audiot

nope, this did not evolve into a fruitblog – still the same ole music crap…

this is about genres…kind of. there is this saying, that goes something like this: if you have nothing but a hammer, everything looks like a nail to you. i love this metaphor, because it hits the issue on the head (punny, now isn’t it?). we often become the hammerguy, even if we have other tools available – sometimes we just don’t see or use them. recently i stumbled across some people who tried to solve a rock-problem by using classical methods. when i mentioned this, they denied, and who’s to say who’s wrong? but here’s my thoughts on that:

the first step in doing something is to think appropriately. you want to speak portuguese? think portuguese! (note: this works for other languages as well ;-)  ). don’t think english (or wherever else you’re from) and then translate, this won’t work at all. the same goes for music. you want to make jazz? think jazz. don’t try to translate classic into funk or reggae – it will sound horrible!

that being said, i’m not talking about creative ways to come up with something new. i’m talking about ignoring the big picture by using only above mentioned hammer because you’re too comfortable with it or simply too lazy to really get into something else.

maybe i’ll write more about this someday. right now, that’s all i have in me and it should be enough to provoke some thoughts – at least i hope so…

i just finished recording rhythm-guitar for the first song of “traitor”, i played ten tracks, threw two of them away and kept the other eight – not sure if i’ll use them all, though. there are lots of bits and pieces for this new album i already recorded, but until now i wasn’t sure what this album would sound like. during the last few weeks i was messing around with all kinds of ideas but now it became quite obvious where this will go. this little tracking-session today made it very clear that this will be a straightforward, lowdown and dirty hardrock album.

the funny thing about this is, i stopped being a rock-musician years ago. and since then i’m listening to everything with the same amount of interest, i’m playing everything with the same amount of ‘being into it’. but beyond all that there’s some unfinished business i suppose. songs i wrote during my rock-phase for instance, like 15 years ago… i don’t even like those songs anymore, but i still love the feel of some of them or some parts, riffs, licks or whatever. and since that time, whenever i’ve picked up a guitar, some of those old ideas snuck up on me. so now i’m making peace with myself by finally doing a record with all that stuff – hoping those ghosts from the past will leave me alone at last :-)

nah, don’t gimme that “so, now you’re trying to palm off old and rotten stuff on me?” because that’s not what this is. there won’t be a single one of those old songs on the record, as i said before, i don’t like them anymore. i will, though, write new material with some of those riffs, ideas etc. included. what will mostly remain of the old stuff is the feel. suffice it to say i was quite an angry young loon back then. but don’t panic! i’m already thinking about the third album which will be completely different – again. this second one is basically about getting something off my chest and be done with it. on the other hand – recording this dirty stuff was kind of fun……………..

yes, nothing more than a big thank you. two of the three ebay-auctions were sold out about 3 hours after they started – unbelievable. both were about parts of the legendary Sonor Phonic Plus drumseries of the ’80s. i’m gonna sell lots of parts from this series in the next days and weeks, so if you’re interested in anything stay tuned or drop me a line right here.

and there were answers to the online-vocal-teaching-experiment-offer as well, yay! as i said, i have no idea how many online students i can handle at this point, so if you’re at all thinking about it, don’t waste any time…

and one more thing: i just read some articles in Tape Op (issue #67) and they rock! i looooove the one about reamping drums, really cool. for those of you who haven’t heard of it, Tape Op is an independent magazine about music recording with tons of tricks from the pros. it’s completely free and there is just no excuse for not subscribing right now. go ahead.