The Concept

So, what are these songs with the funny pictures below?  Allow me to explain...

For some time, I've been contemplating the best way to re-energize a creative process that, quite frankly, has been scattershot and somewhat lethargic.  Don't get me wrong; I'm proud of what I've written and think I've recorded some unique music.  But having completed a record back in 2002 but then lost the will to market/promote it, I've found myself somewhat out in the wilderness, with countless unanswered questions and creeping doubts about my ability to finish what I've started.  If such uncertainties have not quite had the effect of freezing my creative impulses—I have been working these last several years, under the various guises "Goneboy," "The Me" and others—they've at least put something of a chill on them.  A medium-low grade crisis of confidence, you could say.

Some of the basic questions I've found myself asking:

1. What's the goal here?  Recording albums?  Singles?  Do I need the validation of my work being released?  Of being reviewed?
   
2. What exactly is my musical calling, anyway?  Am I a singer?  A songwriter?  A singer-songwriter?  Or am I a producer?  I've worn all these hats, with some success.
3. What style am I working in, exactly?  Does it matter?  Where my first record featured an orchestral pop sound (one I feel a natural affinity for), I've since been drifting toward certain throwback electronic sounds (the Fairlight synthesizer, 70s futurism) that have largely flown under the radar of the retro chic set.  The sheer variety of sounds and styles I've worked in these last several months and years would seem to indicate either a workman-like, craftsman's approach or a lack of enthusiasm. Possibly both.

To be sure, there are other questions as well, such as when is something "finished" — when I say so or when listeners tell me it "sounds done"?  Am I conducting scientific research for a great manifesto or simply dabbling?  Is it worth dedicating all this time to music if the results do not rise to the levels I would expect?  And so on.

It's not exactly in my nature to agonize about such questions in such a public way, and for sure, I don't intend for this blog to feature a series of confessions and neuroses. Rather, the idea behind Trouble With Classicists is to provide a forum for sketches, songs, and other various works in progress — not only a window into the creative process but to present a series of snapshots in motion.  Each night I work, I intend to mix down the results, encode them as mp3's and post them here, as they develop, so the listener can hear songs as parts are added and subtracted, changed and re-worked, and so forth.  My hope is that the blog will be not some exercise in navel-gazing featuring dozens of versions of the same track with differences inaudible to all but recording engineers and subscribers to High Fidelity, but rather something more dynamic and approachable, including explanatory blurbs highlighting the differences and intentions.  In some instances, I may also write about ideas I have before I've recorded them.

But as much as the goal here is to bring ideas to a greater state of completion, the most dynamic aspect of it is the prospect of participation — to garner feedback from you, to provoke some level of interaction, and infuse some energy into what can often be rather lonely process. 

So, I hope you find the contents interesting and will comment freely and enthusiastically.  Let me know what ideas you like, which you don't care for, and why. 

And with that...

Download bamboo_condos.mp3

A track in some state of completion.  It began life as a YMO/Ryuichi Sakamoto homage (check the ring modulated keyboard melody and lame title) before it swung hard in the direction of Act-era ZTT (featuring post-punk anti-hero, Thomas Leer).  Not much from a melodic or compositional standpoint, but a minor triumph, if I do say, on the micro-programming side of things — the result of many months of grappling with Fairlight sounds.  Not a lot of stuff sounding like this right now...

Comments

[Todd Burns]

Anyone else feel like "Bamboo Condos" could soundtrack a tutorial on how to use Macromedia Flash v. 2.0? I like it, but jus' sayin'.

[Kirk]

Alright - the first thing that came to my mind here is that the only thing this track is really missing is a Peter Gabriel-like vocal track.

Depending on where you're coming from, I could see that as a Pro or a Con... but for me, I'm solidly in the Peter Gabriel camp.

Pro - The first thing that jumps out at me is right at the third second just as the rhythm kicks in. It sounds almost like an acoustic guitar strum leading into a steel drum of some sort. I dig it.

I also like the layers you've got going on - particularly the arpegiation in the organ.

Con - As I mentioned above, this really feels like it could benefit from a vocal, or at least a more clearly defined melody track. Perhaps this is just the A section of a larger piece?

Also, as you'll gather from my comments on your other pieces, I tend to dislike the super-digitized, higher octave tones, like the one you've used here. It does stand out from the other tones you've got nicely layered in here, but I'm not sure that that is enough for me to come around in this case.

[Stephan]

Uhh... I'm going to call Japan on this one. The band not the country! I like this kind of stuff, although I would recommend maybe some enveloped (re: changing) effects on the super dry and monotonous snare. I can dig it!

Now allow me to go back and read this post from the beginning. I wonder if people these days, like days of yore where they would scan a page for a picture first and then go back to the text, I wonder if they now scan for media, then go back to the text? I would bet yes!