For those interested....

[2manyguitars]

Yes, it has a definite "mid-Beatles" feel to it, & it's nicely produced too. What does your home studio consist of?  Mine is a 9' square spare bedroom alternatively referred to as "the studio" or "the Noisy Corner"    & I'm still recording to Cubase LE4 with virtual instruments from Native Instruments.
 
I had a quick listen to Running in the Headlights too,  and in addition to the "influences" mentioned above
I might have detected a hint of Elton John in a few of the pieces? 

The room is roughly 20 by 20. I'm old fashioned and still use an AKAI DPS 24, its the best multitrack hardware out there and I've yet to find anything else that comes close to the quality of it. Of course its all hooked up through a PC as well for when I do want to use plugins, or transfer tracks for mastering. Most of that tends to be in Cubase, or for final mastering I would use something like sony soundforge and a decent mastering plugin. Izotope Ozone is great for those final tweaks before committing to CD...

With regards to Elton, I've never really been a big fan to be honest, although who couldn't love the early to mid stuff.....My piano playing was inspired by hearing Bruce Hornsby, another guy who really stamps his personality on his instrument (MK and BH that would be one hell of a collaboration).

Any of your stuff online 3strats?

[3Strats]

Ahhh - a PROPER studio (sigh) 

Re Elton, it was his early sound and the way the vocals flowed that I was hearing in a couple of places.

If you're feeling brave you can click on the link to my "planespotting" website in my signature strip below
& navigate to the music page where my covers & some original tunes are located. There are of course others
that will never see the light of day! 

My MK covers are probably the weakest because of the challenge of setting myself up against a guitar legend.

[2manyguitars]

Cool, will check it out. I know what you mean about those 'that will never see the light of day'....

My first recording was on a dodgy old 4 track, with awful 8 bit sample drums from an old amiga 500. And the song.......well lets just say that its quite possibly the worst version of sultans in history. The masters have been buried in a box, locked in a safe, before being jettisoned into a volcano....That one will deffinately never see the light of day...  

[2manyguitars]

Don't do yourself down 3 strats, the instrumentals are nice, and mediocre is a gem of an idea....

[3Strats]

You're too kind. (More self depreciation) .  I have a couple of half finished tunes with lyrics I'm not happy with that are sitting waiting for the right words to come along. As I said in my website "disclaimer"  I find my wry sense of humour finds it's way into my songs, and I'm very self critical of those that are more serious or "personal" so they tend to stay unfinished.

[2manyguitars]

I'm very self critical of those that are more serious or "personal" so they tend to stay unfinished

That's the thing I struggled with for years, probably why I spent 15 years in various bands, hiding behind a lead singer and doing a bad mark knopfler impersonation....

Took me ages to put my 'real' personal stuff out there for people to criticise.....

[3Strats]

I've been thinking of how to respond without sounding pretentious ! 
This is the best I can do:

 I also think it's because we aspire to be "proper" songwriters & not just manufacturers of "bubblegum" i

[2manyguitars]

That's a good point. For me its about escaping you influences but not abandoning them, producing something original that is 'of' your influences but not derivative, and I' not claiming to have achieved that, its where I'm trying to get to.

Its why I really don't like the whole tribute band thing. People making a lucrative career from a note for note copy of their favourite artist, without a shred of creativity. Don't get me wrong, I understand the desire to 'Play like MK' or whoever it may be, and spent years learning his solos note for note. but in the end abandoned it, 1 because I'm not good enough! and 2 cause I needed to express myself in my own ways.

Oh and to some extent I lied above.... as I can still be caught occasionally wailing away along to TR or TOL, at high volumes disturbing the neighbours for at least 14 minutes 28 seconds or so on end......Practice purposes only of course