Sean Balas

Bio
I'm 18. I started out on guitar 6 years ago and put out my first album in my sophomore year of highschool. It was self written, engineered, and produced (as all my music is). My second album i released my Junior year.
Im currently in the process of writing an electronic/rock symphony/opera called One Last Command. It draws on alot of influences, from books I've read since i began to stories i hear on the History channel to weird sounds from a movie that i try to recreate on a guitar or with vocals.

Ive gone through alot of stages of liking music, from simple guitar/vocals surf music to crazy acid electronica. I guess the most consistant influences of mine have always been John Frusciante, Jimi Hendrix, and David Bowie. Ive gone through periods where i will rigerously study one aspect of music theory, then expand upon it then detract from it and see what rules i can break of it and what not. Then other periods where i dont give a shit what i play as long as it rocks and has some funk to it.

Right now (1/30/08) im really into making a guitar sound exactly how it shouldnt, using effects, feedback, random resonant objects, and my studio (sometimes known as my bedroom) to create sounds that embellish music and give it depth and story.

I sing, play guitar, bass, keyboards, and sequence.

The Bootleg Original
I remember, the first song i wrote for this record was Good Night Dear. And i had been writing these lyrics in a ford explorer sittin next to a gas station in suttons bay on a napkin while i was listening to This Velvet Glove. Then a few months later i came up with this music and all the sudden it became a song. That didnt happen very often for the rest of the album. I was really influenced by acoustic folk/jack johnson. I would usually write guitar parts and freestyle sing along with them and then just write it all down. More often though, words for songs would come to me just as i was falling asleep and id have to wake myself up to write them down.

All in all, the recording process went very quickly for each song, Miles Park mixed and mastered a few of the songs with Sony ACID and alot better recording equipment than i had. The rest were recorded at my house with a USB desktop mic and Microsoft Audacity. Its a wonder it sounds as good as it does with the horrible shit that i used. As with both my albums thus far, this one was influenced by girls. A few of them to be exact. And what i thought about them and how i felt and everything. Looking back on it, its all very bubblegummy to me except "Posters In My Mind" and "Anywhere But You".
Favorite Tracks:
By the Look in Your Eyes, Second Best, Anywhere But You

Songs About the Wind
This album name was inspired by a song i had written at the time which was really awsome. Every once in a while i will play it for people, but it was never recorded or anything. Its just a nice mellow song. It's all a bit overly poetic but i think as a metaphor it is really nice. You decide for yourself what it means.
The recording for this record, as i remember, was alot slower. I did alot more with songcrafting on this one. Actually thinking of intros, middle parts, solos, ends, everything. Although i was in a really elementary stage of my understanding in that so its not readily audible. I also began using fruity loops for the first time which was interesting. This was all recorded at my house
This one is almost exactly the same as The Bootleg Original, but the opposite. Instead of those warm happy bubbly falling in love feelings, this one is about being completely destroyed and realizing shit just doesn't work the way you want it to. Basically at this point i had given up on trying to make anything kosher, and on a few songs was just experimenting with all sorts of weird noises and sounds.
I don't really remember much from the recording. I'm no completely superstitious person or anything, but "A Letter" is a scary ass track to me, i was home alone when i recorded that and there was some weird shit going on. I like to put one cover track on each of my albums, for this one i chose "The Will To Death" from John Frusciante's album The Will To Death. I thought i did a good job reinventing it. I also did a really great techno tune that was written all on fruity loops that i really like.
Favorite Tracks
Sunset Colored Cold
Sunshine
Inside The Song
Clouds

Main Picture Note
My main picture, of the little girl getting shaken down by a cop, is graffiti by an english artist who does mainly socio-political pieces and was recommended to me by someone very important to me. His name is Banksy, and please please google him and check out his art, its some of the most amazing shit i've seen.