Kaatza Music

[Kaatza_Music]

http://portelance.com/songbird/images/leon.gif
Leon Portelance
Songbird Productions/Kaatza Music

My father was French Canadian and my mother was of Irish/English decent. I grew up in a small logging town on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.

I started out as a bass player and then guitar player in the late 60s/early 70s (high school). I loved to write songs and decided that I seriously wanted to be a musician, so I went straight to university and received a Bachelor of Music Degree in Composition and Theory in 1976 from the University of Victoria and then got a certificate in recording engineering from the Columbia School of Broadcasting.

Here are a couple of songs I wrote in 1970 when I was 16: Doesn't Anybody Care? (http://portelance.thejukebox.tv/songs/hi/Doesnt_Anybody_Care.mp3) and Wreck Bay (http://portelance.thejukebox.tv/songs/hi/Wreck_Bay.mp3).

After that I played in many rock bands over the years, but never acheived more than regional success in the Vancouver, BC area. In 1980, we released a single that got quite a bit of local airplay: Afraid of Loving You (http://portelance.thejukebox.tv/songs/hi/Afraid_of_Loving_You.mp3) and She Left in a Hurry (http://portelance.thejukebox.tv/songs/hi/She_Left_in_a_Hurry.mp3), which was about a girl named Brenda who was a lifelong friend and one of the singers in our band. She commited suicide at 24, hence the song.

I worked as an assistant engineer for awhile at Mushroom Studios in Vancouver. Heart recorded Dreamboat Annie and Magazine there but had just recently left the Mushroom label when I came on board. This was also where Terry Jacks recorded Seasons in the Sun (an awful song IMHO but it made Terry a very rich man). Later, I was part owner of Bullfrog Studios also in Vancouver.

I was a big Beatles and John Lennon fan, so I was upset when he was assassinated in 1980. I wrote a song shortly after called Twenty Years Ago Today (http://portelance.thejukebox.tv/songs/hi/Twenty_Years_Ago_Today.mp3) and recorded it at Bullfrog. Billy Cowsill who used to sing with the Cowsills in the 60s did all the vocals. He is an amazingly talented guy and it was fun to work with him. I think he's a school teacher these days.

When Reagan was elected, I started writing a rock opera called This is Only a Test . . . It was a parady on the Cold War. It took forever to record and I finished it just as the Berlin Wall came down which shows that timing is everything (or nothing). My opera became outdated overnight :( C'est la vie! Here are a few tunes from that venture: Supreme Soviet (http://portelance.thejukebox.tv/songs/hi/Supreme_Soviet.mp3), Stiff Upper Lip (http://portelance.thejukebox.tv/songs/hi/Stiff_Upper_Lip.mp3) and Made in China (http://portelance.thejukebox.tv/songs/hi/Made_in_China.mp3).

I didn't do a lot of music in the 90s. Instead I started a cabinet manufacturing company and was elected to the local Town Council for two terms and later took a shot at the NDP nomination for Member of Parliament for the Nanaimo-Cowichan riding, but didn't get it. By 1996, just when my business was firmly established and it looked like I would have a comfortable retirement, my business partner sued me and we fought for a couple of years. By the time it was over, I got the business, but there was nothing left after the lawyers gourged themselves.

In May 1998, I moved to California and met a California girl (those Beach Boys were right!) who is now my wife. I am a licensed general contractor and currently work as a Sr. Construction Project Manager for Washington Mutual Bank. Besides hanging out on this forum and trying to write film cues, I am also an author. My first book, Slumach - The Lost Mine (http://www.edgarramsey.com) took me almost twenty years to write and was finally finished in 2004. I published it under the pen name, Edgar Ramsey. I am currently working on a new book, a trilogy called, Faith before Reason: The New America, which is a polical thriller. I hope to finish it by the end of the year. It should do well in the blue states :D

http://portelance.com/songbird/images/studio.gif
Les Paul - My Studio in Sonora, CA - Hollywood Custom

Name: Leon Portelance
Age: 52
Family: my wife Debi, 5 kids (2 still at home), 1 stepson and 2 grandchildren
Home: Sonora, California
Websites: kaatzamusic.com (http://kaatzamusic.com), garageband.com/artist/leonportelance (http://www.garageband.com/artist/leonportelance), soundclick.com/leonportelance (http://www.soundclick.com/leonportelance), soundclick.com/kaatzamusic (http://www.soundclick.com/kaatzamusic)
Favorite Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (I love the late quartets!)
Influences: Beatles, Stones, Doors, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Doobie Brothers, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Little Feat, Little River Band, Billy Joel and many others
Favorite Film Composer: don't really have one. Hope John Williams retires soon so some other guys can get some work :)

[luima]

Leon,
Nice to meet you,
I remember having heard your pieces even from many time ago, maybe two years in the old NS forums ?. So I had alredy an idea of your music.
Is nice to know about your musical experience.
See you in the forum
Luis

[fongi]

Leon with the cool Les Paul, I knew I´d seen you somewhere!

[Crossingsound]

your guitar still looks like a beauty, even after all these years. ;)

[Kaatza_Music]

Leon with the cool Les Paul, I knew I´d seen you somewhere!

your guitar still looks like a beauty, even after all these years. ;)

I had it refinished in the early 70s. It used to be a gold top. I like the natural maple though, even though it is not a book-matched top.

Apparently I lowered its value by having it non-stock original, but I don't really care as I have no intention of ever selling it. One guy in a music store offered my $6,500 on the spot for it. I have no idea what it is worth.

I'll try and post something soon that features old Les.

Leon

[Kaatza_Music]

Leon,
Nice to meet you,
I remember having heard your pieces even from many time ago, maybe two years in the old NS forums ?. So I had alredy an idea of your music.
Is nice to know about your musical experience.
See you in the forum
Luis

I still hang out on NS occasionally, but I definitely spend more time here on EW. It is almost like a family :)

Leon

[fongi]

Hey Leon $6500.- hmmm..... that´s a whole lot of software old buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

[Kaatza_Music]

Hey Leon $6500.- hmmm..... that´s a whole lot of software old buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

Yeah, but some things you can't sell. :o

I am fortunate in that I have pretty much all of the software I want now. The only thing I have my eye on is Atmosphere. And a newer Mac wouldn't hurt.

[Crossingsound]

Fongi,
we think alike!

Atmoshphere is a great purchase, highly recomended. :D

[Ecliptic]

Hey Leon $6500.- hmmm..... that´s a whole lot of software old buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)
Hey Chris,

There is no software that is worth a good guitar.
Especially that guitar! I think It's worth much more than $6500 and, Leon, you're absolutely right not giving it away. Well done! :cool:

Cheers

[Ecliptic]

Fongi,
we think alike!

Atmoshphere is a great purchase, highly recomended. :D
Hey Eric,

you think alike Fongi, but have you seen Leon's Les?

Atmosphere is very nice. No need selling that guitar to purchase it. It's sufficient giving up a sunday trip to buy it!

http://www.soundsonline-forums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=128&stc=1&d=1153684320

[Crossingsound]

yes, I have seen his les, and I have been a long time user of Gibson les paul guitars, however recently I switched over to Paul reed smith, and I love it! my less paul is now sitting there as a backup:D I am a cheater, I know. However, his guitar is a peice of history, and I really probally would hold onto it to, because everytime I have sold a guitar or peice of gear, I usually always regret it. But there are times when i look around my studio, and think, hmmm, I wonder if I could sell anything to get something new. I am a gear aholic. I need help.

[Andrew Sigler]

Hi Leon,

Not to hijack your thread, but I wanted to make a PRS comment...

The best guitar I ever owned was a PRS Swamp Ash Special. I could play it on a 4 hour gig and it would not go out of tune. Great tone, playability, everything...insane guitar.

Then I sold it...:(


huge mistake.


I still think about it and the 16 year old rich kid whose mom bought it for him for his birthday.

Limp Bizkit never sounded so good...


-Andy

[Crossingsound]

I still think about it and the 16 year old rich kid whose mom bought it for him for his birthday.

Limp Bizkit never sounded so good...


-Andy


Oh man, and that kid probally played it for a few weeks, and now its sitting in the corner collecting dust. I was looking at a swamp ash myself, but I got at custom 24. I love it.

off the topic funny link, hopefully you can get this

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail36.html

[Kaatza_Music]

Since we are on the topic of guitars, I thought I would share a couple of more:

http://www.portelance.com/images/dove.jpg

This my Dove which I bought in 1970. It was a little stiff at first, but it has mellowed out over the years.
It records well.

http://www.portelance.com/images/holly.jpg http://www.portelance.com/images/hollyback.jpg

This guitar, "the Crow," was built for me by a friend named Holly and he calls his brand "Hollywood." The interesting thing is he carved it out of one piece of solid wood. You can see that there is no joint where the neck meets the body. It is setup sort of like a Strat but it also has a bridge pickup for an acoustic sound.

Lamenting ones that we sold, I had a couple of Precision Basses over the years that I was sad to sell. A Gibson SG. Also an old Gibson Jazztop. I sold it to a guy because I felt sorry for him, his guitar was broken and he had gigs to play and a family to feed. I sold it to him for $350, only a portion of its value. I found out later that he had smashed his other guitar in a drunken rage. If I'd have known that before I never would have sold it to him. And it took me over a year to finally collect the $350. A sucker is born every minute and you can call me one. :o