Hey! I'm not always a downer, but I listened to Modinha, the first offering. That was enough. I always encourage beginners, especially if we're sitting around between sets or before shows. But hearing basic technique through digitals doesn't do it for me. I remember tone from albums and cassettes. But that's just this online thing. The playing reminded me of an old Uriah Heep riff, an equipment innovative 60's "acid-rock" band known for their ability to bang along and negotiate a long awaited chord change. Some deeply altered introverted personalities need to hear themselves for a while before they can adapt to other realities of other people playing too, never mind a singer and a song.
Global technology more than live performance, this devolved life on earth. Maybe when man settles on the moon the first time I'll be listening to a solo musician playing a small keyboard badly. That might not sound attractive, but with the dedicated psycho-input electronic cereblowem functions of the future, you'll have to want to listen to more. And when half the earth can look up to the moon for the video, it'll be as hot as Elvis sending live on satellite for the first time.
What interested me was the compliment to Bob Moog, a synthesizer inventor. I'm from Welland, close to Niagara Falls, and went to Buffalo a lot to see jazz and r'n'b bands, local (Rick James, Pat Methany, Pegasus, Billie Sheehan, The Commodores) and recording-travelling (Weather Report with Jaco Pastorius, Gap Mangione). Bob started in that city, his inventions filtering out to the world from there. These guys would have loved to have been there in his time. I often wonder what happened to his console synthesizer that a music store featured. All white, looking like a cross between the cabinet construction of a pipe organ and a Hammond B3. I think this experimental machine was selling for $20,000 in '70.
I can see losing yourself tone wise through digital recording. You're mixing everything and it all starts to thin down, thin and tiny to begin with. Without being able to be present with my equipment, I would say grab an old Hammond or Thomas Organ for $20, or any other "vintage" equipment and sit it beside the digitals. Grab a few wires and plug that in. Just put the same tunes on cassette and C.D. side by side and listen to the difference. Get a tone that breathes.
What I'm down on digitals about is my love of listening in the dark, laying there with headphones. Digitals aren't as lush and atmospheric.
As a real Watt, please notice I'm not talking about power. And maybe digitals will evolve so that in the future I can watch cooking shows and not have to eat. Self-recording! You should wait until someone wants to pay you. I like to river-walk during long bike-hikes. My favorite is Niagara Falls. Not everyone thinks of it as a shallow field of moving water, but it's always well below my knees. I've been out over 200 feet, three feet from the edge, usually at night. Even then, half the time Parks guards yell at me to get out before they call the police. If you ever hear or see of someone standing at the edge during the day, holding up a sign saying support live music, you'll know it's me. That's my rescue.
I know I have a lot to offer if I was in this situation. Please consider any dialogue.
as always, John Watt.
Read the background and listen to the music.
