News

7 April 2022

The release of the newest Scorpions album Rock Believer has inspired me to pick up the guitar and write some new material, which has resulted in the framework for three new songs. One song was inspired by "Seventh Sun", another by "When You Know (Where You Come From)", and one more ballad from the song "SLY". There is something special about Scorpions songs which inspire me, and it is an immense joy that the band is still writing new material and touring, even a dozen years after they announced they were going to retire.

27 November 2020

Did a fast follow up with another new recording for the song Live Strong, Die Free. I'm not 100% happy with the amp tone of these new sound clips, but they do get the general idea recorded. This should be it for new recordings for 2020, hopefully there will be some new stuff next year! Earlier this year, I experimented with a demo of Logic X and did some preliminary recordings of "Nothing & Nameless" and an updated version of "Time to Change", but those will need to be rerecorded again since the demo expired months ago.

24 November 2020

In one of my rare fits of creating some new music, I (poorly) recorded rough tracks for two new untitled tracks that are intended for Skye Suite III: Sklave zur Maschine. Also working on a new verse part for "Live Strong, Die Free".

15 March 2019

I have recently been "properly" learning the Scorpions song When The Smoke Is Going Down which has inspired me to rework one of my earliest ballads "Nothing & Nameless". This song in itself was initially inspired by the songs "Send Me An Angel" (Scorpions) and "Nothing Else Matters" (Metallica) in the chord structures and picking patterns. However, the initial opening had some odd time signatures which toggled between 4/4 to 10/8 and back to 4/4. This recent reworking has a more consistent 4/4 time signature and adopts a little more of Rudolf Schenker's style from songs like "When The Smoke Is Going Down", "Born To Touch Your Feelings", and "Still Loving You". Now I just need to actually sit down and record some of the song...

16 December 2018

Today I finished the initial demo recording of a song I've been working on for the past year: Written In The Sand. This song will be the intro to Djinn's Prophecy in the style of the opening number of an Axel Rudi Pell song. This is one of the most complex songs I've recorded so far, using up to 14 separate tracks for the recording.

14 October 2018

While recording the song "Written In The Sand", the intro song to the second album, I went on a brief tangent and recorded a fun little rhythmic piece I've been playing with for years which resulted in the short atmospheric piece "The Apparition".

2 April 2018

A little further rearranging and housekeeping on the Albums page. Moved the song Cassini: The Final Voyage to the Cosmos & Chaos album and also removed the proposed covers of classical songs.

28 December 2017

Made a couple of updates to the list of songs in the discography. The first Skye Suite album has been renamed to Cosmos & Chaos (a potential name of the album was Zodiac), so a number of the song titles will have some form of stellar influence. The song Taken By Storm was moved back to the Sailing To The Sun album, since Prophecy now includes new intro and outro songs (Written In The Sand and Etched In Stone). The original intro Toll of Westminster has been moved to the beginning of the Oracle album.

7 July 2017

While travelling half way across the country, a new song idea came to mind, which should meld well with another idea I had already been playing with for years which was based off of Michael Montes' "Journey" and the solo to Metallica's "The Day That Never Comes", however the new ideas have a more epic feel with power chords and a symphonic accompaniment, which more closely resembles Therion's "The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah". This song (currently dubbed "The Transit of Venus") is now intended to be the opener for Skye Suite Vol. I.

28 December 2016

For years I've been using a 2007 iMac as my main machine for recording music, but I'm now upgrading my recording hardware to a 2015 iMac, which does not include a 1/8" audio input jack. This necessitated getting some new equipment to be able to record the guitar parts. Ended up getting a PreSonus Audiobox USB to deliver the sound and conversion from my guitar to the computer. First experiment with the current version of Garageband (v. 10.1.4) and this new setup was to record the song Gemini Cadenza: Pollux. This is a very rough one-time pass as the first full recording of this piece. An updated and much cleaner version of the song is in the works and will be released....some day.

15 November 2016

Added a fourth song to Skye Suite Vol. II which is mixture between Judas Priest's "Painkiller" and Hekz's "Exodus". Renamed the working title of "Neverkeep" to "A Hero's Quest" (which is more of an updated working title). The previously untitled Axel Rudi Pell-type epic is now titled "Cassini: The Final Voyage".

7 August 2016

Added three more songs to round out the second Skye Suite album. The past two years have focused on refining existing songs and writing a couple of new songs when the Muse pays a visit.

2 August 2014

The final pieces of the first new composition since 2011 are coming together. This new piece is called Gemini Cadenza: Pollux, which will be a companion piece to its older brother Gemini Cadenza: Castor. The interesting thing about this new composition is that it is built from various parts that have been written over the years. Some parts are quite new (less than a year old). Other parts were written in the first decade of the 21st century. There's even a riff or two which was written back in the 1990s. Currently I'm spending time practicing the piece and trying to fully flush out some of the bridges and new parts before recording will begin.

9 February 2013

While there was no reported news or recordings in 2012, there was some progress made with current songs. Inspired by Axel Rudi Pell's 2012 album Circle of the Oath, several songs have had modifications and additions. The song "Time to Change" has undergone the largest changes, with a new verse for rhythm guitar in the style of Scorpions' "Big City Nights", plus complete lyrics written for the song. The song "Ashes of the Phoenix" has had some additional acoustic parts written for the intro of the song. Let's see if 2013 will bring about these new recordings…

27 December 2011

Finished recording and released the new cadenza piece "Solyris", which was pieced together during the course of 2011.

Also gave an interm name of the "Untitled 2" song on the Oracle album. It has now been named "Neverkeep".

11 September 2011

My first electric guitar was an obligatory pawn-shop guitar, purchased for $50. It was a Montclair guitar I nicknamed "The Horned Beast". On the back, it says "STEEL REINFORCED NECK", "MADE IN JAPAN", and "model 3904". For years I never discovered much information, other than it might have been sold through the Montgomery Ward department store. Several years ago, I did finally stumble across a page with a picture of the Montclair Burns Copy guitar. After a little further investigation, I came across a blog entry which gives a couple other interesting details on this elusive guitar.

"This rather wild looking guitar with four pickups, a bank of selector switches, multi-pickguards, metal control and output panel, and original vibrato carries the Montclair brandname but is - apparently - a 1960s-era Ibanez 3904 made at the Hoshino/Tama factory in Japan."

An eBay listing by DeMont Guitars adds:

" Ibanez 3904 Montclair labeled Burns copy. What a huge single-piece Mahogany body! You will never see something like this made today. This item was made in the '60s at the Hoshino/Tama factory in Japan -- the only true Ibanez factory. Although these instruments are better known for their collect-ability than playability, this one has been totally gone over to be made a comfortable player. Though the intonation is not perfect, all pickups and electronics work with no issue. Few parts of the tuners have been replaced for function-ability. Action is at a comfortable height and plays up the octave+ with no fret buzz. Neck has been pitched for correct height. "

The DeMont site also has a little further information and several more photos of this guitar. Interesting. Since the model number of my Montclair guitar is a 3904, I think I finally have discovered the background to this rare guitar.

22 May 2011

Re-recorded the intro to the new song Devil In My Mind, which now has harmonized solo leads which come out much stronger in the song. While there is a strong Yngwie influence to this songer, after further reflection, I noticed how this riff also resembles the Scorpions song "Thunder & Lightning", as well.

The song Solyris has also been further flushed out and is closer to a more complete stage.

17 April 2011

At times, there will be a song drought that lasts for years. Occasionally, though, a muse will pass by to provide a spark for new ideas and inspiration. This April has birthed two new song snippets, "Devil In My Mind" and "Untitled Ballad". A third song, Solyris, is also partially completed.

1. January 2011

To start off the new year, a couple of songs have been added.

  • Eye of the Shadow - This song has been around for awhile, but it has just finally been recorded. The bass guitar and lead solo are brand new for the song. Turn up the bass on your speakers to get the fullest effect for this song.
  • Untitled 2 - Untitled song from the Oracle album, with Axel Rudi Pell and Yngwie elements.
  • 5 A.M. SAM - This one was originally written back in 1999, but this recording from 2004 was recently re-discovered. A number of other songs and sound bites were also stashed away with this song, perhaps they will also make an appearance eventually.

28. December 2010

The song "Trial By Fire" has been in a constant state of flux since its inception. The main driving riff has taken on at least three different forms, and various other parts have come, been rearranged, and left over the years. The original recording of the rhythm guitars were quite rough, but gave an idea of the shape of the song. A more updated version of the rhythm parts were recorded in Autumn 2010, but too many of the parts I could hear in my head were missing. Finally a bit of percussion and bass guitar have been added to this song to help flush out the song and put some meat on top of the skeleton.

6. March 2010

Found two old recordings for "Coma Down" and "The March & The Hatred" from 2001. Cleaned the songs up a bit to reduce some unwanted white noise. These are pretty rough recordings, but they are now available.

Today was also the most proliferous day (even more so than the third of February) of recording ever, with seven tracks recorded — Burning Bush, Dark Hand, He Who Is Left Behind, Loneliness, Power Trip, Taken By Storm, and Trial By Fire.

28. February 2010
Welcome to Anastassia Skye 5.0! Finished the redesign of the website, which was initially started in May 2009.
3. February 2010
Today was one of the most proliferous days of recording in a long, long time. Recorded parts for two songs (Suicide Is Painful and Remember), and also uploaded two other existing songs (Pedal Paraphrase and the Axel Rudi Pell influenced Ashes of the Phoenix for Oracle). All four of these songs are now available on the site. Also updated the Equipment page with the new Boss Metal Core pedal.
8. May 2009
Moved the Anastassia Skye website from Geocities to Edenwaith. Updated several pages, including the Albums, Bio, and Equipment pages to reflect the most current updates.
7. January 2009
Updated descriptions for several of the songs and renamed the Edenwaith Trilogy to the Skye Suite. Removed several dead links.
9. November 2008
Uploaded a new clip for the song "Time To Change". Updated links and info across the site.
22. August 2007
Finally found a picture of the elusive Montclair guitar and posted it on the equipment page.
9. January 2006
Won a Lauren acoustic guitar from the radio station Thunder 93.7, so I updated the equipment page.
25. August 2005
I have finally bought my new guitar — Lite Ash Fender Stratocaster
1. June 2005
Updated the Inspiration page for the first time in quite a long time. Also added a few new song titles and descriptions.
9. April 2005
Sold the Mach x1 Series Flying V today since I just don't play it much these days. Having a Flying V-type guitar (with 22 frets) was kind of cool, but I didn't really care for the way the guitar felt, especially how it was positioned when I played it. However, the proceeds from that guitar will hopefully go into purchasing my next guitar: a Lite Ash Fender Stratocaster.

Worked on writing and recording some material, especially the newly named song "Time to Change", the second song from the first album Sailing to the Sun. "Time to Change" has a very Scorpions-like edge to it. Right now as it stands, it sounds like a mixture between "Someone to Touch", "I Can't Explain", and "Big City Nights".
23. March 2005
The transformation to the new site is complete, with the addition of the last few pages (60 Minutes, Bio, Equipment, Inspiration).
2. January 2005
Made a few smaller updates to the new site. Archived the previous three versions of Anastassia Skye in a new folder, including the original version which used to be on an old server.
1. January 2005
The Anastassia Skye website went under the knife again, for its first major overhaul in nearly five years.
29. August 2004
The first two publicly available songs, Rondo Alla Paganini and Classical Opus #2 have been made available for download. These two songs are expected for the third Anastassia Skye album, Edenwaith: The Arrival.
7. January 2004
Yesterday, Apple released GarageBand, so this just might be the tool necessary to finally get some material recorded this year. Hopefully some rough demos will be put together and be made available. Also, some minor cosmetic changes were made to this site.
20. February 2003
Updated some songs and descriptions on the Albums page. There will be a drastic update to this site design in the coming months...once there is adequate time, that is. Also added links to the guestbook on the main page. It is all sad and lonely and stuff.
1. October 2001
Added a bit of new info on the Albums page.
8. July 2001
Updated the Albums page by adding the descriptions of about 20 songs which will appear on the first several Anastassia Skye albums. The first album, Sailing to the Sun is tenatively expected to be released in late 2002.
23. August 2000
Oh, no! I actually made an update! Sorry about that, I tried to keep the page static and non-changing, but I felt that it was time that some things change...okay, I added a new header bar, and will make some new pages for some of those which I accidentally deleted.
17. August 1999
Corrected a few links and added a few more and updated Charon's Inspiration section.
29. April 1999
Made a few more minor modifications to the site. No real new content yet, though.
20. March 1999
Minor improvements were made to the site.
19. February 1999
The site received a major facelift for the new year that has been overdue. To see what the old site looked like, go here.