Reflections of a Maniac - Vol. 1





 Welcome to the first of some blogs that I'll be writing here and there to stay more connected to you guys. 

Living in a bubble.

We like to say that we're in some kind of "bubble" right now, somehow attached to yet seperated to the outside world all at the same time. Creativity has come from the damndest places. But I'm getting ahead of myself so let's go back a bit............

   Around March of 2011 I started writing and recording with Antonio and Dennis. The word unreal comes to mind for several reasons. At that time, I was just opening up with my voice to where I was starting to sound the way I wanted to sound, but had little control over it. We started with a song we called "crying", it had a catchy hook but more so it had heavy guitars with bass wobbles and a particular style that I think we all realized was "our style". The more songs that went on, this proved true. To us, it seemed like a great combination to mix the coolest stuff in Dubstep/D&B & Metal together and really stir shit up. Nothin' like a nice guitar solo over a big ass wobble I always say, haha.

We started to incorporate this heavily when we did our InnerPartySystem "Not getting Any Better" remix. It's been dubbed RockStep, dubMetal, 666Step, and some other crazy names. Good stuff. Crowley would be proud, haha. But anyway, things really started to take form at that point due to the magic of earning a major label release in Europe and The US!!! It was time to play a hand and take a gamble...time to make an EP and really see what we can do as not just a production team, but also a band.

   A few solid months passed where the song "A Beautiful Struggle" was absorbing us like a sick fascination. We wanted to finish it so badly but "things" just kept stopping it from happening. Let's just say the elements have tested us both phsyically and mentally on that one. We tried about ten different ideas for the hook and what not and were never satisfied....we decided to take a break and back off from the song before it destroyed one of us or self destructed like a note from Chief Quimby in Inspector Gadget.

At this time, the song "Dissolve" was created and recorded...good times. Once that got under way and we worked on another remix or two and then it was time to re-approach "The Struggle" one more time and see what we could come up with. After this happened another time over or so, it finally came to be what you may have heard in the "demo" version. We decided to put that demo version out on SoundCloud for a week or two to see what kind of response it got, then when all was finally flowing.....BAM!!!!!! All of the files to the song were deleted and gone due to a external hard drive that decided to fail before we could get the track tightened up, mixed and mastered. We were devastated for a minute or three, trust me. So what was thought of as a possible first single and a must on the first EP was decided to come out at a later date when we can get all that worked out. I guess thats what happens when you obsess too hard on one particualr thing...it explodes in your face. This part is to be continued at a later time when the story unfolds itself to us.
A Beautiful Struggle (WIP) by TheManiacAgenda


Lets catch up to now.....things are wrapping up nicely on the EP. A lot of sacrifice, devotion and love went into this stuff....as well as some solfeggio tuning forks ;)

On a very recent note, we entered a guitar solo from me using some sweet "Rage against The Machine" style pitch shifting and got to use a Beer bottle for the grand ending for the Bayside Indaba contest. check it out here and vote:

http://www.indabamusic.com/submissions/show/78685

We are getting ready to release a music video for the song Dissolve very soon to kick off everything, then it should be time for the Flood. The next move after that is a suprise still, but depending on when you read this it may be in the past already. wait a minute, strike that...reverse it...thanks. More of the story to come soon, but until next time...................these are the reflections of a maniac - Leonardo "the light-bearer" Rizzo

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