Concert for the Deaf

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State Your Musical Influences

What kind of music do you play? A seemingly innocent question, but is really loaded with complications and pitfalls. I know I’m not alone when I have trouble answering this one. Many musicians find themselves torn between giving the simple answer or the complex one. It is rare that one would enjoy, and be influenced by, one type of music to the exclusion of all others.

I understand the need for people to compartmentalise as a shortcut to making sense of their world, but this need is at odds with our need to be understood. Sure we could rattle off the closest genre, jazz, hip-hop, punk, world beat, though we’ll be left with the unsettling feeling that the questioner doesn’t have the full story. We’ll often add, “… but I have a lot of Rockabilly influences” or “… with a Latin twist.” or “but with a lot of Frank Zappa mixed in.” As for myself, I was raised on Folk music, taught Classical on the piano, and Blues on the guitar. I got caught up in the Grunge and Alternative movement during my teens, and later turned more to Worldbeat, Garage Revival, and Anti-folk. Yet this still doesn’t include everything that has contributed to my musical being, and frankly I still don’t know what to call the music I produce. Rock may be a catch-all but as I mentioned above, it’s not quite the full picture.

A list of known genres is huge and splintered, as encompassing descriptions are riven and riven again to describe a style with ever increasing accuracy. Let’s say that you produce electronica music. Now what kind? Synthpop, Glitch, Chiptune? Something else? How about Metal? Black, Speed, Doom? It soon becomes an exercise in distinguishing subtle taxonomic shifts in tempo, or lyrical content, or any other characteristic. Sometimes the variants are so finely divided that only those thoroughly steeped in the subculture would be aware of the differences. There’s the sticking point. By giving an name to the thing we allow ourselves to form community. The music now has a stable identification that can be defined, related to, discussed, altered, and displayed. It becomes a banner that unites a ragtag group of fans and musicians signifying their belonging. Such a growth can be seen in the example of Filk music.

When someone asks what music do you play they hope to gain a better understanding of what flag you fly. Which really speaks to how much we use music as an identity signpost. Not to sound obvious but music is a form of expression. What you express and how you express it tells the world about you as a person. Music is a well understood and recognised shorthand for categorising types of people in this modern social landscape. Which may be why I don’t like answering the question. I don’t want to give someone the Coles notes version of me. I’m afraid something will be lost or misunderstood in the transaction. As musicians we all have that need to express ourselves. We try to do this fully yet succinctly in the brief time that a song lasts. I’m not surprised that we’d rather not a label be stuck to what we do so that we can be summed up in even less time, thought, and accuracy.

There is no easy answer to the question. No one is ever as simple as the box you put them in, and everyone is resistant to being boxed. When pressed to answer the query “What kind of music do you play?” the best answer I can give is “My own.”

 

Improve Your Music Through Restraint

Some time ago I went plugin happy. Actually it was more plugin mad. I trolled through sites like VST Planet and Audio Mastermind searching for the elusive plugin that would make my recordings sparkle. Just the faint promise of breathing life into the guitars, or polishing the vocals was enough to sell me. Soon my plugin folder was awash with oddly named effects that rarely did anything discernible. Most I never use, but I was comforted by the thought that I could if I wanted to.

The tyranny of choice. That’s what it comes down to. I played around in a local music shop with a Line6 Pod and was struck by the number of combinations available. With 32 amps and 60+ effects that is over 1920 distinct combinations. It would take quite a while to plough through them all. Pretty soon you’re not playing, but rather playing around, trying to settle on the right sound.

If I had to offer advice to those who are looking to jump into the effect market to tweak their music it would be this: Think of how you want to sound first, then limit your choices to put you in that direction. Good recording and good production may dupe people briefly into liking what is otherwise flat material. One can spend great amounts of time getting the right sound to liven up that which is flawed by bad playing, recording, composition, expression, or whatever. The audience is infinitely more forgiving of sonically imperfect experiences than we are apt to believe, provided the performer can entertain that is.

So forget the giant multi-effect boxes with their plethora of distraction. Instead polish what you have. Learn to compose a song that will stand on its own, without the aid of high production value. Learn how to perform in a way that is expressive without the use of an expression pedal. You will waste less time flipping through presets and twisting knobs, focusing so intently on the quality of your sound, and will spend more time focusing on the quality of your music.

 

A Distortion Pedal Recommendation

I was recently shopping around for an overdrive pedal at my local music shop. I tried out a T.C. Electronic Classic Booster + Distortion this pedal is nice. Really nice. I have an Epiphone SG running through a Traynor amp, so that’s the setup I had going on in the store just to make sure everything sounds good together.

While this thing costs more than my amplifier you get what you pay for. This was brought into sharp focus when I compared it with some Boss pedals. The Classic Booster + Distortion sound was like a fine cream while the others I tried were coffee whitener. The incorporated noise gate was really nice; it took out all my finger noise. There are enough settings to get a wide range of sounds making it a versatile pedal to have in the chain.

If you’re saving up your hard earned money to buy some distortion for your guitar, then I’d recommend you take this one out for a test drive. You may forgo the the cheaper pedals and save a little longer to get this. I know I’ll be socking away to have it.

Get Effects…

 

Gig Announcement

Just a quick note: if you’re in the Vancouver area you may want to check out The Carnival Band. They’ve got a gig on Saturday for the Work Less Party. The event is at the Japanese Hall (487 Alexander Street). Starts at 8pm. Get your silly hat on.

For more info, surf on over to:

http://www.openairorchestra.com/tcb_upcoming.php