I think success is being able to wake up and make something, no matter where you are or how you’re feeling. That feels like a win. Just no matter where you or things are in life, just being able to tune into that deeper part of yourself through songwriting.
Failure is an interesting word… I think failure is being disingenuous about how you’re actually feeling and dishonest with yourself about the parts you want to share.
naviarhaiku610 – dropped glass
I had a chord progression from playing on my ukulele and had recently tuned my tenor guitar to suit similar intervals, although it's ADF#B rather than CGEA.
Lyrics were generated with ChatGPT, but required editing to arrive at the result that were recorded:
A silence so heavy
felt it would break today
weight of words angrily told
left scattered, sharp and cold
Now a memory that can’t be shut
each shard a lesson, every cut
your apology won’t revoke
the ringing echo of what we broke
When you dropped the glass
and time slowed down
shattered dreams in pieces
scattered on the ground
The cracks are just the space we need
a chance to heal the cuts we bleed
glass debris after the fall
singing on the kitchen floor
You said you didn’t mean it
But the words had already flown
now we're left here waiting
with truth openly known
Now the floor is all swept
we’re still lost in the past
and that sound of breaking glass
is the only thing that lasts
The ring it leaves behind
a circle, tight and blind
the sound of what we lost
a chord that pays the cost
The cracks are just the space we need
a chance to heal the cuts we bleed
we made a window with glass melted down
from outside your knocks are a softer sound
The cracks are just the space we need
a chance to heal the cuts we bleed
like glass debris after the fall
singing on the kitchen floor
Revolutions
The funny thing about change is how often it makes old ideas new again
Since
I spend so much time lately thinking about guitar pedals, it has been
interesting to ponder the revival of the four-track gain stage.
I
am old enough that access to a four-track recorder was one of the most
exciting aspects of starting at Lake Tuggeranong College when it opened
in 1990.
By that point I'd already been
sequencing songs on my Amiga computer but didn't have enough musical
experience to record much more than simple songs on the Tascam
four-tracks.
Those four-tracks allowed both
sides of an audio tape to be used, so the stereo channels added up, and
were still being used to record music when I was making demo tapes with
bands in 1994 and '96.
Recently the interest in
four-tracks has returned for their distinctive gain staging, which
allowed some shaping of the instruments being recorded.
Although
these sounds have had a lo-fi charm for many "indie" style bands and
added character, the current revival has followed from the distinctive
sound of a guitarist called Mk.gee.
Another
element in his tone is the Rainger FX reverb pedal, which includes a
gate to adjust that allows the effect to be added when the dynamics of
the playing go beyond the threshold.
(One of
the details less acknowledged is Mk.gee's use of flatwound strings,
which make his baritone guitar remind me of bassists like Jaco
Pastorius.)
In a recent video to promote the JHS pedal which emulates a four-track gain stage, the guitarist John
Mayer notes “There is a revolution taking place right now in guitar
playing, and it has to do with dynamics.”
“For most of guitar playing history, guitars were plugged into amplifiers, and the way that a tube amp responds has kind of defined the way people played guitar.
“But now people have been plugging into things that aren't tube amplifiers," Mayer continues and those things respond differently.
Alternatives to tube amplifiers have been around for decades, but the real revolution isn't the return of four-track gain stages.
The shift to digital and the ability to emulate analogue circuits has been gaining pace, with many abandoning those big old boxes for smaller rigs.
Elsewhere on the internet in recent weeks is an interview with pedal builder Brian Wampler, who identifies that digital emulations of technology like tube amplifiers and other effects are threatening his business model.
He describes digital modeling as a Napster moment for traditional pedal makers, saying "for those who remember that, that's where everybody who had music that you just uploaded to Napster, and now no one needs to buy any more music.”
I think Wampler's observation is what gives Mayer's sales pitch for the JHS pedal an interesting context.
During the '90s, in particular, guitar dynamics were smashed in popular music as loudness was pursued through the use of heavy compression effects.
Maybe that's what comes to mind when I think about the music on Napster, but I hope that the sound of individual players and their dynamics is something being celebrated.
We're witnessing a variety of revolutions in music technology and, just like the older guitar designs coming back into fashion, there are older sounds that are also being revisited.
In some ways it's depressing to see the "relic" models of guitars being sold so that a consumer can pretend to be their idol, rather than the excitement I find in hearing someone like Mk.gee showing the potential for new tones.
I recently went
down a metaphorical rabbit hole to revisit the sounds of Tom
Morello and don't think it requires his signature model guitar to achieve them.
For me a real revolution is seeing new ideas incorporated into the portable format that pedals offer and the rise of digital modelling means it's offering distinctive combinations of effects that become a way to grab consumer's attention, aside from the heavy reliance on celebrities and brand names.
From this perspective I am impressed with David Rainger's inventive products, such as the implementation of gating in the reverb popularised by Mk.gee but also the wonder-filled Minibar distortion pedal.
There aren't many products that my family show an interest in playing and the Minibar was the first since Korg's Kaossilator and the Wavedrum before that.
(And, thinking of Korg, I'm getting excited to see that Phase8 is nearing release.)
I
am hoping there are many more revolutions occurring in the guitar pedal
format, but that enthusiasm needs to be qualified with a sense of
innovation rather than mining the past for nostalgia.
naviarhaiku609 – revealing in the dark
I liked the image of a lonely fisherman inspecting waves and thought it spoke to those moments of introspection and reflection.
RIP DJ Wasabi
Sad to learn of the passing of Tom 'DJ Wasabi' Jones
I met Wasabi through the Burning Seed event in Matong, the town where generations of the Jones family farmed.
His father Brian Jones died a few years ago and it was his funeral and a smaller event later on for his Burner family where I think I last saw Wasabi.
Reading now about his various careers in Combat Wombat, youth mentoring and live sound, it's clear that Australia has lost an innovative and important contributor.
I really appreciate how easy going and funny he was, with a work ethic that kept pushing for the best results.
It was also nice to spend time with his extended family and my thoughts go to his young children.
Disquiet Junto 0714 Remix Yourself
The Junto arrived with the knowledge that I wanted to remix the track I recorded last week.
I knew there would be vocal takes that would fit together nicely, and I’ve panned them to either channel here with a reverb shared on the buss.
What I was stuck on was who to imitate in my remix.
I asked my partner and she said “your former self.”
So the bassline takes some inspiration from the song ‘Slow boil’ on my first album, which I published online more than 20 years ago.
I used the UAD Opal synth for bass and a kind of textural sound at the beginning, middle break and end, along with Ableton Live's 909 samples.
These were given various saturation and distortion for warmth and to add legibility on smaller speakers.
Disquiet Junto 0713 Airwave Workout
The Junto assignment this week is to "Record exercise music for an imaginary broadcast."
Nearly 30 years ago, when I went to the gym, there was an instructor who liked to play a tape with guitar arpeggios during the cool down part of the Saturday morning session.
So, thinking of this music when the Junto arrived, I grabbed my guitar and asked ChatGPT to generate a calisthenics routine.
As I played and read aloud the exercises, I started to sing, so I asked ChatGPT to make the routine into lyrics with sensual language.
That was on Friday night and I wasn't sure it was the right interpretation for the Junto.
Then today, Sunday, I decided that I wasn't going to have a better idea and recorded three takes.
I liked my guitar solo best in the first, sang better in the second but didn't like the chorus.
So the third take has a chorus that I made up, which ended up as the outro for the song.
naviarhaiku607 – Winter waterfall
Disquiet Junto 0712 Zebra Code
The Junto project this week came from a post I saw online, where barcodes were being interpreted as riffs.
I shared the idea with Marc and he indicated it was an idea worth exploring.
So I began looking at products in the kitchen cupboards and found most were atonal, which suited metal and I began riffing to settle on the stripes I'd use.
This label from a local supermarket took my interest as it had a more musical key and I think the Junto projects are an opportunity to share something specific to my location, as it's often interesting to see glimpses of participants' lives from around the world.
Then Marc shifted the idea to be a rhythm, which made sense as the Junto is not just guitarists.
I took this rhythm and found a chord progression from my folder of Live sketches, then began arranging the parts.
In the process I halved the speed of the drum part at the beginning and in a middle section, as well as reversing the chords in other parts to add harmonic interest.
Finally, I like to add delay, so I took the grainy quality of the barcord to suggest a granular or glitchy effect.
Thoreau on living
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
Richo?
The weirdest Fender guitar
The strange variations being produced by Fender have been on my mind ever since I bought a Meteora
Given I have more guitars than I need, it's difficult to justify purchasing one; but the warmth of my Meteora's split humbuckers and wide neck has made it a favourite.
Disquiet Junto 0711 Show & Tell &
The Junto project this week is to "Share some recent music; get and give feedback."
I'm sharing a track that was originally recorded for the Junto, which I thought to revisit recently.
My feeling is that it's too long, possibly too repetitive (although it is aiming for a pop sensibility), and I've wondered if it's offensive -- so I was thinking to replace the word "bitch" with "glitch" and then adding more of that kinda effect.
Obsessed much
Yesterday I thought I'd built the ultimate board, then last night I saw it could connect to an earlier one.
So it turned out to be the penultimate board and this weekend it'll feed on the disconnected cables, pedals and power supply to become a greater board.
Pedal bored
Then I noticed how neatly the cables fit the keyboard tray, and thought I should try something new.
So I plugged the omnichord into the MIDI box, where the drum machine had been.
That sounded better after I plugged in another drum machine, given it's a 505 it's not so much better but enough.
It's been fun looping with Habit, then adding cheese.
Lost & Found
I feel like a fan for wanting to write about it but Chase Bliss' new pedal has missed the mark for me.
Before they announced Lost & Found I had pondered whether a multi-effect would be an option for their new pedal.
Usually Chase Bliss will dive really deep on features, almost exhausting possibilities and then adding a digital brain that allows for recalling multiple presets and other MIDI options.
That, as much as being their first multi-effect, is a significant difference with this pedal and I can't help but think that it might be what's lost.
This focus on possibilities with switches and dipswitches has been an aspect of the company tagline "Digital Brain, Analog Heart" but interestingly it's an area that's been scrutinised by other fanboys.
The digital side of that analogy has come to dominate the CBA product line and the move away from light-dependent resistors must have pushed them further into algorithms.
So the announcement of the Brothers AM pedal earlier this year struck me as being a statement affirming their brand values, as much as another of those clever collaborations that have made Chase Bliss such an inspiring company for musicians.
I was really impressed with the original Brothers pedal and am looking forward to trying the new version, but it's still a long way away (like probably a five-hour drive).
This new pedal, Lost & Found, seems very much a digitally-brained and also "hearted" effect in combining a dozen or so interesting sounds and maximising the potential to cross-pollinate them together.
The video detailing the feature set includes Tom Majeski, who contributed to so much Bliss with the Onward pedal and Cooper collaboration Generation Loss that has been a part of that shift in the product line.
When I was daydreaming about what a new Chase Bliss pedal might include, I thought the idea of having a synth-style pedal could be good with the filters that provide character.
The pitch-tracking of pedals in recent years that allow polyphonic results has been a development that means I'm less likely to grab one of the MIDI guitars for jamming, but I guess I've been using Ableton Live's transcriptions for recordings for years anyway.
The idea of an instrument-like effect was one of those things that surprised me when it then appeared in the Lost & Found announcement, which brings together a "museum" of Bliss.
As a curator I really like the wunderkammer idea of the cabinet of curiosities from this company. but I guess the converse side of that was feeling underwhelmed.
These options seem to be kinda shallow compared to the deep dive other pedals take into failing media (like Lossy or Generation Loss).
From a value-proposition perspective I can see the brand needs to balance providing an inspiring palette for musicians within a pedal, while trying to include enough of the character that has distinguished Chase Bliss but not so much that people decide another pedal provides a depth to really make these sounds one's own.
I'm still weighing up whether I'm such a Bliss fan that I "need" this pedal, but my initial response is that my existing pedals provide most of these sounds.
With a few Zoia pedals I could probably get rid of most of my pedal collection, but I think their interfaces and design serve so many roles for a musicians.
I've written elsewhere about how much I like the nostalgic branding used by Chase Bliss, particularly the way old media shapes their sounds and appears in their marketing -- like the Viewmasters in the current promotions.
It's this character that underscores the "lost" in the model's name.
It is this blend of sentimentality and a nostalgia for things lost as the world moves forward that seems to embody a Japanese concept like wabi-sabi.
In fact, grief is such a theme in the Chase Bliss brand that I think it provides a sense of emotional depth and resonances that reach beyond being a pedal company.
If they were to start emulating Teenage Engineering, then I would be fascinated to be a fly on the wall in the meetings that Joel Korte would chair to canvas possibilities.
I would love to smell a range of candles or taste a sample box of chocolates for the experiences that I expect Chase Bliss would provoke, but at present I feel like Lost & Found is still looking for a place in my guitar effect pedal collection.
Robert Smith on writing a pop song
“Genuinely dumb pop lyrics are much more difficult to write than my usual outpourings through the heart,” Robert told Spin Magazine. “I went through hundreds of sheets of paper, trying to get words for [Friday I’m in Love]. You have to hit something that's not cringe - a simplicity and naiveté that communicates. There's a dumbness that sort of cracks. We've always done pop songs. It's just sometimes they're way too down, sort of desperate.”
Chords
“It's a really good chord progression, I couldn't believe no-one else had used it and I asked so many people at the time (I was getting drug paranoia anyway) ‘I must have stolen this from somewhere, I can't possibly have come up with this.' I asked everyone I knew, everyone. I'd phone people up and sing it and go, 'Have you heard this before? What's it called?' They'd go, 'No, no, I've never heard it.’” Smith told Guitar World.
Accidents
“That was an accident, albeit a happy one.” Robert remembered in an interview with Guitar Player. “I was playing with the pitch control and forgot to turn it off. The whole feel changed, and the fact that it’s the only song on Wish that’s not in concert pitch really lifts it out and makes it sound different. After working on the record for months, hearing something a quarter tone off makes your brain take a step backwards.”
Disquiet Junto 0710 Let's Get Loud
The Junto project has one step, "Choose a recent piece of your own music and rework it by making some portions of it significantly louder and busier than they were initially."
I've taken a piece of a guitar recording and cut it in half, then layered those together.
naviarhaiku604 – In spring sunlight
Disquiet Junto 0709 Overclocked
The Disquiet assignment is to "Speed up a machine (or process) until it falters":
Step 1: Think of a machine (or process) you use frequently.
Step 2: Push that machine (or process) by speeding it up, until it begins to break down.
Step 3: Record something making use of the sounds resulting from Step 2.
I've recorded my second pedal board, which I put together after noticing I'd left a bunch of Chase Bliss pedals off my first pedal board.
Insect chords
Made a mash with the last two tracks, combining the vocal chord Junto with my jam on the gated guitar rig.
Both recordings used similar chords, which helped a lot I think.
naviarhaiku603 – insect tremolo
Disquiet Junto 0708 Vocal Chords
The Disquiet Junto assignment is to "Do something with layers of the sound of your voice."
Aiden Arata on laziness
Procrastination is actually an ideation process…
I don’t believe in laziness anymore. I just don’t think it’s a thing. You’re tired, or you’re feeling avoidant, or you have a very good reason for not wanting to do something, or you’re just weighed down by how sad the world is…
We live in a very sick society in that way, where anything that isn’t commodifiable is not viable. It brings us back to the conversation of laziness.
naviarhaiku602 – scent of plum
I considered how one will often reach a plateau when walking up mountains, incorporating a slower section in the key change of this song.
Manipulated footage via タンタンポッピング - ミルキーウェイ乗組員 - やってみます。
Gay Frog pedal
Disquiet Junto 0707 Chain of Practice
The Disquiet Junto project this week has a few steps:
Step 1: Think about your artistic practice.
Step 2: Write down one sentence that in some manner describes your artistic practice.
Step 3: Record yourself, or someone else, reading the sentence that resulted from Step 2.
I recorded myself with an old iPhone saying the line shown to the top-right of my blog, hear below.
When I imported the video into Ableton Live I noticed there was a considerable click at the end, which saved me from having to manipulate a transient to produce a kick sound.
Then I picked a couple of ess-y bits for other percussive sounds, looping them and adding Live's Beatrepeat to gate them.
I also looped the word "sample," pitching it down and adding a filtered EQ, as well as the word "looping," which was pitched up and also EQ'd.
I looked for a few extended vowel sounds, to pitch up and create harmonic progression.
These weren't grabbing me, so I added Live's resonator and a Sinevibes' effect that is a great shortcut for this sorta thing.
naviarhaiku601 – pulling light
Since I'd been rocking out on drums over the weekend, this song was influenced by a guitar riff.
Then when I went looking for a video to pair with my track, the keyword brought up breakdancing by a Chinchin Milkyway.
So I changed the instruments to be more like something he'd be dancing with and made a few edits to suit the pacing.
Cute kit
I had to put a couple of pillows in the kick and the snare rattles a bit, since it's attached.
The cymbals were mine, but I wasn't using them and am now enjoying the '70s-sounding deeper snare and darker hats.
Love this idea!
Then there's the disorienting aspect of microphones and their influence on proximity, which can shift focus.
Disquiet Junto 0706 Tile One On
The project has one step, "record something that makes use of the acoustics of your bathroom."
I took the opportunity to make my first recording of a cute little secondhand drum kit that I bought.
It has a snare attached to the kick drum, which rattles a bit, but I'm thinking that I might leave that off for my Fire Cracker snare in future.
Wasn't sure what to add, so I grabbed my ukulele and started with the G minor chord that gets used a lot.
naviarhaiku600 – thinking of us
Their haiku reminded me there was footage I'd shot of the trees during autumn, which allowed me to go look through my files for a piece of music.
I've tried to incorporate atmosphere and a crunchiness for the leaves.
Disquiet Junto 0705 Book Start
The Junto assignment this week is to "Let the beginning of a book help you begin a new piece of music."
I've read the opening to Andrea Wulf's Magnificent Rebels, which I began this week because I enjoyed her book on Alexander Von Humboldt.
Disquiet Junto 0704 Right on Cumulus
The Junto prompt this week is to "compose 8-bit music" and I was kinda stumped.
I looked at using some of the Nintendo-sounding presets on the Kaossilators that my son has been using recently for an assignment, then decided to try the Bitquest pedal that arrived this week.
It's being run through the Chase Bliss Habit pedal for delay/looping, while I cycle through a few settings.
Dr No Raven
Has a cocked wah-kinda effect, but with more resonance.
Disquiet Junto 0703 That's How You Got Killed Before
The Junto assignment this week is to "Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time."
I've gone back to my track 'Wanderer' to try layering a couple of takes that I noticed were close in their tempo, despite not using a clicktrack.
Disquiet Junto 0702 Chain of Application
The Junto this week asks participants to misuse music software.
Usually I use Ableton Live by composing in MIDI, then exporting those notations as sound.
Today I thought to record a song called 'Inner Bitch' using my Suzuki Omnichord to play the MIDI parts.
naviarhaiku596 – spring dream
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