ϕ: A New Album by Mike Vitale
News, information, music, and performance schedule for the Los Angeles, California singer, songwriter, and producer, Mike Vitale.
Empty Circle by Mike Vitale (that's me!), is now available for digital streaming on Apple Music. If you are an Apple Music user, go ahead and click here to give it a listen:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/empty-circle/1384636182
If you're not an Apple Music, go ahead and click it anyway. I have no idea what will happen. Let's find out!
Oh, why hello there. Good to have you here.
So, in tandem with my last post, I'm balancing my time a lot more efficiently.
I began using a spreadsheet yesterday to help keep track of how long I work on things. It's allowing me to do a whole bunch of different tasks all in one day—and, Presto:
Here is a mix I was working on this morning in my three hour window. It's for a song I wrote called Moon.
The first lines of the song came from a story that my friend told me.
He was visiting an animal sanctuary populated by former circus animals who were rescued once their tenure with the circus had ended. One animal in particular captured my interest and my sympathy. It was an elephant.
My friend Josh told me that the elephant would take three steps forward, and then three steps back, repeatedly, for an indefinite amount of time, which was very peculiar—so much so, that he asked the person who was giving them a tour of grounds, why the elephant was behaving that way.
The tour guide said that the elephant was chained to a pole for most of its young and adult life. The chain would allow for enough slack to take three steps forward, and then three steps back.
Three steps forward. Three steps back.
Three steps forward. Three steps back.
That was life for that elephant—an intelligent and beautiful creature.
While there are many elements to this song, this is one of them—and we all deserve to be free.
It is amazing how powerful a habit is.
However, outside of the context of this song, I had a lot of fun putting this together. My friend Tom Bremer played lead guitar. I sang and played rhythm guitar. I also mixed the song. I engineered this one myself too. For audio nerds (like me), it was recorded through a Universal Audio preAMP that I've never tried before called a Twin Finity 710. I used an AKG C414 on the lead guitar and used my AT4033 on the rhythm guitar. Vocals were through the AT4033 as well.
It probably sounds like amateur work, but I do the best I can—and I'm learning.
I hope this finds you all smiling and well and that perhaps you my find something to like in this tune. It has deep sentimental value to me and my life.
- Mike
Aside from all the full band material that I have been working on over the past few years, I am also nearing the completion of an acoustic album. I'd like to share one of the tracks with you. It's a song called EMPTY CIRCLE. I just posted a video of it today on my Youtube Channel.
It deals with the end of my last relationship. In hindsight, it was a good thing. However, at the time, I felt like a small child lost in the woods at night, walking in circles, trying to find his home.
EMPTY CIRCLE
words and music by Mike Vitale
I was a table
But now I'm a rug
It's raining outside
Your shoes are covered in mud
I was a Christmas Tree
But now it's past Christmas Day
I got tossed out
With the crumpled gift wrap you throw away
It was fun while it lasted
But now I'm left here feeling slanted
Walking in footsteps
Don't seem to be mine
A snowy path of prints
Through a forest of pine
Off in the distance
There's a vanity light
It shines through the window
Of my home at night
Wearing the same clothes I wore yesterday
Chill of snow numbs my pain
As this crooked line
Becomes and empty circle
I was opine
But now I'm non-verbal
I am a footnote
To your storied life
I'm all alone
You're someone else's wife
A tiny table
Place setting for one
The holiday supper
Has already begun
As a child lost in the woods at night
I search for a pathway towards the light
As this crooked line
Became and empty circle
I was opine
But now I'm non-verbal
