I’ve just uploaded a load of videos to YouTube.com – some live stuff, the looping tuition thing I did for Bassics Magazine, and a duet with BJ Cole.
Enjoy then share the love…
Middle East in meltdown…
Good God, what the hell is going on in the middle east? Hezbollah are clearly nutters – bombing Israel was a pretty bad idea in most people’s estimation. But Israel’s response???? To destroy roads, bridges, infrastructure… Lebanon is in a fairly dodgy state economically, and the Israeli army have pretty much finished it off by targeting civilian areas. And of course, hundreds of civilians have been killed/injured/rendered homeless. Under the geneva convention, bombing civilian targets is a war crime. This is a war crime. Yes, Hezollah are very very wrong to be bombing Israel – no-one is suggesting it’s a good thing, but there are ways to deal with this, and fucking up the entirety of Lebanon’s infrastructure is just evil. In the same way that the Israeli civilians deserve to get on with their lives and not have bombs raining down on them, the Lebanese people deserve the same bomb-free skyline, to have the bridges that were there yesterday to carry them to work still be there today, not bombed to shit by some Israeli war-head.
And the US? Israel’s biggest financial backer? ‘we’re not going to tell Israel how to defend itself’. Great. We’re all fucked.
Stop the world, I want to get off.
Rock is Dead?
A fabulous post this morning by Jyoti on Why Rock Is Dead.
I emailed him about it, and it seems the tipping point for him was the same band that I was despairing at on the T in the Park coverage last night – WolfMother. How much more could they want to sound like Led Zep? How much more heinously anachronistic could it be to write ‘new’ songs like that in 2006? Is one of them about to buy Alistair Crowley’s old underpants, just to be like Jimmy Page? A really tragic show, and why on earth are they given such a huge platform?
Jyoti’s right – mainstream rock has become hopelessly derivative, retrogressive and stultifying, the record companies having latched onto a certain lazy section of the music buying public’s desire for perceived novelty and nostlagia at the same time. And it’s balls.
What’s worse – a thousand times worse – is that they’re rubbish. They aren’t even 5% the band that Zep were. None of these bands improve on the blue-print, none of them ever take a 70s formula and end up sounding like the greatest band the 70s never had. They just sound like a half-arsed tribute band with copyright issues. It’s balls.
I’ve always said that it’s more important to be good than to be original. But I’m not talking about slavish cloning. The desire for completely new music can be just as asphyxiating as mindless hero-worship, but to do either without coming up with anything worth listening to is the worse crime of all.
Mediocrity is the single most offensive quality in music. Bands that take risks and end up being appalling get my sneaking admiration. Bands that aren’t great, but are stretching towards something don’t sound mediocre, they sound interesting. To be truly dull requires a level of mis-placed self-satisfaction that stops you from ever looking for more, from moving forward, from building on the innovations of your heroes and finding your own space.
My music isn’t completely new – I wear a few of my influences pretty brightly on my sleeve, and am delighted when someone spots that John Martyn or Joni Mitchell or Michael Manring are in there somewhere. But I don’t actually sound like any of them.
The reason for this is pretty simple – I love Joni’s music. Think she’s pretty much perfect. But I don’t want to write music that sounds like Joni – that would be derivative in exactly the same way she never was – no, instead I want to WRITE MUSIC THAT MAKES ME FEEL THE WAY JONI’S MUSIC MAKES ME FEEL. That has that same sense of being spoken to, being taken on a journey, where the narrative and the music are married perfectly without ever feeling like either is being tugged in a wrong direction by some other unnecessary influence. Joni had her influences, from Dylan to Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. She started out as a folk singer. But she always had her own story to tell, and always sounded like no-one but herself.
That’s the plan. Is Rock Dead? I don’t see why the behaviour of ‘the mainstream’ should be allowed to be seen as killing of an entire genre, but the challenge is certainly there to avoid sounding like the new wave of ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ shit photocopies of 70s and 80s icons, and instead to take the language of rock into somewhere new and interesting, to tell a post-millennial tale, and sound track the current world paradigm, not the three day week, rolling blackouts and the rise of Thatcherism.
Friday Random 10
Stick iTunes on random, and write down what gets played…
Stevie Ray Vaughan – Pride And Joy
KT Tunstall – Through The Dark
From Branch To Branch – Gary Peacock and Ralph Towner
Like A Star – Corinne Bailey Rae
What A World – Bill Frisell
(Used To Be A) Cha Cha Cha – Jaco Pastorius
Whatsername – Green Day
Time After Time – Cyndi Lauper
Things Can Only Get Better – Howard Jones
She’s Leaving The Bank – Ry Cooder
That’s a pretty accurate version of where my head’s at, musicially, I think!
back from Italy
Back from a fantastic trip to Italy – a hugely enjoyable and creative time with Luca Formentini – a fabulous guitarist, and a great friend.
The trip started with a gig in Brescia, playing a soundtrack to a silent film, ‘The Unknown’ by Todd Browning. I’m not much of a silent/old film buff (I’ve seen Dodgeball more times that I care to remember but had never heard of Todd Browning before, and have never even seen Citizen Kane), but I really enjoyed this film. For the soundtrack I was joined by an Italian guitarist, who did a good job (though the circumstances surrounding him playing in the first place were a little more murky – I’ll save that blog-story ’til an email or two have been sent), and the whole thing was well received.
the plan for the weekend was to record a load of duo stuff with Luca – we’d recorded together before, and one of the tracks has ended up on a compilation of Italian electronica artists (Stefano Lawsoni? perhaps…) – the last time we recorded was certainly interesting enough to warrant a repeat session. With both of us being loopers, it always takes a few sessions to settle into roles and what to do with all the shared sonic space.
However, before that, we had a total nightmare with getting soundcards sorted out – Luca had ordered a new RME card, which wasn’t available in time, so his local music shop (the remarkable Musical Box in Verona) were lending us a card. First up, we took a MOTU 828, which just wouldn’t work at all. No good. Not happy running with Audition on a PC.
Back to Musical Box, and swap it for a PreSonus FirePod. Once again, not happy with the PC set up. Which eventually led to Luca swapping over his looping laptop with the Pc, so he did all his loopage on the desktop and we recorded onto the laptop, finally using Cubase LE.
Much stress and lack of sleep was the result for Luca, so it took us another half a day to settle into playing, but from there on, we got a lot of great music recorded. Whereas the first session was predominantly dark ambient, this time we were more melodically driven with more groove oriented stuff. I’m really looking forward to mixing these tracks…
So lots of recording lovely music was punctuated by regular swims in the pool, great food, much inspiring conversation, cuddling the cats, and generally having a totally wonderful time in Italy…
those of you of a sports-fan persuasion will already have worked out that I was there for the football final on Sunday night, when we decamped to a local restaurant to eat great food and watch the game. Penalties are officially a really shit way to end a football match. I reckon widening the goals by a foot every 10 minutes, and tying one of the goalies hands behind his back to speed up the chance of a goal would be better… I was really glad Italy won, though Zidane’s headbutt aside, the French played MUCH better football in the second half and in extra time…
Tuesday morning I got the train back to Musical Box to talk with the owner about playing at EuroBassDay in October, which is booked now, and to show him and the rest of the guys who work in the shop the looperlative, which naturally they all thought was amazing (because it is).
Then Tuesday afternoon I was special guest at a week-long intensive english language camp for teenagers, playing some tunes and having them interview me about what I do, about live in england and generally allowing them to try their english and stretch them in trying to understand me. A hugely enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, which I hope to get to do again.
And Tuesday night, as if all this wasn’t enough, Luca, Gio and I had dinner with Roberto Zorzi – a fantastic improv guitarist and fascinating bloke all round. Another magical Italy evening.
Got back Wednesday night, and poor TSP drove to Gatwick to pick me up in an overheating car. Need to get that fixed ASAP.
All in a marvellous week in Italy. It’s such a great country, the people are generous and positive to a fault, and the climate is just amazing. Love it.
Favourite cover versions
Inspired by all the practicing for my edinburgh show with Julie, I thought I’d compile a top 5 cover versions list for y’all, in no particular order –
Boys Of Summer – The Ataris (originally Don Henley)
This Must Be the Place – Shawn Colvin (originally Talking Heads)
Like A Virgin – Teenage Fanclub (originally Madonna)
Smooth Criminal – Alien Ant Farm (originally Michael Jackson)
Little Red Corvette – Seth Horan (originally Prince – I don’t think Seth has released this, but I’ve heard him do it live a number of times, and it’s magic)
As you can maybe guess from the Ataris/Teenage Fanclub/Alien Ant Farm inclusions, I have a penchant for rocked up noisy versions of 80s classics – have always wanted to form a band doing that. Maybe I will one day, but right now, the duo with Julie is just as much fun, and a lot quieter which is preferable for a man of my advanced years and tender constitution.
And as those of you that ever look at my last.fm page will know, I can’t stop listening to our version of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’. It’s another rehearsal demo, with the occasional duff note, unintended squeak and whatnot, but I’m loving it. :o)
Quick post
this is a quick test to see if the ‘quick post’ option for this blog works… one click blogging! As if I don’t blog enough already…
x
[edit] This is also my 1000th post on this blog!!!! What a decidedly disappointing way to celebrate such an auspicious blogging landmark. Ah well, you can throw your own street parties, I’ve got work to do…[/edit]
Vortex fund-raiser next week
I’ll be away, but some of you might want to go to this –
Internationally known and loved, the Vortex Jazz Club is holding its first benefit gig at the Hackney Empire on 12 July 2006 in aid of its education and community programme in Dalston, its new home.
It will be a night of stunning jazz, funk and fusion with the James Taylor Quintet and Julia Biel plus a special guest (to be announced).
Now the important bit- you need to actually book tickets!
There’s a few ways you can do this:
Call the vortex- 020 7254 4097
Call the Hackney Empire – 020 8985 2424
Or for the people who dislike talking to anyone- www.spicefestival.com
Deeper Still
just had a beautiful email from a friend in California about the new album. I didn’t know that this guy knew Eric Roche, but it turns out he was a big fan, and was deeply saddened by Eric’s death. Likewise he had no idea that I knew Eric or would have been inspired to write a tune for him.
His email spells out his own loss, and the feeling of something missing at NAMM this year with Eric (formerly an ever-present figure on the Avalon guitars stand) no longer being there. ‘Deeper Still’, it seems, says something that he was feeling as well as what I was feeling, and I’m once again reminded that this music lark is deeper than all the day to day stuff of marketing CDs and getting gigs and hoping people like it enough to buy it.
It’s emails like this that are the REAL reason for music. They aren’t, to be honest, what I have in mind in the day to day business of being a musician (it’d be easy to pretend that my motives are that lofty, but obviously they aren’t), but they are the reason why music is there. They are about what music gives us, a wordless language to tell stories that we’d never get round to telling with words, or where a particular form of words would alienate some who would otherwise get the message, just not the syntax.
I don’t write music to move people. i write music to tell my own story, and to try and get as deep inside that story as I can. There are certain things within that story – in my case, they are very often deaths, but also environmental, political, social and personal concerns – that can indwell a particular piece of music, and when that comes across, it’s a very special moment. Not everyone who hears that new album is going to get that much from ‘Deeper Still’ – clearly, that doesn’t happen with anything – but to make that kind of connection with someone is a very special thing, and one not to be taken lightly.
Edinburgh Beckons
It’s now just over a month til Julie and I start our run at the Edinburgh Fringe – we’re rehearsing weekly now (a pretty much unheard of phenomenon in StevieWorld), and the set list and arrangements are really coming together.
Today had a bit of an 80s vibe – we’ve just done a killer version of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ with a couple of other 80s classix woven in in the middle, and we were working on a looped vocal version of Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega, where I get to put my bass down for a tune, but still do the loopage…
The set list is pretty much there, we think – about 12 or 13 songs, no filler material at all. The evidence for this is that I was trying to think which songs we’d do if we got a one or two song set on a radio program or cabaret set at the Fringe (or before), and was really struggling to pick out any one stand-out tune. I’m loving them all!
Don’t forget that we’re doing an Edinburgh Preview show in London on July 26th at This month’s Recycle Collective gig, which is also my official album launch. Yes, it’s going to be an amazing night and all the more amazing because Cleveland Watkiss is coming down to do a lovely improv set with Julie and I to close out the evening. I think ‘unmissable’ is the word. 🙂
see you there, x