Nibiru (2011-2019)

...or ongoing???

-"Nibiru" is the name of the collaboration project between me, Mike X., Evan S., Luke N., and several others along the way, including Matt H. featured playing sax on one of our jams, and Nick P. who filled in for me for their July jam session. We started playing together in 2011, at a house party hosted by pretty much everybody who lived there other than me! Our jams were very improvised, usually based on chords somebody played or random keys and scales decided upon just before playing. Mike X. would follow along on drums and eventually create some excellent beats, always! All the 2013 and 2014 collaborations were recorded using a TASCAM hand recorder, therefore, audio quaility leaves much to be desired.

2013 Jams (2013)

-"2013 Jams" (2013, duh!) was when we finally coalesced as a project and vowed to keep at it as long as we could. This led to many more jams throughout the year and for years to come, with many contributors coming and going along the way. Classic Jam (C Minor) became a common theme, and one that led me to attempt to reproduce it many times over. Several other tracks were re-hashes of earlier projects or would become ones later. We also attempted a few covers, although, poorly many times. These jam sessions were ususally spur of the moment, would either occur with a weeks notice, an hours notice, or, maybe a month, if we were lucky! This style of jamming is what I strive for and is what took me down the deep rabbit hole of live session recording, which includes some pricey equipment to set up. All in an effort to capture the best moments with high quality recording equipment.

2Ms 1K (2014)

-Nibiru's "2Ms 1K" (2014) was the first session jam of 2014 and these were recorded over a Thanksgiving visit home. Mike R. joined in the fun to fill in for Evan on guitar, I played bass, and Mike X. hosted the event and played drums. Mike R. led many of these jams with various covers he learned, I (badly) tried to follow along on bass, and Mike X., in his usual form, played excellent drums. These were all recorded in a living room using a portable Tascam hand recorder, so quality is not the best but OK enough for what we were doing at the time.

Derelicte X-Mas Jam (2014)

-Nibiru's "Derelicte X-Mas Jam" (2014) was the second session jam of 2014 and these were recorded over a Christmas visit home. Evan S. played guitar for the first hours, joined later by Mike R. who also played guitar for the next hours, I played bass, and again Mike X. hosted the event and played drums. Unfortunately, Luke N., the original keyboardist for Nibiru fell ill with the flu and could not make it to this session. Sung C. therefore filled in on keys for some pieces early on. These were all recorded in a garage and again, using a portable Tascam hand recorder, so quality is not great especially due to the wide space we were playing in. These recordings started to get out of hand quickly, as Mike X. was also hosting a small party while we were recording. The session began to break down once random people started messing with the keyboard and drums. Despite the chaos, it was a lot of fun and is familiar territory for Nibiru as it goes back to our roots in the early jams we did in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

A Planet Where? (2017)

-Nibiru's "A Planet Where?" (2017) was a session jam of 2017 and these were recorded over a Christmas visit home. Evan S. played guitar and sang, I played bass and sang, and again Mike X. hosted the event and played drums. Unfortunately, Luke N., was again unable to join. Mal D. therefore filled in on keys. We planned to have a fifth member for this session to perform vocals for the covers and any other instruments, but they could not make it. We pressed on anyways, as is tradition. This session I rigged up some fancier recording equipment, rather than relying on a portable Tascam recorder. The drumset was mic'd up, routed through a mixing board, and a mono channel was patched to a Tascam USB audio interface with my laptop. Similarly, wireless mics were placed in front of my amp and Evan's amp, and a mono channel was routed from the wireless receiver to the other Tascam channel. Mal's keystrokes were captured via a MIDI converter. Everything was recorded via Ableton Live, where I later did some editing, mixing, re-recording, and finally producing some relatively high quality tracks, a Nibiru first! We did a few covers this go around as well as improv'd some songs in the same keys as our covers. This is where my live session recording techniques began to mature beyond using lower quality techniques like hand recorders.

T.O.G. (2019)

-Nibiru's "T.O.G." (2019) was a session jam of 2019 and these were recorded over a Christmas visit over at my house. For the first time with Nibiru, I played guitar; Mike X. returned to play drums, Mal D. returned to play keys. I also brought in Raf O. to play guitar and Amol D. to play bass, as I played with both of them and Mal D. throughout the year leading up to this session and we were able to get everyone to commit to this date. This session I set up my most ambitious recording rig yet, taking full advantage of the 8 audio inputs on a Scarlett 18i8. I recorded audio on two condenser mics, two vocal mics, and direct lines each from the keyboard audio and an electric drum set. Additionally, I recorded MIDI from the Mal's keyboard and one I setup to use here and there on some tracks, as well as a MIDI line from the electric drum set. The five of us all squeezed into my basement office for this, and it was very tight! We attempted a few covers, some of which have yet to see the light of day and I hope to get those out here soon. As is tradition, we also recorded a number of improvised pieces. This is by far the best live session recording I've produced to date and some of the best work I've heard playing with these musicians together. Something was in the air that night, or perhaps, some Truly Outrageous Gummies! Seriously though, I bought like a 5 lb bag of gummy bears and I'm pretty sure that bag was empty by the end of the night!

T.O.G. Outakes (2019)

-The "T.O.G. Outakes" (2019) are the remaining song recordings that I didn't really get around to sorting through and producing until 2024 while I was in this initial archiving step. There are a couple more covers mixed in along with some experimental player swaps and some additional outakes that weren't released during the first production sessions I did in 2020 a few weeks after the jam recordings were completed. These are rough, so listen at your own risk ;)

Meal Swipes (2015-2021)

-"Meal Swipes" is the session jam project started in 2015 with random jams with Adam L. Jose N., and Raf O. In 2019, Amol D., Mal D., and I started jamming regularly. Other contributors came along the way including Sung C., for one recording only; and Alex M., for one session only. The 2019 sessions all led up to a final jam with Nibiru for T.O.G. where Mike X. joined the Meal Swipes crew on drums.

Get Wrecked (2015)

-Meal Swipes' "Get Wrecked" is a June 2015 session recording with me and Adam L.

Afterburn (2015)

-Meal Swipes' "Afterburn" is a July 2015 session recording with me and Jose N.

RT-J0-0715 (2015)

-Meal Swipes' "RT-J0-0715" is a July 2015 session recording with me and Raf O.

March Jams (2019)

-"Meal Swipes" March Jams. In 2019, Amol D., Mal D., and I started jamming regularly, starting with these first experiments in March.

Tascam Safari (2019)

-Meal Swipes' "Tascam Safari" is an April 2019 session jam featuring Adam L. and Raf O. on guitars and where I predominantly played my new electric drum kit. We played these jams around a concert we went to that night.

Banana Jam (2019)

-Meal Swipes' "Banana Jam" is a July 2019 session jam featuring Mal D. on keys and guitars, Raf O. on guitars and where I predominantly played the electric drum kit.

Sung Jam (2019)

-Meal Swipes' "Sung Jam" is an August 2019 session recording featuring Sung C. on keys.

AT-PCJ-1119 (2019)

-Meal Swipes' "AT-PCJ-1119" is a November 2019 session recording with me and Amol D.

Taco Jam (2019)

-Meal Swipes' "Taco Jam" is a November 2019 session recording with Amol D., Mal D., Raf O., and me. This was our prejam leadup to the prestigious Nibiru T.O.G. jam. I upgraded my recording rig from a simple 2 input Tascam audio interface to a whopping 8 input interface. This is where the live recordings start maturing in quality even further!

RT-CT-0120 (2020)

-Meal Swipes' "RT-CT-0120" is a January 2020 session recording with me and Raf O.

RT-J1-0320 (2020)

-Meal Swipes' "RT-J1-0320" is a March 2020 session recording with me and Raf O.

RT-J1-0320 (2020)

-Meal Swipes' "AT-J1-0521" is a May 2021 session recording with me and Amol D.

AMK (2021)

-Meal Swipes' "AMK" is a November 2021 session recording with Alex M., Mal D., and me.

RT-J2-1221 (2021)

-Meal Swipes' "RT-J2-1221" is a December 2021 session recording with me and Raf O.

AT-J2-1221 (2021)

-Meal Swipes' "AT-J2-1221" is a December 2021 session recording with me and Amol D.