Scroll down to the last paragraph to see and hear the video of Damn Wicked covering KISS
KISS with their 1975 look
Ok, so I finally posted one of my KISS covers in a youtube video. I had planned to corral my brothers, the drummer and bassist for my band Damn Wicked, to record some old KISS songs in my home recording studio but we couldn’t find enough time to complete the project within reason. So instead I shot together a video of one of the KISS covers that I recorded by myself back in 2013. I did “C’mon And Love Me” from KISS’ 1975 album “Dressed To Kill”. It was recorded about 2 years ago in my decrepit dungeon studio, on my Akai DPS24 and mastered on my Korg D3200 standalone recording machine.
KISS Covers are fun work!
Any musician who’s spent a respectable amount of time recording, knows how much energy and effort goes into putting this stuff together. But I gotta say that doing KISS covers or ANY covers is a lot of fun and much easier than doing original music. Mostly because the song is already written for you, you don’t have to come up with vocal melodies, harmonies, arrangements, lyrics, bass lines, guitar riffs, solos, drum grooves and drum fills. It’s already created for you! That’s great news for a lazy-ass like me. 🙂 Don’t get me wrong though, it’s still a ton of work. Even more so for just one guy having to learn and play all the instruments. I’m looking forward to doing more KISS covers, Sabbath covers, RUSH, AC/DC, Van Halen and Zeppelin covers with the help of my band Damn Wicked!
KISS in their early days
For quite a few years, I’ve been keeping a record of all the hours I spend recording. I always have a nice big calender in the “dungeon that I like to call my home studio” and I always write down the specific musical activities and hours that I spend recording and mixing there. So I thought I’d take out my 2013 calender to see how much time I spent recording “C’mon And Love Me”……………
So, How Long Do KISS Covers Take???
According to my calender it took 24 hours! That doesn’t include the time it took to figure out the drum parts. That took some extra time to get right. As far as the rest of the song is concerned, I was already completely familiar with the lyrics, all of the rhythm guitar, the vocal melody and harmonies. The bass line follows the guitar line throughout the verse so that was pretty straight forward. The bass separates itself from the guitar in the chorus but I’m very familiar with most of the old KISS bass lines, including this one, so it wasn’t any problem.
Inside the Damn Wicked dungeon studio
Of course you have to consider setting recording levels and getting a relatively good capture with your mic technique, etc.etc. Then there’s mixing and very often, automation…… This is how a 3 minute song turns into 24 hours of work! It’s exciting, laborious and often frustrating but it’s really rewarding when it’s all finished and you finally have the song pumping outta your speakers!
Here’s KISS covered by Damn Wicked
Me and my Damn Wicked bros want to know which bands and/or songs you’d like to hear us cover. Tell us what you’d like to hear! Let us know in the comment section below. We can do more KISS covers if you like, or would you prefer hearing a RUSH, Van Halen, AC/DC, Metallica, G’N’R, or even a heavy metalized Katie Perry cover? Hey, we’re Damn Wicked……, anything goes!
Brent Johnston
Damn Wicked
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