It is funny sometimes how you find something by mistake.
I was working in our little demo studio tonight and checking out some new wiring. So, I needed something to record, anything.
I have an instrumental I have been kicking around that I envision as a little jam to open a live set with. It is a simple blues based thing that will be fun to play. I decided to make a demo of it.
Sometimes when I do this, I use a drum machine. I have one that is about the cheapest you can buy. It is easy to use and I can usually write a simple part that a real drummer can hear and then play something better. This machine has little buttons that when pushed sound like the various drums. I play the kick drum for the whole song, then go back and do the same for each separate drum and cymbal. So, when the whole thing is together, I press play on the drum machine and feed it into the big multi-track recorder.
I hit the wrong button on the drum machine and switched the parameters. Instead of hearing bass drum, snare, cymbals and toms, I heard ticking clock, church bells, marimbas, something that sounds like a machine gun, and possibly a whale in heat.
It was a strange mix but sounded kind of cool. I really wanted to check the wiring so I kept it and overdubbed some other parts. I ended up with a little piece of electronic mayhem that would not exist if not for my mistake.
I have known some very creative musicians who specialize in computer music. I don’t understand a lot of it but I think some of it involves manipulating the machines to somehow generate random noise within a framework. That is my perception and I may be way off base.
I have a friend that I have not seen in years. He used to play saxophone in a band I was in. He was from upstate New York and we used to call him Yankee. One night he said “I’m from so far up north, Yankees live south of me.” We called him Tater after that.
Tater was a musical force to be reckoned with. He was one of the most intuitive players I have ever met. He has a master’s degree in electronic music and he was really just goofing around with us to keep his chops up. A couple of times he brought a synthesizer called an E.W.I. (electronic wind instrument). He could make all kinds of beautiful, crazy, violent sounds with this thing and we made hit put it away. We just wanted the sax.
As I go along in life, I really appreciate people who have the stones to experiment and do something different. I was in a museum a couple of years ago and I saw some paintings by Mark Rothko. I had seen these in books before and they didn’t make sense to me. When I walked around the corner and was confronted by one of these enormous canvasses, I felt a physical reaction in my gut. Art isn’t always supposed to be comfortable, it’s supposed to make you feel something.
Anyway, Tater if you are out there, get in touch. You were Miles ahead of me at the time but I think I have gained some understanding.
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