Secret Six

Parma, OH USA

September 08, 2005

363 plays
7,167 views

Secret Six is an all-original studio project made up of family, friends, and former band mates. The collection of songs on the outfit's debut calls to mind the diverse elements of rock, pop, and progressive music. To instill a sense of freshness into the songs, a variety of musicians were assembled for recording and were encouraged to add their own distinct mark to the music.

Band/artist history

In the winter of 2003, Jay Youngless was spending much of his spare time in front of his keyboard sacrificing sleep and composing pieces of music. He had been in a number of bands before, but the musical direction of those groups afforded Jay little opportunity to contribute originals of his own. After several months of writing, he recruited his brother Chris on bass and guitarist Nate Nieding to flesh out the crude demos he'd put down on a small hand-held recorder. Encouraged by the collaborative nature under which the demos were being completed, Jay decided to release the songs as a collective under the name Secret Six. In June, the trio entered Track_Six_Recording, Cleveland, OH to lay down tracks for three of the original five songs Jay composed during his winter writing session--the hard-driving "Remote Control," the ethereal instrumental "Frogs In Winter," and the laid-back "I Will." In the fall of 2003, Jay, Nate, and bassist/vocalist Shane Post polished and recorded "Gravity," an ode to the more salacious aspects of nature and the hard rock/instrumental combo "Candelabra/As It Were" (which was co-written by Shane). Secret Six took a five-month hiatus before the original trio of Nate, Jay, and Chris reconvened to record "Be Here I Am (Parts I & II)," the project's most ambitious undertaking yet (Chris's wife Aryn provides the vocal bridge between the song's two sections). "Be Here" features each of the three players singing lead vocals over a multi-instrumental, keyboard-laden track reminiscent of late '70s progressive pop-rock. Over the summer of 2004, Jay met with Nate to work on two new songs. "Charade (In Your World)" was a holdover from Jay's time in a previous band that was never fully realized and consequently rewritten with Nate. The duo also wrote "Tip Your Bartender" together when Jay brought the basic song structure to Nate who then composed the rhythm guitar and bass lines. The unrelenting, up-tempo, aggressive song also features the duo trading off lead vocals. The last song recorded for Secret Six was, fittingly enough, "Heidi's Eyes." Composed over a decade prior, Jay tried many times in vain to complete the song with other musicians. Once Nate heard the demoed song he knew immediately what Jay intended and "Heidi's Eyes" was quickly rehearsed and completed. In winter 2005, Christian Dohar, a bandmate of Chris and Aryn, was brought into the studio to provide electric guitar fills for "Remote Control" and "Candelabra" and to beef up the acoustic guitar tracks on "Heidi's Eyes." Finally, in March 2005, recording, mixing, and mastering were completed by Brandon Youngs and Secret Six debuted.

Have you performed in front of an audience?

As of right now we do not play live and are strictly a studio project. We anticipate playing some live dates in the next few months.

Your musical influences

Thin Lizzy, Styx, Kansas, Tonic, Pink Floyd, Toto, the Who, Live, early Chicago

#cleveland #music #band #studio #secret #six

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