Music

I have worked most of my life as a songwriter, music producer and audio engineer.  Before leaving the U. S. in 2006, I had a professional state-of-the-art ProTools recording studio, production company and publishing house.  My small but extremely competent staff did tour management and radio promotion for numerous Pacific Northwest artists.

Here are songs which I wrote (words and music), arranged, recorded and mixed.  I had studio singers do the vocals but I did most if not all of the instrumentation on these songs.

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I had a band called Politics of Pink way way back in the late 80s while I lived in Los Angeles.  For a while we were signed to an Australian record label and recorded a radio single for them called “She Likes To Dance”.  Unfortunately, I have no copy of the song, nor do I have any listenable copies of most of the songs we recorded and played live during our active years on the stages of some of L.A.’s coolest clubs.  Someone recently dug an old promo shot out of the county toxic waste dump.  I just love my big hair, so massive both in volume and weight I am now experiencing problems with the vertebrae in my neck (just joking).

I was able to dig up a few of our recordings.

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These are some productions of songs written and performed by the artists on my Speed of Light record label.  I did the musical arrangements, production, and audio engineering.  Several of these tracks got significant radio airplay at the time of their release as singles.

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Although throughout my career I predominantly have focused on pop music, my compositional skills are not limited only to that.  I have written for stage plays, websites, and even for modern dance.  Here are three examples.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002019999859 Edward Douglas

    Listening to your tunes on your blog site, excellent production, smooth sounds, if I had to compare, Mike Pela comes to mind. Smooth….

  • http://jdrachel.com John Rachel

    What a compliment, Edward.u00a0 Thanks!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jae-Baeli/548827968 Jae Baeli

    Hey John. outstanding! You’re an impressive guy. Very talented.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nelda-Magide/100002671279534 Nelda Magide

    You are a great ocean, I discovered little by little (I have a problem with language , i’m bad in English, I use the dictionary to understand) splendid career .

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nelda-Magide/100002671279534 Nelda Magide

    You are a great ocean, I discovered little by little (I have a problem with language , i’m bad in English, I use the dictionary to understand) splendid career .

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1402209363 Susan Berzac

    John, somewhere, buried in “stuff” is an original 45 of you with Due East.  This had to in 1967 or 68.  Doing very well in CO but remember the East Lansing Days.

    • http://jdrachel.com John Rachel

      Whoa! So is this blackmail? Ha ha ha. Which one? Believe it or not, in our long and totally unremarkable presence on the Michigan music scene, we released three singles. Together they sold maybe about ten copies. You have a real collector’s item!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1402209363 Susan Berzac

    I have an original 45 of your band, Due East from 1967 or 68.  Among my “stuff” that I haven’t yet freed.  I’ve often wondered where you landed and didn’t realize that you never really did.