Any particular project could contain any or all of the following players:
Steve Kirk- guitars, voice, mandolin, banjo, bass
Matt Lebofsky- Bass guitar, keyboards
Andrew Higgins- Bass, acoustic and electric
Casey Filson- Keyboards
John Hanes- Drums and percussion.
Special projects can include any number of extra musicians that Steve has known and worked with over the years.
Influences
The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Stravinsky, Gentle Giant, Arthur Brown, The Animals, Henry Cow
Sounds Like
Beatles meets Gentle Giant by way of Duke Ellington and Frank Zappa
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Pop Quiz:
"Pop Quiz" is the follow up to Steve’s "Steve Kirk Pop" release of 2002. With the notable exception of two covers (Badfinger’s "Day After Day" and Lennon and McCartney’s "The Word") all songs are composed and arranged by Steve Kirk. With John Hanes, Andrew Higgins, Chris Grady, Tom Yoder, Larry De La Cruz, Catharine Clune, Philip Gelb.
.. CDBABY LINK for STEVE KIRK: Pop Quiz -->
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Steve Kirk Pop:
Steve Kirk Pop is a collection of pieces, both vocal and instrumental, that attempts to challenge the definition of what "pop" should be. This is not conventional pop music- there are time signature changes, instrumentals and the strategic use of dissonance. All the pieces are an effort to help redefine the definition of Pop music to include a wide array of influences, and to help re-establish the role of the composer/arranger as the prime visionary behind the musical creative process, as opposed to the more contemporary strategy of separate songwriter, producer and engineer collaborations.
This is a large band- 10 or 12 piece at times and the result is a wonderful array of textures and melodies that are not the standard fare of todays conventional rock or pop band.
Released in 2002, the debut album features Chris Grady, John Hanes, Larry De La Cruz, Curtis Ohlson, Nicole Welsh, Catharine Clune, Myles Boisen, Phillip Geenleif, Nic Phelps and others. Mixed and mastered by Myles Boisen.
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Voodoo Vince Original Soundtrack Recording:
From the Microsoft Xbox game Voodoo Vince
"...this music was composed, arranged and produced by Steve Kirk, who students of cool, obscure music may recall from his time with the Clubfoot Orchestra. Like his much under-appreciated work on the short lived Felix the Cat series, Kirk blends an great fusion of jazz, pop and classical influences. Most pieces are played by a small ensemble of horns, woodwinds and keyboards. All feature Kirk’s masterful, lush guitar work.
The style of the soundtrack varies from vintage jazz which is clearly inspired by Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France to more contemporary jazz/rock fusion. Hints of classical music and even a few pieces reminiscent of Tom Waits sneak out in certain compositions. In spite of being so eclectic, this body of work hangs together remarkably well.
The audio quality itself is terrific. Each track was lovingly recorded, mixed and mastered by Kirk himself. I highly recommend this soundtrack album not just to fans of the quirky video game, but anyone who appreciates truly refreshing music which defies categorization... "
-Amazon.com customer review
With Chris Grady, Damien Masterson, Dan Plonsey, Gino Robair, John Hanes, Marika Hughes, Tom Yoder and others.
Recently, I was asked to write a short theme for a game called "FarmVille", put out by the game company Zynga and available as a free game on Facebook. Now there are 19 million people a day playing this thing, and it seemed like a good idea to announce it and perhaps post a video of me playing it at the Zynga party this October.
So here it is:
Also, in other news, I've just finished the music for the Disney/Griptonite game "The Princess And The Frog". The game will be released along with the Disney movie of the same name (movie music score by Randy Newman!). This was a blast to work on, and I got to hire some of the best players (and friends to play on the recordings:
Chris Grady trumpet
John Hanes drums
Casey Filsen piano
Sheldon Brown sax and clarinet
Andrew Strain trombone
Greg Stephens trombone
Rob Reich accordion
Alisa Rose violin
Charith Premawardhana viola
The game and the movie should both be out by the end of November.
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Some past news
In the late seventies a band called the Symptoms played at the Mabuhey Gardens in San Francisco with their own unique brand of punky goodness. After their reunion gig, their first show in more than 20 years, I was asked to help them with a reunion CD, which I also played guitar on. What a blast and what a fun project it was! I am proud to announce that the Symptoms reunion album has now been released and is available on CD Baby. Yay!
Mixed and mastered at Steve Kirk Pop Studios over the course of the last year (plus I played guitar).
Next:
What I Did And What I Hope To Do This Summer by Steve Kirk
So, Everyone-
I'm just now finishing up guitar parts for the latest and upcoming version of the Konami game Keraoke Revolution. Hopefully, after that I will be settling in to a summer of relatively subdued mayhem- recording some new pieces featuring drummer John Hanes, trumpeter Chris Grady and vocalist Jani Mussetter. Maybe some some other good friends will join in as well. It's been awhile since I've been able to dig into my own work with any measure of consistency, and I'm hoping the next few months will alleviate that situation to some degree.
If all goes well, there will be new, exciting (at least for me) stuff available for free down load on my website by the end of summer. And, as you can see if you go to Steve Kirk's Bitchin' and Completely Official Website, there are already a bunch of full length, free, downloadable, hi bandwidth mp3s of previous works, including music suites from the Voodoo Vince game and orchestral (and not so orchestral) works not accessible on my commercially available CDs. Help yourself.
I'm also working on an extended multi-media/opera/oratorio work with monologist/poet Gilbert Marhoeffer, and recording, arranging and performing on new pieces by singer songwriter Keady Phelan. I'm gonna try to pull all this off in some kind concurrent fashion- wish me the best, and the best to all of you.
-Steve
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Guitar Tracks and Arrangements:
For those of you that don't already know, I operate a recording studio here in sunny Oakland, California where I work on projects not only for myself, but for a variety of clients.
With a tracking room and a control room that includes a collection of high quality microphones and mic-preamps, ProTools, Digital Performer and Logic recording software, Steve Kirk Pop Studios is fully equipped and ready to take on your next project, whether you are a singer/songwriter, a video game developer, or a film, television or video artist seeking a composer, instrumentalist or arranger.
Tracks or music arrangements can be done remotely!
If you need a guitar track or an arrangement for your song, you need only send me your ProTools session or a stereo sub-mix of your piece and I will create a guitar part(s) or instrumental arrangement to your specifications and send it back to you- all lined up and ready to mix.
For more information, contact me at steve@stevekirkpop.com to see how this would work.
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A review of "Pop Quiz":
"Hi Steve,
I received a copy of your CD titled "Pop Quiz" from you in the mail yesterday for airplay on our internet radio station. We have a commercial-free, format-free radio at www.sonicjive.com. The CD came with no instructions as to which tracks to promote - and now I know why - they are all great. We are considering "Above All Else" and "Andrea" for insertion into our rotation and for our syndicated radio show which launches this Friday on SonicJive Live."
Recently, My MySpace friend Stuart sent me this animation to my Voodoo Vince piece Rat Race Rodeo by the artist gombrato - nearly five years after the game was released. All I can say is I'm flattered by people's continued interest!
And now a bit of pre-history from the Beep Industires/Microsoft XBox game Voodoo Vince:
And Steve's song for the film "How to Live with a Vegan Without Killing Them" (opening credits):
Plus a rare clip of the Club Foot Orchestra from the early 90's:
Steve, A music course is on the required list for transferrable classes to a university. I'm in my third week of beginning piano and I'm way beyond WAY beyond the rest of the class because I remember how to read music. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. :) I hope all is well, Thinking of you! -Gini
hi maestro misterioso mistdu: greetings from Rome. Lots of old stuff here, even me.....! ha. How in heck's name are you? I sendin' you lots o love, and 42nd notes, G-ster
Your arrangements and instrumentation are really good, really enjoyable. 'Tumbler Room' and 'Stealth Deception and Undies' are great! (I love good instrumentals.)
Thanks for the add, Steve. I saw you on the list at Blue Bear for acoustic guitar. I am coming to SF to do a show in Blue Bear's theatre (9/27) and wanted to let some people there know about it.
Dear eteban: I just got back from seeing Leonard Cohen perform with a stellar 9 piece band in front of a castle in Copenhagen. Twas marvellous... I wish you an awesome and bodacious summer!! xx love G
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