CitizenMofo

Description : Out of the 55 songs I recorded with Sunny War from December to May, well, they're all my favorites, frankly, but this is one of my favorite favorites. For some reason, the melody or the words of the chorus, don't know which, affect me deeply. I remember writing it in my head walking the streets of San Francisco weeping behind my black shades. Yeah I'm a fool like that. When I started working with Sunny, I finished the song and wrote the verse around her. That happened a lot in the songs I wrote during the Sunny Sessions - a melding of both our experience - as we learned more about each other over time. I had some more orchestration going in but trimmed it back and just let the guitar sing on top of the drum loop, she did such beautiful guitar work it makes me smile every time I hear it, smile with tears in my eyes. I really hope you like this one.

Description : Written & produced by moi, vocals & guitar by Sunny War. This is on our protest album, BURNING. One of the 55 songs we completed in the Sunny Sessions. You can check them all out at thesunnysessions.com which I just created this week. Made a video of this song on youtube, please check it out here: https://youtu.be/vTXDOYVJMO0

Description : This song is for my daughters. I wrote it about 10 years ago when I was living in Florida and they in LA. Now I'm living in LA near those two daughters but my youngest is teaching in South Korea. No matter where I am, or where they are, I think about them every day, throughout the day, imagine what they're doing, having conversations with them, cracking a few jokes, and that's really what this song is about. Finally after 10 years, I got an opportunity to record it right, with the great Sunny War. It's part of our album called RISING. (In one app I play it on there's a glitch at the start, but only in that app. I haven't been able to find what's causing it. I hope you don't hear it.)

Description : Hip-hop(?) meets blues guitar. Written and produced by Citizen Mofo, vocals and guitar by Sunny War. The Sunny Sessions Vol. 1 produced 3 albums, this song's on LONE. We're working on 2 more albums in the Sunny Sessions Vol. 2. Over 50 songs total in 5 months. Will be done in a couple weeks. Haven't posted anything anywhere except here. Comments very welcome!

Description : Recorded this about a week ago when I was in the midst of a move, ugh. But this made my week. Sunny War on vocals and guitar. Simiple simple simple orchestration. A few loops strung along and then just Sunny's pure songstress magic and truly beautiful guitar playing - the bridge is...well, it just is. The gossamer guitar-strung thoughts of Sunny War floating in the clear blue air. You gotta hear it.

Description : Another apocalyptic epic. Ho hum. This sat there a couple months before we recorded it - with Sunny War on vocals and guitar - because we've already done several apocalyptic epics, in, appropriately, our album APOCALYPSE. But I'm really glad we finally got it done. This will be the 10th and final song on our album called TRIBEZ. I think. Subject to second-guessing. Anyway... I put extra time into the loop orchestration and the lyrics before we recorded, and then Sunny deftly wove her guitar ministrations into the existing music. When I listened to it at home afterwards, over and over until 2 a.m., I was ecstatic. And obsessed. You can just listen to her guitar work forever, it's that good (to me anyway; I hope you agree). There are too many loops in the mix to name them all, but thanks once again to looperman for a song that otherwise wouldn't exist. This is the first draft so I'm sure it could be improved. Please let us know what you think. Thanks.

Description : This song made its own path, inspired by the loop groove I was building, and I just went along for the ride with its weird structure. Vocals and guitar by Sunny War, will be on our album TRIBEZ. Sunny plays the guitar but the licks were inspired by the guitar loops we replaced from the scratch build, in many cases she played the same note pattern but with a different timbre. Thanks to MrFunktastic for the opening riff, and to the great Danke for the 2nd guitar riff that comes in later. Thanks to zipbass for the funky guitar in the break - that ain't Sunny - and another thanks to MrFunktastic for the big band break. There are other loops in the mix with Sunny, thank you all - another song that would not exist without looperman. Please let me know your thoughts on this one.

Description : This song started out as a guitar and piano loop instrumental where I was experimenting with themes and variations. Then it called forth lyrics and I wrote the song and recorded the vocals with Sunny War over the instrumental. But the music clouded the purity of the vocals and so we stripped it all away and Sunny just played guitar. I think her vocals sound particularly beautiful and vulnerable in this piece, and her guitar work as always just seems perfect to me. Very interested in your thoughts on the stripped-down approach to the music and the sentiments expressed in the song. Thank you.

Description : Jail ain't fun but writing songs about it is. I recently watched a movie on Netflix - "Imperial Dreams," I believe it was called - a great film about the odds stacked against ex-cons trying to live right. The system doesn't want you to succeed because prisoners are commodities that can be exploited for profit. That's why there's so many of them in America, land of the free - more than any other country on earth, including China, a totalitarian state with 4x our population. And yet we sit meekly by and applaud the disastrous war on drugs as it continues to destroy the lives of millions to no good purpose whatsoever. OK, jesus sorry, there I go again. Sunny War on vocals and guitar. Nice funky guitar and an old-school rock-out break. I'm proud of this song. It will be on the TRIBEZ album, which we look good to finish this week. Please comment - it's always encouraging and helpful.

Description : This is another protest song - literally - happens during a protest. Teargas, police violence, mayhem. In this time of national insanity, how should one respond? I've been pondering that and this song is part of the answer for me. We live in a divided house and everybody's packing. If we focus on hating each other, we're doomed and damned. If we focus on helping each other, maybe we can climb back into the land of the sane. At least that's what I'm trying to believe. Features Sunny War on vocals and guitar, together with a lot of loops, including a backwards guitar in the chorus. Also did an evolving melody chorus to chorus. The bridge - I guess that sort of sums up my present philosophy. Little too much guitar noise (including my dumbass voice) at the very end which I'll have to clean up. Comments welcome!

Description : Weird little protest song featuring Lisagaye Tomlinson rapping and Sunny War singing and playing guitar and a little snippet of MLK (I've used him a lot in songs in the past - very rhythmical and musical speaker). Had more loops but then replaced with Sunny's guitar. It's just one of those songs that did its own thing and I went with it. I like it but I'm weird, really wondering what other people think. Thanks.

Description : I wrote this song this weekend and recorded it last night with Sunny War on vocals and guitar. (We've got a backload of 10 or so songs but I'm a shiny-object kind of guy.) We kept almost the entire loop orchestration and there are some great loops here. The whole thing is built on looperman-l-0208341-0068163-drmistersir-lonesome-freaky 80 which runs throughout. Mixed with that for the first half is the crazy choral looperman-l-0911223-0101152-silencekills-key-5-pad-81-fs-min across 3 octaves. The musical bridge before the outro is built on the great loop looperman-l-1264531-0079769-arixxonsc-sequence-old-school-escape. My instruction to Sunny was "Play the guitar like it's wrestling with that loop." Sunny plays bass but we also kept looperman-l-1059144-0070847-ebaby8119-the-move-808-bass to go with it. Then there are a couple great bell loops and a choral chant loop at the end, and then of course all the drums. One of the rare times we've kept most of the loops and just wove Sunny's guitar into the orchestration. We even kept one of the guitar loops, looperman-l-1059144-0068323-ebaby8119-the-question, because it's perfect for that moment. I think this song launched a 4th album to be called PATH. Any comments or reactions are greatly appreciated. You're the first folks to hear any of this stuff and this community is instrumental (literally) in making it happen.

Description : This song was inspired by a music box loop -looperman-l-0159051-0101602-minor2go-old-music-box-behind-the-6th-gate - and I just went from there. Sunny War on vocals and guitar, sounding especially lovely. It's the second song on the album APOCALYPSE, another metaphor song to open the album, #2 after THE BEAST. Any comments are welcome.

Description : Psychedelic blues rock? This is on the APOCALYPSE album, vocals and guitar by Sunny War. I built the song on a great Tumbleweed rhythm guitar loop - looperman-l-0498019-0068256-tumbleweed-120-aminor-gtr-rhythm - that I originally had running throughout. We stripped the first part way down, and then Sunny brings in that Tumbleweed loop melody in the second part, with variations. We doubletracked the vocals, with Sunny singing it through twice slightly differently; I've done it before and really like the effect on certain songs. Sunny delivered another extremely tasty guitar solo. There's more that could be done with this song orchestration-wise - and in fact the original orchestration had much more to it - but I think somewhat stripped down is the way to go on this one.

Description : Rock? Pop? I dunno. It's called "Maybe I'm Crazy" but you can't use apostrophes in the title line. This is a song on my protest album APOCALYPSE, which we're mastering next week. Vocals and guitar by Sunny War, additional vocals by Lisagaye Tomlinson. First recorded this song a couple years ago with full loop orchestration and me on vocals (big mistake, not to be repeated!). Now with Sunny singing and playing, it sounds like it was meant to. Not a heavy duty protest song, but lord I am fucking tired of getting lied to by the criminals who run our country. Just sayin'. And I guess that makes me crazy in our age where deceit rules and an astonishing few give a shit.

Description : Psychedelic funk rock blues. Sunny War on vocals and guitar - wicked wicked guitar. Wanted to do a song that wasn't a story or a protest or an intricate argument and jumped out of the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge box to just seethe and wail. Also wanted a massive break and musical bridge, mixing Sunny with a loop orchestration; you be the judge if it's massive enough. This will be on our HELP album. For this weirdo who has toiled alone for years with headphones on to try to get somewhere, any feedback, good or bad, is most welcome.

Description : Recorded first draft of this in December with Sunny War, the vocals with a full loop orchestration, before we started using her guitar (yeah, I'm dumb). But the music was too pretty and saccharine. Then when I woke up to the magic of her guitar, we went back and started guitarifying everything we'd done. In this case, we replaced the entire loop orchestration with Sunny's guitar work, and now the song sounds like it was meant to. The lyrics are inspired by Sunny's life, which I was just getting to know about a little at the time. She used to ride trains around the country with her guitar, a la Woody Guthrie, when she was a teenager, and so that set my mind to imagining...

Description : Recorded this yesterday with Sunny War. Wanted to do something funkier, and shorter than the epic pieces we'd been doing. This was built off a funk guitar loop - looperman-l-1592215-0088915-mrroads442-funk-vibe-guitar a 74, changed to 77bpm - which Sunny used as the basis for her rhythm guitar. We've got 3 guitar lines playing off each other throughout.

Description : Third song on my protest album, APOCALYPSE. Sunny War on vocals and guitar.

Description : Kindofa '60s work song. Another song from my collab with Sunny War. This is the first song on our album HELP which we should get done this month. This song started with looperman-l-0498019-0072501-tumbleweed-90-g-slow-train-rhythm, a great rhythm guitar riff; the song just emerged out of it without effort. Props to Tumbleweed and his great guitar loops which I have often used. Then there were three other loops, drum, piano and lead guitar. Sunny replaced the guitar loops with her acoustic picking, using Tumbleweed's loop as the inspiration. The drum and piano loops remain: looperman-l-1703213-0101854-deathsquadktown-1994-inspired-hip-hop-drum-beat 90, looperman-l-0592478-0101770-designedimpression-piano-loop-will-power-94 g. Thank you, loopers! Feedback please!

Description : I've made a ton of music the past couple years but haven't posted or done much of anything with it. Now it's time. I'm working with Sunny War, a great singer and blues guitarist who I met while she was busking on Venice Beach, on a protest album called APOCALYPSE. I write the songs and orchestrate with loops, then Sunny does her thing in the studio. Sometimes we'll leave some or all of the loops, sometimes they all go. For this one I used only two drum loops. Sunny did the rest - vocals and bass, rhythm and lead guitars. (She's pretty amazing.) I had to select a genre so I selected "Rock" but I think of this style as psychedelic blues funk rock. I'd very much appreciate your feedback.

Description : I really loved VirginaSlimm's acapella "I Don't Feel At All", but wanted it slower so changed bpm from 120 to 94 and then built the music around the vocals with the usual plethora of incredible looperman loops provided so generously by members, and then tweaked the mix fifteen thousand times, and so now here it is. Would love to hear what anyone thinks.s (As far as what "genre" to pick, I am always at a loss on that one.)

Description : Obsession musicalized. I know I'm a lousy singer and probably shouldn't be singing but I sang this one anyway and recorded it in my noisy house - still I like it so here goes. Built on cool loops from this site, but I don't remember what they are. It's been a while and I'm really glad to be back. Also made a video for this song and would be delighted if you'd watch and comment what you think: https://youtu.be/jCluI4eoXlw