Category : Trip Note

The Making of Trip Note

The idea of a career retrospective started to take shape with the transfer of my 8 track tapes to Cubase in the fall of 2014.  By archiving and getting some of that stuff into my computer, I was able to discover some things I didn’t know I had, remix others and add to some.  As the next few years wore on, and with the start of my Podcast ‘Live From the inSync Asylum’, Trip Note: 1978-2018 started to come into focus.  So here we are 7 years later, and Trip Note is done and released.  It’s now  4 double albums featuring 66 songs and over 5 hours of music, nearly all of which have never been released before, or heard in the versions on the albums. 

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize that even I was in my prime at one time.  And in this collections 40-year-span, 1980-1995 was a particularly productive stretch, and largely unavailable until the release of Trip Note. 

I drew upon all the media I have access to –  half-inch and quarter-inch Reel-to-Reel tapes, Dat Tapes, Cassette Tapes, Old Mixes and backups on CD and Disc Drives.  The challenge was trying to find a reasonably consistent sound quality.  Anything that could be remixed, was. The original recordings were of all kinds of quality, including pretty bad quality! But as they say – it is was it is.  I know this collection is really for me – If I want to hear something old – it will now be easier to find and with a consistent high quality sound.  The first few years of my recordings were done using a pretty primitive setup.  I had a cassette deck, a mic, some cables and some kind of splitter box from Radio Shack.  I then started borrowing cassette decks from my friends, and bouncing tracks back and forth between them.  The noise builds up with that method, but I got some music out of it.  It would be years later before I actually had a reverb unit, but the earliest recordings use my old Fender Twin Reverb amp or an old Traynor PA mixer head for reverb.  I guess my original monitoring situation was my stereo at the time or headphones –don’t remember.  Not sure when direct recording started  – probably when I got a Tascam 4 Track and a Teac Mixer.  That later became an 8 Track Tascam 38, and an 18 channel Ramsa mixer. 

My use of computers and sequencers started in the early 90’s, when my friend and keyboard player Doug Ortega lent me an old IBM DOS machine to run early versions of Cakewalk. That led to SMTPE time code and syncing the PC to 8 track. I think it was 98/99 when I switched to Logic Audio and recording audio to disc for the first time. It’s been that way ever since…

Check out the Trip Note category, for my individual posts and comments on different songs and the four volumes, as well as recent podcasts. Also be sure to check out Trip Note in the store. Enjoy! 

Vol. 1		Musicians/	Written/	Recorded/	Album
1	Here 04:07	B	1979	1986	Live Craw
2	Reflect 03:52	A	1978	2000	Unreleased
3	Trip Note (Acoustic) 01:19	A	1979	1980	Consumer
4	Trip Note 02:09	B	1979	1986	Live Craw
5	All in the Cards 02:17	A	1979	1979	Consumer
6	Nothing to Lose 03:12	B	1979	1988	Drunk Man Live
7	Starring (Shaky Air) 06:06	A	1979	1995	Unreleased
8	Raped 07:54	A, D	1979	1980	Consumer
9	Nightmare 03:32	A, D	1978	1979	Consumer
10	Underground 05:06	A, D	1979	1980	Consumer
11	Beauty and Tension (Acoustic) 04:11	A	1980	1980	Consumer
12	Beauty and Tension 06:23	A	1980	1981	Metallic Scorn
13	Baby Blues 02:46	A	1980	1980	Consumer
14	Misty Gazes 04:56	A	1980	1980	Consumer
15	The Present 06:11	B	1981	1990	Unreleased
16	Crazy Wind (Live) 03:15	B	1982	1988	Drunk Man Live
17	Crazy Wind 04:40	A	1982	1982	Silent Tears
Vol. 2
1	You Told Me 02:59	B	1983	1986	Live Craw
2	Caught By Your Heartbeat 03:40	A	1983	1986	Vital Sines
3	Raindrops 05:59	A	1982	1986	Vital Sines
4	Your World And Mine 04:43	A	1983	1983	Abstract Attack
5	Make It To The Weekend 03:51	B	1983	1988	Drunk Man Live
6	The Emperor Has No Clothes 04:29	A	1983	1983	Abstract Attack
7	Heading Down 05:41	B	1984	1988	Drunk Man Live
8	Abstract Attack 05:33	B	1983	1986	Live Craw
9	Metallic Scorn 07:03	A	1981	1983	Acquiesce
10	Given Moment 05:40	A	1984	1984	Petty Tyrant
11	Life Forces 04:59	B	1982	1988	Drunk Man Live
12	Off the Wall 04:27	B	1983	1986	Live Craw
13	In Trouble 04:30	A	1983	1986	Holding Patterns
14	Just A Matter Of Time 04:26	A	1983	1983	Common Ground
15	Daddy’s Little Girl 04:36	A	1984	1987	Holding Patterns
16	I’m Still In Love With You 05:19	A	1984	2000	Unreleased
Vol. 3
1	Get Close 03:20	A	1985	1999	A Matter of Time
2	More Than Today 03:26	A, C	1985	1985	Inner Dialogues
3	Settled Down Too Young 07:26	A, C	1985	1985	Inner Dialogues
4	Loaded Question 05:23	A, C	1985	1985	Inner Dialogues
5	New Day 02:40	A, C	1985	1985	Inner Dialogues
6	Embrace the Night 03:22	A	1985	1985	Vital Sines
7	Down for the Count 03:30	A	1987	1987	No Poetry Allowed
8	When I Fall Apart 03:15	A	1987	1987	No Poetry Allowed
9	Civilized Man 04:52	A	1987	1987	No Poetry Allowed
10	Every Little Thing 04:41	A	1987	1987	No Poetry Allowed
11	Blend With the Night 05:22	A	1987	1987	No Poetry Allowed
12	Regard the Light 04:58	A,C	1988	1988	In a Blue Night
13	In a Blue Night 04:16	A,C	1988	1988	In a Blue Night
14	Wistful 02:23	A	1988	1988	In a Blue Night
15	I Talk to Jesus (Acoustic) 05:39	A	1988	2007	Unreleased
16	Far Away 05:41	A	1988	1989	Lost in Babylon
17	I Need You to Love Me (Acoustic) 04:56	A	1989	2007	Unreleased
18	Put Your Love in My Hands 04:14	A	1993	1993	Single
19	Phone Rap	A	1991	1991	Unreleased
Vol. 4
1	I Can’t Get Along Without Her 05:00	A	1993	2008	Unreleased
2	Whisper Falls 06:07	A, C	1993	2017	Unreleased
3	Blueasia – Out of My Mind – Liar 06:03	A, C	1993	1993	Unreleased
4	Sign of the Times (Acoustic) 05:19	A	1991	2007	Unreleased
5	Little Johnny (Acoustic) 05:34	A	1992	2007	Unreleased
6	Crying 07:26	A	1995	1995	Fighting Gravity
7	One Heartbeat at a Time 06:23	A	1998	1998	Fighting Gravity
8	In Trouble (2014)	A	1983	2014	Single
9	Middle of Nowhere ( Acoustic)	A	2015	2015	Unreleased
10	Living with Fiction (Stripped Mix	A	2015	2015	Unreleased
11	Hard to Let Go (Stripped Mix)	A	2014	2015	Unreleased
12	Teach My Heart (Stripped Mix)	A	2017	2018	Unreleased
13	When You Tell Me You Love Me (Stripped Mix) 05:34	A	2017	2018	Single
14	Itkumtwoez 04:32	A	1978	1978	Unreleased

Musicians
A	Paul Kitchen: Vocals, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Lap Steel, Bass, Keyboards, Drums, Percussion.
B	Paul Kitchen: Vocals, Electric Guitar, Keyboards, Drums, Percussion.
	Doug Ortega: Keyboards
	Scott Rishebarger: Drums
	Mark Rishebarger: Guitar
C	Doug Ortega: Keyboards
D	Scott Rishebarger: Drums