Music

You can buy the CD on BigCartel!

If you prefer the mp3, go to Bandcamp.

For the lyric video, go check out YouTube!

When I discovered Grave Robber (thanks to their song “Skeletons” appearing on a compilation album) their musical style and horror theme quickly elevated them to being one of my favorite bands. Thanks to social media and crowdfunding I became friends with the man behind the mask, Shawn Browning which led to an opportunity to help them write a song for their “Escaping the Grave” album.

Shawn invited me to pitch the initial idea which he, being the one with the music-making experience, helped me refine. I wrote a draft of a song based on an idea I had for a story that I hope will one day be a published book. Shawn refined the lyrics to better fit the lyrical stylings of Wretched Graverobber and the music the band wrote to go with it.

The result is a song so good that I, as someone who has very little experience writing music, can’t believe I had any part in its creation. “Escaping the Grave” is one of the band’s best albums, and “The Swarm” has been named one of the standout tracks in some of the reviews I’ve read. I’m certainly proud of it. It was chosen as a track worthy of a very horror appropriate lyric video so you can check out the song yourself for free on YouTube. If you like the music of Grave Robber you can buy their album digitally or on CD.

You can buy the CD on BigCartel!

If you prefer the mp3, go to Bandcamp.

For the lyric video, go check out YouTube!

Check out the album for free on Bandcamp as well as all previous volumes of Fleas Naughty Dog!

I am not musically gifted, but I’ve worked in radio and television (my first degree is in broadcasting) which resulted in me having some experience with audio and video editing. When I was a radio and club disc jockey I would sometimes create my own song mixes to play

One such mix, a combination of music pulled from Cartoon Network mixed with some of space pirate Brak’s funniest lines, earned me a personal letter from Space Ghost and a complimentary copy of Modern Music for Swinging Superheroes, Cartoon Planet’s promotional CD from a time before any of the songs were released on commercially available albums. I still listen to tracks off the album whenever I’m in the mood for some silly music (which is almost daily).

One day I was messing around with some sound files on Audacity, a sound editing program, and decided to see if I could create an original song. From a variety of sound files I stitched together an original rhythm I liked, created a pulsating bass line, and came up with a haunting melody. I peppered it with sound effects from video games to create something that I very much enjoyed listening to. But for the longest time it was nothing more than a file on my computer.

When The Nightmare After Christmas became a reality I adapted my song to be a musical accompaniment for the book for promotional purposes and began looking at how I could combine the two for the public. I had established a friendship with Shawn Browning and had worked with him on the writing of Grave Robber’s song “The Swarm.” Shawn has put together several free Christmas music compilations for Rottweiler Records. In fact, when he saw Angel Nichols’ art for The Nightmare After Christmas he brought her on board to design the album covers of which she has done the last few. So I asked Shawn to evaluate my song and to include it on his next compilation if he felt that it met his standards. He liked it and made it track 14 on Fleas Naughty Dog vol. 9. The entire album is free, as are the previous 8 volumes, on Bandcamp. I’m very excited that the song and the art both have connections to my book.

Check out the album for free on Bandcamp as well as all previous volumes of Fleas Naughty Dog!