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Today at the Whisky! Come check us out if you’re in town! (at Tenmasa Japanese Restaurant)
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Buy the album at http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/in-a-minute/id544362766
Download “All the Time” free at http://www.marcelziul.com
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Listen to In a Minute by Marcel Ziul.
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Inside the Album #9 – “In a Minute” – MARCELZIUL.COM →
I grabbed my guitar one night in 2009 while working on someone else’s album as a producer and began playing a few chords. It was as if “In a Minute” came from nothing, and before I knew it I had jotted down its lyrics.
It wasn’t really a song I thought I’d record, but two years later, as we got ready to leave the studio after three long days of tracking Rodrigo Mantovani’s bass and Eduardo Longuim’s drums, Luis ‘Granja’ Venturin got into a huge argument with me about recording the tune. We’d ran into several mishaps over the course of that last session and I was determined to leave “In a Minute” out of the album. He stubbornly managed to convince everyone to stay and I went along with it in the end.
Rodrigo’s wife drove 60 miles to where we were to bring him his double bass as we set up the live room and I strung up my acoustic. Eduardo actually slept through three or four takes but we somehow managed to get through the whole song and finally left the studio at 9:00am.
After recording electric guitar a couple of weeks later, (thank you Nacle Nabak), I came to the conclusion that the song should be the title track for the album. The full “In a Minute” record was officially released on July 15th, 2012, and the song after which it was named delicately closes the album.
Thanks to everyone who watched my “Inside the Album” series! Get it on iTunes!
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Inside the Album #8 – “Too Blind to See” – MARCELZIUL.COM →
For the musicians out there:
The reason I like “Too Blind to See” so much was because it was such a challenge. It sounded really organized when I played it on my own, but it took me a while to get the drummer to understand how the song was supposed to feel, and even longer to mix the song with producer Luis Venturin once it was done. I recorded a cool mess of chorus-drenched guitars which threw the entire song off, and I really don’t know how, but it ended up working.
My favorite thing about tracking this song was taking several steps back from the mic and, while singing the chorus over the bass passage, getting closer and closer to it before the entire band came back.
For the music lovers:
This song tells a little story about my disappointment at a girl who I suspect has been cheating on me, which is why the song sounds so big and dramatic.
Despite the theme, I love everything about this song, from the way it sounds to the way I feel when I play it. Definitely my favorite track on the album.
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Inside the Album #7 – “Don’t Walk Away” – MARCELZIUL.COM →
For the musicians out there:
“Don’t Walk Away” was my chance on the album to play the kinds of funky guitar parts I love so much. I even got to plug my guitar into my beloved vibe pedal, and solo through a wah-wah. Eduardo, my drummer, played a straightforward, solid groove on this, which really helped the track sound fuller.
After tracking this one, I started seriously considering a keyboard player for the next album.
For the music lovers:
This one’s just a funky pop song in which I tell somebody off for lying to me. There’s even a swear word in there.
I started “Don’t Walk Away” in 2010 and messed around with it for months before it was done, (a song is never really done).
Funny thing is, I don’t really remember who it is I was so mad at.
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Inside the Album #6 – “Learn to Fall” – MARCELZIUL.COM →
For the musicians out there:
I loved the guitar tones, both acoustic and electric, that we got on “Learn to Fall”. The song is very simple, and I found that playing it as a trio left it rather empty, which is why I ended up recording an acoustic part. We used a very loud Taylor 810 dreadnought though a Neumann M 150 and a reissue Teletronixs LA2A compressor. For the electric, I recorded a Tele through a Deluxe Reverb, but one of my strats is still in the song; every time a chorus ends there’s a little reverb-drenched dive on the tremolo.
Even though the song is somewhat slow, I think the 9/8 time signature helped it to move along nicely.
For the music lovers:
This was always a favorite of non-musician friends. It is one of two ballads on the album, and it basically came out of something I started humming to myself while driving in the rain and trying to sing over the sound of my windshield wipers.
It was the first song rehearsed by the band when everyone came in to do the album, and the last song we recorded.
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Inside the Album #5 – “How Long” – MARCELZIUL.COM →
For the musicians out there:
As I say in the video, I had to refrain from my usual playing style in order to meet the “How Long’s” needs. The bass and drums came out particularly jazzy on this track and I was having trouble figuring out how to make it mine.
What really helped me figure things out was the solo I played impromptu, before even tracking the rythm guitars or the vocals. I used an octave-fuzz effect and pretty long delay on the solo, which went against what everyone expected for the song. To me, the rest of “How Long” is there to bring the song up to the solo and back down from it.
For the music lovers:
The way “How Long” sounded after it was tracked really surprised me. Until I came in to record the vocals, I thought it was going to be more of a B-side.
Perhaps because I really liked this song, I really put a lot of soul into singing it, and was really inspired by the way the guitars sounded; especially the solo.
When we were finished the album and started showing it to friends, it immediately became a lot of people’s favorite, which I didn’t expect. I can’t imagine “In a Minute” not having this song on it.
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Inside the Album #4 – “Confusion” – MARCELZIUL.COM →
For the musicians out there:
This is the first song on the album on which I play a Telecaster, which can be heard in the final solo. Loved it so much I played it three other times. “Confusion” was written way before the rest of the songs on “In a Minute”.
The song came really naturally to me and the only thing I requested specifically from the band were the rim clicks for the entire verse and bridge. I really liked the three chord harmony starting on an A with a B for the bass note; this really put me into a retro vibe and I wanted the rest of the song to feel that way.
I got a chance to remind everyone how much I love chorus-vibe effects on this track.
For the music lovers:
I’m really into 70’s music; especially the stuff my parents like. I’d just finished watching an episode of an awesome show called “Breaking Bad” a few years a go when this reference to Boz Scaggs and Steely Dan came on. I was already a fan of those artists, but listened to a lot by them after being reminded by Walter White. “Confusion” was written around that time, and it shows.
The song is about “running into someone you don’t want to run into”, as I say in the video, but it’s also about breaking up and being cheated on. “Confusion” takes those situations and deals with them with a fair amount of ‘cool’. Only 70’s music can be that smooth.
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Inside the Album #3 – “Far Apart” →
For the musicians out there:
With Eduardo Longuim’s ghost notes on the snare and Rodrigo Mantovani’s muted minor arpeggios, this song sounded amazing as soon as it was tracked. Adding a layer of a chorus-drenched rhythm guitar to get a Fender Rhodes feeling in the background, “Far Apart” gave me the chance to record guitar solos I was proud of later, both melodically and tone-wise.
I played my surf green strat on this one for lead and had a bunch of amps on, but most of the density in the guitar sound comes from the Van Zandt Blues pickups with which the guitar is equipped, a partly turned-down tone knob and a short slap-back analog delay.
This song gave the band a chance to really come together and build something from the ground up and I knew it had worked when I tracked the vocals in a single take. Definitely one of my favorites on the album.
For the music lovers:
“Far Apart” was a song I had come up with a few days before going into the studio. I remember having the lyrics and the music ready, but not having the slightest idea of how I wanted it to sound.
Eduardo Longuim and Rodrigo Mantovani were instrumental in making the song work. We attempted it a few times as more of a blues piece and our producer just hated the way it was coming out.
In one of the many moments of inspiration that came about at 3:00am during the recording of the album, Rodrigo started playing a bass line, Du followed with a cool drum line and I started to play the soft guitar part that perfectly set the mood for the vocals and solos.
