Secret Asian Man Studios

09/24/2024

MY MUSIC MONDAYS #7

I totally forgot about doing this today. Sorry it’s so late!

But here’s one I’ve shared before.

If you like the music of RUSH, hopefully you’ll like this. I play guitar for a band that gets together occasionally to celebrate the music of Rush called “A Farewell to Kings - A Salute to 4 Decades of Rush Music”. It was started by the amazing drummer/guitarist/all around bad ass musician Brian Tichy around the time he was doing the Bonzo Bash and Randy Rhoads Remembered, usually during NAMM Show .

One year, I think it was maybe 2017, he needed a guitarist desperately to fill in since the others that have played before weren’t available. And before this Brian only knew me as a keyboardist. But he reached out to my pal Joe Travers to see if he knew anyone that knew the Rush catalog on guitar, and Joe suggested me! And thankfully Brian trusted Joe, so that’s how I got involved.

Cut to 2 years later, after playing a number of full shows at NAMM and a bunch of times at Count's Vamp'd in Vegas, we were in the car on the way home and joked about writing an original song called “Huck Finn”, as an homage to one of their biggest hits “Tom Sawyer”. So we all got together and started throwing ideas and riffs out there.

So this song starts out with an old riff that I used to have for a song of mine called “Strength in Numbers”, which I never did anything with. Then we all contributed and it ended up like this.

Brian and Francesco tracked the drums, bass and vocals at Brian’s studio, Jonathan tracked his keys at his place and I tracked my guitars at my old Secret Asian Man Studios in Echo Park. Then we all got together to film this video.

Brian Tichy - drums/mix
Francesco DiCosmo - bass/lead vocals
Jonathan Sindelman - keyboards
Walter Ino - guitars

Since this came out, we’ve actually written and recorded I think 4 or 5 more songs but never did anything with them. And I think some of them are more original and stronger than this one. Hopefully one day we’ll out those ones out into the world?

Anyway,
Hope you enjoy!

https://youtu.be/Mcb3o7bRQf8?si=0qFHTy-zaZff0eWG

Originally assembled as a Celebration of the Music of RUSH, A FAREWELL TO KINGS wrote this song over a year ago. HUCK FINN is now being released as a bitters...

09/21/2024

Gotta love Facebook!! Someone clones and steals my profile, and everyone else’s I know, to sell BS t-shirts! What a joke!

09/17/2024

MY MUSIC MONDAYS #6

I’ll keep it simple for this one.

Heres a song a simply played one of the guitar parts on. I played that main guitar lead line that comes in around the :25sec mark. Played my 1999 Gibson SG-X through an older line 6 DL4 delay pedal straight into my Vox AC15. Mic’d with just an SM57.

Also on this track is my pals Eric Dover on the other guitars and Shane Soloski on bass. We went into Shane’s studio a few years back and tracked the drums, bass and guitars live.

The song is “Platinum” which is on Jimmy Keegan’s solo album that he released this past year. Written by Greg Lastrapes, who also played keys and sang some of the vocals. And it was produced/mixed by Keegan.

For those who don’t know Jimmy, look him up! He’s one of the busiest drummers I know and is a talent like no other. The first time I ever worked with him was in 2014 when my pal Al Kim put us on a gig together. We pulled out a Police song and Jimmy sang it like Sting and played drums like Stewart Copeland at the same time!! Then we did a Rush song the same way! I was a fan since that day! And he’s become one of my closest friends since then too.

Enjoy!

Provided to YouTube by CDBabyPlatinum · Jimmy KeeganJimmy Keegan℗ 2024 Jimmy KeeganReleased on: 2024-03-01Auto-generated by YouTube.

09/10/2024

MY MUSIC MONDAYS #5

For this episode of I decided on a song of mine called “Whatever Happened to the Day”.

It was around this date 23 years ago when I was up on the 110th or so l floor of the World Trade Center at a club called Utopia. We were celebrating my brother Wendell’s birthday over that weekend since it fell on a Tuesday that year. It was a really fun night. My old drummer BBzstudio Peters had a gig up there playing percussion along to a DJ. All I can say is that it was a party.

3 days later, on his actual birthday, those building were gone. 9/11/01.

A day after that, I was on the subway just thinking, so I started writing this song. I had made a demo of this shortly after but never really recorded it until the 2nd Strangeway record. So here it is..

This was recorded around 2005 in the old Audiomation Studios in Pittsburgh, which is that studio I posted about a while back, that recently closed. It features Ray Jones on drums, who doesn’t seem to be on FB anymore?, and I played and sang everything else. Then I took the files home and mixed it in my home studio.

I still like the guitar riff, some of the melodies, and the outro section as well. However it’s not my best vocal performance so it’s hard for me to listen to. Anyway… enjoy… and always remember 9/11!

https://youtu.be/uxFjNNGslG0?si=3xEhRsUiE8nChDHH

Provided to YouTube by CDBabyWhatever Happened to the Day · STRANGEWAYMy Best Friend℗ 2006 walter tolentinoReleased on: 2006-01-01Auto-generated by YouTube.

09/04/2024

MY MUSIC MONDAYS #4

Yes a day late. I was too busy enjoying the holiday!

Anyway, This one will be a three-for!

10 years ago, on 9/1/14, we lost the great Jimi Jamison. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was lucky enough to have been in the band when he came back to it. We quickly hit it off and had many great hangs and conversations throughout our travels. And we spoke about writing some songs those few years. So I started writing these songs with his voice in mind. One of them was just a simple melody I would play on keyboards at every show before we would play “The Search is Over”. It was my big moment on stage when everyone would walk off stage and I would play a keyboard solo. But one day, Jimi started singing along with it from backstage. I knew I had to turn it into a song for him after that. But he sadly passed before that ever happened.

So when Rudy Cardenas and August Zadra came to me in 2018 and told me that they signed a record deal with Frontiers Music srl with their band Waiting For Monday and that they were looking for some songs, I sent them these 2. I could hear a bit of Jimi in Rudy’s voice, so I knew it would be great to hear him sing these.

The first one is called “One More Round”. I remember writing this chorus and guitar riff in a hotel room somewhere. I was in the band Survivor at the time, and they were obviously known for “Eye of the Tiger” and “Burning Heart” from the Rocky movies, so I figured this can go along with that theme as well. It never turned into a song for them so I played it for Rudy, so then he finished writing the lyrics for the verses and bridge, and then we tracked it in my Secret Asian Man Studios when it was on Echo Park, CA. I played all of the guitars, keyboards and percussion, along with Joe Travers on drums (recorded at Shane Soloski’s studio in Van Nuys) and Eric Baines on bass. And then August, Rudy, Eric and myself did the gang vocals on the choruses. It’s a rocker!!

https://youtu.be/CZs-hCN9jZM?si=q4Sn7gSPOrIq1F0H

The second one is the ballad that came from that piano intro that I would play that turned into the song “Found You Now”. I only had the music written for it so I sent what I had to Rudy. He took it and made it his own and wrote the lyrics and the rest of the melodies. Again featuring Joe and Eric on drums and bass. I tracked the piano at the great J.J. Blair’s studio. August played the rhythm guitars and I played all of the lead guitars, other keyboards and percussion. We had James McMillen orchestrate it for a string section and then we had some amazing players named Ginger on cello, Rodney on viola and Michaela on violin come over to my studio where I recorded them several times to make it sound like a big orchestra. That was a fun day!

https://youtu.be/l581uO_5xQ4?si=zFx9vSvhXvXZeljw

The bonus track on the album is an acoustic version of the same song where I played one of the acoustic guitars, bass, percussion and sang one of the harmonies.

https://youtu.be/j_N1kZahZ9g?si=s-aKQQiQ0XJJX1kZ

All of these mixed my the great Andy Zuckerman.
Hopegully posting multiple links in a post works?!! If not, I’ll post them in the comments.

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard EnterprisesOne More Round · Waiting For Monday · Rodolfo Jose Cardenas · Walter InoWaiting for Monday℗ 2020 Frontiers Reco...

08/26/2024

MY MUSIC MONDAYS #3

Here’s one from a few years back. I can’t remember which year we did this. Maybe 2018? This is the amazing artist Derek Day. He has some killer songs, and I was lucky enough to record 2 of them when I had my studio in Echo Park, CA.

He’s an amazing singer/guitarist along with playing other instruments, and he’s also one of the sweetest guys. He brought his current band (at the time) in to record these songs… I apologize, but their names are escaping me at the moment. But they came to my studio and played the 2 songs live, as a trio, using a different drummer on each song. (The other song we did was called “Social Kitten”). Then Derek and I stayed up late and finished tracking the overdubs… vocals, guitar solos etc. I played the keyboards and percussion, if my memory serves me right.

So this features a song I produced, engineered, edited, mixed and mastered. (And also played keys and percussion on), all done at my old Secret Asian Man Studios location.

If you’ve never heard of Derek, look him up! He’s a talent that has done some great things since we recorded this, like being the lead singer of a band called “Classless Act”, who has been on the road with bands like Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Living Colour and more. He still plays out with his band under his name, but also plays in other various bands with players like Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction, P***o for Pyros), Scott Page (Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Toto), Debby Holiday (solo artist,John Waite, Rod Stewart) and more!

Check it out! Hope you enjoy!

Another Day by Derek DayWebsite: https://www.derekdaymusic.com/Socials: https://www.instagram.com/derekdaymusic/Leave a like! Subscribe for more! Follow on I...

08/12/2024

Hey all! I’m gonna try starting a new little weekly series that I’ll call “MY MUSIC MONDAYS”. This will, hopefully, showcase musical projects I’ve been involved with throughout the years, whether it be my old bands, or music I produced, or maybe just something I played on. Some may be live videos.. and some may just be links to audio. Who knows?

Hope you enjoy!

This first video link is of my old Pittsburgh band Strangeway from 2007. It was filmed all over Los Angeles, including our live performance from the legendary, now de-funked, Cat Club in West Hollywood, featuring my old band mates Ray Jones on drums, Zig Daniels on bass, David Lewetag II on guitar and yours truly 30lbs ago! And if I remember correctly, this show was on a Thursday night, so the band after us was the residency of the infamous “Starf*ckers” featuring Eric Dover, Teddy Andreadis and a bunch of others before I knew them personally. Pretty rad!

This is the first, and only, band I put together featuring my own music with me playing the part as the front man. And this song is from our 2nd, and last, album. It’s hard for me to listen to some of these songs because all I can hear is my inexperience. I wish I could go back and re-track my vocals and remix this but it was what I knew at the time. Unfortunately, I tracked this on Nuendo on my old PC, which I don’t have anymore and the hard drives are buried somewhere and completely disorganized. Maybe someday I’ll try to open them up somehow and consolidate the files, but I doubt I ever will… however, I did end up completely re-tracking this song in 2015 with producer Jamie Candiloro (Ryan Adams, REM, Luscious Jackson, and more) with Shane Soloski on bass and Joe Travers on drums, but never released it.

https://youtu.be/k3thz6x2YoY?si=qDsnUvAFT4x51Qmp

See the brand new video for Strangeway's "My Best Friend".www.strangeway.com

07/04/2024

Well it seems that the cover I did of this amazing King's X song is making the rounds again in a few of the KX fan groups! Another 1k hits in less than a day!

I figure I’d share it here in case anyone out there hasn’t seen it! Hope you enjoy! And feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you feel so inclined!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=shared&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0U2tx0yAEL3ndsbHIOiPboPddpuHQPV8vio5tCWeQsPVPWxFvHDTEJx2I_aem_PdgXZjj-UDR-VcCOi0gHkQ&v=W8sC4K1rChw

's my 2nd cover this month. I always love...

06/30/2024

Here’s a few pics from Summerfest a few days ago of the first show with my new PRS Guitars SE McCarty 594! Man I love this guitar. For a relatively inexpensive, affordable singlecut style guitar, I can’t recommend it enough! To me, it beats the LP Studios that I used to bring out for this band by miles!

Thanks again to everyone with the Tommy DeCarlo band and crew! And special thanks to Rich Hannon and everyone at PRS!

(Pics by Dan Bertermann and John Mullane)

06/16/2024

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there doing it! Best job in the world in my opinion!

Here’s a link to a song I wrote right after I became a dad, in case you haven’t heard/seen it before.

Yes, I really played all of the instruments and recorded/mixed it, in case you’re wondering. Hope you enjoy!

Here's my original song "Who Would U Take A Bullet 4" released March 29, 2022-All instruments played by Walter Ino-All vocals by Walter Ino-Recorded and Engi...