forge wrote:To me personally I'm really not bothered about this whole "checking your email" syndrome. Who gives a shit??
I totally agree with this. Although I enjoy seeing a performance, I am most interested in hearing the sounds. Especially when it comes to "experimental" music, be it electronica or otherwise.
jahnlay wrote:You guys look like you're checking your email, maybe it's time to consider putting the computer's to the side and using a controller to launch your clips? I was having the same problem and it really doesn't look good from the crowd's point of view, now I'm trying to rid myself of that image and interact with the crowd and my midi controllers. It just seems to cut off your energy and vibe from the audience. What do you think?
But I also agree with you. I would love to get to that point, like Pitch Black, where I do not even have to look at my laptop, but to be totally honest I am just not that good yet. So, that was the main stumbling block. Also, with FEAR the plumber it would have been a little harder because like I said, we started with pretty much a blank slate and just started building from scratch. I did not even preset midi controls, I just assigned them as I needed them. I believe Thomas may have had some midi controls setup but all he started with was one Reaktor patch.
And the point of the FEAR the plumber project was not so much a performance, but more a statement directed specifically to the audience we were playing for. The venue was a show hosted by the non-profit I work for. In a nut shell what we (the non-profit) do is put on shows for high-school kids, to give them a place to come and see music in a safe (i.e.. drug and alcohol free) environment. Many of the bands we book are high-school and young college bands and the audience is the same age group.
I've been working with this group for three years and out all of the bands we have booked there have been maybe three original acts that have really managed to stand out. The rest of them fall into the exact same cookie cutter mold, whether its a death metal band, a pop punk band, or a rock band, they almost always, inevitably end up sounding like everything thats all over mtv.
So, the point of the FEAR the plumber project was to make a statement on american popular culture, to challenge the audience, and to show them that its ok to fall outside of the mold, to experiment, and to innovate - and that it is in-fact healthy.
So.....while I agree with you I think it also depends on what you are trying to do, and if you are trying to send a message then the delivery of the message takes precedence over everything. If the message depends on a performance aspect than so be it. But if you are too focused on not looking "like you are checking email" you can screw up your performance just as easily. If your music has no message, and I think music for the sake of music is totally fine, then there is maybe more room to focus on a performance.
In our case, was our message communicated clearly? I don't think so. But I attribute that more to it being the first time Thomas and I had performed together than anything. I think the kids enjoyed seeing something kind of "out there" and different than what they were used to so in that aspect it was a success. But in the future it may be tighter.
As to the syncing of the laptops, they were synced using two midi interfaces with my laptop as the master and Thomas as the slave.
