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blood bank
my friend joe introduced me to solo artist bon iver a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't been able to turn it off since. I enjoyed the record so much that I decided to do a cover of my favorite track, "blood bank," which is embedded below from my bandcamp site. if you haven't heard of bon iver, I strongly suggest getting your hands on some of his stuff - brilliant songwriting and incredible vocals.



and speaking of my friend joe, he has recently begun to partake in a competition known as the 50/90 challenge, in which you have to write, record and upload 50 songs in a matter of just 90 days. it's a gutsy thing to do, and he seems to already be getting some great material out of the challenge. you can check up on his progress right here.

Labels: declans well, music by keenan, music not by keenan

this scene two quick updates.

for one, I've discovered (actually joe discovered) another new music site. this one, however, is not only designated for artists but for listeners as well. it's called thesixtyone and it's a very clever site that lets you create either an "artist" or "listener" account. artists upload tracks, and listeners discover those tracks and give them "hearts" - which are basically a sort of "props" that propels a particular track (allowing for even more listeners to discover it). I'm still not entirely sure how the entire thing works, but I created an artist account for declans well several days ago, and the success of it has been pretty tremendous.

among the tracks posted up onto my sixtyone page is a new one that I just finished up this afternoon. it's mostly a track built upon several bits and pieces from older demos and tracks that never really went anywhere or got used too much. surprisingly enough it came out pretty well though - give it a listen below:

declans well - "this scene":

Labels: declans well, music by keenan

declans well bandcamp
for the past several months I've been witnessing more and more artists using the bandcamp.com service. what it is, basically, is a very cool (free) service that allows an artist/band to create a page, upload any (or all) albums that they've put out, and set a price. The artist can decide to put the tracks up for free, for a set a price, or leave it up to the listener to choose a price. in addition, bandcamp lets you choose which formats people can access your music in. for example - many bands will put up an entire album for free in a very compressed, not-so-great format -- and offer it (at a price) in much higher formats. I think it's a great feature for artists to use when it comes to album distribution.

for my purposes, however, I've basically set one up as a means to organize all of the albums/EPs I put out under the name declans well. it's all been uploaded for free - except, of course, for my one (self-titled) EP because it's already been up on iTunes for a couple of years now. if not for anything else, the site's also look really cool - and you can stream any of the tracks to a handful of really cool equalizer/spectrum analyzer gadgets. so check out the DECLANS WELL BANDCAMP RIGHT HERE. it also lets you copy the code for any individual song and paste it onto facebook, myspace, twitter, blogger, etc (see below):

Labels: declans well, music by keenan

a waltz for virginia
aside from purchasing a bass, attempting to write new music, and consistently searching for a full time position, I've also been recording (both locally and long distance) with mack flinn & the whosis kid. I say long distance because mack flinn's guitarist, chris, is still attending school in Ohio and rarely gets to make it back to new jersey for recording sessions. in the meantime, however, he's picked himself up an m-audio interface to record lead tracks and send them my way to be pieced into our pro tools sessions. it's worked out great so far, especially for their latest track entitled "A Waltz for Viriginia," in which I also took a shot at creating a "music video" of sorts for. feel free to watch it below, and keep an eye on their youtube channel for future projects similar to this (I have a feeling their might be more in the near future).

Labels: mack flinn, music by keenan

don't die in me


this past month I purchased a bass guitar. not just any guitar though - the cheapest one that I could find/afford. I picked it up (primarily) for the purpose of (hopefully) using it in future musical endeavors. not in a traditional sense, however - since I plan on sending it right through pro tools and electronically altering the crap out of it. since I've been under a huge writer's block for the past month or so I decided to test it out by doing an (awful) cover of a mirah track, which does absolutely no justice to the orginal. feel free to download and/or stream it below. can't figure out which part I used the bass guitar on? excellent, that's what it's intended for.

declans well - "don't die in me" (mirah cover):


mirah - "don't die in me" (original):

Labels: declans well, music by keenan