2024-Sep-14 - Pacific Blue
This week's randomly selected song Pacific Blue is track #10 from disc #2 from my latest album It Was All Just a Dream. This song was first released on my 2017 album Juxtaposition. I re-recorded all of the guitar and bass parts for its subsequent re-release on my 2022 album Juxtaposition Reimagined. And on this final version, the drums, arrangement and mix have been updated.
Pacific Blue started its life probably in the early 2000s as nothing more than the acoustic guitar motif that starts the song. For years, I really had no idea where to go with the idea, so it just sat in my collection of riffs that I would occasionally noodle around with.
In 2016 as I was writing material for my 2nd album Juxtaposition, the idea came up again, and I was determined to incorporate the idea into a completed song. Surprisingly, after sitting on the idea for so long, the songwriting process for Pacific Blue was actually really easy and painless. I think that being in a songwriting mode for the album meant that I was more open to letting the creativity flow.
As soon as the song was written, it felt very "island-ish", so I named after the beautiful Pacific Ocean that I grew up playing and surfing in. After the release of Juxtaposition, I couldn't help but feel like there was a hint of a reggae vibe -- it wasn't intentional, but sometimes influences make themselves more obvious after the fact. So when it came time to redo Pacific Blue for the It Was All Just a Dream collection, I decided to really lean into the reggae vibe, giving the tune a sort of reggae-blues-rock fusion.
I used a big 'ole pile of guitars on this song. For the acoustic part, I used my 2004 Ibanez steel string AE, and captured it with a combination of the built-in piezo pickup as well as with my Aston Origin mic. The clean guitar parts were played on my Charvel Pro-Mod DK24 and my custom swirled Ibanez RG470. For the crunch-tone rhythm guitars, I used my Ibanez JS1CR30 "Chrome Boy" and JEM505 (yes, I used a Chrome Boy and a JEM for rhythm guitar parts, 🤣). And befitting a song about the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean, the leads were all performed on my Ibanez RG6PCM with its very oceanic inspired finish.
All of the electric guitar parts on Pacific Blue were played through my Synergy Amps SYN-2 preamp with a variety of preamp modules: Freyette Pittbull, Diezel VH4, Steve Vai Signature, Freyette Deliverance, and Soldano SLO.
You can listen to this song as well as the entire 44 song collection right here on the website! If you love what you hear and want to support the music I make, please consider purchasing this album on CD or digital download. I will gladly personalize and autograph your copy.
https://chrisstark.com/it-was-all-just-a-dream
Keep an eye out for next Saturday's song spotlight, and as always, thank you sincerely for all of your support!
Love, Aloha, and Rock!
❤️😎🎸