The Guitar Player's Resource
A common problem. If you don't sing, how can you properly enhance the music you are writing? Illinois guitarist Bernie Devins solved the problem by thinking of his guitar as a voice, inspired by the Joe Satriani tune, "The Crush Of Love". He submitted a six song instrumental hard rock CD-R filled with tunes from an upcoming CD, which will be called You Axed For It, You Got It. Doing it all himself, Devins' stripped-down production is based around Cubase SX3 and BFD drums, but he is directing the audience to his guitar anyway, not the underlying instruments. Tracks such as "Hand Over Fist" and "DoubleDown" are driving numbers aimed at the six-string fanatics, whereas "Hear How I Feel About You" is ballad tempo number featuring harmonized lead lines and a trend-defying, immaculate solo. Suggestions might be to ditch the BFD drums in favor of something live (material this heavy demands it), and get outside help with the mixing and mastering.
Bernie has been playing guitar since he was 13 years old, and always as hobby or side interest. He played in cover bands as a young adult, but in his family, full time work always came first. Bernie started recording when there just wasn't enough time in the day to play, giving him a musical outlet and time to be uniquely creative. He has attempted collaborations with other musicians, but found that the only way to creating the feelings he was after in the songs was to do it solo. Bernie records on a Mac G5, with his PRS Swamp Ash guitar and a Fernandez 3 pickup guitar with sustainer and Floyd Rose. He starts out with simple chord progressions recorded with a clean sound, and then adds new parts with a new guitar voice. Basically he is writing his material on the fly, keeping an open mind on adding new parts to enhance the song.
His upcoming CD, You Axed For It, You Got It, is scheduled for a June 2006 release.
Bernie Devins
United States
Web site: www.audiostreet.net/berniedevins