SONG: My shred cover of 'Hey Mickey'

Here’s something a little bit fun and a whole lot silly -my shred cover of 'Hey Mickey.' I recorded this back in early 2007 as a bit of a joke. A music forum I used to visit had a challenge where everyone got assigned a cover song to record. I was given 'Hey Mickey' and this is the result.

There should be a YouTube bar embedded above, but if that doesn't work on your computer for some reason, click HERE.

The gear used for the track was very simple. An Ibanez RG7420 7-string with DiMarzio Tone Zone bridge pickup for the rhythm guitars, and an Ibanez Jem7VWH with DiMarzio Evolution pickups for the lead. No amps were used, just a Boss GT-8 direct into a Macbook running Garageband. This was before I even had my Pro Tools rig. I used the GT-8’s Soldano SLO100-inspired model, and used the GT-8’s wah and pitch bend (similar to a Digitech Whammy Pedal) effects in a few select places. I was going for a lead guitar tone like something Steve Vai might have used on his Sex & Religion album.

I put the song up on Myspace for a while and Mike Chapman, the legendary producer who wrote it, heard my version and really liked it. He offered to mix it for me just for fun, provided I record some real drums for it instead of the badly programmed Garageband MIDI drums. I did so, but as is the case with these things sometimes, it never ended up happening – I didn’t hear back from Mike after I emailed him to say the drums were recorded, and the whole thing just kinda petered out. I kinda feel like it’s run its course anyhow, so I present it here as a fun little distraction, as well as the first recording I made after getting my Jem.