Category: music

RemixAgainstTheMachine : 4’33”

Now you can submit your own “remix” of Cage’s 4’33” to the “Cage Against The Machine” project. I don’t think “remix” is quite the best word to use, though. As every individual recording of 4’33” is a valid performance of the work, in my opinion. I’m tempted to do one from my favourite café later today.

I’ve posted about this work already on this blog. In a way, this addition to the CATM project takes the work right into the digital age – focusing the listener not just on the sounds of their own space, but also sharing that sound with other listeners who will not hear that space in the same way either, as the sound will merge with the sound of their own spaces.

There is a popular misconception that Cage’s 4’33” is ‘silence’. It’s not. It’s the sound of the place you are in at that time. We have therefore asked some of the best remixers in the world to submit their own versions of 4’33”, in other words, the sound of where they are and what they are doing at that time. Herve tidies up his studio, Alex Metric walks to work, Adam F goes to a club, I’m told Aeroplane may be having a shower, all for 4 minutes and 33 seconds.

So go to it, give us a four minute thirty three second audio snapshot of your life. Record it on your phone, your Mac, PC, recorder, dictaphone, walkperson, whatever and share it here. Bring smiles, warmth and awareness to our cause. Thank you for being part of it :)

Eddy Temple Morris

But is it not all just pretentious rubbish? Perhaps. But interesting, thought-provoking, challenging, inspiring, and creative too.

Galway Rain (newer demo)

I was going through all the stuff I’ve demo’d and seeing what needed improving, and did two re-demos of two songs last night. This is the first of them : “Galway Rain”, which I’ve written about before.

I have an awful habit of being really “free” in my approach to rhythm and keeping a steady tempo. It’s something that has always plagued my piano work even as a classical student. But the years of having to practice with a metronome filled me with an absolute distaste for them and click tracks. But it’s something I need to overcome as well as working on listening closer to my own internal sense of rhythm instead of abandoning my playing completely to emotional rubato.

That was one of the reasons I wanted to retake this demo – to get a tighter feel to the pulse, which I managed to mess up in the bridge again when I went to relisten to it. I guess I’ll have to take out my metronome again, or overcome my fear of click tracks.

Listening back to recordings of yourself is the most horrible, yet often essential learning.

Anyways, here’s the re-take of that demo, mistakes and all.

Galway Rain (demo) by misterebby

Lyrics Read More

I Love Music too.

My three favourites from the list by Jake Armerding about why he loves music.

I love music because it can’t be conquered.  No one will ever get to the end of music, solve it or master it, although it can be dumbed down.

[…]

I love music because it’s like food:  after you’ve made it, you can enjoy it.  Also like food, music can be complex or simple and still be delicious.  It’s also better than food:  once you’ve made it, it can’t be used up.

[…]

Music would never make the traditional list of basic human needs:  food, shelter, clothing.  But just see how long you could get along without it.

The full list: “I Love Music, is definitely worth the read.

Boy George quote: “there’s music everywhere now”

There’s music everywhere now. There’s saturation now. It’s become a career opportunity. A job. People go on The X Factor and say, “I just want a better life”. I wanted to change the world. When I started making music, I felt, naïvely or not, that I had something to tell the world. I had a mission statement. It’s great to buy your mum a house. It’s a lovely idea. But it shouldn’t be why you make music. When I hear that I think “you’re getting it all wrong”. My favourite type of music makes me want to burn down a building or makes me cry.

– Boy George. attitude magazine, december 2010.

I agree with everything in this quote. It’s one of the best statements about the music industry and why some people just have to make music, and others just want to be famous. The whole article, an interview with Mark Ronson and Boy George together, is definitely worth reading. Boy George is a very interesting man, and I’ve a lot of respect for him after reading that interview. I never really read much about him, other than random news headlines, and I only really know his Culture Club singles.

There’s a wonderful moment at the end of the article, where Mark Ronson jokingly refers to Boy George as a “national treasure”, and the Boy responds:

Being a national treasure doesn’t pay the rent though. An 80s icon is nothing to be.

I used to watch a music show back in the late 90’s on TnaG (TG4 as it is now), and they’d have 20minute segments dedicated to an artist or a year or whatever, and I remember one time it was Culture Club. I knew the songs, but didn’t know the man, and even then it was an exhilarating experience to see someone so definitely “other” singing on my tv. The same show introduced me to Kate Bush, and developed my popular music history. Of course, I’m a sucker for choirs, so the Culture Club song that made the biggest impact is one that is probably not as well known (note the top hat. Even more awesome) :

Of course the reason for the interview with the two together is because of the Mark Ronson single “Somebody To Love Me” which has Boy George on vocals, along with Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow.

Mark Ronson ft. Boy George ‘Somebody To Love Me’ – Director: Saam Farahmand from Tom Lindsay on Vimeo.

I write in cafés

 This post on Edible Geography struck a chord with me. I’m definitely one of those people who sits in cafés for hours working.

Usually though, people can see what I’m doing, as I’m rarely on a laptop anymore since the death of my Powerbook G4, and I’m usually switching between a notebook (yes, actual paper one), manuscript paper (yes, more actual paper you use for writing music), and my phone (for my twitter addiction).

For example, I took this shot of my “workspace” last month while sitting in Kelly’s Bar & Restaurant, which is one of my favourite places to do some work:

Scoring an arrangement for NUIG's ChoralSoc

I love working while in cafés and actually prefer it to working at my desk at home. I’m more productive and more focused when I’m working in a café and get a lot more work done in that kind of environment than I do pretty much anywhere else.

It’s always been that way – throughout uni, I’d get my composition assignments written in the canteen, the students union bar, or any of my favourite cafés in town. The noise and the bustle meant I had to focus on whatever work I was doing. I had to really concentrate to get the work done. That kind of atmosphere works for me. True, I may have also been using the lunch hour before the assignment was due to both eat and get the work done at the same time, but a bit of last minute pressure always helps. ;)

These days, I sit and write out arrangements for songs of mine, or for various different work that I do with choirs, or singing classes. I work on lyrics for my own songs, or write other things like this that make me happy.

I do get some strange looks sometimes, if I’m sitting with a full score out on the table while I have lunch or coffee, quietly working away writing down notes. And it’s certainly not as handy as using MuseScore (a free, open source Sibelius-like software) on my iMac at home, but it’s a bit more comfortable for me and I don’t make as good coffee as those cafés do.

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