Lethbridge music teacher Craig Baceda has released his “labour of love”— his new Cd showcasing the arena rock facet of his multi-faceted musical personality.
While Baceda doesn’t play a lot of live shows anymore, he is already gaining critical acclaim from all over the world for his 2013 CD “Shredding the Mindset” recorded under the name “ The One and Only.”
H
e recorded every single instrument for the CD in a studio which he set up in his living room except drums and vocals in a special isolation booth he built downstairs.
“ It has a big arena rock sound,” described Baceda, guitar in hand, who has taught himself to play all different styles of music from jazz and blues to classical and a lot of ’80s style shred guitar.
He grew up with two professional musicians for parents who enrolled him in vocal lessons at a very young age through which he learned musical theory.
“ My dad was a professional musician who played violin and my mom played wicked accordion. I had great parents. They enrolled me in voice lessons from Grade 2-8. And from Grade 6-12, I had percussion lessons,” he said adding that lead to learning drums as he became a touring musician with various bands in his late teens and later taught himself guitar.
“ I already knew all of the theory. I learned how to play guitar out of necessity. I was in a Van Halen tribute band and I had all of these musical ideas I couldn’t properly communicate to the guitarist, so I learned to do it myself,” he said adding he spent 10 years on the road with various touring bands.
Nowadays, he and his wife spend three months of the year living in Makaha in Oahu, Hawaii and the rest of the year at home in Lethbridge, where he has been working on the actual recording of his CD for about three years.
“ A lot of the time was spent learning how to use the recording equipment and running cables. Now I know how to do that, the next CD will only take 12-18 months to do,” he said noting the CD includes a lot of different styles of playing from jazzy rhythms to Eddie Van Halen/ classical music inspired Joe Satriani/ Steve Vai style fretboard tapping, though it focuses on his “arena rock” sound.
“I play for the song,” he said adding he had to choose from about 30 songs he wrote.
“I wanted to capture 11 of them on one CD, so it’s a start,” he said.
He recorded each instrument individually for the entire album instead of song by song.
“ So when I was working on guitar I was only concentrating on guitar for the whole album. When I was working on drums, I was doing nothing but working on drums for the whole album,” he said.
He is pleased with how the CD turned out and is planning a tour in support of the CD which will combine performance and lessons of how to play the different styles he showcases on the CD.
He made two videos for songs from the CD including one shot at Frank’s Slide for “Thru The Fire.”
“ We talked to the Frank’s Slide Interpretive Centre and got permission to let us shoot it in the middle of the slide on top of the rocks.
When he is in Hawaii he takes it easy, surfs, teaches the occasional lesson and works on song ideas, though he saves them for recording when he gets home where he does a lot of teaching as well as recording.
“I love the people in Hawaii. They are so friendly,” he said.
He teaches students of all ages from experienced professionals who want to brush up on their skills and learn new techniques to new players who read an article about techniques and need it interpreted.
