This new instrumental started out a s a goof, a rig test, and evolved into a sort of homage to the old raga rock would-be psychedelic excursions of the mid 60s.
I’d heard a bit on NPR about an Indian American who’d written a book on applying sitar and Indian music techniques to guitar. He was using a fretless guitar in combination with fretted guitars.
When I’d experimented with sitar-like sounds in the past, I’d always used a slidem so I thought it might be amusing to follow this guy’s lead and try it without, tuning my guitar to open fifths.
I ran a couple minutes off onto the computer and forgot about it until later, when I had a few minutes to put a droney bass synthesizer and some fake talking drums on it… even though it was never intended to be a keeper… I almost didn’t hit the save button.
Just to add a certain, even more chaotic element to the mix, I took a section of the main guitar improv, made a copy, reversed it, and dropped the whole thing in more or less where it came from (only backwards, of course).
My Second Mistake
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And set to video — featuring the photos of award-winning travel photog, Ken Lee, by permisson of the artist…
