Conundrum (US)
This is a solo project started by George Daole-Wellman. I play or program all instruments and sing, and I have several guest vocalists lined up to sing as well on my first release. I intend to have different lineups of guest vocalists on each successive release.Band/artist history
I started playing guitar a bit over four years ago, at 18- fairly late, I know. I've always wanted to write music, and I decided to merge my interest in science, science fiction, and philosophy with my passion for complex and challenging music. Several years later I had the beginnings of what would become 'The Intricate Dance of the Ever After', and I asked several friends to sing and play the roles in this concept EP.Have you performed in front of an audience?I don't play live.
Your musical influences
The first metal band I ever fell in love with was Blind Guardian, who remain to this day my very favorite musicians. The dense harmonies and complex arrangements are one of the primary inspirations in my own music. Additionally, Ayreon inspired me to write concept albums with lyrics based on original stories and to use guest vocalists to play the various roles, as well as giving me the idea to use traditional prog rock instruments such as the Hammond organ and Mellotron in metal. Devil Doll, Yoko Kanno, and Bear McCreary fostered my love of orchestral arrangements and unusual and eclectic instrumentation.What equipment do you use?
I play an Agile Les Paul clone, a Dean Edge 9 bass, and an E-Mu Xboard 49-key MIDI keyboard. I run the guitar through a Dunlop Crybaby 535q wah, a Behringer V-Amp 2, and a Peavey Valveking 50-watt 1x12, and the bass through a Bass V-Amp. Aside from the wah most effects are software. I use Cakewalk Sonar 8 as my host, running on a self-assembled Core 2 Quad Q6600 with 4GB of RAM running Windows 7 x64. My audio interface is a Presonus Inspire firewire interface. As for software instruments, I use Rayzoon Jamstix 2 to program drum parts, and output that to Toontrack Superior 2 (primarily the Hit Factory library) for drum sounds. Most other virtual instruments I generally play on keyboard rather than program, for the 'human factor'. These include Native Instruments B4 II for Hammond organ, and various sample libraries in Native Instruments Kontakt format.