Video: "Lightning Crashes" by Live (Instrumental Cover)

“Lightning Crashes” by Live

The Inspiration Behind this Cover Video

Back in 1996-1997, during my junior and senior years in high school, I was in a cover band called Rejemillz. I played drums in the band. This was a song we used to play.

I have a lot of great memories from that time. Especially the album “Throwing Copper” by Live, which contains “Lightning Crashes”. I used to listen to almost the whole side of the album on the way to school every morning on my walkman. (Yes, a side. I had it on cassette.)

I love ballads and I am going to be covering ballads for a while. This song came up on my list, so it was time to cover it.

Behind the Scenes – Acoustic Guitar and Bass

I recorded this very quickly on January 22, 2017. The process started with the drum programming which I did last week.

On the day of recording, I began with the acoustic guitar. I used my Maton Diesel Mini into an old Boss PH-2, followed by a TC Electronic BodyRez, and then into my Apogee Jam into Logic Pro X.

What you hear on this cover is the 2nd take (unabridged) on the acoustic guitar track. I even turn off the phaser by hand. I messed up turning off the phaser on the first take and came back in so late I stopped recording and started from the top.

Next was the bass. I got lucky and managed to record it in one take

Behind the Scenes – Electric Guitars

Then I took out my Fender AVRI 52 Telecaster. I played around with the sounds in Logic for a bit to find the right sounds for this cover. It took a few tries to get those parts recorded as I was trying a few ideas out. Eventually, I settled on the most basic and straight forward parts.

Once all of that had been recorded, I got a call from my wife asking me to return home. However, I had not yet recorded the melodies for the rest of the song (excluding the melody in the first verse which was performed on the bass). So I said, give me about 20 minutes, I just need to do one more thing.

I grabbed my modified Epiphone ES-339 and quickly dialed in a tone in Logic and went for it. What you hear is the 1st take with all the little mistakes. I didn’t have time to fix this. However, it was good enough for my purposes.

The Covers Process

I’m thoroughly enjoying making these cover videos. I have so many planned and I have already begun working on more. I program drums at night after my kids go to bed. That way I can have a ready “canvas” to start working on whenever I get a chance to get the full setup going at the office.

I really hope you enjoy this cover. I look forward to bringing you more of these soon.

Cheers!

Jose