Hello again...

Goodness gracious, it's been forever since I've last written on here!

My apologies. I have no excuses, other than I have been busy with work, and simply haven't made time to sit down and write something. But now I will.

Since April, a whole lot has been happening which I should have mentioned on here. My band, K, Ray and The Bird, released their second album at the end of May. We had a great album launch, and the album has been bubbling along quite nicely since then. Below is a link if you wanna check it out and hear some of the songs.

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KRayandTheBird

We actually just returned froma mini tour up the Garden Route, and we're gonna make a mini documentary about what goes on off stage between band members. It's worth watching, and I'll post some links as the episodes get uploaded.

Other than that, I have been lucky enough to be involved with a few great acts, and I am also working on some new ideas that will hopefully spread the love of playing drums. Cryptic, I know, but let me first finalize my plans before sharing them.

Lastly, I have exmas in 2 weeks - my last set of exams if I pass everything. So I am trying my best to concentrate on studying as much as possible. Weird how difficult that becomes when the finish line is right in front of you.

Anyway, hope you are all well, and we'll chat again soon!

Good luck to Mark Haze in the Idols finals tonight. In my humble opinion, you deserve the win dude.

BLASTED MIDI

I find myself irritated as I write this.

I mentioned a few weeks ago I've been looking into starting a basic home studio, primarily to make audio/video lessons for my students or to upload on the Net. I'm still waiting for Pro Tools to arrive, but in the meantime I receoved a MIDI-USB cable, so I thought I would try it out on my Roland electric drumkit.

Man, it was a mission.

I'm not very clued on how MIDI works, so it took a while to get it connected so the kit would actually record on my PC. So that was finally operating properly. But, as I have learnt, all MIDI does is transport a digital signal - no sound. So when my triggers arrived at the PC, the program - a freeware recording solution called Anvil Studio - used it's onboard sound, which was dreadful.

So now, apparently, I have to record the MIDI drums, make any edits to the track after I have recorded it, then play it back VIA the Roland drum machine in order to make it sound the way it normally sounds. AND, while it's playing back via the Roland drum machine, I must record new as a new track.

Complicated. Bloody complicated. I will let you know how this goes. Can't wait for Pro Tools to arrive, it's gonna make things much easier.

Otherwise, this is an busy week for me. I am on my way in half an hour to a meeting for a proposed online music raining facility - internet lessons. Should be interesting. Thursday I am practicing with Angela Fergusson, a good friend and superb blues/pop singer, and we're playing a gig on Sunday. And Friday I have a photoshoot with K, Ray & the Bird for our upcoming album, 'Rhymes In The Attic'.

Lots of good things happening.

SEARCHING FOR NEW MUSIC

Am I the only one who cannot find the music I look for in music stores?

Admittedly, my tastes are rather narrow, and a little off the wall. But still, you’d think, in a giant Musica stocked with thousands of Lady Gaga’s newest release, and tons of albums by artists you’ve never even heard of, you would be able to find something you enjoy. Something that you would really like to own.

Maybe you can. I cannot.

And the problem is partly mine, I’m afraid. Being a musician, I cannot help but have different standards for choosing and enjoying music.

First – and this is probably the biggest hurdle I face when finding new music – I am fascinated by and drawn to technical wizardry. In other words, I love hearing musicians play absolutely amazing things on their instrument. Truth be told, I couldn’t care less what the singer is on about if there’s a super guitar lick, or a mighty drum beat. My attention is all but sucked into the instrument.

Second, I’m not a big fan of what I call ‘PC bands’ – entire backing tracks created by a producer and a computer, pretty much taking the musician right out the equation. Artists like the aforementioned Gaga and producer Timberland spring to mind. In my opinion, they’re very good at what they do – but it’s not music. Music is created by humans, not a PC. It’s alright when the musician is still controlling the sound, like on a synthesizer or drum machine. But not when the PC does the work for you.

Lastly, I am very critical of the final production and sound quality of the albums I listen to. Again, I wish I wasn’t, but my ears cannot help it. If everything isn’t properly in balance, or the album is very bass-dominated, or badly recorded, I can’t take it. Which means I struggle to listen to pretty much anything recorded before 1975.

<Sigh> I wish I wasn’t this way.

Anyway, due to my very specific requirements for the music that feeds my soul, you can imagine the music I end up listening to is rather specific, and relatively unknown. And you would be correct.

This is the problem. Try finding an obscure album by an obscure band that plays music for technical brilliance rather than radio hits. In fact, try to think of a band that does that. There are few, and even then they aren’t all worth listening to.

And even worse, their markets are tiny. So shops don’t bother stocking their stuff.

Which brings me back to the top of this post.

These days, the only way I get the music I want is via websites, the best being a super South African online store called Take2 (www.take2.co.za). It’s great, the prices are cheap, and they have everything in their cyber-store. The only bummer is, after paying for you album, you still have to wait a few weeks before you can actually listen to it.

So what am I listening to these days?

Well, at the moment I am deeply entrenched within Dream Theater, a progressive hard rock band from America that is absolutely brilliant. Each musician is a master in his field, and the singer has a great vocal range. Added to that, they write these really long songs, with different parts within them, and lyrics like stories, rather than simple love songs all the time, and strange time signatures, and amazing guitar solos, and boggle-your-mind drum beats…

It’s my kind of band. I highly recommend everybody try them at least once. Go to youtube and type in ‘In the Presence of Enemies’. There’s an audio track of the entire song. It’s worth all 27 minutes. Or even better, check out a video of them playing an instrumental. Those guys are scary-talented.

I tried Steve Vai for the first time just this weekend. I was given what I am told was his breakthrough album, ‘Passion & Warfare’. Very eighties, super guitar work…really weird intros to the songs. It might grow on me.

I’ve always been a fan of Pearl Jam. They’re not that out there with their music style (they did do some stuff between 200 and 2005 that was quite radical) but what I like most about them is they don’t seem to care if you like their music or not. They just do what they want, regardless of who else might like that.

I think – if I ever were part of a band that achieves some sort of global status – I would hope that we never make music based purely on what people want to hear. Sure, there is something to be said for hearing your fans and giving them something in return. But if that’s your driving motivation, then you’re simply a fashion identity rather than a musician.

Music is art, and art should always be an expression from within. Which is why so many people can write good songs after a bad breakup.

And I think that’s why I feel so drawn to some of these strange bands. They’re not taking the word umbrella and singing it in pieces ten times in a row because they have no other words. They are putting down a message, a piece of emotion, and conveying that message in the form of music. I like that.

EMIL’S TOP TEN ARTISTS

1.      Dave Matthews Band

2.      Dream Theater

3.      Alter Bridge

4.      Switchfoot / Jon Foreman

5.      Pearl Jam

6.      Metallica

7.      Dave Weckl Band

8.      NeedtoBreathe

9.      Guns ‘n Roses

10.  Jethro Tull

I HURT MY BABY!

My guitar got damaged this weekend.

For five years I kept her spotless, in perfect looking and working condition. Now I’ll only have a perfectly working acoustic.

I picked the guitar up off my lap, in the way I normally do, which is grab it by the neck and lift. And for some reason, the guitar spun in my hand and the body crashed into the floor with a resounding crunch.

I thought my heart would stop.

Thankfully, the damage isn’t that bad, and largely cosmetic. The sexy veneer that covers the bare wood is cracked and chipped off on the spot where it collided, and a tiny crack between two pieces of the body has appeared, but it’s so small you cannot even see through it. Most importantly, the guitar sounds the same.

It’s interesting, the way people react to that sort of thing. Some guys say you wear a guitar scar proudly – it adds character to the instrument. Others say it’s like cutting a piece of your own heart out.

I’m in the second camp (although maybe not as extreme, but you get the idea). That’s why I own 2 drumkits. One is my carefully looked after tool of the trade, and I pretty much prevent anybody from playing it. Ever.

The other is a second hand intermediate kit that goes to all the gigs where I won’t risk my main kit, or wherever other drummers are gonna play my drums. I’m not bothered if this kit gets a knock or whatever, but if something happened to my other one I am certain I would feel gutted.

Which is silly, if you think about it. What are the chances of keeping a set of seven drums spotless forever? Especially when you’re using them constantly?

Anyway, the week ahead is looking promising. K, Ray & the Bird are finalizing mixing on Friday night, and then the album is ready for mastering and printing. Yay!

I am also busy looking into the ins and outs of building a very simple home studio, and I am hoping to get into it soon. With all the great technology these days, you can get a simple setup going for minimal expenses. I’ll talk more about this later on.

And schools are wrapping up their first term, which means holidays approach.

I’m feeling good.

A GIG IN THREE PARTS

I am, by nature, a bit of a perfectionist, particularly when it comes to playing music. I also like to improvise a little on stage; taking that risk and possibly messing things up is really scary and really healthy for a musician. But that also relies on being confident musically…hence, the perfectionist thing.

I did a gig once where things didn’t pan out so well.

Well, I suppose it can't be classified as a gig. It was a show for one of the schools where I teach. And, in a nutshell, what happened was: the school asked a few music teachers to play a complicated piece to show the students what can be achieved with hard work and dedication. Great idea. We all thought so.

But we didn’t rehearse properly. We sort of left it until the day before, and only had twenty minutes to run through the fairly difficult piece of Latin-jazz.

Now the other guys are all highly skilled, so I believed we could make it work live.

Except…

The sound guys forgot to pull out and activate the monitors when we went out to play. So we couldn’t hear a thing.

Now, I was playing an electric kit that night, which was blasting through the main system and should have come out the monitors if they were there. But they weren’t. So we could only hear the drums through the top. And, because of many scientific rules about sound waves and bouncing off walls, we were hearing the drums a few tenths of a second after I was hitting them.

And so, the band would start, and I would play in time with them. But the sound would be heard late, so they would adjust to the sound. Then I would adjust to their adjustment. Then they would adjust again. And on and on and on…

It was a disaster. And I still wish I could throttle the backstage crew who were too busy checking out girls to lay out some monitors.

Anyway, that whole story is just to show I don’t like screwing up on stage.

Now…

Tomorrow night (I am writing this on Monday), K, Ray & the Bird (the band I play for) are playing at Die Boer, a great restaurant in Durbanville, Cape Town. And to be honest, I’m not feeling so confident. The band has been so busy working on editing and mixing for our new album (to be released soon) we just haven’t had much practice time. We had one tonight, but it just didn’t go so well.

So. The night before, and I am pretty nervous. My plan is to take a simple kit, play tight and bash the hell out of the drums. Hopefully the audience will feel the energy so much they don’t see gaping holes in our execution, and hopefully the rest of the band follow and stay in time, while playing their hearts out.

THE GIG

Well, the gig went alright. I have to say it wasn’t our best performance ever. There were a number of contributing factors; we had our times mixed up, so sound check was shortened; as a result we did have a few sound issues. But most of all we just weren’t as tight as we normally are. Perhaps we were the only ones who noticed it, but there were cracks in the armor.

Anyway, it still seemed well received. The songs did get better as we played, and there were one or two real standouts.

MY CONCLUSION

Situations like this make me think about the prospect of being a full-time employed person who plays in a serious, working band.

Our time issue was that the venue wanted us ready to play by 6, where it had always been 7 in the past. I have no problem with a change in policy. But we all work, and we all finish around 530. So even starting sound check by 6 would have been an issue.

I think this is why bands fade away in South Africa. It’s so difficult to find paying gigs (or even gigs in general), guys have to do them on the side, usually for nothing. But this means working somewhere else, and that sucks up time and energy that could be spent perfecting songs. We just don’t have the musical infrastructure to support bands that are unknown. It's not like, say, America, where guys can make a day to day living walking into bars and just playing. As a general rule, only the really big guys are able to concentrate all their efforts into their music.

And so young, talented bands try to get into the scene, and they have good material, but it feels like there are so many barriers, and their music just doesn’t get to the right ears. And so they throw in the towel in disgust and walk away.

How will this change? I don’t know that it will. The entire music network needs to expand, incorporating into it more venues, artists, and, of course, fans. It can be done, but it’s like moving a mountain.

Here’s hoping.

AND SO IT STARTS...

13 March 2011

It’s worthwhile wondering why I would decide to write a BLOG. I mean, you’re always gonna wonder if anybody actually reads it, or even cares. There’s also that sense that you are putting a piece of yourself out there to be read by pretty much anybody, so how honest/open do you make it?

And just how important do you think you are anyway, thinking people want to read what you get up to?

I think the guys who really commit to writing a BLOG – those guys who upload daily updates like an online personal diary – I think they really show a lot of courage and determination to remain so faithful to their project. I always worry that I would forget one post, or just not have any desire to upload the next post. And I’m talking once a week here. Daily posts are simply out of the question. I’m not interesting enough.

So I decided to use this space as a place to talk about the other side of being a musician – everything that goes on around gigs, rehearsals, sessions, lessons…all the weird and wonderful things most guys tend to keep quiet about. I’m not going to say you’ll find it fantastically exciting, but I hope it is entertaining.

So what can I say today? Well, perhaps it would serve as a good opener if I explained what I actually do.

And from the very start I will say being a muso in Cape Town isn’t easy. This isn’t New York, where scores of clubs and pubs line the streets literally waiting for musicians to waltz in, entertain the masses, and leave with enough money to get home. Gigs are few and far between in the Mother City, unless you’re extremely well known or extremely well respected. Both reputations are difficult to achieve and take considerably time, so for those who have not achieved super-muso status there’s teaching.

I spend five days a week teaching. Drums, guitar, and a little recorder for the toddlers in junior primary. Teaching isn’t for everybody. You need an exceptional amount of patience not to crack at some point and shove a drumstick up some young kid’s bottom. I believe I’m a pretty controlled guy, but even I feel tested sometimes.

I do play for one band as a full-time member – a five-piece outfit called K, Ray & the Bird. The music is as strange as the band name, and that’s why I love it! If I had to describe the sound I would say a bit of Dave Matthews Band, with jazzy and R&B influences, as well as some orchestral size. Not exactly radio-friendly, but certainly fun to play.

We just recorded an album – the 2^nd one to be released by the band – and are in the process of editing and mixing the songs. In the next few BLOG’s I am going to share more information about this process, but let me say my eyes have been opened to some unbelievable work done by a few anonymous people to make your CD’s sound really good. It’s been a challenging but rewarding process.

I also just got involved with a corporate band. For those who don’t know, corporate bands play covers at corporate events, parties, dances, or anywhere else where they will pay us. Some hard work will be needed to get it off the ground – we need to learn at least 80 songs, and constantly add new hits to our repertoire. But it’s exciting, and the guys in the band are really awesome and really talented.

So now you know what I do and what I’ll be talking about with this BLOG. I am not going to pledge any commitment to regular updates, because I don’t believe I will abide by it. I will therefore add a new post whenever I feel like it. You are thus forced to check regularly for updates, or wait for a link on Facebook.

So. My mission this week is to practice my guitar scales, and practice single strokes in front of a mirror to see how my two hands differ in playing style.

Exciting stuff.