Dead Chicken Studios
Last Update: June 21, 2004
Welcome to our little project studio! Here you will find some of our
works and works-in-progress, in streaming and downloadable mp3 form.
Please don't be too disappointed if some of the chicken is half-baked!
(If your browser doesn't want to play these sound files, try visiting
Real Networks and downloading their
RealPlayer. It's free, and it can play all the clips on this page.)
To Love You More
April and I decided to go all out with this remake of Celine Dion's
hit, To Love You More. We emerged from the studio
bloodied, but unbowed. This is technically a rough mix, but at this
point we're being pretty fussy!
To Love You More:
streaming
download
To appreciate just how incredibly clean April's singing is, try this
lead vocal excerpt with all other tracks muted. Most singers cannot
stand up to this type of scrutiny.
April's Raw Vocal:
streaming
download
You can hear more of April's singing on April's
Vocal Demo Page.
Hard To Take You Down
This is a project we've had to put on hold because we're not very good
lyricists. We feel the music is really interesting and would love to
finish the song someday.
If you'd like to help us out, we recommend that you first listen to
the instrumental demo, then to the version with rough vocals, and only
then read our thoughts about the song and what we think it needs.
Hard To Take You Down (instrumental):
streaming
download
Hard To Take You Down (rough vocal):
streaming
download
Click to read our thoughts about the
song.
Solitary Stride
In 1995-1996, we produced a full-length album for Ross
Rademacher, a gifted singer/songwriter/guitarist. You can
listen to the whole album for free on the page listed here.
Click here for Ross Rademacher - Solitary
Stride
Dream Songs
Not infrequently, I wake up with a musical idea in my head. Sometimes
it's lame or obvious, and sometimes it just isn't interesting enough
to try to remember. Here are a couple that grabbed me enough that I
decided to record them. I call these 'songlets' because they aren't
complete songs. I recorded only as much as I dreamed, and the purpose
of the recording was mostly archival. Still, these can be fun to
share.
- Raining In My Heart
streaming
download
Hey, don't ask me. Actually I made up the words while awake, and it
shows. I am not a lyricist!
- Carry Under
streaming
download
This one made me cry the first 50 times I played it. In the dream, my
four year old child was lying on top of me, completely at peace,
singing this little tune. The words didn't exactly make sense because
they were created by a child. I sure wish John Denver could sing it.
Santiagos Radio Spot
To reward you for reading this far, here's a silly
Macarena spoof we did as a commercial for our favorite
local taco place.
Santiago's commercial:
streaming
download
Dead Chicken Personnel
Dead Chicken Studios is a little project studio occupying
half a room in the home of David and April
Thomas. April sings and is getting pretty good at mixing. David
does whatever else is necessary to put it all together. Some days,
it's altogether too much. Don't get me started on the accordion...
Dead Chicken Equipment
In case you're curious, here is what we masochistic minimalists use to
make the music on this page.
- Fostex 16-track hard disk recorder
- Spirit 328 digital board
- Audio Technica AT4033 microphone
- Alesis D4 drum machine
- Homebrew vocal compressor
- Ensoniq SD-1 keyboard
- Chandler bass guitar
- Ibanez electric guitar
- Some kinda old german violin
- A rubber chicken (we wave this at the Ensoniq to try to get it to
work right)
David B. Thomas (dt@dt.prohosting.com)