Superman: Musically Speaking

Superman was created in 2000 and is the song that let me know I can create a musical style of my own and gave me the confidence to steamroll ahead.  Superman is where I belong & am most comfortable, this is Fantazzmo. 

The Anima/Idle brothers Kinski & Rodax (now Monte Negro), Billy Panther & I parted ways in mid 1999.  By late January early February 2000,  I started jamming with my childhood friends and brothers Rob & Fern Ochoa.  We were jamming in Fern's living room in Long Beach, CA & according to my memory, Fern started playing an uptempo funky drum beat and a few min later Superman was born!

We did some shows here and there under the name "Crisis" (horrible name, my bad!) and in Spring of 2001, Fern relocated to the San Francisco/Oakland area.  Luckily we had the foresight to record a demo days before he relocated.  We recorded 13 songs, two of which are the monsters that bookend Fantazzmo 1:  Enter the Fantazz, "Superman" & "Fear in Me."

Low on dough, we tracked the band live.  We had a little help from our friends though.  My good friend and former bandmate "Big Bad" Billy Panther came in and did some percussion with congas; he brought his childhood friend & renewed bandmate Oscar Mercado aka: Oski Vengeane (they formed Balistik) in for some backup vox and we were set. Sonically speaking, the audio was poor but the vibe and essence were captured.

Fast forward to December 11, 2009.  Pre-production for Fantazzmo 1:  Enter the Fantazz at Tone Def Studio in Los Angeles, CA.   Tone and I go through
 the songs and arrangements & make a few edits to Superman, leaving out some Robert Plant style moans and an extra chorus, bridge and outro section.

December 17,   2009.  Drum session at Stagg st. Studio.  The drum tech shows up, sets up the kit, Tone and he go through the whole soundcheck, miking etc with the help of the in house extra hand.  A few hrs later, Randy Cooke shows up, walks in, has a few laughs, says Superman, grabs his sticks and NAILED, I mean NAILED IT!!!  SENT THAT WHORE HOME IN A TAXI!!!

The rest of the session was exactly the same.  I was in awe, I've never seen such musicianship.  We spent more time eating lunch than Randy took to track 7 songs.  ( The second batch were recorded in June 2010.)

That drum session set the tone for the entire album.  We had smooth sailing right from the start.  When I first entered Stagg St., my producer Tone was already ecstatic at the great sound of the drums & the room while Randy's tech (Dusty) was soundchecking.  He let me know that this was one of the easiest & fastest times he's gotten such a great drum sound.

We intentionally kept the drums loud during the mix and throughout the record.  I let Tone know that I wanted that big Led Zeppelin drum feel throughout and he totally agreed and we ran with it!

When it came time to track guitars, Superman came first.  We achieved a great big guitar sound and ran with it!  We used "Big Blue," Tone's PRS guitar,  (I purchased it from Tone in Aug 2010), my Marshall JCM 2000, going through a Tone Tubby with Blue Alnico Speakers.  ( Which belong to Tone).  Tracking the guitar was effortless, I had the same parts for the last decade!  Nothing was changed.

When it came time track the bass, Rodax put the perfect feel on the bass line and bam!  We got ourselves a jam! 

We actually did the Superman vocals last in the first 6 week recording session.  Aside from "She Really Likes It,"  this was the easiest to record vox for.

Tone did an amazing job and his production kept a great live feel throughout the album.

"Baby I'm your Superman!"