It Was as It Ever Was

A year ago, being tugged along by mortality, I decided to get back into that music thing. I had finished the first new recordings in nearly 30 years and felt that it was now or never if I was to ever get them out into the public sphere. So I had the masters copy-written, art work commissioned, and journeyed out among the stars. I have released 2 honest to God albums, one, Apologia, from my Seattle period, 1985 to 1991, and the latest, We Three, from the present, which I refer to as the apocryphal period because it sounds fun. From those who listened I got plenty of likes, which I expected because the music is actually quite good. That may seem big headed, but I'm no rube and after more than 50 years of listening to just about everything I know good from mediocre and bad, and, as they say; if you don't believe in your work; who will.

I started performing again, mostly at open mics, to test the waters and find out if I could breath under water; all in all it was a lot of fun and I found that there a lot of my material I'd like to perform. I also realized that I'm not quite like the other performers and songwriters as far as material goes. That's not to say that their work was somehow lesser; to the contrary, I found it very interesting and enjoyable, just different. I'm not really a story teller as a songwriter. I think a better description is poet/emotionalist; a deeply pretentious way to say I sing to my own heart and and any others that wants to come along for the ride.

That then brings me to the direction of the upcoming year. I have a new group of songs I'm recording, and a whole slew of earlier recordings I desire to foist upon an unsuspecting public. The always percolating question is: where is this all going? If I were younger and had stars in my eyes, the answer might be to become famous and loved and wealthy beyond my wildest imagining, but I'm to jaundiced to buy into that. Yes, I went to Hollywood for the ASCAP conference and had a great time and hung around with all the other artistic types longing for the succor of recognition and acknowledgement, but I learned long ago that I was an uncompromising non-conventionalist in a business that has no time for that because there's no money in it.

At least not anymore. It came and went with the 60's.

I do though have a hunger to be represented in my art, whether in music or word, and without a presence that representation doesn't exist. So I have my website, mrprimitivemusic, as a repository of my work and a deep catalog which I will continue to add to because it's what I am. The problem is the catalog because it is ready to be heard, but there's a lot of stuff there, 8 completed albums, one that needs to be re-recorded, and the new songs; all waiting for me to get to it. There is also the rather daunting task of how or whether to get the word out, and not just a few folks out there would be happy to help for a small fee; results to be determined. Is the shell out worth the price? Will it make any difference? Perhaps we'll see.

The more important point is that there is a place for people to go if they so choose. At some point that's all I can ask, because i know if you go, you will dig it.

Now that I'm famous again!

It has now been about a year since I made my triumphant return to the music business and taken my rightful place among the protean giants, whatever that means. I've released 2 albums, gotten out of my comfort zone and returned to live performing, joined a number of professional associations, songwriters forums and groups, went to the ASCAP conference in Hollywood to hobnob with all the other desperate musical types trying to make good in these very interesting times, and reconnected with those publications, websites, and newsletters that keep me in tune with what I need to do to really get my music out there and make money and accept that statistically I don't stand a chance in hell of ever being anything more than an old guy pumping out very good records that no one will hear.

All very uplifting.

Minus the faux desperation, it has been a lot of fun. If you step back from the idiocy of trying to be a pop star, and, fortunately, most of the performers and songwriters I've meet aren't goo-eyed over becoming the next Taylor Swift, and are making an incredible array of interesting music. It's amazing how many people are out there making music; having fun and making the world a better place. All different styles and playing abilities, youngsters and oldsters grooving to the tunes, and proving that pulling out the earbuds and sitting back and listening to a person or persons playing live right in front of you is the best, whether it's Sting and Peter Gabriel or the kid playing his or her new song for the very first time in front of strangers.

All very uplifting.

I've added a few new items to my recording studio, electronic drums, some new effects, and a deep blue Rickenbacker 12 string. I writing and recording new songs, which is thrilling given how long I went between records, twenty some years, it nice to know that I can still write a song.

Speaking of writing songs, I've so far resisted the idea that I should do anything other than what comes naturally to me; I write what I write; I like what comes out and I know what's good, I'm not terribly concerned if it jibes with what the hit makers say because the hit makers contradict one another and say you should do something that stands out even if everything you hear them make sound depressingly the same. Which is too bad, but there is great music out there; whatever the state of pop music, the rest of music world churns right along, and if you spend a little time out there on the internet, you'll find more great music that you can ever listen to.

There's a lot of crap too, but that's life.

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.