After one of my shows, I felt like starting a thread here and the topic was going to be 'JUSTIFICATION'. I was going to seek other's ideas of why they think they can put so much effort, money, time, love, thought, etc. into laptronica. My little 'head trip' ended when I realized these answers had better come from within!
Some of my realizations:
- Ask yourself what you would RATHER be doing with your life, if you hear yourself say, "hey! I'm already doing it!", then you are on YOUR path!
- Life and everything is sound! Nada Brahma! "The world is sound!"
- As part of the huge self-organized reality we call life, we are in a constant feedback loop with ourselves! Everything I think and do comes from my experience in the multiverse. PLAYING LIVE MEANS I AM GIVING BACK WHAT I HAVE TAKEN AWAY!!! Every time I perform I realize I have a chance to reflect my SELF back to others. Hopefully filling their hearts, minds, and souls with emotional/spiritual satisfaction.
- This is the next best thing to being a Shaman, which I feel is the path I would have chosen if I was born into an archaic tribe.
OK, with those empowering thoughts, I can construct a gooood show full of energy, wit, compassion and sick ass beats!!!!
Real time composing is like nothing else! I never hear it the same way twice. Some moments have been true BLISS! (I remember one jam outside in the sun, the music was sultry and smooth and the sun was bathing me with warmth and I felt that burst of love/bliss/perfection.) I never want to leave this place!
In the IDEAL situation the crowd is your mirror. In reality 10%? are there for the music and the rest are there for the social scene... and may/may not be aware that music is the shizit!
There's nothing quite like approaching your own loops from a new place every time. I really like the idea of projecting the screen... cool for techies... I try to start with a blank sheet... dragging in clips as they occur to me... This can be hard if it's not organized right. As Live's UI improves - especially file management! - this will get better and better.
OK, now on to being a musician....
I started young, playing violin... my first keyboard was a piano at my parents... since then I have
- used sequencing software (cubase on atari STe and MOD files were my experience)
- studied jazz with some AMAZING teachers
- I have been inspired by Pink Floyd's last tour - fuckin blew my mind... they know how to turn 60,000 people on at once in a stadium with crystal clear surround sound, custom video, lighting etc... (I think they spent millions on each stage and they had 3 sets of stage hardware! one being taken down, one to play on and one to setup at the next location!) (Anyone wanna give me a budget?)
- Started a band that has created it's own scene full of BEAUTIFUL people who want to listen
- Written hundreds of songs and practice at least 3 times a week with a 4 piece band
- Discovered LIVE!
Being a jazz musician first gives me a VERY clear understanding of note selection, complexity of tone, improv, and most importantly the courage to break the mold OVER and OVER again!
My personal vision of a live performance with our band includes:
- Live instrumentation whenever possible
- LIVE doing loops with the computer invisible - I trigger loops with a midi device
- Real-time video reacting to the individual instruments mixed together by a VJ (my pick for VJ 'ware is Motion Dive)
- A dub engineer
- A REALLY NICE MIX
- Improv and composed music mixed together
Peace!
-=Grig
The world is sound.
