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 |