Soft Charisma

New to Soft Charisma? Don’t know what you might be interested in hearing? This Review should help!

wpengine — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:13:00 +0000

A month ago I was contacted by a guy in Alaska (of all places, not so much sun-light!) who needed some light in his life. He found that in the form of purchasing all three of my currently available albums:

Now I don’t actually think I brought him a lifetime full of light, but from his review, he seemed very inspired by what I’ve done with the Baritone Ukulele. From talking with him, he’s also a poet / musician / song writer. I’ve decided to cover one or two of his songs in the upcoming Breakfast With Friends album due out in late 2009.

ANYWAY, check out his review of the three albums that I mailed him last month. I really feel this is dead-on, but I simply must learn to make julianne fries. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction of his review.

From “Soft Charisma” by D’Mo:

The title of this post refers to an indie folk musical artist I’ve recently discovered and become quite a fan of. He plays baritone ukulele, sings and he can make julianne fries! Okay, that last one was a joke, but I’m going to review 3 of this artists albums in hoping that you, my loyal, non-existent readers may enjoy his music as well.

In other news..

I’m still recording Breakfast With Friends and am not sure when it will exactly be out. As of right now, it *could* be out late 2009. I hope not, because I like summertime release shows better! I need to reorganize the track list so it makes sense, right now it’s just a list that I’ve been adding to for my own reference. I should also figure out a good stopping point to stop adding to it!

More Inventory Available

wpengine — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:53:00 +0000

Just wanted to drop by and say that there are now more available of the following albums for your tangible enjoyment:

From There to Here: Chapter 1 – Musical Beginnings

wpengine — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:04:00 +0000

From There to Here: A Brief History of Soft Charisma
(as recalled by Scott Kingsley Clark)

Most of my life, I begged my mother for a drumset. I used any tabletop, desk, and wall that I could get a hold of to reap my havoc through. It all started when I moved to Phoenix with my mom and brother.

We moved to Phoenix, AZ in 1994 during “Winter Break” as they called it in Phoenix and “Christmas Break” as I remember from Carrollton, TX where we lived from the time of my birth. My fond memories of the move include getting to honk a trunk horn all on my own and building a humongous box fort with all the boxes (big, small, large and tall!) from the move — But let’s get to the music!

It was 3rd grade, I was 9 years old, and my brother went into the orchestra program for violin. I had piano lessons for a few years off and on before the move, so I had a faint background in music already. It was time for me to answer the question of whether or not I wanted to play in the orchestra or band. Those horns seemed so loud and fun, I couldn’t resist. I joined up in 4th grade on the Trumpet. I spent about a year and a half on the Trumpet and I was really getting the hang of it. Then allergies and mild asthma set in. It became difficult to play the Trumpet, so I switched to Percussion. The band director (and computer teacher at the time), Steve Edman, recommended that my studies focus on mallet percussion since I had a beginning understanding of piano theory. I was pretty much in mallet percussion from 5th grade onto 10th grade.

After 7th grade, we moved again. This time it was Euless, TX that we called home. I joined up with the Euless Junior High School percussion department and began rudimentary studies of the snare drum.

From there, we moved to Irving, TX and I started high school. At MacArthur High School, I was in the band program for 2 years, while I and everyone else could easily say it was for a year and 1/4. On paper, it was 2 years because of the weird scheduling system we were on at the time.

During High School is when I began to study the drumset. Although my first class performance was enough to make it so I wouldn’t play the drumset ever again in class, I managed to finally convince my mom to get a drumset for me to play at home. I played that drumset every day for hours. It was originally in my room, but after a while we moved it to the garage.

Now I was no Buddy Rich, but I was beginning to make some sense of the mystery behind all the different parts of the drumset. I joined up with other musicians in Irving just fooling around with sounds and songs. I started my first album which was me REALLY fooling around on the drumset and singing on-top of it using a 4-track Tascam tape recorder. I’m very protective of that album and as I find that people still own it I gradually steal them from existence.

Eventually, fellow Irving musician Andrew Savage decided to give me a shot with his band The Skankaholix. At the same time a bunch of us from the Drama department decided to make up a story band called The Spuds. We were apparently the direct decendants of Irish potato farmers who were the original punk rockers. You can hear a couple of the songs that still survive from both of them that I’ve found (MP3s/CDs are lost or broken over the years).

After The Skankaholix played the Irving scene for a while, our musical tastes changed and we formed the Five Pointers. At the end of High School, I was off to the University of North Texas. When we all graduated, we drifted out of Irving and the band disbanded after being inactive for a few months. Andrew later formed Teenage Cool Kids in Denton. I joined up with Obsession With Depression which eventually changed it’s name to The Affected around 2005/2006. The band was headed by Travis Jones and disbanded to form Analog Eyes which I bowed out from to focus on my solo music. Travis Jones later went on to form the band ‘A’ with his fiancee, April.

My time at the University of North Texas was to be ground zero of the next chapter of my music.

New Studio Setup, First New Song from Breakfast With Friends and other stats

wpengine — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:56:00 +0000

First, I want to really thank everyone’s response to the Life Inside The Robot Man release! Over 200 torrent downloads to-date, and I’ve been cleaned out of all 50 CDs that I had manufactured. Still countless other streams and downloads across the web contribute to an overwhelming appreciation that I have for everyone who has made this possible including:

Ryan Ragus: The primary sound engineer for Life Inside The Robot Man
Baron Gomez: Helped get Life Inside The Robot Man off the ground by contributing his sound engineering skills at the start of the album’s production
Justin Bonnet: Designed the Life Inside The Robot Man CD artwork
Justin Houston: Recorded the very first High Fidelity tracks in Soft Charisma’s entire history
Daniel Candiotta: Provided his USB microphone to help keep Soft Charisma’s music sounding as good as it could until the new Studio Setup was complete
Andrew Savage: Sold me my first 4-track recording setup in or around 2002, which provided me a means to begin perfecting my sound and style

New Cover from Breakfast With Friends Available

With that said, the next few albums should have a great new sound that I’ve been developing. The first track I recorded just a day after my new Studio Setup arrived, is a cover of Over At The Frankenstein Place from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. You can hear it on the new T61 Soft Charisma profile located at www.thesixtyone.com/softcharisma. T61 (The Sixty One) is a new beta music discovery service that allows you to actively participate in finding new music and sharing it with other people. There has been a great response to what has been uploaded to the profile so far, and I’m definitely looking forward to the many great things to come to T61.

New Studio Setup

The new Studio Setup is complete and here’s the breakdown of the operation:

Pro Tools LE v7.4
digidesign m-box 2
Shure KSM27 Studio Condenser Microphone

Now this is a huge upgrade from a USB dynamic microphone! This setup was modeled after the setup that Ryan Ragus would bring over for late night recording binges to finish up Life Inside The Robot Man. So now I am free to record on my own schedule — AND in my birthday suit I have to add! Okay so maybe the birthday suit thing might be a bit unnecessary, but being able to experiment on my own time makes things a lot easier and I don’t feel as bad

CD Release – Life Inside The Robot Man

wpengine — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:48:00 +0000

The release was a big success — on a small scale of course.

Release Stats:

CDs: 46+
Downloads (torrent): 75+
Release Show Attendees: 45~ (estimated)

That’s pretty good for a relatively unknown Soft Charisma. So if you haven’t already gotten the CD and you’re a digital kind of person, Soft Charisma endorses torrents of it’s released albums. The last three are available for full download from The Pirate Bay and Demonoid.

Also, be on the lookout for the next album as it pieces together. Chocked full of covers, Breakfast With Friends will be a treat for anyone sharing a similar taste for music with Soft Charisma. Rough drafts of songs will start popping up as soon as I get enough money saved up for a condenser microphone.

Wicked Little Town – Video

wpengine — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Just uploaded a video produced / recorded by Ian McKenyon. This one is my interpretation of the song Wicked Little Town from Hedwig and the Angry Inch (specifically the scene in the movie where Hedwig is playing at the small donut shop). I’d really like to have John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask listen to this at least once, and I’ll be happy. So, here’s hoping that John/Stephen searches YouTube for Fan Covers from Hedwig.

Check the video out!

New Songs: Non-Gluten Cookies and Nude (Radiohead Remix)

wpengine — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:12:00 +0000

I thought I’d be the late bloomer and create a Nude remix after the contest had closed. I will release the remix in drafts, each one replacing various chunks of the song with Ukulele. Draft 1 has one track of Ukulele minus the drums.

Also, I recorded a eclectic piece that was inspired by the smell of Non-Gluten Cookies being prepared and baked.

New Album, and Quick Question

wpengine — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:56:00 +0000

I’ve got the hammer nailed to the top of Life Inside the Robot Man, but now that leaves new songs and other previously unreleased material left out. I thought they should feel more at home in a new album, aptly titled Apples Audited After Allotment Allocated.

However, I’ve got a quick survey for you which you can simply send your answer in through the contact page or leave a comment directly onto this post (if you have a Google account).

My question is, how do you keep up to date with Soft Charisma?

A: Through RSS / Atom XML Feeds
B: Checking the website
C: Word of mouth

My main question is, how many people utilize the RSS feature? It’s very useful in my opinion and means I don’t have to go to websites I wish to keep updated about. I already subscribe to a few of my friend’s blogs. Well, answer away, and I’ll be working on adding more lyrics onto the site!

CD Release Show – Life Inside The Robot Man

wpengine — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:20:00 +0000

Soft Charisma has just scheduled the CD Release Show for Life Inside The Robot Man. The plan is to release the Album online in July, and on August 2nd have the CD Release Show at the Art Six Coffee House in Denton, TX. Most up-to-date show information is on the Shows page. Information about the album itself is on the Life Inside The Robot Man album information page.

Torrents Online – Full Downloads Now Available for Albums

wpengine — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:50:00 +0000

You can now download full official Soft Charisma albums from The Pirate Bay. So far, only The Lo-Fi Adventures and Livin’ In The Project are available for download.