So according to an article in a recent issue of ‘Adbusters’ magazine (I highly recommend this publication for anyone who is over the human beings self-destructive spiral into oblivion) there is a new breed of teenager coming out of Japan. They don’t socialize, let alone leave their bedrooms. Social networking is the sickness and physical isolation the symptom. It seems you can satisfy the need for self-gratification, love, intimacy and social stimulation of any kind over the internet. Scary thought.

It goes on to mention that Japanese people tend to keep to themselves in public. They don’t make eye contact and elevators are an intense experience for a westerner. Apparently the majority of the population who use social networking sites use a fake name and a photograph of someone else. So if conversation and physical interaction are being replaced by fiber-optics, where does that leave live music? Will it die and be replaced by virtual jams and broadcast shows? Well, I don’t think so.

One of the beautiful things about music is that you can communicate a sensation or an emotion without having to give away the context. You could be communicating the frustration of losing a job or an argument with a friend. The sadness of a love dissolved or a pet lost. Even the joy when you lose a tooth only to find some money under your pillow in the morning. The reason for this frustration, sadness or elation isn’t important and with the language barrier separating cultures, deciphering the lyrics is a whole lot more difficult.

To truly get a sense of what someone is communicating (whether they intend to or not) you must be in their space. You must see them live. The mediums of recorded sound and motion picture only communicate two elements. It’s pretty obvious to me that these two elements are only a part of the whole experience and we as humans communicate things through means that A) we can’t convert to a frozen medium and B) we don’t understand. I don’t particularly want to understand these things either because if you analyse them too much, I think they will lose their magic.

It has been mentioned to me by several of my music teachers and visiting touring soloists over the years that some kind of neurological connection happens when you watch a great player live that helps you improve. Only part of this gets through when you hear a recording or watch them on youtube. This just convinces me even more about the power of live performance and interaction. How many times have you heard people say ‘Their CD is ok but they’re way better live’? Seems like a silly statement to me, unless you’re dealing with some less than savory musicians who have been quantized, auto-tuned and sound-replaced to the point that they are un-recognisable! (Sorry Nickleback fans, but they fall into this category for me! No wait. Their CDs are terrible too…)

This feels like it’s going to get into a big rant about quantum particles and the effect of our minds on our surroundings, but lets leave that for another midnight ‘post inspiring gig blog’. (Allen Vizzutti with the Rodger Fox band for anyone interested!)

Night all.

Dave

(Riverblind will be hitting you south islanders in September, confirmed! Details to come.)

Dave's Insights adbusters, allen vizutti, japan, live, rodger fox, social media 3 comments

I recently finished a paper at the NZSM about Jazz Rock Fusion, who was involved and how it developed. The question “is Jazz Rock Jazz?” or “is Jazz Rock Rock?” came up on a regular basis. It is a difficult one to answer, and an important thing to think about but in my eyes, ultimately irrelevant for any reason other than archiving.

Erich Fromm, a psychotherapist who was active around the 1920s and 30s listed eight basic human needs that we require in order to be balanced. One of which is a frame of orientation; “we need to understand the world and our place in it.” The separation of musical sounds into categories is an example of the human need for orientation. We know what we like and we need a simple way of defining it.

Sound is sound. When you take an overview of all the music in the world and its importance to the culture (or cultures in this case) that create and perform it, then each individual genre loses its superiority over the others. We so often put western classical music on a pedestal above the rest. It’s performed to an audience who are silent. It is performed in large, extravagant, purpose built concert halls. The musicians and audience are dressed up for the occasion. I’m not going to bag western art music for a moment because it is a magnificent thing, but the attitude and historical, social and financial context has placed it somewhere separate.

Jazz has been separated in a similar way but the time it took to develop was like the development of western classical on fast forward. Major developments were evident over ten years that would have taken a hundred or more in the classical world. People were so attached to Jazz as an entity that every time someone did something new, there was a large proportion of the listening population questioning whether it was Jazz anymore. Jazz-Rock Fusion is a hotly debated genre in terms of what it is. Certain neo-classicist performers and writers would tell you that Jazz finished in the early 1970’s. In fact, when Bebop (which is what the mainstream population would define as Jazz) came around in the 1950’s, some reviewers were saying that wasn’t Jazz. It was too far away from the big bands of the swing era for their liking.

So who gives a shit?

I mean really, there is a planet full of these creative sound artists. They draw inspiration from other sound sources for sure, but they are ultimately a manifestation of every Christmas, Chanukka, broken finger, argument with their mother, new relationship, relationship end, bad hair cut and every other experience their perception has ever perceived. We are all unique in what we do, even if we try and make it the same as something else.

Someone does something musically that moves people. People take the sounds from that move them from that, and with that material as a canvas they paint themselves. The process is then repeated for as long as humans exist. The music has to change over time. It’s evolution.

Genres are just photographs of music in time. It’s a way for us to differentiate between one thing and another and be able to communicate what something is to another without actually playing them the material. You’ve got to think though, what if you took those snapshots at slightly different times? Would our perception of music historically be much different? Would it alter how music sounds now? I think it would, at least on the mainstream level.

Much of this came about from people asking “what kind of music does Riverblind play?” I can explain that it’s a mish-mash of everything we like, but when it comes to a press release or a website selling our music, we need a genre label. I hate this. I play sounds that I like, regardless of their origin. I suppose our instrumentation is that of a rock band. Our harmony is heavily Jazz influenced, and my singing is hardly either of those genres. What do we sound like to you?

Dave's Insights bebop, erich fromm, fusion, genre, jazz, jazz rock fusion, rock 3 comments

I came across an interview with one of my favorite performers and composers (pre-Audioslave here people) Chris Cornell. In a NYRock interview he mentions, “Depression can be very inspiring. At least for me it can be. The quiet aspects of life are very important, because let’s face it, life is pretty difficult.”

I thought I’d better write some stuff down about this as I’d been thinking about it a lot lately. When I was a teenager, my mother would hear the music I’d been writing and asked me “Why is it all so sad? Why don’t you write something happy?”

This may seem like a very oblivious, non-musical or artistically inclined and ignorant thing to say. All the more so when it comes from someone (and don’t get me wrong, I love my mother dearly) who listens to Amici forever and other such musical catastrophes for any reason other than personal torture.

Well, it got me thinking. “Why don’t you write something happy?” I was suddenly alarmed. I couldn’t. I really tried and it all came out sounding like the theme to Bob the Builder with a twist of sarcasm.

Then I listen to something like Tool’s ‘Lateralus’ or The Smashing Pumpkin’s ‘Soma’ and although the average person wouldn’t describe it as ‘happy’ music, it gives me a tremendous sense of uplifting satisfaction. Both songs have an undertone of reflection and introversion that I think give us a sense that we are not alone inside our minds; there are others (if not all of us, but I have met some potential exceptions!) who navigate the same inner turmoil that I/we do. So what is happy music? The sound of obliviousness? The sounds produced by someone who is at total peace with themselves? The sound of what we would like to be? I don’t know, I’ve never written something obviously or intentionally ‘happy’.

As Cornell said “Depression can be very inspiring”. For me, the state of being ‘unhappy’ is the state of being anything other than content. When I’m not content, I feel I need to do something in order to reach some kind of equilibrium and get back to a balanced or ‘happy’ state. Whether that be going for a run, getting some sleep, eating food, or creating some music, something needs to be done. When I’m ‘happy’, I feel balanced and content, and some kind of ‘release’ isn’t necessary because there’s no pressure built up to fuel it. I have no ‘need’ to compose or release. This isn’t to say I can’t or don’t compose in this state, I do, but my ideas flow much better and my concepts are so much stronger when I am in need of release. The other confusing thing about this I suppose is that if something or someone isn’t happy, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are depressed or angry, there is an infinite continuum of emotions between the two, all of which I find useful for composition and lyric writing.

I also have observed a really strong shift in the undertones of my music, and Riverblind’s music, over the last four years. Our first CD ‘Mind Estate’ is an angry and depressing EP. There is so much angst. I’m not suggesting it’s a bad thing, but there is certainly an enormous amount of self consciousness on my part in the music which contributes to it’s tension filled execution. Hour of the Wolf on the other hand, is a much more positive beast. This was not intentional in anyway. I think my contribution to the mood of that album in both writing and performance was heavily influenced by my psychological state at the time. There was some more confidence floating around and I think I was generally a happier person.

Things have continued to improve over the recent years, Dan, Stefan and myself have become much closer as a family and much better as musicians. I feel the music is starting to really reflect that in its unity within itself. I am really excited about recording again in 2011, as much of the material is already ‘eyeballs deep’ (Free CD for the name and artist of that song!) in the creative process. The composition process is becoming really refined.

Bill Frisell has been on the top of my playlist for the last wee while. Check out ‘East West’ and ‘Where in the World?’. The title track of the latter is breathtaking.

Oh and big ups to Dunedin. We had a cracker of a show there two weeks ago which has fueled some creative and professional motivation from us for the next wee while. See you guys again in September!

Dave's Insights Bill Frisell, Chris Cornell, creativity, depression, NYRock.com, Smashing Pumpkins, song writing, Tool 3 comments

As we’re learning to speak, how do we learn? No one opens a dictionary in front of you and feeds you words by definition as you slot them into your memory bank. You hear them spoken, you imitate the sounds, and over time they grow to mean something.

Why would music be any different? Music won’t tell someone you’re hungry or that they should’ve cleaned the kitchen, but it will communicate things we often don’t use words for. Crying, laughing, sighing, screaming, facial expressions and body language. These things are often more powerful than words and when accompanied by words, help to show their true context.

I often listen to other players and completely connect with what it is they are saying. It may be that I can play every note they just did, or that I’m aware of the function of a lick they are using, but for the life of me, I can’t say the same thing. This is where we go back to learning to talk. Me must imitate! And the greatest thing about this is that when you imitate someone else, you can get pretty close, but you’re never going to sound exactly like them. Why? Because you are you.

Over time, you become an accumulation of what you listen to, but expressed the way that your body (technique) and gear to a much lesser extent, will allow. I think you can further solidify this process by diving head first into it! Take note of what moves you, and absorb it as much as you can. It’s not stealing or plagiarizing, because if you’d never heard anything before, then you wouldn’t be able to play. This is the approach I’m going to focus on in my own playing in the future as there is so much music I’m discovering at the moment that moves me. I want to be a part of it and I want it to be a part of me. I love the sound, and the feeling, and I want that under my fingers (or voice or in my trumpet for that matter). The importance of this process hasn’t really been illustrated to me until this year, and I wish I’d known earlier! But to quote an earlier blog, we must keep our minds in the present and move forwards!

Now alas, I have a cold and must go to bed if I want to have any chance of singing at all on Friday the 13^th. (Prog 2.0 at Happy, it’d be nice to see you, yes YOU, there)

Dave's Insights communication, learning, music 2 comments

After a discussion with a good friend of mine, who also happens to be my guitar teacher at Jazz school, I had a good long think about expression.

Dave's Insights bass, context, drums, expression, improvising, interaction, jamming, piano, trios No comments

I’ve been doing a lot of self-analysis and awareness seeking in the last wee while as I feel it is a great place to start when improving you’re writing, playing, and ultimately your quality of life in general.

I felt I should write a few words on the topic as many people I have spoken to go through the same hindering brain patterns as myself. Maybe you do too?

I find that my mind is usually in one of two places (the gutter does not feature here).
I’m either evaluating the past, or critiquing something I’ve just done, or I’m thinking about the future, and what it is that I want to do, want to be able to do, or want to prevent from happening. What happened to the present? There is so much joy in the present that many of us don’t allow ourselves to enjoy very often. I find the present is forced into you when watching a movie, because you’re distracted from your time travel. Also when you’ve hit your substance of choice, the past and future dissolve temporarily. Both of these instances can’t be a part of your everyday moment for obvious reasons, so learning to enjoy the present I feel is a must.

Now this is all quite heavy, I know! But what I’m getting to here is that the way my mind sits in every day life, is a carbon copy of the way I think when playing music, obviously on a much smaller scale. Playing music, and everyday life are paralleled in so many ways. I think about music pretty much all the time anyway!

If you’re playing music, whether it be at rehearsal or on the stage, your conscious mind is a great big pain in the gluteus maximus. If your mind is in the future, you stress about what you’ve got to play, and if you’re assessing the past, your mind isn’t on the job. Therefore everything comes down in a crashing heap. My trumpet teacher at university called it ‘paralysis by analysis’. And man was he right. I’m currently working on sitting back and watching my fingers do what they do on the guitar, without getting involved. And for the few moments each day that this happens to me, I feel I’m making ‘real’ music. It sounds that way to me anyway. The sounds I hear in my head start to jump off the fret board (and a mighty fine fret board it is too! But I’ll geek up a storm about my gear in a later blog for those so inclined).

This is all a bit of a journey for me so if you’re interested, let me know and I’ll update this one as I go along.

Assignment for the week! Everyone check out the Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers recording of Caravan. It’s blowing my mind how cool this is. A 6ft 5 drummer who dwarfs his kit, growling out loud, every solo phrase he plays. Bliss.

Photo Credit Brain_Blogger

Dave's Insights art blakey, brain, caravan, creativity, jazz messengers, life, music, self help 2 comments