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Stefanos Alexiou – Freebird (Live @ Village Street Fair 2014)

Stefanos Alexiou - Freebird (Live @ Village Street Fair 2014)

Stefanos Alexiou – Freebird (Live @ Village Street Fair 2014)

Closed my one-hour long gig at the Village Street Fair on April 13th, 2014 with a version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s classic “Freebird”, including a 5 minute closing solo that was loved by the fair attendees.

Stefanos Alexiou - Freebird (solo)

Stefanos Alexiou – Freebird (solo live @ Village Street Fair)

Had a great time at this gig that included a playset of 10 of my most favorite songs selected to fit the mood of this fair.

Stefanos Alexiou - Freebird (live)

Stefanos Alexiou – Freebird (closing)

Freebird – The Video: Live @ Village Street Fair 2014

The video was uploaded on YouTube on May 24, 2014.

Stefanos Alexiou – Voodoo Child (Live @ Village Street Fair 2014)

Stefanos Alexiou - Voodoo Child (Live @ Village Street Fair 2014)

In Hendrix mood playing my version of his “Voodoo Chile – Slight Return” live at the Village Street Fair on April 13th, 2014.

Voodoo Child was uploaded on Youtube May 1st, 2014.

Stefanos Alexiou – Sweet Child O’ Mine (Live @ Village Street Fair 2014)

Stefanos Alexiou - Sweet Child O' Mine (Live @ Village Street Fair 2014)

On Sunday, April 13th, 2014 Stefanos opened the Village Street Fair on Third Avenue with the Guns N’ Roses classic “Sweet Child O’ Mine”.

The above video was uploaded on YouTube on April 16, 2014.

Live @ Village Street Fair 2014

Join me this coming Sunday, April 13th at The Village Street Fair on Third Avenue in Chula Vista, CA.

I’ll be opening the fair with a full hour gig on the South stage (corner of Third & G).Join me at this event! Thank you to the Third Avenue Village Association’s director Luanne Hulszier for inviting me to be part of this excited event!

Hope to see you there this Sunday!

Google map to the location

Stefanos Alexiou – The Rain Song

Here in San Diego we rarely see rain throughout the year so when we got some much needed rain during the past few days, it inspired me to mellow down and cover Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song”. Initially I thought to even add some cello in it but I wasn’t happy with the way it blended so I ended up playing just the guitar with added drums.

Stefanos Alexiou - The Rain Song

Stefanos Alexiou – The Rain Song

The making of The Rain Song

As I always do, I started by playing the guitar on it…

Stefanos Alexiou - The Rain Song (Guitar)

Stefanos Alexiou – The Rain Song (Guitar)

… Then I added some drums.

Stefanos Alexiou - The Rain Song (Drums)

Stefanos Alexiou – The Rain Song (Drums)

The Rain Song: Mix & video on YouTube

Finally both guitar and drums tacks were mixed, added some reverb on the snare drum and guitar and uploaded on YouTube early Sunday morning!

Hope you enjoy my version of The Rain Song…

Stefanos Alexiou – No Quarter

For a while now I’ve been wanted to do a cover video of Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter” but I was holding up because of the known YT issues I’ve been having with their publisher. Last Friday I finally decided to do it by changing it quite a bit and here it is!

Stefanos Alexiou - No Quarter (cello bow solos added)

Stefanos Alexiou – No Quarter (cello bow solos added)

How it Started

Stefanos Alexiou - No Quarter (on piano Thanksgiving 2013)

Stefanos Alexiou – No Quarter (on piano Thanksgiving 2013)

On Thursday evening after Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends, I got the chance to play some piano and without realizing I was hitting the notes of “No Quarter”. Since I don’t really know how to play the piano, I was playing it very slow and a bit darker than normal. So I thought… here’s how to change it (avoiding the YT issues) and still make it sound close enough to the original…

The Making of No Quarter

Stefanos Alexiou - No Quarter (rhythm guitar - piano & distortion parts)

Stefanos Alexiou – No Quarter (rhythm guitar – piano & distortion parts)

As always, I started by playing the rhythm on the guitar. I played the piano parts and the distorted parts.

Stefanos Alexiou - No Quarter (drums)

Stefanos Alexiou – No Quarter (drums)

Then I did the drums… which by the way I think is the best drums I’ve done so far. 😉

Stefanos Alexiou - No Quarter (cello bow solos instead of vocals)

Stefanos Alexiou – No Quarter (cello bow solos instead of vocals)

After the rhythm guitar and drums, I wanted to make it a little spooky and at the same time keep it sound close to the original… So I used a cello bow and did the vocal parts on the guitar as little solos…

Stefanos Alexiou - No Quarter (clean guitar solo)

Stefanos Alexiou – No Quarter (clean guitar solo)

And of course a regular solo had to be somewhere there, so I played a guitar solo too! If I’m not mistaken this solo is also my first one playing it clean without any distortion or a fuzz.

The Mix of No Quarter and video to YouTube

After all 3 tracks (rhythm, drums & solos) where recorded and a video was make for each track, during the mixing we also decided to add some kind of rotating flange effect to the last distortion part to make it a little different from the other distorted parts.

And here’s the completed video that was uploaded on my Youtube channel yesterday!

Stefanos Alexiou – Day Tripper

After taking a couple months much needed brake, yesterday I decided to do a video on The Beatles classic “Day Tripper” which is one of my favorite songs from them.

However I wanted to do a very different and original version of Day Tripper, so here’s how it the story:

Rhythm Guitar for Day Tripper

Rhythm Guitar for Day Tripper

Started by playing the Rhythm Guitar…

Stefanos Alexiou - Drums for Day Tripper

Drums for Day Tripper

Then played the drums based on the rhythm guitar…

After that recorded the bass guitar, which I did on a regular guitar with the help of a POG2 pedal since I don’t have an actual bass guitar. 😉

Stefanos Alexiou - Lead Guitar for Day Tripper

Lead Guitar for Day Tripper

Finally I played the lead guitar for it and here’s where most of the originality happens…

By the time I finished recording all these 4 tracks (taking a video as it went), it got late and I was already exhausted but the final mix to the trucks had to be done prior to syncing the audio tracks to the video track for a YouTube upload.

During the mix some reverb was added to the rhythm & lead guitars and also to the overhead truck of the drums. Also decided to put the rhythm guitar track to the left side at 60% and the lead guitar to the right side at also at 60% for what sounded as a better audio effect during the mix.

So here’s the final result as it was uploaded on YouTube early this morning:

Stefanos Alexiou – Since I’ve Been Loving You Live

On August 11th, 2013 Stefanos Alexiou played his best version to date of Led Zeppelin’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You” live at the Lemon Festival 2013.

Live @ 101 KGB Sky Show 2013 Qualcomm Stadium

Stefanos Alexiou Live @ KGB Sky Show 2013 Qualcomm Stadium

Stefanos Alexiou Live @ KGB Sky Show 2013 Qualcomm Stadium

I feel so much blessed and I’m so thankful to Bob & Coe and all of their team at 101 KGB radio for inviting me to perform live during their live show at Qualcomm stadium prior to the Aztecs football game opener that was followed by the spectacular KGB Sky Show XXXVIII.

Yesterday, Saturday August 31st, 2013 around 3 pm I performed a 3-song set during the 101 KGB radio’s “Bob & Coe Show” live broadcasting from the KGB/Aztec Village at Qualcomm stadium.

It was a amazing day for me and my family and again I’m so thankful to Bob & Coe and everyone at 101 KGB radio for their tremendous support and for giving me this opportunity, besides making my day!

Here’s a video of my “I Can’t Quit You Baby” version that I performed live for the first time ever and I improvised on the spot:

Stefanos Alexiou – Hey Joe Live @ Lemon Festival 2013

On August 11th, 2013 Stefanos Alexiou opened the Lemon Festival 2013 in Chula Vista, CA with his version of Hey Joe originally by Jimi Hendrix.