Gallery: Kathryn Ladano – “Evil Kirk” recording session

Use the embedded player below to hear a sample of “EVIL KIRK” by Kathryn Ladano, featuring yours truly

The initial concept was Kathryn’s.  She liked that Star Trek the original series had a lot of audible bass clarinet in the music.  Often just before a red shirt was about to die, you’d hear a bass clarinet melody…and then ZAP!

We decided to add a vocal element.  I compiled some of my favourite Captain James Tiberius Kirk quotations, and Kathryn had a general direction for the music but otherwise she improvised.  We performed it live in four takes at Wildrid Laurier University’s Seminary building.  A couple effects were added in mixing and voila — “Evil Kirk”!

Buy it at kathrynladano.com , amazon.ca or iTunes

Photos:  Martin LePage

Further reading:

49 comments

      1. Does Kathryn go for that? Mine does the photobomb/ bad pic on purpose thing all the time…we haven’t taken a decent pic together in about 5 years…:\

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        1. For the record just in case there is any confusion. Kathryn is not Mrs. LeBrain. Kathryn is younger sibling of LeBrain. I like to think I got her off to a good start in music. I started her off with Star Wars soundtracks and then later, Quiet Riot and Motley Crue. She went astray with New Kids on the Block, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice in the early 90’s but thankfully she’s now corrected everything by being a fan of Radiohead and Frank Zappa. Whew!

          She really hates when I do the photo bombing in family Christmas photos, but I just can’t take a serious picture. I can’t! I have to goof it up somehow.

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        2. Excellent! lol, Sorry LeBrain, I took your sister for your wife! Oops!

          My husband loves to goof up pics all the time. No taking nice couple selfies – he’ll totally screw them up, but I won’t notice until later. I’ll have a nice smile, but he’ll be sticking out his tongue.

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        3. It used to bug me in highschool when people mistook her for my girlfriend…which happened a lot since he liked to hang out more than most siblings!

          I think your husband and I have similar techniques when it comes to taking photos!

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    1. I’ve said before that she should do a re-release, or a vinyl single release! But it’s not cheap to do this on your own dime.

      To be cost effective I’ve said that she could distribute bonus tracks on her site, free to anyone who buys an album. Have a download code in every CD or something. But even that costs money as she didn’t make her own website, she pays somebody to set stuff like that up.

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      1. Well, maybe it could be an anniversary release. My iTunes says 2010 release (the CD is is nthe other room and I don’t wanna move the broken foot that much of this point). So, maybe the re-release should be 2020, which would give her 6 years to save up for it!

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        1. I believe 2010 is correct. Brilliant idea! I’m all for it! I’m sure Kathryn will be stopping by later and reading these comments, so consider this 2 requests for an anniversary edition!

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        2. I’d like to second my own request, so officially that makes it three requests already (yours, and two of mine)!

          Here’s another idea, entirely presumptuous, because who tells artists what to do? Anyway, maybe she could write a companion collection, for the second CD. Further interpretations of the tracks, different directions from various points in the music. She’s got six years to work on it! Just an idea.

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        3. If I second your second request, does that make it four?

          I’ve certainly offered my help with any sort of follow up CD. I’d like to do more vocals but with actual singing next time. I’d also love it if there were some new guests, such as Rob Szabo or Andy Creegan!

          All just pie in the sky wishing and suggesting :) Ultimately the artist must follow her heart!

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        5. All I can say man is I remain encouraging of continued collaborations, and even if she doesn’t release anything any time soon, her live gigs are worth catching. Unfortunately she doesn’t get up your way very often.

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  3. I don’t think the re-release will happen because I still have hundreds of these sitting in my basement! If people start buying them like crazy….well, then it’s possible. However, CD 2 should be out next year. It’ll be a live CD. The recording is already done, it’s going to be mixed and mastered soon, and then i’ll make a small run of it – won’t be widely available. Maybe 100-200 copies in total.

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    1. Yeah baby! Consider this my order for a copy in advance! Just let me know when and where to send cash monies to procure it! I’ll listen and use my meager words for a review for you too, of you like!

      Also, c’mon people! Get your copy of Open! You need to hear these tunes. Plus, you could help her clean up the basement…

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        1. I’ll make sure we both get a copy.

          But yeah, seriously, if it’s a limited run of 200 they HAVE to be signed and numbered. It’s a reasonable quantity to sign, and it’s just gotta be done.

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        2. Absolutely. Always send me the schedules. I understand most of them would be closer to you guys, but it’d totally be worth the drive. I gotta get this foot healed first (I cannot drive, with this cast on). And it’d have to be a weekend (no way I can get down through the week, on our schedule. Hm. It’ll happen. Maybe in the spring? We could combine the show with the Encore/Orange Monkey excursion.

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        1. Are they cheaper? They’re more environmentally friendly I assume.

          I think when you’re dealing with a small quantity like 200, it’s a unique opportunity to offer something special. Some limited comic books for example come with hand-sketched covers. Granted 200 is a larger number for that. But let’s say the first 10, which are sold to the first 10 buyers at the CD release party only, each have a unique cover sketched by you. Just a quick marker sketch of a schnauzer, or something like that. I think that would be really cool!

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  4. Totally unrelated, but I was looking at the photos again and noticed the wall behind you: I love when builders construct brick walls with those bricks artfully left sticking out, here and there. Makes me want to climb the wall like a ninja.

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    1. I know, me too, it was very distracting while recording. Here I am doing the lines of Captain Kirk, and all I wanted to do was scale the walls like Kirk did in Star Trek V.

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    1. BeeDee, we had plans to perform it live at the CD release party. Unfortunately, I had a throat infection and I could not perform! That was the only time we planned to do it, she doesn’t want to include it in her regular sets.

      However she does have a solo gig coming up in Toronto later this month! No crack-smoking mayors allowed.

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      1. It would make a great album (and show) to have all that kind of stuff, though. I guarantee, it would be a big hit. And, by the way, they might get a kick out of it at the annual Trek Fest in Riverside, Iowa (supposedly the home town of “Captain Kirk”), which is about an hour from where I live. There’s even a scaled-down model of the Enterprise in their park.

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        1. Meanwhile in Canada, we have Vulcan Alberta, not claiming to be the birthplace of anybody, just having a cool name! They too have a giant Enterprise statue. I’ll have to see if I can find that picture of our Uncle Peter in front of it…

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        7. Haha yeah, that’s why I slid that extra bit in there. Grandma was cool beans. If I have the story right, she grew up on a farm outside of Vulcan, lived there until she met Grandpa sometime around WWII, then they moved here to OS and lived here their whole lives.

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        9. No kidding indeed. And yep, the house is still there. We go past it fairly regularly. The new people are keeping it up fairly well, in a neighbourhood that has declined in the past 20 years. If the timing had been different, we could have bought the house ourselves, coming back from SK, when she finally had to sell it and move into care. We were a couple of years off, though.

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      2. Awwwww I LIKE crack smoking mayors who survive by bullying everyone! Haha oh man, they’ve only STARTED to uncover the crap that this guy has been up to… I just hope that my suspicion that “he knows where the bodies are buried” is just an expression, not a truth. But I have my doubts.

        Anyway, not inviting political comment to go on forever, just slipping this in there because that story would make me laugh if it wasn’t so damn scary.

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