stevelawson.net

I’ve got new recordings backing up here – too many lovely things that need releasing into the wild. Next on the list is definitely the album with Mike Outram (now over 2 years over due!) but later this year, I’ll be putting out a recording taken from the two shows I did with Daniel Berkman in San Francisco in January.

Daniel is an incredible multi-intrumentalist – on these gigs he played Gravikord (electric Kora), Handsonic (electronic percussion) and synth sounds running on his laptop, played via a TINY keyboard. The versatility of his sound-world from these three elements is mind-blowing, and he proved to be one of the most sensitive and adaptable improvisation collaborators I’ve ever met. He does a lot of looping himself, so like Michael Manring, has an innate awareness of what’s needed to make loops that are ‘human’, rather than metric, ‘work’. On this tune, the drum parts all pivot on him playing the snare on beat 3, ignoring the (hugely variable) downbeat of the bar, and playing ‘in time’ with wherever I happened to put it that time

Anyway, other than a brief soundcheck, this is the first thing we ever played together – enjoy! Please feel free to comment, ‘favourite’ it if you like it, and share the link around. it all helps a lot

Last month’s Bass Player magazine had a feature, written by the excellent Ed Friedland, about Looping. (great choice of writer for such an article – Ed’s played some amazing music himself using looping devices.)

Anyway, there’s a section within it about players that you need to check out, and first on the list is me Hurrah!

here’s a link to the whole article

And here’s the quote about me:

“Several bassists have taken looping to new heights, and Steve Lawson (stevelawson.net) is certainly at the forefront of the scene. Steve has toured the world as a solo bassist for years, and has released a trove of CDs featuring his unique blend of musicianship and effect mastery. Steve says, “Looping has enabled me to soundtrack the inside of my head without outside interference. I would not be playing solo if it weren’t for looping—it’s as simple as that.” “

Which is nice

This last weekend was all kinds of fun – I had two days at the London Bass Guitar Show and a wonderful improv gig in Derby…

The bass guitar show was my first ‘official’ outing for Markbass - Having been using the Markaudio PA gear for about 3 years (those incredible tiny speakers you’ve seen us use on UK house concerts? Mark Audio), I’ve just got a pair of unbelievable combos from Markbass – the Combo 121 Lites, designed in conjunction with Alain Caron. [Read more →]

On occasion, I still come across people who are uncomfortable with the economics of ‘pay what you think it’s worth‘. Or ‘pay what you want‘. Or ‘name your price‘. Whichever way you want to describe it.

It’s not really that surprising – we’ve precious little precedent for a transaction like this, especially as it relates to ‘ubiquitous’ products like digital downloads of music. We’re used to things having a fixed price that somehow is marketed to us as representing the value of the thing, and then we choose to pay it or not. If things are available in lots of places then we shop around for the cheapest legal source.

That’s not what’s happening with ‘pay what you think it’s worth‘, obviously:

• The cheapest legal version is free.
• But why should it be?
• How does value translate into money?
• Why should you pay?
• How does paying for something that’s be offered to you for free make you feel?

All questions that are quite alien to us.

So, while the new stuff is still priced like that, I’ve made two of my most successful older albums available for £3, fixed price. No ‘£3 or more’, nothing to make you feel like this is anything other than a normal transaction You can, of course, go and buy either of them on iTunes or Amazon, if you want them for more money at lower resolution with worse sleeve-notes. But hey, that’s up to you.

Here they are – listen here, then drop £3 on them if you dig what you hear:

Reviews and comments about my new album Believe In Peace are still coming in. This one cropped up on TalkBass.com from Michael Manring – Michael is probably my single biggest influence in becoming a solo bassist and has been deeply supportive of my music from the very start. In this instance, I sent him a download code for the album but he chose to pay for it anyway! Here’s what he said about it:

“What a beautiful recording! This is perhaps the best argument yet that the bass is a versatile, deeply expressive instrument and in the hands of a brilliant and visionary artist like Steve, is capable of making music of enormous emotional and musical depth. Please buy a copy and share it with your friends and family. I think they’ll thank you for it!”

In other Believe In Peace news, a track from it is featured on the latest Aural Innovations radio show, listenable/downloadable here. Jerry Kranitz who presents the show reviewed most of my early albums on his site, and has been a great supporter of my music over the years (he’s also featured in Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack book, if you’ve read that…)

here’s the album, listen, download, pay whatever you think it’s worth. I’ve got a LOT of new music that needs editing/mixing/mastering and it’s way easier to justify the time it takes if the music is making some money

Am back from California now, after my busiest trip there ever. Had a great time at NAMM, and a whole lot of wonderful shows, that resulted in about 6 hours of new improvised music that needs mixing and editing for future release. Yay!

I’ll write a full round-up in the next couple of days, but for now, here are two videos that have appeared in the last couple of weeks. [Read more →]

For those that don’t know, NAMM is the National Association Of Music Merchants – the American trade body for those who make and sell stuff-to-do-with-music-that-isn’t-recordings. 

I’m back there this year, having missed the last two due to being busy being a dad. I’ve really missed it – having attended every year from 1999 – 2009, doing demos on behalf of the various companies whose equipment I was using at the time, finding out what’s new and catching up with the many amazing music-world friends that I only get to see once a year at NAMM or in California if I get to travel around afterwards.

So, anyway, if you’re going, it’d be great to meet up – feel free to send me a message. If we’re friends on Facebook, you can message me there, or tweet me, or email me or just keep an eye out for me around the MarkBass and Modulus booths.

See you there!

Last week, this interview was posted at AlternativeMatter.net. The questions, from John Toolan, about the new album and improvisation, were really interesting to answer – here it is, if you want a read, or click the links above to see it on their sites too (if after reading you have your own questions about improv, please post them in the comments).

What inspired you to record and release this particular piece of improvisation?

The recording part was easy – as far as possible, I record every gig, and most of my practice sessions. This is possible because my live and studio rigs are identical, so instead of using a mixing desk to pull all the various looped and processed elements together, I use a MOTU soundcard, which I can hook up to my laptop for instant multi-track recording! It’s made for some wonderful live stuff being captured that in any other setting, we’d have been lucky to get a tape from an audience member of. [Read more →]

After a two year absence, I’m heading out to California for the NAMM show in just a week’s time. I’m really looking forward to catching up with the many friends I’ve made at the show over the years. In amongst the schmoozing and nonsense, a great number of remarkable music-loving people come together at NAMM and I always relish the chance to catch up on everyone’s news and make plans for the next year!

I’ve managed to fill up my schedule pretty well, so here’s what’s happening so far:

• Thurs 19th - AltBass. at El Torito in Anaheim – the whole bill is Steve Lawson, Chris Tarry, Steuart Liebig, Darren Michaels, Tom Shad – music starts at 7pm.
• Friday 20th Jan – BassUp! at Viento y Agua Coffee House – also on the bill Steuart Liebig, Edo Castro, Stew McKinsey, Christopher “C3″ Cardone, Brittany Frompovich, Zen Beer, John Ady, Rod Taylor, and Darren Michaels!
• Saturday 21st - AltBass Pt 2, at El Torito in Anaheim again – the bill this time is Steve Lawson, Julie Slick, Gustav Fjelstrom & Tom Shad.
• Sunday 22nd – House Concert in Sherman Oaks, CA – message me if you want to come. There may be limited spaces… the amazing Julie Slick will be guesting with me  $10 suggested donation…
• Monday 23rd – house concert in Newport Beach california – along with a lot of other people TBC.
• Tuesday 24th – at The All American Melodrama Theater in Long Beach, CA, with the wonderful acoustic guitarist Muriel Anderson. http://www.allamericanmelodrama.com/ - tickets $15.
• Thursday 26th – House Concert, Bayview, San Francisco. – See the facebook event page for details. (with Daniel Berkman on Kora!)
• Friday 27th – House Concert, West Oakland – see the facebook event page for details. (with Daniel Berkman and Lattanand)
• Saturday 28th - house concert in San Jose with Michael Manring – message me for details. $20 donation…
• Sunday 29th  - Northridge Music Center, Citrus Heights (Sacramento), CA – hybrid concert/masterclass, focussed on looping. http://www.northridgemusic.com $20.

More details will be added here as and when – if you need info on any of them, please message me via email, facebook or twitter and I’ll hopefully see you or the friends you send my way a a show!

So, it’s been out a week, and a few nice things have been written about Believe In Peace. Well, a lot of nice things have been said about it, but I’m not about to start linking to all the Tweets and Facebook messages. That’d get weird.

Instead, here are three blog posts that say nice things about it.

The most involved of them is this in-depth review at AlternativeMatter.net - I’ve just done an interview for them too, which should be up in a day or two, and I’ll post here in a couple of weeks.

Then there’s these lovely and encouraging words from the fabulous Laura Kidd, AKA She Makes War.  She’s writing a blog post a week about lovely things she’s found. My album was in week one.

And finally, No Treble wrote this piece - I’ve stepped away from seeing the online bass community as my primary place for conversation here, so I’m hugely appreciative of the bass blogs and news sites that take the time to write about what I’m up to.

Here, in case you missed it, is the album again – it’s been my fastest-selling digital album ever (and that’s without it being on iTunes or Amazon or any of that stuff – this is all bandcamp), and it means I’ll be able to make a healthy donation to Reprieve. (a third of all the money I make on the album is being donated to them).