Horsing Around Productions

The creative process (whether writing a song, story, poem, article, etc.) starts with an idea. I think with music that’s where the similarity ends. Unless the idea is a lyric, which you can scribble on a piece of paper, a napkin, even your hand) you need a recording medium to store your idea. In the “dark ages” that typically took a bit of planning – you had to have a tape (or cassette for the Portastudio fans) loaded onto the tape deck and at least a mic to sing the idea into so it could be recorded and worked on at the appropriate time. Hopefully it was a blank tape… it could be so easy to record right over a previous idea.

Today there are so many ways to capture your idea (even your iPod or smartphone) that you have no excuse to not be getting these ideas saved for later. One definite advantage to the digital revolution is the ease we have to record thoughts for later review. I still have my 4 track cassette Portastudio (and it still worked the last time I actually fired it up) and used to keep a blank cassette beside it, along with a ¼” cable plugged in so I could send a feed from my mixer (which always has at least a keyboard and drum machine attached to it). I have free app on my Ipod with a piano keyboard that I can use to capture an idea.

Let’s face it, ideas come and go and more often go. In our busy, hustle and bustle lives most ideas are forgotten before you even realize it (that might be a good thing, but that’s for another time). Doesn’t it make sense to have one of these really cool and relatively inexpensive toys to grab that next idea? That could turn into something much greater? If you have a smartphone (Android or iOS based), you are just a couple clicks from an app, probably free too, that will get that idea captured so you can review later and decide if it has potential. It might not, but it might and it might spur better ideas from that little riff that came to you while sipping your morning coffee (probably from being up all night working on the last idea).

What is it about the local cover-band scene that makes musicians think they are doing something that puts them on the same level as top touring/recording bands? Seriously, it seems many of my local music buddies have this delusional thought they are better than those not playing shows (free or paid gigs for that matter) around town. Because you are gigging and playing in front of 10 or 100 or even 1,000 people means nothing.

If you are playing I hope it is because it is something you are passionate about, something you would be doing if not a single body was in the room to hear you. In fact, I would suggest first that if you can sit by yourself playing your chosen musical instrument and find yourself becoming more and more energized, that you have found the real reason for being a musician. If you take that energy and turn it into something that brings the same to those around you, then you have found even more reason for being a musician. Fame and fortune are nothing worth having unless that inner passionate feeling for playing is there. The money will come to those whose passion for music is what drives them.

When I first started writing this 6 months ago, I had just bumped into a couple of music buddies. They were walking and talking with their chests puffed out (not too literally, but you hopefully get the picture), acting like they had just scored a $150k advance from the record company. In fact, they were playing at a local burger joint… for FREE. And, playing covers that most people probably never had heard of, along with a few moldy oldies. The bubble would burst a couple months later when it became clear that 1) they were playing for free, 2) they were spending more time hauling gear and setting up than the actual time playing the gigs and 3) they weren’t actually enjoying what they were doing.

Playing for free is fine and I would do it simply to bring the joy of music to someone else. But when you start to act like a “rock god”, in my book you lose all credibility. In fact, if the best paid musicians did that act, they wouldn’t be where they are today. They got to where they are by doing the hard work, practicing, learning the business of music and realizing that to reach that top level you have to first understand that music is a business and there’s no room for wanna-bees.

I was reading Bumping Into Geniuses by Danny Goldberg, and it got me wondering, where have all the musical geniuses gone? When is the last time you were absolutely floored by an album? I mean, like it was the only thing you listened to for days. Had it in your CD player, loaded on your MP3 player and that was all you listened to? For me, it was Dream Theater’s Scenes From a Memory (released in 1999). I have listened to many releases since, yet I still go back to this one constantly. It touched a nerve for me. Think… what was the last album you listened to over and over again? When was it?

I’m not sure that I was ever a big radio listener. I can only speak for the radio stations in my home town and growing up, your choice was to listen to one station that seemed to play the Eagles and Rolling Stones so much I couldn’t listen to either band for a very long time (and both have produced more than their fare share of great music). For me, it made more sense to go buy the latest release on VINYL (some you still remember those black things called LPs) and spin it over and over on my turntable.

It seems that today there is a lack of message or meaning in many lyrics. The music might be great, yet the words are that, just words. If you have watched the movie Eddie & The Cruisers, there is a line Eddie (Michael Paré) says to Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger), “Words and music.” It takes both to make a great song. For an instrumental piece, the “words” are conveyed through the melody. So, let’s take it one step further and say it takes words, melody and music to make a great song. When someone hits all three of these, it is a song we remember and play over and over again. Let’s get back to that state of music.

I watched the Nation Football League’s opening event, a show including live songs by Taylor Swift and the Dave Matthews Band. I’ll lay it on the line… Taylor Swift cannot sing live. Her pitch is all over the place. Not to take away her song writing ability, that is top notch, especially for a young person. There is a piece of software used in recording studios, Autotune. Next time you book time to record, you should be surprised if the studio manager does NOT ask if you want to use this. I’m guessing it is what makes this young country star (along with backing tracks) sound on pitch on her recordings. Again, I’m not saying this to pick on young Taylor, instead, call it a warning. The music industry has a problem and that is pushing out artists that lack talent to perform.

If you caught the show, you hopefully heard the difference between Taylor and Dave Matthews. He sings on pitch. It could be as simple as experience. He has been around a long time and worked his way through the ranks. It feels like the music industry took advantage of a young, great song writer by using her “cuteness” to sell records. I have now heard her several times sing live. The first shock came on this past years Grammys show. Why Stevie Nicks agreed to sing a duet with her, I don’t know. I don’t think Stevie knows either. She looked shell shocked hearing Taylor’s pitch waver all over.

Music needs to return to it’s roots. Finding talented singers to singer, writers to write and developing the talent pool instead of pushing out below average talent because they have “the look” and the record company can make some quick, big bucks.