"The Rooftop EP": 5 one-man band Beatles covers | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I wanted to share with you all a project I recently released.

As I’m sure everyone else here did, I watched the 8-hour-long Peter Jackson docuseries, and as a cover artist looking for his next big project, it got me very inspired. I put out an album in December that spanned everything from Aretha Franklin to John Mayer, and I wasn’t really sure where to go from there. I’ve always been a massive Beatles fan so it bummed me out that I hadn’t put out any Beatles covers yet, but as I was looking at the setlist of the rooftop concert, it hit me: “They only did 5 unique songs. That’s an EP right there.”

And now it is! After months of driving myself more than a little insane, “The Rooftop EP” is now available to stream and download (for free). Right here.

This was an interesting endeavor. Since I was paying homage to a live concert, I wanted to allow room for improvisation and imperfections, but at the same time… it’s The Beatles. And for 3 of the 5 songs, the rooftop version is the version. Even though not all of the songs are super famous, I wanted to make something that appealed to Beatles fans like me who know the deeper cuts just as well as the more ‘mainstream’ tracks.

Due to this weird paradox, it made the most sense for me to do this as a one-man band project. Operating at such a specific level of discretion – “this drum fill definitely needs to be copied note-for-note”, “just get the chords and general strumming pattern for this rhythm guitar part” – makes it hard for anyone who isn’t literally inside my head to jump on-board. So I did everything: John, Paul, and occasionally George’s vocals; John and George’s guitars; Paul’s bass; Ringo’s drums; and Billy’s electric piano.

Full transparency here: While the goal was to imitate a live show, almost nothing is truly one take. I recorded the parts in complete run-throughs, generally 2 to 4 takes each, and spliced the best bits together. The piano was the only thing not done this way. I’m simply not a proficient enough keyboardist, but I had a MIDI controller and a vision.

I’ll be releasing a video version soon, and hopefully some behind-the-scenes clips as well, but in the meantime, please enjoy “The Rooftop EP”!