About Chillack I, A Natural Groove

About Chillack I

A blog about the debut album, “Chillack I, a natural groove”, by Rick Janus aka… Chillack

“Chillack’s debut downtempo smooth jazz album is a serene musical journey inspired by the enchanting beauty of nature. Each track is meticulously crafted to create a pleasant groove that envelops listeners in a cocoon of peace and tranquility. The album effortlessly captures the essence of a leisurely sojourn in the countryside, leaving you feeling relaxed and refreshed with every note, making it the perfect soundtrack for moments of quiet reflection and relaxation.”  

For Chillack 1, I composed all the music and wrote the lyrics to “Eternity’s Long”.  Besides playing all of the keyboard parts, I additionally did all of the drum programming, created all the arrangements, and even played guitar in some tracks.  All of the songs are instrumental, except for “Eternity’s Long”.  I opted for a conventional smooth jazz song structure for the majority of the pieces because it provided a familiar structure that fit with the natural groove that I was feeling.  

When was the music written?

I began writing music in my high school years. Since most of my songs ended up being easy-going instrumental downtempo music that had a very “chill” feel I chose to use “Chillack” as an artist name.  This album, just like all future installments under the name of Chillack, primarily focuses on instrumental pieces but I do like to experiment with the occasional vocal number.

I continued my writing in my college years and a few pieces included in this album were written for my senior recital before graduating with a degree in music production.  My writing has continued since graduating but it was my current music mentor, David Blonski, that helped me evaluate and select which songs were best suited for my debut album.  David also contributed by playing flute on a couple of the songs and did most of the mastering on this project.  https://timelessproductions.com

Musical influences

A good portion of this album was inspired by Paul Hardcastle’s album series under his last name alongside a number of other contemporary jazz artists like David Benoit, Keiko Matsui, Larry Carlton, & Lee Ritenour. “Bossa Flame” was inspired strongly by Horace Silver. “Swirling Dice” was inspired heavily by LTJ Bukem and the Moving Shadow catalog.

What instruments were used? 

In all of the selections, I used a lot of retro keyboards, a drum machine, and virtual synths.  On some songs, I also played acoustic and electric guitars. A friend of mine, Jerad played electric guitar on “Garden Cross”.  The silver flute was added by guest artist, David Blonski.  Myx Behavin provided the vocals on “Eternity’s Long”.What instruments were used? 

For those who are interested in the sound sources: I used the Roland R-8 for the primary drum programming.  In some tracks such as Swirling Dice and Bossa Flame, I used Logic drum samples.  The basslines were largely synthesized except for in Bossa Flame which used a sampled standup bass sound that came with Logic’s sample library.  Nearly all of the rhodes electric piano sounds came from the Roland XV-88 MK-80.  For acoustic piano sounds, I alternated between the Roland XV-88 XV Grand and MKSensation Xtreme’s C5 Grand piano samples.  Many of the pads used throughout the album were created using the Roland JD-Xi Jupiter 8 and the Yamaha DX7 was used for a number of sounds like bells, xylophone and synthesized flute. The Roland D-50 was used for Moog leads (custom patch made by my Uncle Ric) and violin sounds.  A wide variety of virtual synths like Logic’s Alchemy, Sculpture, ES1, ES2 (especially for the strings of this album), and Kontakt’s Hybrid Keys, or Native Insturments 25 were additionally used for both leads and orchestration purposes. Guitars were performed on a Fender acoustic guitar and a Fender Stratocaster and silver flute was added by guest artist, David Blonski.