As I continue to experiment in my home studio, I'll sometimes come up with a cover song that doesn't fit into any larger project I'm working on. Such is the case with my recent single release of Billy Joel's “River of Dreams”.

I started recording tracks on this song in the winter of 2023. I wanted to see if I could multi-layer percussion tracks as well as simulate a backup choir (a concept I used on a couple tracks on my “Glory” album earlier this year). I never sounded quite right so I shelved it for a while an came back to it about a month ago.

There are 21 tracks in the final recording: 6 of them are my vocals ranging from high accapella to low baritone and bass. I used no AI or generated music tracks – all instruments and vocals are me layered on top of each other. As a result, there are imperfections on the recording, but I like that as I feel it makes it more genuine and less “clean” and program-matic.

I'll never replicate Billy Joel but always wanted to do my own version and interpretation of this song (which was one of his last singles from his last studio album in 1993).

https://open.spotify.com/track/5RMdx9DE2caWKbYadek4KG?si=725a4ffe8c0f41a2