It's Neu To Me

A couple of years ago I walked into my favourite indie hipster CD shop and as was often the case, something cool was playing. Of course, I had to ask and pretty soon I was the proud owner of a Manual by Appliance. The track that grabbed my ear was Food Music. Didn't think too much about it, just liked it.

Fast forward to earlier this month, when I recently watched a documentary called Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany. I hear this band from the early 70s called Neu! and I'm hooked. One of the tracks the documentarians used was Hallogallo. There's that sound again. And it hits me. This was one of the roots of much of the music I've been listening to since I was a teen! David Bowie (from his Low period), Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, Pere Ubu, Joy Division (the list goes on) have all drunk from this well.

You've probably heard somewhere that rock music has its roots in the blues. But a lot of modern music has no blues. How did that happen? We've been fed this stuff about young punks rejecting the big established acts. As is often true, it's probably not quite that simple. In their attempt to sound neither American nor British, the young German bands of the 70s forged a new sound. And in hindsight, that influence on the rest of "modern rock" seems profound.

So now I'm busily filling this massive gap in my music "education" and wonder about the numerous forces that have kept me ignorant all these years. Probably was just the force between my ears.

Warning: Extreme Introspection

A lifetime ago, my friends and I would spend time talking heavy. One of the topics, since we were listening to what others might have described as depressing music (Cure, Bauhaus, Smiths), was did you need to be unhappy to create good music.

Well, I can't speak to good music but last week my dog, Bear, died. I was completely unprepared for the intensity of the shock and grief I felt. I and my family were (are still) devastated. For three days, I could not bring myself to touch my guitar.

For me, I now know that unhappiness, in the extreme, kills creativity (apparently not for my daughter who took a number of wonderful photographs).

This weekend, exactly one week almost to the hour when it happened I recorded Grief. I'm not sure it qualifies as good or how it comes across. But I can tell you that I was weeping as I played the last note.

It was cathartic but I remain sad. I also have no desire to play that anymore. Right now I cannot imagine how Clapton could sing about his son night after night.

For the rest of the weekend, I spent as much time as I could wangle hiding out in the Lab making music. Which leads to the conclusion that mid-grade unhappiness seems to be good for creativity.

What about other parts of the emotional landscape?

SPDIF, Not Completely Useless

Figured out a new trick this weekend. I have a Focusrite Saffire audio interface connected to my computer. (Seems to have been discontinued :-( When I got it I learned that all that 4in/10out stuff around audio interface marketing is a bit misleading. As far as I was concerned I only had 2 ins. I can use XLR or 1/4", I have a line/inst switch, a gain knob and some level LEDs for each of these ins. The third and fourth inputs are SPDIF which is a single RCA style connector and thus completely useless.

Or so I thought.

Later on, I got a Boss GT-10 for mo' better guitar wankery. It has a lot of stuff on it including its own USB audio interface. I tried this out and quickly determined that to my untrained ears it sucked. I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about why, I just plugged the analog outs to my Saffire and moved on. Of course I have guesses. One guess is that the GT-10's USB interface presents 16bit/44kHz audio whereas the Saffire is capable of delivering 24bit/96kHz... Another guess is that I just like something that the Saffire preamps are doing. Another guess is that I didn't spend enough time figureing out how to setup the USB stuff to sound good. The final nail in the coffin comes from the way Logic will only deal with a single CoreAudio entity. What that means is if you have an input only device, like a GT-10 and you want outbound sound to go to a Saffire, you need to create an aggregate device (which is a totally cool feature but not without its little problems).

I lived happily in this way for a while until somebody asked me if the GT-10 had a digital out. Dunno, but I looked and surprise it had one... Quick check of the manual, I learn that digital out is actually SPDIF. Hmmm. I wonder if I can free up my analog inputs (so I could hook up a mic or something) by using this SPDIF thing?

Long story short, it works. And it sounds great.

Some minor details did need to be worked out. The Saffire comes with a program called Saffire Control and I needed to enable the SPDIF input. Additionally, the incoming level was a little low. Turns out the GT-10's digital out level is controlled by a configuration in one of the System menus. The main output level knob on the unit only controls the analog output level. This is actually kind of cool since you could, in theory, record the digital signal in addition to mic'ing an amp.

Interesting hobby we have. Lots of shiny toys but like Lego it's up to us to figure out what to do with them.

Apparently Summer is Over

In my other life as an inline speedskater, another racing season is coming wrapping up which means I'll be able to get back to making music and continuing the journey.

To mark that, I actually did a bit of recording and whipped up this little ditty: Sixes and Sevens.

During the summer, my super cool music school took a break and when things resumed I got a new guitar teacher. He is Geoff Torrn and even though he's got me back into a normal tuning he has managed to continue where Mark left off and my head is full of groovy new bits of theory every week. I must be a weird student, wanting more and more theory but that's how we roll...

In other news, I upgraded to Logic 9. Early days yet but I did a side by side test of Logic's flex stuff and Live's warping and ... the results from Logic sounded better. More on that in a future post.

I've been coveting hollow body guitars. Given infinite money, I'd probably get an ES-355 but I don't have infinite money. So what recommend you? There are some very nice and affordable Gretsch guitars around which are all very sexy beasts... oh the sweet pain. The irrational thing is that I can't even really explain why I want a new guitar. What do you all tell your wives/partners when you get "another" guitar?

Enough rambling... I'll try for more focus next post.

First We Take Port Credit / Then We Take Berlin

To this point, the journey has been one of relatively private exploration. I can take as long as I want, apply all manner of studio trickery, layer infinitely to build something that I feel is halfway presentable.

This past Sunday, I took a detour. The T-Rox Music Academy (where I started taking guitar lessons a little over 6 months ago) hosts a monthly jam / open-mic for its students. Something came over me and I decided that the time was now to pop my solo performance cherry.

Now I've played bass before publically but that's always with a bunch of other people and invariably somebody else is the centre of attention. This was very very different.

What to play? For that I decided that I could possibly pull off the main picked melody of my track D Is For... I arrived very nervous with gig bag over shoulder. The instructors are playing Bille Jean and generally kicking ass. Oh this is a mistake. But Nick's seen me. He comes over with the clipboard and asks what I'm playing and if I'm ready to go on... Yikes! No I'm not ready. I haven't even decided fully to play! Quick give me a beer. Pretty soon, I'm almost tuned and ready to go. Stall some more. Let somebody else play. They were young but very awesome. Ugh. I'm totally in the wrong place. I'm gonna kill the vibe with my ballad-y crap. Dude, you're up!

Applause, plug in. Awkwardly acknowledge the audience and start. Of course, I had cut the fingernails on my right hand to play a bass part on another track I was working on... my hands are clammy. Finger picking with no finger nails and clammy hands is not good. Focus, keep playing. My left hand is shaking. Breath. The tune is in the form A B A B A C and each section can repeat pretty much indefinitely. This is good because my brain can't count right now. Ok should I start the ending? Yeah, now. Ouch, wrong first note. Rush through the rest; miss the opportunity to save it by playing it right on the repeat, hit the final note too hard and stop. Fuck. Applause. And I'm done. I have another beer and magically my hands are dry and everything is normal again. WTF just happened?

As I'm sitting there, Nick, perhaps seeing my post-coital grin, asks me if I want to go again. Boy do I. But I have nothing ready... and now I wait until next month.

Art and Art School

In the beginning, I was self-conscious about the music that I made. I even kind of distanced myself from it by playing the various mental games we all play:

This is my first track.

This is a rough mix.

Just got this new fill in the blank and this happened.

Just a little something I cooked in an evening. I have no investment in it so it's totally OK for you not to like it too.

Of course, there's a grain of truth to all of these things but at their root, they represent a kind of emotional shield. Perhaps something to explore another time but this ramble has other places to go.

Over time, I developed some skillz and a touch of hubris. Not quite willing to call myself an artist but being able to imagine a day where I'd be comfortable with the label (as though it's something someone else bestows on you [but that's still another thing]).

That first bout of hubris has been smashed (in a good way) by some very talented friends and it is conversations with these friends about our art that makes me realize that I'm less an artist and more an art student. But that's still not where this ramble is going.

In conversations with friends, we show signs of GAS (gear acquisition syndrome), we share videos describing various production techniques, etc and it's in this diamond mine we varyingly feel like we're in a rut. That we're doing things the same way and need to find new toys, etc. Driving around today I had a flash. What if Picasso tossed all his cubist works after the first one? Felt he was in a rut? Didn't want to repeat himself?

Perhaps we audio sculptors should take a cue from visual artists by embracing our "ruts" and exploring everything they have to offer.

Picasso's The Mandolin lifted from this site without permission.

Listening

On this journey many friends have been made. It is a wonderful thing to be able to share things with people on a similar path that you would otherwise have no hope of actually meeting in person.

Recently one such friend has come to the point on his journey where he has made music that he actually likes listening to. He wondered aloud one day whether or not it was conceited to listen to your own stuff. Interesting question, that. I don't think so and here's why.

I find that music reveals itself to us over repeated listens. Hits are hits partially because they're good but partially because of repeated exposure (be that radio or friends raving). When we make music we automatically get a headstart these listens as a simple byproduct of the creative process. After having got over my own self conscience I too found myself spending a ton of time listening to my own stuff. Partially because I like it and partially I'm listening with an ear to making improvements or learning something. It's obviously difficult to be objective. Perhaps it's not worth examining too closely. But I definitely do not feel conceited.

So sandbags keep on making music; we're all richer for it.

Which brings me to the some of the special people that have done me the honour of listening to my own music enough to have found something worthwhile:

glu, who is a prolific master craftsman of beats
sistersavage, wields a heart melting voice and a wicked wit
kavin, kirklynch and dougsparling, who are part of the forces that got me actually playing guitar instead of just sampling it

(of course there are more but this isn't an Oscar speech). The important thing to take away is that there are a bunch of talented people on Alonetone.com that deserve to be heard (and won't charge you anything).

So with all this listening and recording going on, I am finding that there is increasingly less time to listen to commercial releases. Currently, I'm devoting some time every month (when my eMusic account recharges) to grabbing and listening to new music but it's an effort... Is there a deeper meaning to be extracted? Probably not.

There is an ocean of music and I'm just peeing into it, enjoying the temporary warmth that affords.

CC licensed photo courtesy TomRaven.