Is that really just you?

Rather than talk about all the excitement that goes into putting together a website, something I'm not actually excited about either, I thought it would be more interesting to talk about how I come up with all these great tunes all by myself...

Then again, maybe not.

However, I do find that people are surprised when they hear the music and that I did it by myself. Some of that is simple economics; as someone who records at home and works at it in fits and starts, it's much easier than trying to coordinate say a band, with different individuals with their own time restrictions and commitments, not to mention their own ideas about how the songs should sound.

As for how I come up with a song, mostly, like other musicians or songwriters, it comes from playing, be it a guitar or keyboard or drums/percussion. If I like something, I'll keep working on it till I know it well enough to remember it the next day or as I did in the old days, I get the basic tracks recorded.

Then I begin adding other sounds; bass, more guitars, vocals, whatever I find fits, and I find that out through experimentation. The fun in having a lot more tracks to play with ( 24 now versus 4 in the past ) and the sounds that come from the GR-55, a guitar synth, or just running the guitars through the outboard equipment I have, an Effectron 2, an Alesis Midiverb, and old school stomp boxes like a Rat or a wahwah pedal.

I'm certainly not a virtuoso musician, but I'm good enough for what I want to do or create, and I'm willing to work out parts as I need them. I also feel that I have a very good sense of production as far as what I want to accomplish with a particular sound or song.

Pretty boring.

But it works for me.

Now What?

     Alright!    

     Now that all your songs ( or in this case mine ) are ready, willing, and able to be heard; the next step, naturally, is how are you going to get the music out to the wider audience so you can bask in the glory and praise you so richly deserve? In the old days you would send out tapes, of varying quality, to anyone you thought might be interested ( vinyl albums from someone other than a label in those days was a vanity project and very expensive ), play a lot of gigs; good and bad, put flyers on poles and walls; all of which you can still do, in hopes of landing a recording contract for the low low price of your publishing rights, royalties, dubious accounting practices, an advance you may or may not be able to ever repay, and your soul.
     Don't laugh!
     More than a few bands have tales of woe at the hands of the record machine.
     Those tales also include being told all the ways you have to change your look and sound in order to make the big bucks dancing around in your head. It wasn't for the weak or timid. That may or may not explain why you might believe some artists are self absorbed jerks. It is what it is.

     Now with the Internet and digital recording that are relatively easy and affordable, you can be your own man or woman. Or if you're someone like me sitting on a trove of recordings, you can get those out for everyone who's interested in hearing them. The question is which way are you going to go? There are any number of sites that caters to starving musicians and bands that promise to get your music out there. You also need a social media presence, preferably more than one, and then there's the delivery platforms for the music itself: CD's, vinyl, downloads, either in full sonic clarity or compressed, and you need art and graphics to go along with the music.
     For me, I asked my son, Yuji, to do the artwork:

     This is the cover art for the first album I'm releasing: Apologia. I always had a thing for bands that had artists do their album covers, so my plan was to have a series of paintings for the albums that are as interesting as the music. I have no interest in plastering my sad mug on the cover. Once the artwork was done I went with Discmakers to make a limited run of CD's and went through them with for the digital distribution on iTunes, Amazon, Soundcloud, Spotify, etc. That takes time and money. That's the other thing; getting your music out ain't free.

     Next: I need a website.

Because you've got to know!

     I'm one of those people who has no problem creating, whether songs or, of late, stories. That of course is once I get my act together and do it. My normal process is to ruminate about it in my head and then when the procrastination becomes too much, I work; and once I start I work till it's finished. I'm not a 'it's half done, let's sit on it for a while' type.
     I started making music in my teens, and have continued writing over the years, although after 1991, I took a long break after finishing the 10th album. Most of the albums were written and recorded between 1984 and 1987; 7 of them to be exact. That's a lot of work in a short period of time. And once I was done, it was; well now what?
     Mostly I sat on them. I'd take them out every so often and listen to them, but they were on cassette tapes and cassette tape, like all tapes, wear thin as do the tape heads, the motors, etc. In the digital age, as much as some delight in the analog sound, its limitations remain, and I was tired of those limitations. I thought they still sounded good, given that they were recorded on a 4-track cassette portastudio, but all I had were the mixes and they were precious to me.

     Then one day I decided that maybe I should do something with them.

     That something was transferring the originals to a digital format. From there, you can do any number of things in any number of formats. So I asked a friend to transfer them, and he did; plus he ran them through a mastering program.

     Thank you so very much, Dave Howe. The songs sounded better than ever, or as good as they would ever sound. It made me think....bigger.

     At this point the artist; that would be me, begins to have all kinds of flights of fancy, all revolving around the idea of becoming.....known for your work, your music! Every artist's dream.

     Now the fact that I am now in my middle years doesn't auger well for such dreams, but we can, well, dream. So, in that little journey I'm bringing along anyone who wants too tag along. the first step is what to release when...

     Stay tuned.

Guitars, Guitars, and More Guitars

        

    Like just about everyone, or most guys, my age, I got into music because of guitars, or more accurately, a guitar sound. An evocative calling luring me into a lifelong obsession. In my case, it was the opening rhythm guitar refrain from the Doobie Brothers, “Long Train Running“. The guitar of my early adolescent crush was a Gibson SG, which, unremarkably, I could not afford, nor would anyone buy one for me. Even now I have a certain longing to have one. The problem is I don’t need one as I have way too many guitars already, and, as then, an authentic SG ain’t cheap. This got me thinking about guitars in general. After many years of playing and recording, I stopped mainly due to time restrictions, and feeling played out and having nothing left to say. I believe I was 30 at the time. Listening back on all that stuff I created, I probably blew that call, but that’s how life can occasionally run you off the road.

            Lately, however, I have given in to my singer/songwriter jones and have been doing my part to increase the amount of modulated sounds, or noise, being sent out into the ether. To do this I had to retrieve my collection of instruments from their cases in the crawlspace. Remarkably, 15 or so years in hibernation did them not real damage. I also felt the need to subscribe to a few guitar magazines, one electric; one acoustic, so that I could become hip to the times, if you know what I mean. Amazingly, little has changed overall. A lot of the same old bands get covered, still, and there are many, many bands and players I know nothing about, and won’t if I try to find them on the radio. Fortunately there’s Spotify, but I’ve whined about that before. As for guitars, there is no lack of interest in that. Vintage. Faux vintage. Knockoffs. Cheaper Asian versions. Cheaper Mexican versions. Oddballs. Very expensive luthier grade one offs. From a mere mental sampling, I believe there are about a thousand different Strat version from Fender alone. Amps galore, and an incomprehensible number of stomp boxes to do what about 5 used to do in the old days when we cursed analog tube powered crap that had to be babied, but is now viewed as like really cool and stuff.           

            The process by which I acquired my beloved collection of non-Fenders, Martins, and Gibsons is a tale told by need proffered by economic reality. It’s not that I didn’t want a Fender or a Gibson, I was either too poor or too cheap to pony up the requisite dough. I started playing young and had 2 seriously cheap guitars, one a Mosrite knockoff; which is a cheap version of a cheap guitar, and a cheap acoustic. Both buzzed, had high action, and sounded tinny. Fortunately, I marshaled on despite these afflicted instruments. However, when I was shipped off to Hawaii ( Navy days ), I got rid of the terrible two and vowed to never buy another cheap crappy guitar. This led me to the world of good, sometimes great non-Fenders, Martins, and Gibsons. I have a Peavey, a Takamine, a Ibanez, an Ovation, a Dobro, a Godin, a Fender Squire bass, a Mexican Martin ( so yes, I have a few name, though non-US made, instruments ), Nancy’s Yamaha, a banjo, and a homemade Strat made with the guts of a guitar I inadvertently ruined. I think that’s all of them.

            They were all bought to do, or produce different sounds. So you have the Peavey, which is like a Telecaster, good rhythm guitar, bright sound. The homemade Strat, with the guts of an old Vantage guitar, has a thicker blues/lead sound. The Ibanez, a semi hollow body has that fat twangy sound. The acoustics are pretty straight forward, the Takamine is an excellent Martin copy, the Ovation a 12 string, the Dobro is a resonator, the Yamaha a classical, the banjo’s a banjo, and the Godin is the mutant nylon electric which can be used with a guitar synth. The bass is a bass, and the Mexican Martin is for performing as I couldn’t bring myself to drill holes in the Takamine. All are well made and serve a different purpose.

            I don’t know exactly where I’m going with all this, other than to say that I have a lot of guitars that are exactly what I needed them to be: playable and affordable, and that there’s a world of them out there for those so interested. The only problem is actually finding time to play them all, because I know that, though they are inanimate objects, like dogs, they are people too and long for human contact. So I do what I can. Now I just have to figure out how to work all of the new digital recording stuff. Fortunately, it’s all  sort of the same.

            Wish me luck.

It’s the Next Big Thing! Who Cares

            Ever since I got back into playing and writing songs, a certain ennui has quietly stalked me. As with most people my age; at least those paying attention or remotely curious, I was blessed to be witness to the golden age of Rock and Roll. For a guitar player this has meant being able to say I, personally, was blown away by the power and the glory of any number of seminal guitar rock gods: Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Beck, Allman, Van Halen, Richards, Santana, as well as less well known       ( outside of guitar circles ) players: Morse, Vai, Satriani, Lowell, and Felder. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see all of them live, but I was able to experience their music and playing when it was first created; when it was new and fresh. That they are all still venerated says a lot about both their time then and our time now, as in have we have reached the twilight of such gods? The days of listening to the radio and hearing a signature sound, instantly identifiable, and grooving to it with the masses is over. Whether at the Crossroads, hearing that Long Train Running, knowing it’s More than a Feeling, Truckin’, being Experienced, or a Day Tripper, or on a Stairway; it’s safe to say that while rock may not be dead; it ain’t the same.

            As distinct from Pop music in some ways, Rock and Pop have intersected and intertwined over the years, but Pop was always created to sell, to be a product; to be the McDonald’s of the music world, prefab, processed, and mass produced. It works because it’s created to hit those cranial sweet spots that get our feet tapping. Rock was, in essence, more primordial; at least in its early formative period; strident, edgy, loud, and different. When I was a teen, we did not listen to 40 year old music. That was on geezer stations or Lawrence Welk, when they weren’t inducing cringe-worthy renditions of popular current songs. We listened to Rock, man! Now I hear the music of my youth being blithely listened to by people in their 20’s and 30’s. I’m thinking why? Is there nothing better? Newer? Pursuant to this, I made a concerted effort to listen to the new sounds, the hip new thing. Here are a couple of unscientific observations. Other than a few small college stations, of which there is a conflict over what constitutes worthy, radio ain’t the place. I could be specious and note that radio sucks, but radio is a commercial business and as trapped by the changes in how and who listens as the record ( Are they still referred to as that? ) companies are to declining sales.

            That means that to find what you want, or to seek out new stuff, you’re online hitting websites, Spotify or other streaming content providers, publications, and blogs; you have to let them know you’re looking. That means you need to be proactive if you want something new. Or, you can continue to listen to the past or the pabulum that has always passed as popular music. On the plus side, there is a lot of stuff out there. People who love to play, perform, and create. There’s the surge in roots based bluegrass and traditional acoustic music, and it’s easier than ever to get your music and ideas out there. Whether or not anyone will hear it, or whether you can make any money doing it remains a crapshoot, no matter how hard you may want it or work at it, but it’s always been that way. Some things never change. I don’t know how much A&R plays into getting the music out these days. They used to; I assume they still do. Maybe for Pop, but Rock? I wonder if they still do? Rock, like Jazz, has splintered into a myriad of sub-genres. Take Metal as an example: speed metal, thrash metal, death metal, etc. Here’s another thing about guitar driven Rock n’ Roll: in every decade since the 60’s, the number of well known, successful bands with a back catalog spanning more than 2 or 3 albums has declined through each successive decade. Think of it this way, is there a single well known, platinum selling band with a signature guitar sound from the late 90’s on? Remember I said signature sound. Maybe one or two; maybe.

Looking for great guitar driven Rock and Roll? It’s out there. Will any of them scale the guitar god mountain to claim international stature and acclaim? I doubt it. why? Because that time has come and gone. Hence the ennui. That’s not to say that there aren’t great young players out there; there are. They can certainly play me under the table. And the music is fun, creative, and energetic. The problem is when I listen, much as I might like it, I still hear the past coming through it. That not a concern for those new to it, but for someone who remembers hearing the Beatles coming over the radio in the car when he was five; I’ve already been there. I hear all those ghosts haunting Rock. Today, they still play the same guitars, use the same amps, or ones that “model” the sounds of all the great old amps of yore. You can mash unusual instrument combinations, but it’s not good ol’ Rock n” Roll. For good ol’ Rock n’ Roll, it is guitars, bass, drums, maybe a keyboard. You can hit the archives or do your version of it. It is what it is, but it’s not new. As a matter of fact it’s 60 years old!

Maybe something new will come along. Maybe someone will come along to reinvigorate Rock, bring it back to prominence, make it the strutting drama queen that it was, but in my heart of hearts I think it’s time has come and gone.

10 Years Younger in a World of Change

            Why is it important, or worthy of the time and investment, to look younger than you are? You aren’t actually younger than you are no matter the cosmetic sleight of hand. And what is driving the desire to look, say 10 years younger; like the women in the creepy Stepford wives commercial? Is it to be younger now? Or is it trying to keep the world in homeostasis at the time when you were 10 years younger? Saying, as it were, that I want to be forever in 1998, as an example, because it was a good year, and, as I’ve lived through it once; I can make it even better and more to my liking or benefit. Some of it is vanity; one would think, particularly if you were once young and beautiful. No one dreams of being old and ugly. We can, without much fuss, blame it on our youth obsessed culture. Youth being our golden idol. We can also invoke the grim spectre of death icily rubbing our shoulders, whispering sweet nothings into our baleful ears. Our time will come. Unless we can somehow keep it at arm’s length.

            The notion or desire to be, or look, younger, paradoxically, runs right into the invariability of change. With the passage of time all things, particularly ourselves, change. Even our memories change as we age. The longer we live, the more we experience change, the further removed we become to those times in the past infused with memories good and bad. Yet they continue to influence us. This as we continue to question the veracity of those memories. When asked about our favorite movies, music, or TV shows, we almost always refer to those of our youth; when we’re the most impressionable. I’ve been listening to music all my life, and have been exposed to nearly all members of the rock n’roll family tree. Consequently, all of the new music I hear in some way reminds me of what I heard in the past. That doesn’t mean it’s not good or enjoyable, but it inevitably must go against all that’s gone before it. It must stand against the memories that the old songs evoke; something the new ones can’t do.

            If you could defy biology and time in order to be 10 years younger, does that mean that every 10 years you once again revert back; perpetually reliving the same 10 years, or just those 10 years? You can only lord over those you seek to impress for so long; at some point they would age out. Then what? Would it be as important to impress those with whom you have no connection? Why would they care? Naturally, this is all just talk. No matter how well you paper over an aging body or face, it continues to age, and at some point begins to fail. Therein lies the problem. Aging means getting old, which means infirmity, loss of mental acuity, sexual function or desire, age spots, big ears, and wispy white hair. We no longer venerate the old, rarely seek their wisdom, assuming they have any, and have no day to day relationship to death; something our forebears deal with as a normal course of affairs. We don’t lay out the dearly departed in the parlor; we don’t bury them.

            A lot has been written about our allotted time on this Earth. It’s brevity; it’s supposed purpose; it’s inevitable end. However you describe it, however you choose to live it, including how you choose to appear, it is finite. It then strikes me as odd to try to circumvent that arc of existence with the notion of being younger when no matter the effect; it cannot be.

Rock n’ Roll Hair

            In the latest edition of Guitarworld magazine, we find ourselves looking at the visage of Mick Mars, guitarist of the band, Motley Crue, which is embarking on their final tour. Whether they tour again, or stay true to their pronounced exit from the stage, matters little to me, instead, what amazed me most was that even in his sixties, Mars has a full head of black hair, just as he did those thirty years ago when the Crue burst onto the world stage. Of course, Mars is not alone in this, even in his own band; all the Crue maintain the look they had back in the eighties. Now his face has the lines and cracks we all must suffer as we grow old, but the hair…..

            And this isn’t to pick on Motley Crue; any number of bands, performers from the sixties, seventies, and eighties still cling to the image they created in their youth, but young they ain’t. It’s this incongruity that fascinates me especially as younger artists outside the pop spectrum seem less inclined to create an image aside from body art and piercing. Why should we expect the remaining members of the Moody Blues, as an example, to have all that hair when we, their listeners don’t? Our hair has thinned and greyed; just survey any concert by a vintage act and the audience looks its age and then some. Shouldn't their's do the same?

            There are, of course, those who have chosen to change their appearance as they’ve gotten older; Rush, Peter Frampton, Ringo, and Charlie Watts as examples. After all, rock n’roll isn’t young anymore, either. It’s at least sixty years old, and denials aside, isn’t really the kids taking it to the Man. The whole nature of rock is in question as it ages and gentrifies into its many sub-genres. Name a great new rock band akin to those of the past! If the media is to believed, and I’m not necessarily anti-media, country music is on the ascent as rock fades, but today’s country isn’t exactly the rebirth of Maybelle Carter or Hank Williams; more Eagles lite than George Jones. Is that rock’s fate? To be warmed over Country? Is rock, as once conceived, like Jazz or Blues, trailing off, never to regain its former glory?

            And Hair? Well, it certainly isn’t a big thing these day, at least for men. This is my personal prejudice, but young men should glory in their hair while they have it. There’ll be many years left to run around looking like you just got out of prison or boot camp ( I’m probably dating myself here ). So maybe the whole hair thing is a nod to the virility it once conveyed to those strutting the stage, and those watching. We can, at least, pretent that virility doesn't decline with age. And if that means wigs, toupees, dyes, extensions; then by all means do what you’ve got to do; even if I don’t buy it. Besides, I understand it can be claimed as a business expense.