Got back from Little River (near Christchurch) last night, had an enjoyable weekend away. Damian showed me a few new computer tricks – sending files between two laptops by infra red, who’d a thunk it? – and we had a jam with me on drums and him playing no-input feedback by plugging my effects pedal into itself.
On the way down across Lewis Pass we stopped at a hot spring, one that’s deliberately not in Lonely Planet (let the tourists pay at Hanmer Springs).
Interesting conversation along the way about using the internet effectively and functioning as an artist in the digital age. I’ll try following Damian’s recommendation of thinking in terms of tracks rather than albums, and making them available on the internet. I do think the album format is very important – tracks sequenced to give an overall progression or narrative arc greater than the sum of its parts. On the other hand my focus on albums might have held me back in some ways – for a start hardly anyone buys them. And my reluctance to repeat myself has meant not playing live as much as I should have - I don’t like to do something that’s on an album, at least not the same way twice.
The other way of looking at things is to keep everything fluid and unfixed – no definitive versions, but a kitset of parts for endless remixing. Listening to music on a computer hard drive (or iPod) on shuffle mode offers interesting juxtapositions and variety. These days on my hard drive I’m listening to dub and electronic music alongside Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, Einstürzende Neubauten, The Fall, Jacques Loussier’s jazz arrangements of Bach, songwriters like Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and Van Morrison, some jazz, solo acoustic guitar by John Fahey and Derek Bailey, and my own recordings. It all goes together. Add something to the playlist and it turns up eventually – you could sneak up on listeners that way. Have to get the headphone output fixed so I can run it through a stereo – at the moment it’s all coming from the tinny little computer speaker. I tend to save the loud rock stuff (The Birthday Party, Fugazi, Mr Bungle, Last Exit, The Boredoms etc) for CD.
Anyway I’ve got plenty of instruments and software to play with. I’m teaching myself to play the computer as an instrument (with Fruityloops and Live 4). I have a strong suspicion I could find an audience for some kind of rhythmic brew including banjo textures. I can even pitch shift it and use the banjo as a bass instrument. Then there are computer-generated beats, field recordings, acoustic and electric guitars, real drums, keyboards, loops of all the above, and effects. And I should get my saxophone fixed ($200 repair job required) and start learning that again too, especially if they’ll give me some lessons at the music school next year. No excuses for boredom…
The dance party at Little River was good fun – great how in NZ we can have them out in the country (complete with cowshit and gorse to step on). I would have liked more live instrumentalists, though I had fun with hand drums, banjo and a violinist by the fireside circle. Damian played skreeks & skritches alongside some other DJs. I could have done without the George W Bush samples but I suppose it’s a reminder of the world we live in.
Overall a good weekend away, and a good way to spend a birthday – getting new ideas for the future.
Posted by fiffdimension at December 12, 2005 12:26 PM | TrackBack