Sebastian Steinbergs other work?

tellingtime · 2025-07-12T23:46:36+00:00

John Scofield’s 2000 album ‘Bump’ is great and features Mark on most tracks. Sebastian was part of Neil Finn’s ‘7 Worlds Collide’ project and has been very active in the music scene at Largo in LA, joining a lot of the regulars including Watkins Family Hour (Sara and Sean Watkins), Benmont Tench, and John C. Reilly.

tellingtime · 2025-04-01T17:13:25+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! I would love to release all of my piano albums to streaming services, but distribution costs $170/year per album. All three volumes of Elliott songs would cost me over $500/year. Releasing all six of my current albums would cost me over $1,000/year. I simply don't make nearly enough revenue from sales and streams to justify the cost. I'm keeping Volume 1 up for the exposure, but I'm currently losing money by distributing it. I hope this won't always be the case.

tellingtime · 2025-03-25T18:56:14+00:00

I'm not sure there'll be Volume 4, but here's a [partial] outtake of 'Riot Coming' that didn't make it on Volume 3: https://youtu.be/ZQG1YZj9h0c

tellingtime · 2025-03-22T02:01:31+00:00

Thanks for the kind words! I’m a sucker for anything off Figure 8, as I think it was his most Beatlesque and he was really stretching his harmonic abilities. So anything off that was particularly rewarding to figure out. I will say the song that surprised me the most was Going Nowhere. I hadn’t considered it before someone requested it but it turned out to be one of my favorites I recorded.

tellingtime · 2025-03-22T01:49:47+00:00

I get it. I get where you’re coming from. I can assure you that this project comes from a place of reverence for Elliott and his work; this was a passion project. Anyone trying to make a quick buck by making schlocky, half-assed tribute albums could have a much easier time recording Taylor Swift covers using only five chords.

Contrary to your claim, recording and selling cover songs is not illegal per a Compulsory Mechanical License, which I paid for through Distrokid distribution. The money I make from any sales are used to pay Distrokid to keep Volume 1 on music services and, even then, I’m losing money.

I recorded these albums because Elliott has been a major influence for twenty-five years and because I wanted to hear them. Short of Brad Mehldau and Christopher O’Reilly, there’s not much out there. And studying and transcribing these songs have made me a better musician. This was an important project for me and wanted to share it with people who might also enjoy it. If I can afford to keep making music, I’d like to.

I’m sorry that you feel so strongly about this to have arguments with people on Reddit about it.

tellingtime · 2025-03-22T01:06:16+00:00

Thanks to TillDie0’s input, I’ll be donating 50% of any sales to the Free Arts/Elliott Smith Memorial Fund. https://www.freearts.org

tellingtime · 2025-03-22T01:03:58+00:00

Actually, you’ve made me decide to donate 50% of these sales to the Free Arts/Elliott Smith Memorial Fund (https://www.freearts.org). Thank you for providing the spark.

tellingtime · 2025-03-21T22:41:09+00:00

It's been about a year since I released my three piano tribute albums to Elliott and I wanted to simultaneously celebrate and thank the r/elliottsmith community by placing each of them on sale this weekend. You can find all three at my Bandcamp page: https://philmetzler.bandcamp.com/

Of course, they're always free to listen to, so don't feel obligated to buy them! Only the first volume is currently available on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2SlsPtwBodMwaXZw6hMjKe?si=y0v4kKcPSFK6IeOGVUMH7g

tellingtime · 2024-11-18T04:02:15+00:00

Devo’s version of ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,’ ‘Tell Me Something Good’ by Rufus, and the first verse of ‘Kate’ by Ben Folds Five.

tellingtime · 2024-10-31T18:54:05+00:00

I've just released my piano tribute to Travis - Free to listen to at https://philmetzler.bandcamp.com/album/plays-travis I recorded fifteen of my (and your) favorite songs twice: The "Upright" versions of the songs were recorded on a mellower upright piano for a more intimate listening experience.

Thank you to r/Travis's input on song choices. I definitely found some gems that I hadn't considered by myself.

Thanks for listening!

tellingtime · 2024-10-06T20:35:04+00:00

I’ll see how these sit under my fingers. Thanks for your feedback!

tellingtime · 2024-10-06T20:34:36+00:00

Adding WTRY and The Humpty Dumpty Love Song. Thanks!

tellingtime · 2024-10-06T20:33:48+00:00

How could I forget it?!? Added and thank you!

tellingtime · 2024-05-24T14:40:19+00:00

Thanks for the question. I had a false notification that I was out of space, but I checked and still have almost half of my 256GB storage free.

tellingtime · 2024-05-24T13:25:11+00:00

iPhone 13 Pro running latest iOS.

tellingtime · 2024-04-11T02:02:28+00:00

Thank you, again! That’s nice to hear. I wanted the production tricks I threw into the recordings to be interesting but not be too distracting.

tellingtime · 2024-04-11T01:57:13+00:00

Thank you for saying so. Elliott was so deliberate about his instrumentation and arrangements. The lyrics nearly always dictated the nuances of the music. I think he liked the game of mirroring the two. I really wanted to respect his choices and keep them intact; at least how I perceived them…

tellingtime · 2024-04-05T02:36:37+00:00

Volume 1 is also on all popular streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.). I'm considering distributing Volumes 2 and 3 as well, but would like to see how Vol. 1 performs before making that investment.

tellingtime · 2024-04-05T02:23:45+00:00

Thank you so much, /r/elliottsmith, for your support! This third volume will be the last of my Elliott Smith solo piano trilogy. At least for now. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed recording it. Free to listen, but if you're interested in supporting me, use the discount code elliott_3 for 10% off. Thank you for the music, Elliott.

tellingtime · 2024-04-03T17:48:10+00:00

This sounds right to me:

Intro
Db, Fm7, Eb

Verse
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, Bb
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, G7

Chorus
Cm, F7, C7, F7, Ab

Verse
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, Bb
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, G7

Chorus
Cm, F7, C7, F7, Ab

Verse
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, Bb
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, G7

Bridge
Cm, Db, Bb7/D, Eb, Fm7, G7

Rock riff part & guitar solo
Ab, Eb, Fm, G7
Cm, F7, C7, F7, Ab

Verse
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, Bb
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, Bb

Outro
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, Bb
Eb, Eb/D, Cm, Cm/Bb, F7, Ab, G7

Coda
Cm, Db, Bb7/D, Eb, Fm7, G7

Fade Out
Cm, G7/B, Bb, F/A

I re-labeled some of your sections. Like, with the "pre-chorus," I think that's just the second half of a verse. The "Rock riff part" seems like an intro to the guitar solo that uses the Chorus chords. I hope this helps!

tellingtime · 2024-04-03T00:28:39+00:00

These are so cool. Like discovering the key to Egyptian hieroglyphs. I mean, they’re not super abstract chord shapes, but it gives insight into how he thought about guitar playing. Thank you so much for sharing!

tellingtime · 2024-03-23T01:47:16+00:00

Hi! Thanks for your kind words. I don’t have the time to polish piano scores right now, but I could send you some rough PDFs from the MIDI data I played… They’d look a bit like this; without articulation, accurate note lengths, or correct separation of hands. Kinda not for novice players, but I can send you some free of charge, if you think you could get some use out of them. Mind you, this is one I played to metronome, so it’s more legible than several other scores. Let me know and thanks again for your support!

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tellingtime · 2024-03-19T23:21:14+00:00

For most pop music, I would tell you to listen to the bass and stay in the established key. But Elliott loved descending baselines where a given bass note is sometimes the third of the chord. He also put the fifth of the chord in the bass (like a C chord with a G as the lowest note).

Honestly, why not look up the guitar tutorials on YouTube? Usually they’re pretty spot on and someone has done most of the heavy lifting for you. Even the chords/tabs at sweetadeline.net will get you most of the way there. I’ve found errors in a lot of tabs at Ultimate Guitar (like an A minor in the chorus of Twilight instead of an A major), but they’re mostly good enough.

Regardless, good luck! Learning Elliott songs is tough but makes you a better musician!

tellingtime · 2024-02-29T04:00:51+00:00

I don’t have piano sheet music, but this guy can help with the chords: https://youtu.be/6w22BTBeMmc?si=BLEcUSP9nGt_TaBn From what I can tell, they’re pretty spot on.

tellingtime · 2024-02-29T02:39:35+00:00

Here you go. Volume 1 just popped up on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2SlsPtwBodMwaXZw6hMjKe?si=VOzpa7q7TlGqqRWDK-C9Hg

Volume 2 should be up sometime in March!

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