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.

Virginity Lost

I, like you, have spent most of my life watching professional musicians make faces while they play. As a teen, I didn't think too much about it because things in my own life were plenty intense and it was all about me anyway. As I got bit older and more cynical I started to wonder how much of the whole thing was an act. Then I read that book... This Is Your Brain On Music. Awesome. Opened my mind to the possibility that some artists are actually feeling something profound.

My own facial expressions while playing have been of intense concentration or grimaces as I've hit wrong notes. What do I expect, I suck. But recently, I had some quiet time so I laid down a 4 chord organ sequence, added a bass, looped the thing and strapped on the guitar to just make some noise.

Over the next couple of hours, I played and I played. At some point I crossed over. My face was a glow. I felt electric. To paraphrase Winnie the Pooh, I felt "tingly in my jingly". It was the closest thing to rapture that I have felt in any remotely recent memory. For a full ten minutes after I put the guitar down, I had a stupid post-coital grin on my face. It was almost embarrassing!

It was good. It was scary. I'm not entirely sure about letting go in this way. I want to go back. But I'm afraid. Makes no sense. Makes no sense at all.

CC licensed photo by Heart Industry.

At Minute Marker 480, Pull Over and Enjoy The View

At the bottom of your iTunes window, you may have noticed the stats. Before I resumed making music, I read somebody's blog where they had finally crossed the one month threshold. They had finally collected enough music, that if played continuously, a month would pass. It's an interesting number (my own collection is now at 10081 items, 34.5 days).

But what's recently surprised me is that my own music (or music that I collaborated on) now represents 104 tracks spanning over 8 hours. Really?!? Holy crap!

If any of it were any good, that would be like 7 CDs. That would have been pretty good career for a successful pop act :-)

If I built this up on hobbyist time, what kind of "extra" music might a pro have? Perhaps their own month of music?

Grab Bag

Been a while. Won't bore you with the usual excuses and crap. Just dive in with some stuff that's been on my mind.

First up, the fabulous Inside Home Recording podcast. Specifically, episode 71. In it one of the hosts discusses some work that he did using a big band sample library complete with audio examples. His specific topic was funky MIDI control of sample libraries to add a human element. All very interesting but what really caught my ear was the mixing step. Where he went from a flat, sample based arrangement to a professionally mixed big band. Wow. The early taste Dave gives of the arrangement makes me think, wow what a crappy sample library. People pay for this stuff? But he soldiers on and magic happens. Something to be said for get the performance right and worry about the tonal canvas later. But please Dave, a segment on how you mixed that would be really cool.

Second, we all have favourite tunes from our teens. Somehow they imprint on us. I happened to be a teen in the mid 80s and one of the tracks that I've been listening to on and off since then is The Spangle Maker by The Cocteau Twins. This is not their best work but the rawness of the track has always, for me, added that certain je ne sais quois. This weekend, for the first time I actually heard something different in it. With my recording geek / guitar player wannabe ear, I actually was able to pick out the various guitar parts. As separate things, rather than the swirling soup that I always loved. There are two things about this experience that are totally fucking cool to me. For starters, no matter how much I learn about music it is still magic and still touches me deeply. And the other thing is that you can listen to a track for 20 years and find something new in it. How fucking cool is that.

The last bit of news is that I went out and bought a Boss GT-10. Best. Toy. Ever. I've been playing with it for a couple of days now and I've only explored half of the presets. Let alone making my own, or the looping function or connecting it to my computer, recording or any of that. Just like getting a new synth can inspire, I gotta say there's something magic the plethora of guitar sounds that my feet now have access to. More on this amazing device soon.

What Will They Think

Years from now, when we're all dust and the archaeologists, anthropologists or spacemen are picking through our stuff... what will they find?

This morning, I read my email which included this item from the Lefsetz Letter where Bob enumerates and editorializes on the weekly record sales for the top 40 or so. Now I'm not a top 40 guy but when I was a younger angrier man I at least had heard of all the artists on it. Now not so much. Chrisette Michelle? Who? My story only I makes Bob's point. Of course, willful ignorance is the worst kind so I consult the Oracle of Google and watch this. Wasn't missing much. Next.

Later, I see a tweet from Peter Kirn of CreateDigitalMusic pointing me at another youtube video. A cover of Fleet Foxes' Tiger Mountain Peasant Song. Wow, what voices and harmonies. Who are they, well they're First Aid Kit out of Sweden. According to their myspace page they sound like what Gary Numan would if he did folk music! Brilliant.

Of course, I hadn't heard of Fleet Foxes either, so I clicked on one of the related videos and saw this beauty.

And it hit me, like it has many many times before, that there's a ton of music out there. You could spend 30 minutes a day exploring things you never heard of everyday for the rest of your life and not scrape the surface.

So what will they think when they start digging through all this?

For us? We do live in interesting times and it fucking rocks.

CC licensed photo spaceman2 by The Untrained Eye

Silly Rabbit, Picks Are For Kids

I have had in my possession for a whole three days now a thing of wonder. Now that I'm playing guitar (or attempting to) and I find myself looking hither and yon for "talent enhancers". I had heard about E-Bows when I was a teen but never seen one so it seemed perfectly logical that I should buy one on impulse.

Now the sales guy warned me in a heavy southern drawl, "now when you first use an E-Bow, you're gonna suck!" Strange both in the directness and that here in the Toronto area we don't hear drawls like that. I was taken aback but I bravely plowed on and said, "well I make experimental music so it's ok if I suck."

Once I bought my new treasure home, the Southern Man turned out to have hit the nail on the head. I did suck. Was it broken? Did I need a new battery already? Should I take it back? You mean I need to read the instructions? You mean I might need to listen to the included CD with a players guide? The buyers remorse lasted a good 15-30 minutes.

Somewhat fortuitous for me, sandbags had recently posted Rytme Shifter 1 which seemed perfect to E-Bow along with. Soon enough things were getting completely out of hand. I felt like Fripp! Perhaps I should have recorded all that but I didn't. Instead I played and played late into the night...



The next morning, I woke up and decided it was time to record and in a much mellower mood, I came up with this:



Of course, the training wheels are off now and I'm working on the next track and all thoughts of taking the thing back are gone. I even went back to thank Southern Man for his warning.