~The Vault~
​
A collection of the musical musings of songwriter, musician and recording artist
Dennis Steinseifer
Hello and welcome to my Music Vault. Contained within are the fruits of my labors. We will be adding original material to this page on a regular basis. You are encouraged to stop by from time to time and sample the tunes.
Any additional interest in this protected music can be addressed by contacting DenStein Studios directly through the email contact form provided here.
The music presented here is a sample of decades worth of original work by Dennis Steinseifer. Various projects featured here include bandmates, fellow musicians and different incantations of bands that Dennis had a role in through the years. It is Dennis' goal to salute those artists that he had the pleasure of creating with in this "living" body of work. Their names and work will be credited whenever possible.
All music presented herein is the exclusive property of DenStein Studios
(unless otherwise noted) and is for personal enjoyment only.
Milk And Cookies
All songs written, recorded and performed by James Nicholson and Dennis Steinseifer (except "One Thing" written by Rich Horton James Nicholson and "Tribute to Harry" by Dennis Steinseifer and James Sabo). Music recorded on my 4 track cassette and Jim's 4 track reel to reel. Final Mix by Rich Horton at Optional Art Records.
A joint Magnificent/Optional Art Records release.
Copyright 1991 Schwartz Music (p) 1995 Magnificent Records
EDGAR SCHWARTZ
All songs written, recorded and performed by James Nicholson and Dennis Steinseifer. Music recorded on my 4 track cassette and Jim's 4 track reel to reel.
This was the beginning of the experiment we labeled Edgar Schwartz in honor of my letters to the editor in the Kenosha Newspaper that were nonsensical and sent to see if they would post. (They did). Jim took a snippet from one of my old reel to reel synth recordings and transformed it into "Another Time, Another Place". We continued by experimenting with different recording techniques such as loops and backwards guitar and bouncing multiple tracks. The end result was some very interesting recording sessions. The songs offered here were among those on our self-produced cassette but not included on our CD.
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Milk and Cookies CD's are available for $12.00. Please contact me directly if interested,
Copyright 1991 Schwartz Music
The Sounds of
THE HAUNTED MANSION
All songs written, recorded and performed by James Nicholson and Dennis Steinseifer. Music recorded on my 4 track cassette and Jim's 4 track reel to reel. This was a fun project to help our good friend Keith Lock on one of his many haunted productions which benefitted several charities on the East Coast.
Guest screamers, moaners and spooks models - Jeryl, Denice, Jake and Daisy.
(c) 1994 Scwartz Music
ALTERNATIVE
All Music Written and Produced by:
Dennis Steinseifer
(synthesizers/strings/piano)
Dennis Hoppe
(drums/percussion)
Don Demrow
(electric guitar/acoustic 12 string)
© 1982
After a couple years of jamming with Dennis Hoppe in Kenosha, Wisconsin, we met up with Don who came back from England where he had experience working with new age/punk bands. We formed a trio performing a few places around the area.
Our original, electronic based music was a bit unusual for an area going thru the country phase at the time, so we decided to head out to Los Angeles. Within a few weeks we had found a manager and he set up a meeting with a producer from the Griffith Park Laser Light Show and there was interest in featuring us performing live with the show. Although this didn’t materialize we were able to be financed to record a demo. The music featured here was produced in a LA studio live within 4 hours.
We were hoping to add a lead singer but the pressures of surviving and promoting eventually took its toll and we moved on to other projects.
I was really happy to have been part of such a creative and experimental group and while transferring these songs to digital, now in 2018, I was proud to be complimented by the owner of the studio stating this music was timeless and futuristic enough for today’s alternative scene.
Boys of Tomorrow
I met up with James (Jim Sobotowicz) when He moved out to LA. Jim’s parents knew my parents and he wound up staying by my place when he first came out. Jim received a degree in music from Berkley and enjoys playing jazz among other styles. He is an accomplished vibe and percussion player and has also made great progress on keyboards.
We started just jamming around with his vibes and my piano and decided to work on recording some original music on my 4 track cassette. It was a good chance to experiment with more sounds and I learned how to engineer recording on what was very primitive equipment. I recorded 2 or 3 tracks then mixed them down to 1 and then added 2 or 3 more while fighting to keep the tape noise level down as well as could be working with the width of a cassette. I called it Frankensteining because we would lay one part down then be inspired to add the sections to make the body of the song. We then transferred it all down to a regular stereo cassette and made copies for friends and family.
Our first cassette was Boys of Tomorrow and featured mostly instrumentals and a couple stabs at vocals. I’m very proud of the soundscapes we came up during our experiments.
FACE THE
MUSIC
The second cassette was named Face the Music and featured more examples with vocals. I believe we came up with some clever and catchy pieces. We had help on a couple tunes by Paul Bruton – guitar, Karen Quinn – vocals and Joy Weidnan – vocals.
Jim is still in LA working as a musical therapist and playing gigs around town. We stay in touch and visit when we can.
Fan Club
President
Keith Lock
A fun group of songs I wrote that let me experiment with a four track cassette recorder. It involved being creative both musically and working on vocal possibilities. I would record on 3 tracks and bounce them all to 1, and then 2 or 3 more and again bounce to 1 track, getting up to 10 tracks, all in the width of a cassette tape. I’m very proud of the sound quality achieved and set the way for most of the musical examples on this site.
A
TAPE
I
LIKE
Alex Sander
Salamander
and his
ALL AMERICAN
ALL STAR
Mind Poo Poo Band
More solo experimenting with the 4 track cassette techniques learned from A Tape I Liked and now the addition of an electric guitar I bought. This produced the song Christmas When I Was Young, featuring lovely vocals by Kat Kane which surprised some people with it’s sentimentality.
THE MODE
Paul DeSilva vocals/drums
Jim Nicholson vocals/guitar
Jon Lee Lambrou base guitar
Kevin Martinez guest guitar
Dennis Steinseifer keyboards
After the Alternative band split up I joined The Mode as their keyboard/synth player. The guys were very handy at carpentry which was very useful in building 3 custom garage studios in rented houses during my time with them. Seems for some reason our practicing 5 nights a week put a strain on neighbor relations and we kept moving. It was great fun and a talented mix of personalities. We played out a few times around LA but mostly we rehearsed and built up a strong song list.
All the songs were written by the original guys and copyrighted under Mode Music, except for Day Dreams, which I got to squeak in.
After we split up, Jim and I decided to experiment with recording and Edgar Schwartz was born. Paul and Jon Lee are now on the East Coast where they formed a new band called Radio Silence which has now evolved into Magnificent Tourist. They’ve continued to make excellent music and have also added video productions to their creative outlets.
I’ve included a small sample of songs we had recorded in our homemade rehearsal studio which I have upgraded to digital.
Hope you enjoy them. All songs are copyrighted and if anyone is interested for use beyond listening please contact Paul DeSilva, Jon Lee Lambrou or Jim Nicholson thru Radio Silence, Magnificent Tourist, or myself.
SONIC EMBRYOS TO GO
I have included several uncompleted pieces of music that are in their second and third trimester. The selections include my basic offerings of percussion, bass, keyboards and guitar. I invite and challenge my musical friends to add their talents on any of these examples and help us give birth to a healthy, bouncing baby song. I would love to add a section to this website to include new collaborations.
Dennis Steinseifer
Sonic Embryos 2nd Trimester
Another group of embryonic songs waiting for completion by musical muses or myself.
Point
&
View
Included here are experimental sections of instrumental music that were originally recorded in my LA apartment, on my reel to reel, which only had 2 channels. I would record what I could on the left side then add to that on the right. The sounds were separated into 2 channels only and I was not able to layer more music, but for the most part, I was able to get a somewhat full sound. I have lost the reel to reel but had mixed the music down to a cassette years ago. We were able to blend the separate channels together and transfer to digital in the studio. The music was produced from my various keyboards and acoustic guitar.
Mellow Jello
A Relaxation Sensation
Mood music to let the mind relax and do what it does.
Electronic Daydreams
This was one of my first solo experiments in Los Angeles using just keyboards and a stab at vocals. The idea was to have a musical journey for more intimate late night listening through headphones.
Little Wing
Plus
Our 70's original space glitter band Little Wing. We played for a 'Young Republican' (average age around 60) Victory Party and they lost badly! They chased us out after an hour. Shoo-biz!
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The group consisted of Randy Reed, Dennis Hoppe, Linda Reed, and myself.
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Web and Space Wrap were studio versions of music Dennis Hoppe and I jammed with in a warehouse in Somers, WI.
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Broken Mirror is another sample of my two track reel to reel recordings. I and some friends put some great trippy visuals to it but only a small sample of video remains.
Lost Then Found
I discovered some more early, interesting keyboard experiments on an old cassette which had been downloaded from my reel to reel. We dusted them off and cleaned them up and I slapped names on them.
Bar Jams are recordings left over from a bar band I was in for about two weeks with Dick and Dave Hammond and a fellow I believe was named Lannie. It was an exciting dive into hard rock with some very good players and fun guys. As soon as we got a workable set of songs, they decided to turn into a Christian rock band.
Parkside
Ex Per A Mental
This was one of the earliest experiments I did back in college. I pushed a piano from the music room about 100 feet down a hallway to a recording room and played a freeform piano medley on a four track reel to reel. I then added sounds effects, changing tape speeds, layering improvised vocals from a couple of friends I put on the spot and also at one point turned the tape around for backward music effects. Everything was very "experimental"!
