Ryan Malmstrom’s Blog

I will be doing a 5-part blog on the keyboards I have used over the last several years, focusing on Lorde of all Desires, Epicurean, Rockfist and Shadowchase.  My first blog will be on my journey into the world of keyboards.

My high school band (The Accolade) is where I began to do a little more than “dabbling” with keyboards.  Back then, I was a singer and only sprinkled keyboards into songs when needed.  The drummer of the band (Scott Nelson) actually owned the keyboard, so I didn’t really pay much attention to how much the keyboard could actually do.  I just wanted to know which buttons to push so I could play.

The keyboard I used was either an Emu Emax SE or Emax II.  It was an 8-bit sampling keyboard that, to me, was a powerhouse for it’s time.  We did a lot of sequencing and sampling, including some dumb Beavis and Butthead quotes.  The keyboard did not have internal sounds, so there was a box of 25 floppy disks that had to be accompany the keyboard to any gig.  That was a bit ridiculous, but it was still a pretty nifty machine.  Here is a picture of the SE version:

The Accolade started out as a cover band.  We played songs from Metallica, Pantera, Testament, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Extreme and CCR.  (those last two bands didn’t really fit the theme, huh?)

Our guitarist, Dave Hart, was very talented for his age, so moving onto original songs seemed like the logical next step.  We kept with the “thrash” theme and had a few odd time signature moshers.  Having keyboards in thrash metal was really unheard of at the time.  Or at least it was to us.

Dave started to get bored with distortion, so we shifted our focus towards progressive acoustic songs.  I used to like fashioning our band as an acoustic version of Dream Theater.  That wasn’t entirely true, but in high school, you had to have a band to compare yourself to, even if you couldn’t.  The truth was, we just wrote songs that were in odd time signatures, had obscure chord structures and intelligent lyrics. 

The keyboards were mainly used in instrumental interludes.  “Shadows in the Dark” had a sampled section in the middle:  Scott sequenced some effects like street noise and child voices on one channel.  The other channel was routed to his trigger pads on his drums to play a bongo sample.  It all worked very well together, building up to the final chorus of the song.

“Point of Anger” was another song that had some sampling.  We sampled a clean guitar riff while Dave did his signature “shread” soloing.  This song was scrapped, in order for us to be true to the “acoustic/clean guitar” theme. 

I typically used a string section sample in most songs that required keyboards.  I also used a piano/strings sample, with more of an emphasis on the piano portion of the sample.  “Like a Shadow” had a very cool spacey, panflute melody and solo that I enjoyed playing.

We must have had close to a dozen songs after our graduation from high school.  But as it turned out, the band wanted to find a new singer, but they offered to keep me on as a keyboardist.  I wasn’t a fan of the idea, so we parted ways.  That was when my Savatage obsession was at its peak.  I spent a lot of my time learning songs from their album “Streets.”  Just my voice and an upright piano.  Those were the days.

So there you have it.  One never knows where they’d be if they made “this” decision or “that” decision, but I think leaving the Accolade was logical, looking back.  What if I were to continue to play keyboards with a band that no longer needed me to be a singer?  Would I have been a better keyboardist?  Would my ability to sing suffer over the years?  Would I have had the confidence to sing in other bands?  It’s hard to say.  It is likely that I would have never joined Lorde of all Desires though, a band that actually did go somewhere. 

I’m not sure what the Accolade boys are up to these days.  Dave Hart was in the first version of Rockfist and left to focus on his band, Open Element.  He was once in a pretty neat cover band called Barrakus several years prior to joining Rockfist.  That’s about all I know. 

The experience was positive though.  We wrote some good songs, played some covers and had a great deal of fun.  And most importantly, it was my first experience using keyboards in a band setting.

Next up:  I’ll be writing about the keyboards I used in Lorde of all Desires. 

Cheers!

Ryan Malmstrom

Hello and welcome to my blog!  Now that you’ve found me, I’d like to know what you think of the website. 
 
The reason for the site is simple:  I wanted a place to describe the full details of the last 10 years of my musical experience.  I am quite proud of my past musical accomplishments, as well as performing with Rockfist!  I am very thankful to have worked with so many great musicians over the years, many of whom will be mentioned in upcoming blogs.  And besides, some of you may be interested in how I got to where I am today. 
 
Coming up:  In this space you will find topics ranging from gear talk, music and the occassional baseball rant.  So keep coming back, as I intend to blog quite frequently!