Everybody
BY DAN HOYT
Music, Cheap, Fast and Sexy
Must Get Pie!
30 songs in 30 days.
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S
ome record labels and recording
studios in other parts of the coun-
try are a band’s dream. Piles and
piles of computers and machines promise
incredible sound quality and that precise
riff or hook that will sell a million records.
Here in Eugene, however, some people
have the philosophy that if a band is spend-
ing lavish money on something like that
for the sake of their musical “value,”
they’re probably wasting it.
Mike Hansen, 25, is one of those peo-
ple. When he got started writing songs, he
kicked things off with his trusty computer,
a borrowed acoustic guitar and a $2 micro-
phone. Today? His technology’s slightly
better – a $35 used computer, Acid Pro
software and a collection of Casio key-
boards, assorted drums and guitars. “You
don’t need an expensive studio to make
quality music,” he says. “You can do it on
your own in your spare time. If anyone
wants to learn what I do, if you want to get
it done, just do it yourself.”
With three music projects already under
his belt — Sir Anthony’s Ghost,
Yestertomorrow and Hasbean — Hansen’s
ready to release his inner rock star. This
last project is the biggest one he’s under-
taken: recording 30 songs in 30 days, from
May 20 to June 20, and posting them on his
MySpace account for all the world to lis-
ten. “It just kind of started as something I
wanted to do because I was bored,” he
says. “I’ve been doing a lot of solo stuff
and this is a new challenge where I can
have some fun and write songs that are,
well, absurd.”
Hansen operates Hasbean by himself.
He plays all the instruments and mixes
those tracks together with the lyrics, even
throwing together a music video when he
sees fit. “Come Dance With Dance
Machine” is an aptly-named song with or-
gans, choir-like vocals and a slammin’
beat. It even has a hilarious music video
where Hansen runs around town in a robot
costume dancing with everyone who will
get down with him.
“8-Bit Opus” takes a journey through
’80s Nintendo games like Pac-Man, Super
Mario Bros. and Zelda. From every infernal
“wakka-wakka” noise that Pac-Man makes
to Link’s sword blast when he’s at full
health, it’s by far the most intriguing song
on the album, especially to a geek like me.
“Unlike Sir Anthony’s Ghost, where
everything is more emotional, this is the
exact opposite,” Hansen says. “It’s every-
thing I wanted to do that’s humorous.
Bands like Ween showed me that music
can be beautiful and absurd at the same
time. What I’m doing with the 30 songs in
30 days project is I set up a structure, then
go from nothing to being complete within
an hour.”
The beauty in the music of Hasbean
shines the brightest when he mixes in the
goofy game songs with something com-
pletely different. In “Rio Pacifica” he ex-
periments with a Japanese flavor and hard-
strumming electric guitars. “We Say
Zephyr, Zephyr Crazy” doesn’t have any
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lyrics besides the occasional “awww,
yeah,” but it’s still catchy as hell.
Considering that these songs are all pieced
together in just an hour out of boredom, it’s
rather stunning.
Even the song titles in themselves are
actually clever indicators of what to expect
out of the song. “The Hail Storm” paints a
picture of staring out the window at exactly
that, with soft guitars over an ethereal beat.
“Holy Crap, I Love You!” is a cheesy love
song with lyrical harmonies that soar like a
’50s barbershop quartet.
“I try to keep things very improvisa-
tional,” Hansen says. “I’ll lay down a gui-
tar riff, add some drums from the key-
boards and build it part by part. Lyrics-
wise, those will often be something that
happened that day. Something from a news
story I heard, perhaps. It’s autobiographi-
cal and silly at the same time.”
All three of Hansen’s projects, put out
by Secret Stash Records (an homage to his
love for dark, mysterious moustaches),
have different themes and styles of record-
ing that cover a huge spectrum of his musi-
cal influences. Yestertomorrow uses drum
samples and spacey vocals played over
two tape recorders and previous record
tracks. He even hand-delivers $5 CDs of
his work if said buyer is in Eugene, as a
way of saying thank you.
“The trick is to never take yourself too
seriously and make music for the fun of
making music,” he says. “With the tech-
nology and resources we have available to
us today, anyone can be a rock star.” ew
Check out Hansen and his most recent project, Hasbean,
at www.myspace.com/hasbeanmusic
JUNE 22, 2006 13