR for 5 dollars each.   I recall distributing about 100 copies to family and friends, but many of those were freebies.