I had allot of fun this week making this futuristic sounding electro beat pop rock style tune called “Gem Droids”.

Free MP3 Download: Gem Droids.mp3 - Creative Commons Music License

Listen for the robot bleeping sound that is kind of like the R2D2 android from Star Wars.

I’m also looking forward to this podcast interview with Christina L. Ibbotson on her Blog Talk Radio station coming up this Tuesday February 23, 2010 at 7:00 PM EST.

Robot Fortune Tellers

Even better was browsing all the creative commons robot art on Flickr. For instance this hardworking fortune telling robot on the streets on India reminded me of:

PsychicZora.com which is a chatbot I built that uses artificial intelligence to predict the future, well sort of - see what you think. She works using AIML from the ALICE AI Foundation.

I had in my mind that Zora would promote my song “The Time Isn’t Right”…but it turns out she has a mind and personality all her own. Even though she is basically a super high tech magic 8 ball.

Mental Matrix

Whenever I think of intelligent robots my mind darts back to Neo “awakening” from his pod in the Matrix.

For me there has never been a better visual representation analogous to the mind being set free from countless generations of mental stories.

Wikipedia gets real detailed about this…

“The Matrix makes numerous references to recent films and literature, and to historical myths and philosophy. These include Vedanta, Advaita Hinduism, Yoga Vashishta Hinduism, Judaism, Messianism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Christianity, Existentialism, Nihilism, and occult tarot. The film’s premise resembles Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Calderon de la Barca’s Life is a Dream, Edwin Abbott Abbott’s Flatland, René Descartes’s evil genius, Georges Gurdjieff’s The Sleeping Man, Kant’s reflections on the Phenomenon versus the Ding an sich, and the brain in a vat thought experiment.”

Lots of complicated religions and ideas here worth knowing about. But I think the film pretty much sums it up:

Neo: I thought it (the matrix) wasn’t real
Morpheus: Your mind makes it real

Creative Commons Photo: ROBOTS {Read Description} by striatic

…wake up, Neo!

Dan-O

New Creative Commons Song

Hello. I finished a new track this week that has kind of a dark emo sound but is also still a bit pop rock style. There are some spacious arpeggio guitar riffs, electronic spheres and a chime like chorus. I call it “Today then Tomorrow”.

Free Royalty Free Download: Today then Tomorrow.mp3 - Creative Commons Music License - More

I hope you enjoy the song and find it useful as background music for YouTube videos, as an instrumental music bed for a new song, just for listening, or whatever else you need.

Presentations, Podcasts, Band

If you missed my Web 2.0 Social Networking presentation at the Danbury Area Computer Society last Tuesday you can view it here. Of course this leaves out lots of details and examples, but you can probably get the idea.

I also have a interview with podcaster Christina L. Ibbotson coming up on February 23. Check out info about this and all my other upcoming appearances like the Connecticut Film Festival. I will be running a couple of workshops and performing with my band Phoenix Tree.

Planet of the Apes

I make all my kids watch what I think are classic “required watching” movies. This week it was the original “Planet of the Apes” (1968). They (and Michelle) always think I’m crazy when I rent these old movies, but they usually have a million questions at the end.

What I love about “Planet of the Apes” is how the film takes the creation vs. evolution controversy and turns it on its head. The irony of a group of elitist orangutans denying their common link to man in order to “protect” the common apes is just so elegantly sardonic!

What I find most amusing about all the arguments of Darwin, Creationism, and Intelligent Design is that:

No matter what side you stand on when you dig deep, look under the surface and keep asking questions, what you find…

…is still a mystery.

Creative Commons Photo: “How did i get here?” by katutaide

Amen!

Dan-O

Hey, this week I did a funky back beat style acoustic rock tune called “Imagine Magneta”. It uses a bass called “The Stick”, has some nice upbeat intricate acoustic strumming and plucky rock drums.

Imagine Magneta Mp3 - Creative Commons Music License - More

Next Tuesday, February 2 I will be the speaking to the Danbury Area Computer Society about social networking! More information

This week, after seeing Avatar, I have been thinking more and more about the importance of imagination and how it literally shapes our lives, changes the world and becomes reality.

That is allot of power people.

1 Thought + Courage + Faith = Anywhere we want to go : )

Creative Commons Photo: The Imagination Awakens

Peace!

Dan-O

This week’s creative commons music MP3 is a hard rock techno funk track brought to you by;

Freedom.

of

speech
thought
religion
expression
assembly
choice
association

Cellular Faith MP3 - Creative Commons Music License - More

I could not have done it without you:

Thank You!

Freedom by The unnamed

Dan-O

Happy New Year!

This week’s free royalty free song is an acoustic modern rock instrumental called “Climb to Elara” for you to use under the creative commons music license.

Climb to Elara MP3 - Creative Commons Music Licensed - More

I composed this using several different acoustic and electric guitar tracks. Its a jamming upbeat tune with choruses that have quirky sweeping guitar effects.

I hope you enjoy the song.

Peace! Dan-O

I got a request for the instrumental version of my song with vocals called “Everything Begins”. You can listen to it and download the sheet music lyrics with chords on my home page. Its a great song for guitar beginners to learn.

This is done with solo acoustic guitars soft finger picking, a second guitar with full chord strums. It has a bit of organ, piano, bass and percussion in the background. It’s different that the original version but it is just as mellow and a little sad - I hope it still captures the mood of a love song.

You can definitely use this as background music in videos, songs, slide shows, and any other project you need free royalty free creative commons music for.

Free MP3 Song Download: EverythingBeginsInstrumental.mp3 - CC Licensed - More

Peace,

Dan-O

Hi, this week my daughter made it a point to get me to see the movie “Where the Wild Things Are” with her. She particularly loves the sound track - she is always finding new bands and music before me on YouTube.

Well the movie is incredibly emotional and dark - with James Gandolfini (aka Tony Soprano) delivering a poignant and explosive performance as the main Wild Thing named “Carol”. I love Gandolfini more and more.

The directors took a simple children’s book and turned it into a story about growing up, self-realization and the conflict between enlightened minds and the tribal mindset. Its no wonder Universal and Warner Brothers had issues with releasing it.

Particularly interesting to me is one of the most innovative and wild soundtracks I have heard by Karen O and the Kids. You can listen to the music here. I am a new fan and not just because she has an “O” in her name ; )

Upcoming Online Radio Interview

Also just a reminder that Christina L. Ibbotson, author of the novel “Love Amid Chaos.” will be interviewing me on her ChrisCross Radio show on this Saturday, Nov 21, at 7 pm EST.

You can call in to (347) 850-8738 and chat with us too. Here is the link to her radio station, which you can listen to from anywhere in the world.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ChristinaIbbotson

Creative Commons Rock Instrumental Music MP3

This week I put together a rock band track that can be used free and royalty free under creative commons license called “Flying While Weeping”. You can simply download this track and use it for noncommercial and commercial projects too.

It has some upbeat syncopated rhythms that bounce between guitar and organ. Check out the brass section at the end with a bit of distortion added as an experiment.

Flying While Weeping.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

Need more music?  View my partner’s royalty free music library

Thank you to Parée on Flickr for her creative commons illustration “As the Crow Flies”. You can check out her many other amazing drawings and illustrations on Flickr.

Peace and Happy Thanksgiving!

Dan-O

Hi, I hope you had some fun for Halloween. I always dress up and this year I was Palpatine, the Dark Emperor of the Galactic Empire (that’s a Star Wars thing). It turns out he can easily be mistaken for the Grim Reaper. Oh well.

Upcoming Online Radio Interview

I want to let you know that Christina L. Ibbotson, author of the novel “Love Amid Chaos.” will be interviewing me on her ChrisCross Radio show on on Saturday, Nov 21, at 7 pm EST. You can call in to chat with us too. I’ll send exact details out later. For now this is the link to her radio station:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ChristinaIbbotson

Royalty Free New Age Music Download

My last meditation instrumental music download “Autumn Boy” has surprisingly become my most downloaded song. That’s why the Internet is so interesting - I never would have guessed that. You can check it out, along with the instrumental version of last week’s “Dublin Forever” I just added on my home page.

I really enjoy creating and listening to chill out music with instruments from around the world that has a modern twist. So I set out to mix up some native vocal samples, the Indian tabla, Arabic santur (a stringed percussive instrument) and some electric guitar and world pop beats.

What came out reminded me of some of the cds from artists like Enigma so the best label I could put on this song is “New Age Music”. However, this is allot darker than more popular new age artists Yanni or Enya. I was recording this around Halloween so I was trying to come up with a scary haunting sound - that’s why I named this Riding the Banshee.

Instrumental Version: RidingTheBansheeInstrumental.mp3 - CC Licensed - More

New Age Music Free MP3 Download: RidingTheBanshee.mp3 - CC Licensed - More

Thanks to the podcast A Pagan in the Threshold for already playing Riding the Banshee.

Great New Free Sound Effects Library - FreeSFX.co.uk

The Webmasters over at FreeSFX.co.uk contacted me to see if I would upload my tracks to their new free creative commons sound effects library. They created a music tracks section just for my material, so I was happy to put all my instrumentals on their site. Many people have been discovering my music through FreeSFX so that’s awesome.

Check them out If you need MP3 files of any kind of audio sounds like machines, screams, dogs, computers, sci fi, bleeps, telephones, heartbeats or whatever else you could use for a movie or radio show. This is one of the most user friendly libraries I have come across.

A very special thank you to Hartwig Koppdelaney for the use of his creative commons photo Ghost Rider. His work is incredible - please take a look.

Peace,

Dan-O

Hi! and I hope you are having a great week.

Autumn has arrived here in New York and the leaves are turning. This is my favorite time of year and the fall always comes as a quiet surprise.

I have been working on a drum and bass remix. I’m playing the music production DJ on this one by mixing dance loops and samples of some gritty reggae boy MCs.

This has a  techno feel in some sections and then gets atmospheric at some points in the track. I’ll add the instrumental version to my collections on the home page eventually:

Free Drum n Bass Vocal Sample MP3 Remix:

DublinForever.mp3 - CC Licensed - More

You have my permission to download and use this song for free and royalty free on YouTube, games, slideshows, photo galleries, Websites, etc.

Just check the creative commons music license out for details.

Pop Star and Starmaker Interviews

I really enjoy getting to know other artists and people in the music industry.

Recently I had the chance to connect with a real up an coming pop star - Universal Records Recording Artist Wendy Starland. Check out my interview with her, she has a really awe-inspiring international pop sound, and I could not help but be impressed that Donald Trump chose her to sing on the Apprentice.

I also got to ask the ever-elusive behind the scenes mega-star Music Manager Jason Davis, CEO of Fahrenheit Media Group about what it takes to match up talent like Kelly Clarkson and hit songwriter Jimmy Messer. In the interview Davis also talks about what he thinks about the current state of the music industry.

This was a rare chance for me to get the inside scoop about what is really going with the “music business” right now. Pretty cool.

Listening to Books and Thoughts

Virtual loot…virtual music…virtual me

I just finished listening to “Play Money: or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot” by Julian Dibbell also a writer for Wired Magazine. This book is an in depth year long personal journal of how he became a trader of virtual gold and real estate in several massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like Second Life. During his best month he made over $4,000 in real U.S. dollars trading…nothing real at all. It’s true.

This book made me realize that everything we do online is really just a virtual representation of our actual selves and that even having some unreal fun - has real value. Some of the non-fictional characters in the book take the simple act of mining “virtual gold” with automated game characters called “bots” and develop an offline multi-million dollar business selling the virtual gold on eBay. Wow, and I thought I had heard it all.

Derek Sivers, Founder of CDBaby reminded me in his post Not happy with existing venues? Make a new one that my new exclusive largest venue for my music is no longer the local coffee shop, art gallery or open mic. It’s this Website and blog. So as of this month, one year after starting danosongs.com, the “virtual me” has touched at least 10,000 times more people all around the world than I did in 20 years of playing live. All this playing around online actually does have real value!

Why I am Pronoiad on my Birthday

First off, Pronoia is the not the same as “paranoid”.

This week my 3 year old son Kalen and I shared a birthday. I am not normally a fan of horoscopes but for those of you that know me, and listen to my lyrics, I still believe in things we can’t see. Could be God, ghosts, aliens, or other dimensions… I’m open.

That being said, Rob Brezsny is the one astrologer that just blows my mind with his horoscopes. You can check him out at Free Will Astrology.com.

Well Rob has a book called “PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.” and it is every bit as challenging to the current workings of my mind as his horoscopes. I got the book for my birthday and this is my favorite quote:

1. If the game is rigged so you can’t win, find another game or invent your own.
2. If you’re not winning because you don’t know the rules, learn the rules.
3. If you know the rules but aren’t willing to follow them, there’s either something wrong with the game or you need to change something in yourself.
4. Don’t play the game in a half-baked way. Either get all the way in or all the way out.
5. It shouldn’t be necessary for others to lose in order for you to win. If others have to lose, re-evaluate the game’s goals.

- Garry Hamilton

Did that make you think? That quote immediately put a few areas of my life in check.

Podcast and YouTube Props

Here are a few choice YouTube videos and podcasts using my music this week.

Tales From the Old City - Machinima - View on YouTube - a dark professional animated love story.

An Empty Sun - Is Gravity being Induced? - View on YouTube - mad professor rethinks gravity!

DJ Alan Music Hare at BRCFP - Listen on Live365 - cool dude with great music taste found me on myspace.

Pirates Week Podcast - Listen at PiratesWeek.info (I love anything having to do with Pirates, plus they have a deadly hip looking site.)

This Weeks Creative Commons Photo

Kelburn Castle attributed to sarahandiain at Flickr

Why? I was looking for a Dublin or Irish castle with graffiti on it to go with the song name.

Peace,

Dan-O

P.S. Forgot to mention my new wacky banners gallery you can use instead of a text link.

P.P.S. Oh yeah, I have been playing Big Head Boy lately.

Hi, this week I was watching Sting’s new trailer for his CD ‘If On A Winter’s Night…” and I was overcome by the amount of “space” and “being” in the film and songs. These are terms that I got from Eckhart Tolle that explain why people tend to be drawn to certain people, places, art and music.

I wrote previously about this and how these same ideas are what I tried to capture in the audio and lyrics for my vocal and acoustic guitar song “The World Will Break Apart” you can check out on my home page.

At the same time I have had a few requests for royalty free relaxation and meditation tracks that people can use for free as music for YouTube in their videos using the creative commons license. I have mainly been a vocal songwriting artist but now I am starting to enjoy creating songs that are more like peaceful soundscapes - its feels good for my spritual side and helps calm my mind! There seems to be allot of people in the world that enjoy listening to soothing music for reducing stress.

I have even been getting people asking for “brainwave relaxation” music. I had no idea what that even was, so I have looked into some products to recommend and I came across this wild site that specializes in binaural beats and isochronic tones CDs for brainwave relaxation. The 3d sounds are really rich and spacious and I have no idea how they do it.

“Autumn Boy” is a hypnotic ambient piece that has a mix of distant wailing guitar, various middle eastern and Hindi/Indian instruments and some haunting violin. It turned out to have what I would describe as a deep ancient sound. It also has some native American chanting samples.

Free Relaxation MP3 Music Download: AutumnBoy.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

“Ambershire” is a peaceful oriental instrumental MP3 with Japanese and Chinese flute that is very calming and great to chillout to while you listen. You could use this for meditating or in Youtube videos about buddhism, tibet, eastern philosophy and nature.

Free Asian Relaxation MP3: Ambershire.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

“Become the Heavens” is a uplifting classical track with a popular sound since it has some ambient electronic beats behind the strings.

Classical Music MP3: BecometheHeavens.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

“SilverShine” is new age style instrumental music with piano and guitar. It was written as relaxing healing sounds for therapy techniques like yoga, reiki and guided imagery meditation.

Free Relaxation MP3 Music Download: SilverShine.MP3 - CC Licensed - More

Just press the play icon to listen to of any of these songs streaming online, or right-click on the MP3 links to save the free downloads on your hard drive.

I have some ocean, rainforest and waterfall/stream nature tracks for helping with sleep and chlling out in the works. I’m looking forward to creating some natural songs for the DanoSongs.com podcast - so please check back for more!

Peace,

Dan-O