"All There is" by Erik Zukauskas

So starting today I'm going to be posting Youtube videos of all of my songs from my past albums.   Mostly it's a way to stream them via my Facebook page and get fans and friends who may have only heard some of my music, but not all, a chance to actually hear all my songs if they're interested.

So on my blogger page here I'll go a little more in depth about each song.  Why I wrote it, when I wrote it, how I recorded it, etc... You know, all those interesting tidbits that may not be overly obvious.

Today we'll start with the 2nd track off my 2004 album "Three and a half years gone..."  The song is called "All there is" and I wrote it and recorded it probably in 2002 or 2003(most likely the earlier actually).   This was one the earlier tracks I wrote for the album and actually the opening lick was something I'd been toying with for a few years, actually probably predated the disc 1. The Allston Years album.   Subject wise, it's basically an introspective "What the hell am I doing with my life, my 20 something years old, is this really what I want out of it?" sort of song.    Pretty much it's autobiographical;  I was brewing beer and drinking too much(still am), reading Harry Potter, watching South Park & Family Guy, running up my credit cards and just living the life of post college 20 something.  

I don't remember everything I did recording wise, although it is interesting to note that of the 3 guitar solo's in the song, each was played on a different guitar with a different amp set up.  The first was my Strat through Twin Reverb, the second was my Ibanez Jem 555 through a wah and 5150, and finally the outro solo was played on my Washburn N4, through a tube screamer believe it or not, through the 5150 and Carvin 4x12.

The outro solo is very cool.  Like most of my solo's (Wizard of Oz, behind the curtain giveaway here) it's actually pieced together from multiple takes.   For the most part it's all improvised and I had no intention of playing that cool two hand tapping lick at the end.  I was just winging it, started tapping, and out it came. :-)

So there you go...    If you have any questions, let me know, I'll be happy to answer any.

Up next.... probably Generation White Trash. :-)