I really enjoyed ‘It Might Get Loud,’ the documentary that follows Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White as they talk about how they put together their music, and I’ve very much looking forward to ‘Soul Power.’ James Brown! Bill Withers! The Spinners! … And the young Muhammed Ali. The impossible cool.
There’s not much consensus on process — even on basic questions like, “do you write every day or wait until inspiration hits?” — but there’s a great many ideas on how one might go about it.
What is your perfect writing environment?
All different places. I’ll go to a nightclub like the Hotel Cafe, get there late at night when they are closing and hang out with the staff. I’ll go up on the stage where there is a piano, the place is almost empty, and that’s where I like to write. There are still people milling around, but I can concentrate. It’s very inspiring. I can soak up the atmosphere and turn it into music. It gets me in the mood. The mood is important to me. If I am at the beach, and its a nice night at the sun is setting, I’ll whip out my harmonica or my iPhone and just start playing or singing. I’ll get something different than if I were in a room with no windows. [Jack Tempchin, writer of the Eagles' 'Peaceful Easy Feeling'.]
Posted: June 25th, 2010 | Author:dave | Filed under:inspiration, music | Comments Off
Diego Stocco took a few things he had sitting in the yard, made them into an instrument, wrote a piece based on cinematic Western themes for it, and then had this video made:
Tristan Jehan, a Ph.D. in the hyperinstruments group at MIT’s Media Lab, put together a bit of computer magic that takes existing recorded tracks and makes them swing! It works by taking a beat and stretching the first half and shrinking the rest. The examples are fantastic. Check out this version of Guns and Rose’s ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’:
Posted: May 21st, 2010 | Author:dave | Filed under:good read, music | Comments Off
New York City is installing 60 pianos in public spaces, so that anyone can sit down and play a bit. Similar installations have been done in Birmingham, England; São Paolo, Brazil; and Sydney, Australia.
I love this idea, and wonder why music-rich cities like Austin, Memphis, Los Angeles, and Nashville don’t follow suit.
This is all kinds of awesome. There needs to be a some kind of Gov. agency in charge of awesome, that would do this kind of stuff all over the country.
The project is called “Play Me, I’m Yours”, and is being run by Sing for Hope.
I believe that an artist is of his time, and that, even if you’re not using these techniques, it’s interesting to see what others are doing, and the legal issues that they face. (This is the first of three clips that make up the movie. To see it in its full, follow the link above.)
I was a little disappointed that the film doesn’t present an alternative view — legally, but mostly artistically.
For instance, in the opening sequence, there’s a clip of Ray Charles doing a very Ray-Charles-esque moan. I’m sure Ray spent significant time learning how to do that — getting the sound right, figuring out that he wasn’t Harry Belafonte, for instance, and that he could do that, and putting it to track. That moan, however brief, is a part of who he was, and, if you know his work, is immediately identifiable as such. Artistically, why is it okay to take that from him, without any consent, and use it in whatever mish-mash of meaning the current artist is trying to create?
I know that we’re all standing on the shoulders of giants, and the movie presents that idea. The current music scene wouldn’t be what it was if artists didn’t learn from the artists before them. But in past ages, a musician would learn a technique, adopt it to their own work, and then decide whether they wanted to or could use that. (I can’t moan like Ray Charles, but I can moan. What does it feel like when I do it? Steve Winwood is pretty clearly channeling Ray in ‘Gimme Some Lovin”, but it’s now his own.) In that exploration, the artist becomes better at his craft, and, eventually, develops his own style.
But mashups seem like power without discipline or understanding to me. The artist is borrowing Ray Charles’ moan without the price of learning or experiencing what that means or any real ability to make it their own. It’s just a cool beat. It feels like it might be great the first time — reinventing the past! finding new dimensions in old work! the startling juxtaposition! — but the 10th? The 10,000th?
And what’s the purpose? Do artists make mashups just because they sound good? That seems fun, but ultimately hollow. Is the music of our current culture really just about the beat? This seems like the basest description of music to me, however immediately enjoyable. If so, what does that say about us? Where does the mashup artist present his own voice?
Is this entire field of music just about the cultural connection? “You and I — we have a past! Because we both watched The Brady Bunch!”
I suppose there’s an argument to be made that it’s like jazz — riffing on existing themes and ideas. But, again, there’s a discipline and knowledge there that doesn’t seem to exist in this form.
I also think there’s a slope — it’s one thing to borrow a beat, and do something on top of it. It’s another to make your work largely predicate on that of others.
I am completely open to being educated on this. — Bring out your mashups that rise above the source.
The Rolling Stone’s Exile on Main Street is one of my favorite albums of all time. To me, it sounds like what a wild, reckless weekend should be: full of sloppy, late nights; words that are true in the moment; strutting and flirting; good friends coming and going, seemingly at random; and the biggest Sunday morning coming down ever, tagged with a round of redemption.
As, apparently, with all good things of my youth, it’s been dug up and reissued, repackaged, re-engineered with modern technology, and now with the stuff that we weren’t sure you’d enjoy the first time around!
Posted: May 9th, 2010 | Author:dave | Filed under:good read, music | Comments Off
Independent musician Dayna Kurtz is trying to raise money to get an album that she released in Europe released in the United States. She’s started a kickstarter project to do this. The video on that page is really well done.
Rather incredibly to me, she got a piece of hate mail in response this project.
Independent musician