Today I’m releasing the newest Paper Plane Pilot single, This Afternoon (download / lyrics). The song marks the first time I’ve played guitar on a release along with my usual drums, keyboards and vocals.

This Afternoon was written and recorded in the months directly following the Sunday Morning Train release late last year.

Joining me again on this release in Eugenio Iglesias on bass guitar. The track also introduces Bryarly Bishop on vocals, providing a beautiful complement to my vocals in the choruses. Thanks to the both of you!

Here are the full release notes:

Dustin Frelich – Vocals, Keyboards, Guitars, Drums
Eugenio Iglesias – Bass Guitar
Bryarly Bishop – Vocals

Written, recorded, produced and mixed by Dustin Frelich.
Mastered by Paul Abbott at Zen Mastering.

Cover design by Eugenio Iglesias.
Photo by Eugenio Iglesias.

Thanks for listening!

This week I’m happy to announce the release of Paper Plane Pilot’s newest single, Sunday Morning Train.

I owe a big thanks to both Eugenio Iglesias and Jean Sunwoo for contributing to the song. An additional kudos goes out to Eugenio for shooting and designing a cover that just absolutely rocks!

Here are the full credits:

Dustin Frelich – Vocals, Keyboards, Drums
Eugenio Iglesias – Bass Lead
Jean Sunwoo – Vocals

Written, recorded, produced and mixed by Dustin Frelich.
Mastered by Paul Abbott at Zen Mastering.

Cover design by Eugenio Iglesias.
Photo by Eugenio Iglesias.

You can listen to and pick up a free download here, and read the lyrics here.

Enjoy!

I’m proud to announce that the video for Tell Me will be showcased in an exhibit at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany. The exhibit is called Moving Types and runs from October 21 through April 22 of 2012.

Here’s a copy of the brochure they sent me.

As You Let Me Go was co-written by Paul Welch of FMera and features myself on vocals and keyboards; Paul on vocals, guitars and keyboards; and Eddie Del Canto on drums. The song is also the first time I’ve officially collaborated with others on a Paper Plane Pilot track and will be followed by other collaborations as the experience was nothing short of amazing.

The cover artwork was designed by Eugenio Iglesias.

All in all, I’m super happy with the release. A big thanks to everyone involved — you rock!

The remix is quite a departure from the original track, but I really like how it came together.

In other news, I’m currently working on a new track called Sunday Morning Train. The new song will mark the first time that I’ve worked with another singer for background vocals, and the ideas we’ve been tossing back and forth have been sounding great. I’m shooting for an August release.

I’ve also been working with Paul Welch from FMera on another new track that’ll be bringing in some guitars and other good stuff. No schedule yet but it should be out sometime in 2011.

Fun fact number A (or letter 1, if you prefer): Did you know that only sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France can legitimately be called champagne? The California wineries get around this by calling it California Champagne, but they’re not fooling anyone.

Anyway…

The new release is a slight departure from my last two songs and is a slower, more mellow track. It also picks up about a minute in. But enough with trying to describe what it sounds like — you can listen to it here, download it here and sing along here.

That’s it! Enjoy!

Ok, so they’re all alter-egos. And they wear the same thing. At the same time. And they all put their name tags on their ties. Whatever. But they helped me craft the latest Paper Plane Pilot song, “I’ll Be.” It’s another 80s-inspired synth-fest, and it’s totally rad and awesome! And there’s lots of names in it — double awesome!

About the release:

I’ll Be was recorded, produced and mixed by Paper Plane Pilot in San Diego,
California and mastered by Paul Abbott at Zen Mastering in San Diego,
California.

Cover concept by Eugenio Iglesias and Paper Plane Pilot.

Photo by Eugenio Iglesias.

But enough with that stuff. Listen to the song here. Download it or buy it here. And sing along with the lyrics here.

I’ll be.. outta here!

This video is available on YouTube and Vimeo.

The concept for the video was actually pretty simple: Do a lyric video sort of like Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues, but with every word from Tell Me, and in fast motion.

So I exported a version of Tell Me slowed down 50% (yes, it sounded like weird ambient grunge sung by the Devil) and did a few takes over the next week and a half. Each take was shot with the idea of making it all the way through the song in one go, and only the cards and the singing parts are a mix of more than one actual take (two for each).

For the cards I wrote out all 500-or-so words from the song and arranged them in stacks. I’d pick up each stack as the part came on and flick the cards off screen into what became a huge pile on the table. In the first take I made it halfway through the first verse before dropping a stack. It took me 15 mins to arrange the cards back in order, so I knew that I only had one real take to get it right. It’s funny, all the cards are still sitting in a huge mess inside a grocery bag from after the next take.

For the iPad part I wrote each line of Tell Me directly on the screen and then exported them out as images to flick through in the picture viewer. The toughest part of this shot was actually holding the iPad by the edges without (1) dropping it, (2) zooming in or (3) missing a line change. I never dropped it, but the other two happened a lot. I set up a mirror so I could see what I was doing (and still had to look at the iPad screen from time to time). I think I did five takes before I got a keeper.

The computer screen was probably the easiest of the four shots. I set the camera up in front of a monitor and typed each word as the song played back at 50%. At the end of each line I selected all the text and kept going, erasing the previous line with the new. It wasn’t perfect, but I kept the first take for the final video.

The last shots were singing takes — or “mouthing” takes, Milli Vanilli-style. I actually did a few different ones here — one without a mic, one with a mic on a stand and the two takes you see in the final video (one moving more and one moving less). Nothing else to mention here except that singing and moving around to a song playing at 50% is a lot harder than you would think.

One additional shot that never made it to the final video was a sped-up drawing of The Allegory of the Cave. I liked it, but it didn’t really fit in with all the other lyric-oriented stuff. I’m a lousy drawer (like a piece of furniture?), too, so it’s probably for the best.

That’s pretty much it. Hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did making it.

Ok, for those of you not a fan of hyperbole, here’s the skinny. I’ve got a new track out. It’s 80s-inspired. You know, big drums kind of 80s-inspired. And synth horns. Here’s the cover:

The song runs 5:24 and was inspired by Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” which has nothing to do with the 80s.

From the notes:

Tell Me was inspired in part by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

Tell Me was recorded, produced and mixed by Paper Plane Pilot in San Diego,
California and mastered by Paul Abbott at Zen Mastering in San Diego,
California.

Cover concept by Eugenio Iglesias and Paper Plane Pilot.

Photo by Eugenio Iglesias.

You can hear the song here, check out the lyrics here, and download it here for whatever price you want. You can also pick it up on iTunes and Amazon.

Enjoy!

Shame on me. I’ve had this blog for over a year and I’ve never shared any pictures of the studio. So when Joel from Keats’ Handwriting bugged me for a recent shot, I said, “Hey, this should go on the blog!”

What you see here is a view of the main desk in my studio. There’s a lot of stuff you can’t see (including a bunch of rack gear, drums and mics), but what you can see includes 3 sets of monitors (the speaker kind, not computer monitors), a sub, two headphones, a headphone amp, two compressors, a patchbay, a synth line mixer, 5 synths, a stereo preamp, a midi fader and a few other assorted items that you probably can’t make out (like the pirate Lego guy next to the right channel monitors).

That’s a lot of stuff I just glossed over, but I’ll take pictures of all this stuff for future posts, including everything you can’t see here. Hopefully it doesn’t take me another year to do it.

In other news, the new Paper Plane Pilot single, Tell Me, is back from mastering and will be released once the artwork is completed. I’ve also got a video concept in the works so I’ll get to finally fill that empty video page that’s been sitting on this site for far too long. These things take time…

- D