I love to write songs. I have found that I am primarily an arranger/producer, I like to take a mess and make it beautiful, and I like to think I have a real knack for it. I can play any instrument you stick in my hands. Give me 20 minutes with it and I'll play you something. I spent the better part of the 90's playing in touring bands. Never got to go overseas, but did a lot of gigs in the lower 48. I was honored to have opened for many famous acts - including Pavement, Green Day, Nirvana, Built To Spill, Modest Mouse, and many more. Mostly a drummer at that time, but also played a lot of guitar in local bands. I got pretty burnt out on touring and gigging all the time. Now I am primarily a home studio nerd, making heavily conceptual rock music with a long time friend and collaborator. We have sort of a Lennon/McCartney arrangement. I depend on him alot and have grown to really appreciate his style and approach. It what makes me the happiest and keeps me from being a jaded a**hole all the time. At least in public. List of bands you probably never heard whom I played with at one time or another: • Caustic Resin (drums on "Keep on Truckin", 2003 UP! records) • The Universal (drums and vocals) • Size of Alaska (Guitar and vocals) • Godzoundz (Guitar and vocals)
It's just something I do. A language I speak.
To do exactly what I want to do, all the time. To collaborate and network with other like-minded individuals.
Abolition of work.
Hearing "Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult the first time as a child was a pretty foundational moment for me. So was the first time I heard The Residents. I recall as a very young child thinking "Can't Buy Me Love" was actually "That Buggy Love." The Beatles were my favorite band as a child, but also loved Bowie. Blue Oyster Cult came later but not much. I grew up immersed in music, with several family members being avid vinyl and music collectors, so I was exposed to a wide variety of music from a very early age.
The Residents, Captain Beefheart, Blue Oyster Cult, Beatles, Zappa & The Mothers, King Crimson, Early Flaming Lips (pre-yoshimi), CAN, Butthole Surfers, Snakefinger, Black Sabbath, Woody Guthrie, Hank Snow, Jonny Cash, Beck, Melvins, Dead Kennedys, Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere, They Might Be Giants, McCartney solo stuff, Kraftwerk etc etc etc
I hear it in my head. I need to bring it out. I am simply compelled by forces beyond my immediate control. It keeps me awake at night, lying in bed imagining musical parts and passages and arrangements. I have a very vivid imagination.
Do what turns you on.
Fine, I guess. It used to get me really excited but anymore it's not as huge a thrill as it used to be. Mostly a chore I don't really want to do most of the time, quite honestly.
It is a sad state of affairs. People clinging desperately to old-world models of rehearsing, playing shows, recording, going on tour, getting signed, going broke, breaking up, wash rinse repeat. Not just musicians either. The industry pushes everybody through the same cookie-cutter play-doh-fun-factory. It's their models of profitability driving the process, not the art. I honestly struggle daily with understanding why anybody would want to subject themselves willfully to that kind of hell. The real problem with the industrial model of music production is the general unwillingness of musicians themselves to embrace a new model or a new way of thinking about what they do. Markets respond to demand, and if the markets are not changing it's because we aren't demanding change the right way or loudly enough. To stand up and say "I am not the same as this or that, what I do is truly unique and I strive to be something to which a typical label cannot be applied." Instead, people fall willingly into the same patterns as every other band in the multiverse, doing the same things over and over. It's insanity, but unfortunately, a really boring and ordinary kind of insanity. Not the "fire of the mind", inspired, creative genius type of insanity.
Seems legit. I guess. Might be a useful networking tool. It's really geared toward a more "traditional" model for bands. I don't begrudge it that though. Not one bit. It's a tool made to fit what is considered a common and typical model for the way most people still make music. You want people to use your tool you make sure it fits as many different hands as possible. That sucks, but there really isn't much that can be done about that. Websites are really pragmatic things.
Perceptions. The stigma of having to fit into a genre or category. Having to sound like someone else. Money coming ahead of music. Lack of focus on true artistry.
Not really. I mean, I have lots of friends who make music and supporting them used to be a thing I was concerned with but not so much anymore. I have always been sort of an outsider who was never fully embraced by my local scene. Part of that is probably because I am perceived as a jaded prick lol. But really, I'm a nice guy I just have some very lofty ideals and a strong outward rejection of traditional music making methods. I am more of an artist than a musician. Music is only part of the art I make.
Be a shameless self-promoter. Be prolific. Work hard.
Mystic Tape Deck, Godzoundz, Size of Alaska