I can't say I recognize myself recently. The guy who used to hate steel strings. The guy who used to listen to ONLY old recordings of past eras. The guy who lived in a van driving around the south playing with anyone he could find and collecting folk songs and fiddle tunes.
In the past few years I have slowly become a fan of electronic music. I can't even believe it myself. It was Thom Yorke that did it to me. I'm a huge radiohead fan and therefore a huge Thom Yorke fan. I loved his solo records and recently went to see him live here in Japan. There he was, the messiah, surrounded by sequencers and keyboards, in front of a huge gorgeous video screen, beats thumping, reverbs full out, delays, triggers...bliss.
Thom Yorke got me into Aphex Twin. Over a decade ago I read that he loved Aphex Twin and tried to listen to it. What? I thought. Thom likes this weird stuff?
I didn't get it. It didn't sound like the Radiohead I knew and loved. Then his Erasure album came out. He purportedly did it all himself. It was kind of underproduced to my ears but quirky. The songs were great and there were some funky grooves that I loved.
Years later I am pretty familiar now with Aphex Twins catalog and I absolutely love him. I am branching out and listening to other electronic staples, going back to the roots as is my way with any new music. Recently I realized it is having an interesting affect on my bass playing. It seems to have freed me up to look for new sounds that I would have probably dismissed even five years ago. It also changed the way I hear. All the synths and bleeps and boops gave my ears some new things to listen for. I'm surprised how much it is affecting me in a good way.
This Christmas was rough for me. I returned to NYC from Japan to find my father-out-law, the grandfather of my son to be, at 91, quickly failing and in the hospital. I immediately went into triage mode. He was an incredible man, extremely intellligent, socratic, and a huge jazz lover. He accepted me into his family in a way that my family had never done and fully understood my love of music. We were deep friends. When I told him I was divorcing his daughter and breaking up the family he did not flinch. He did not judge me for a second. I told him I would not let him down and I would continue to nurture a relationship with my ex and son and I planned to do this in the least impactful way I humanly could. He heard me. He believed in me. He wanted to leave the hospital, get off dialysis and die. He told me so. I got him out of there and home. On the second night home he fell at night and paralyzed himself from the neck down. My job every day was to get up and go to my outlaws house and tend to him 7am to 7pm. I fed him. Bathed him. Watched Sinatra on YouTube. Listened to all his favorite music. He lasted one month and died.
Every morning I would get my coffee and take the short walk to his bedside, listening to Aphex Twin. The more melancholic tracks were incredibly soothing, otherworldly, almost celestial. They strengthened me. After he died I did a crazy thing. I bought a OP-XY sequencer from Teenage Engineering. I had no idea how I was going to use it. I just always wanted one and decided now was the time to try some new approaches to playing music, to open my mind and ears to new possibilities and for once be able to have fun creating away from the bass. Here's to new adventures. Live each day to the fullest.
In the past few years I have slowly become a fan of electronic music. I can't even believe it myself. It was Thom Yorke that did it to me. I'm a huge radiohead fan and therefore a huge Thom Yorke fan. I loved his solo records and recently went to see him live here in Japan. There he was, the messiah, surrounded by sequencers and keyboards, in front of a huge gorgeous video screen, beats thumping, reverbs full out, delays, triggers...bliss.
Thom Yorke got me into Aphex Twin. Over a decade ago I read that he loved Aphex Twin and tried to listen to it. What? I thought. Thom likes this weird stuff?
I didn't get it. It didn't sound like the Radiohead I knew and loved. Then his Erasure album came out. He purportedly did it all himself. It was kind of underproduced to my ears but quirky. The songs were great and there were some funky grooves that I loved.
Years later I am pretty familiar now with Aphex Twins catalog and I absolutely love him. I am branching out and listening to other electronic staples, going back to the roots as is my way with any new music. Recently I realized it is having an interesting affect on my bass playing. It seems to have freed me up to look for new sounds that I would have probably dismissed even five years ago. It also changed the way I hear. All the synths and bleeps and boops gave my ears some new things to listen for. I'm surprised how much it is affecting me in a good way.
This Christmas was rough for me. I returned to NYC from Japan to find my father-out-law, the grandfather of my son to be, at 91, quickly failing and in the hospital. I immediately went into triage mode. He was an incredible man, extremely intellligent, socratic, and a huge jazz lover. He accepted me into his family in a way that my family had never done and fully understood my love of music. We were deep friends. When I told him I was divorcing his daughter and breaking up the family he did not flinch. He did not judge me for a second. I told him I would not let him down and I would continue to nurture a relationship with my ex and son and I planned to do this in the least impactful way I humanly could. He heard me. He believed in me. He wanted to leave the hospital, get off dialysis and die. He told me so. I got him out of there and home. On the second night home he fell at night and paralyzed himself from the neck down. My job every day was to get up and go to my outlaws house and tend to him 7am to 7pm. I fed him. Bathed him. Watched Sinatra on YouTube. Listened to all his favorite music. He lasted one month and died.
Every morning I would get my coffee and take the short walk to his bedside, listening to Aphex Twin. The more melancholic tracks were incredibly soothing, otherworldly, almost celestial. They strengthened me. After he died I did a crazy thing. I bought a OP-XY sequencer from Teenage Engineering. I had no idea how I was going to use it. I just always wanted one and decided now was the time to try some new approaches to playing music, to open my mind and ears to new possibilities and for once be able to have fun creating away from the bass. Here's to new adventures. Live each day to the fullest.
), not having to -- or being able to afford to -- go to lots of shows means my wife and I are very selective. Our musical interests are primarily acoustic and sensitive volume, but very inclusive in that realm. Our playing knowledge is large on the bluegrass side, but we do perform a lot of general American roots. While we don't specifically avoid electric, it isn't even near the top of our list unless electric instruments are performing songs we like (like MOOG was often doing).
