Questions And Answers. Options

[Jeff Truzzi]

Thanks again, Stu!

I think THIS:

I don’t think experimental necessarily means good and also I dont think that slick necessarily means bad. In fact- slick experimental is pretty good to aim for I reckon- some of the best stuff ever made is probably both. They don t have to be mutually exclusive.

...is an excellent point!

[SDR]

Great answers Stu!

I've a question for you:

If someone came up to you with a big fat pay cheque and said 'Pick an album, any album; remix it, add samples, do what you will with it, and the money's yours', which album would you pick and what would you do with it? (the album, not the money).

Cheers!
Jack

Good morning Jack

Another twister of a question- hahah. Every album I thought about- seemed to be perfection anyway- how could you possibly improve em? -I d be more excited by picking them apart and listening to how they are constructed then by putting them back together- so I ve been thinking long and hard about this.

And I understand that some people may see this as heresy- but that’s what I love doing- taking stuff apart and putting it back together again but wrongly-haha- when I was a kid my attempts at making airfix models were disasterous.

At first my mind immediately went towards Revolver as its probably my favourite ever album and the raw material would be incredible just to listen to in multitrack format- but it would be impossible to improve on. I think the Love album was an interesting experiment and I was very excited by it at first- “wow – you can do anything now-“ but I found I didn’t listen to it that much- they probably should have gone further with it.

So then I thought of Miles Davis- I think Bill Laswell did an amazing job with Panthalassa where he re constructed some of the early 70s stuff like on The Corner- I always refer back to it - so maybe working with something earlier like Kind of Blue would be good to do- but its perfection again.

Hendrix was remixed by The Beautiful People in the early 90s – I imagine it is really dated now but I loved it at the time- I listened to it a lot.

US3 were granted access to all the Blue Note jazz stuff but did some very commercial sounding hip hop with it- I thought it was very light.

Maybe some Beach Boys- Pet Sounds would be be incredible to break up – but maybe because of the limitations of 60s multi-track recording there would nt be that many tracks to get at.

Led Zep’s first album would be raw and exciting to use- a few years ago there were some files of some later John Bonham outtakes that were doing the rounds- amazing-so powerful.

I love The Bends by Radiohead – that would be very exciting. To pick apart the guitar arrangements.

Anything by Aretha Franklin in the 60s would be great- for the rawness of the vocals.

One of the 3 great Stevie Wonder albums of the early 70s- for everything.

And a Carpenters record- probably The Greatest Hits- would be really thrilling to me- to be able to take those vocals and put them in some other contexts- I think Karen Carpenter floating in some ambient space could be really wonderful

Or the Phil Spector christmas album- I love that- or even maybe some classical stuff – The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky .

What I’d really like to do is to be able to take all my favourite bits of the above albums and mix them into one great big steamy soup. So Karen Carpenter on lead vocals with Jonny Greenwood and Hendrix on guitars- McCartney on bass- Miles on trumpet- Stevie Wonder on keys and Brian Wilson, Aretha Franklin and the Ronnetes doing backing vocals- and John Bonham drumming .
That would do me I reckon- and Phil Spector in the control room with me, and Bill Laswell mixing it- string arrangements by Stravinsky-


But if I had to pick one album- then I have to say right now it would be Jen Olive’s album Warm Robot- just got to persuade Andy to give me that big fat cheque and the files- hahah

And what would I do with it?

Well I’d ruin it of course- but I d have a great time in the process.-

[Jeff Truzzi]

And a Carpenters record- probably The Greatest Hits- would be really thrilling to me- to be able to take those vocals and put them in some other contexts- I think Karen Carpenter floating in some ambient space could be really wonderful

Indeed. Karen could use some 'fattening up.'
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Duck Soup]

Hi Stu

A question or two if I may...

What was the first recording gear back in the mists of time you used and could you list the upgrades as you went along please...?


What was your first airfix model...?
I was given a Fairey Battle for a birthday some time in the late 60's and proceeded to glue it together wrongly and also to the sofa...I got the bug and gradually collected most world war 2 era planes and the odd duffer (grannys & aunties etc would admire my hanging dog fight/bomber display and buy me for christmas a bloody VC10 or a Concorde or something)

[Honeycomb Jack]

Again, thanks for providing a great answer Stu! I've oredered a copy of the Bill Laswell/Miles Davis cd; thanks for the tip!

Have you ever listened to Coltrane's 'Interstellar Space', and 'Ascension'?

And regarding Airfix kits; did you used to paint them? And if so, did you paint the bits whilst on the frame, or when the model was fully constructed. Once, I asked my dad to get me some paint for a WWII tank I was making and he came back with Humbrol orange, red and a bright blue colour. He said he was in a rush.

[xTC]

Led Zep’s first album would be raw and exciting to use- a few years ago there were some files of some later John Bonham outtakes that were doing the rounds- amazing-so powerful.

I have those files... I think they are excellent!

Click HERE for those files.

TC (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

This post has been edited by xTC: Jun 18 2009, 06:42 PM

[paranoid android]

I have those files... I think they are excellent!

Click HERE for those files.

TC (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Terry - these are brilliant - I never even knew they existed - thanks, mate!

So, Stu...you're gonna use some of these. right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Al.

[SDR]

Terry - these are brilliant - I never even knew they existed - thanks, mate!

So, Stu...you're gonna use some of these. right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Al.

Hi TC/Al


Well i know very little about copyright law but i do know that no-one would be able to use them in a release without the permission of the writers /the publishers and the record company who own the masters- . However I m pretty sure these have never been officially sanctioned. But lots of bands are now releasing multi-tracks for remixing purposes so they will probably be officially released at some point . Maybe already have- i have no idea

So to your question Toad- I d love to - but I can t . Just got to find someone who can drum like that- hahah- easy:)

I've never heard anyone get near it- the closest I ve heard is someone called Virgil Howe- Steve's Howe's son- he 's got that kind of power. He s in a band called The Dirty Feel but i played with him with The Future Sound of London/Amorphous Androgynous- he s a fantastic drummer.

stu

[xTC]

Terry - these are brilliant - I never even knew they existed - thanks, mate!

So, Stu...you're gonna use some of these. right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Al.

Glad you like them Al... I just love the playing from John on those... you can hear him grunt and groan through some of it too! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I tend to go for the more powerful drummers myself (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[paranoid android]

Glad you like them Al... I just love the playing from John on those... you can hear him grunt and groan through some of it too! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I tend to go for the more powerful drummers myself (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Me too, Tel - although I still prefer Phil Gould to Garry Husband! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Stu Rowe could do a lot worse than point a mic or 2 at xTC, IMO! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I'd pay good money to see the Carpenter/Greenwood/Hendrix/McCartney/Miles/Wonder/Wilson/Franklin/Ronnetes/Bonham/Spector/Laswell/Stravinsky/Olive/Partridge/Rowe line-up!
Al. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[SDR]

Hi Stu

A question or two if I may...

What was the first recording gear back in the mists of time you used and could you list the upgrades as you went along please...?


What was your first airfix model...?
I was given a Fairey Battle for a birthday some time in the late 60's and proceeded to glue it together wrongly and also to the sofa...I got the bug and gradually collected most world war 2 era planes and the odd duffer (grannys & aunties etc would admire my hanging dog fight/bomber display and buy me for christmas a bloody VC10 or a Concorde or something)

Hi Mr Soup

– thanks for the questions but firstly I need to clear up a couple of misconceptions. Unfortunately my attempts at airfix modeling went no further than round 1- I have no practical skills whatsoever- that gene completely bypassed me –my entire family are all very practical- to this day rewiring a plug requires hours of preparation and careful reading and re re-reading of the instructions. It’s a kind of family joke.

So the airfix days have been wiped from my memory banks like some dreadful childhood trauma at the hands of a wicked uncle. Maybe therapy or hypnosis would retrieve the names of the models that I so grotesquely brought to life but I think its fair to say that they would have had no chance of flying . I can faintly remember some success with a model of a motorbike- possibly a Moto Guzzi -but it was smashed to pieces in a tragic accident within hours of completion- I think that was the final straw. However it seems that amongst the forum there is a subsection of airfix fans- maybe a thread should be set up- I of course will avoid it - hahah

And also I m not really an engineer- I m a musician who’s just had to learn how the technical side works- its not natural at all for me to understand anything mechanical.
I spent 20 years studying chords and scales and different genres before I came to the conclusion that without a knowledge of the technical side my music would always sound lame.

So recording gear… I d like to be able to say that at 3 years old I was recording the milkman with a device I had invented -like some child protégé who had somehow inherited the combined knowledge of Geoff Emerick and Joe Meek- but the sad truth is that I messed around a bit with a Fostex 4 track and a Alesis drum machine in the 80s and early 90s- in fact in about 1987 I was experimenting a little bit with samples but on a digital delay line.- using the repeat to capture bits of Chuck Berry riffs and the New York Dolls and then slow them down and trigger them as an into – disastrous of course but the seeds had been sown.

I could never understand why my recordings were not attracting the attention of the major labels- why weren’t Madonna’s manangement banging on my door demanding that she be given the opportunity to be recorded onto the Fostex 4 track-thru the guitar fuzz box I was using as a signal chain. To me of course they sounded amazing- but to others it must have been a joke.

In 1998 I decided I had to do this seriously-I went on a music tech course -I bought a Roland VS840 multitracker- which is the cheapest one of that line- and once I realized I could loop stuff on there- I was away. I then realized I could synchronise it to the family pc and I started creating music with friends and family - I used Cubase and discovered soundfonts and then with Recycle I could chop up bits of singing or guitar playing and trigger them back into the computer- I borrowed an Akai sampler and Oasis ‘s Wurlitzer Electric piano and just started recording everyone. But it was frustrating – I was mixing using some blown speakers and the pc was so unreliable- Cubase seemed to have been designed by some madman-
A few victories- couple of radio plays- but some woeful recordings in the technical sense- miles off the mark really.

Then a new PC and onto Logic 5.5- fantastic- really made sense to me- converted the loft- started getting people asking me to record them- I was so cheap- usually free – but I needed the experience- also did some remixes for some people - never ever was one used I don t think- they sound like a madman with an axe chopping tracks up and putting them back together randomly with no apparent finesse or attention to detail.

With my 2 brothers I spent a couple of years licensing tracks to various publications-we sometimes had to produce 16 tracks a week- quality control sometime suffered quite badly at the hands of this pressure- hahahah - but just kept getting better gear- some Mackie HR 824 Monitors.

Rented a studio in town to attempt setting up a business but realized I actually hated recording other peoples bands- just wanted to make my own music with people I like. Just working with people who excited me. So I persuaded my brother and a friend to build me a studio in the garden and I just potter about in there.

Then when Apple bought Logic I had no choice but to change to a Mac- now I have a new Mac Pro and an Apogee Ensemble- a real piano- a real drum kit- a digital drum kit-a few decent mics—a tokai strat – the cybercaster- an old EKO acoustic- a precision bass- nothing really good- none of the stuff you would see in a professional commercial studio.

stu

[SDR]

Me too, Tel - although I still prefer Phil Gould to Garry Husband! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Stu Rowe could do a lot worse than point a mic or 2 at xTC, IMO! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I'd pay good money to see the Carpenter/Greenwood/Hendrix/McCartney/Miles/Wonder/Wilson/Franklin/Ronnetes/Bonham/Spector/Laswell/Stravinsky/Olive/Partridge/Rowe line-up!
Al. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

well we 've started rehearsals-it took quite a while to get hold of a few of em - but i have to say- there's been some terrible arguments !!!

[xTC]

This I'd pay my life savings to see! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Duck Soup]

Hi Mr Soup

��" thanks for the questions but firstly I need to clear up a couple of misconceptions. Unfortunately my attempts at airfix modeling went no further than round 1- I have no practical skills whatsoever- that gene completely bypassed me ��"my entire family are all very practical- to this day rewiring a plug requires hours of preparation and careful reading and re re-reading of the instructions. It’s a kind of family joke.

So the airfix days have been wiped from my memory banks like some dreadful childhood trauma at the hands of a wicked uncle. Maybe therapy or hypnosis would retrieve the names of the models that I so grotesquely brought to life but I think its fair to say that they would have had no chance of flying . I can faintly remember some success with a model of a motorbike- possibly a Moto Guzzi -but it was smashed to pieces in a tragic accident within hours of completion- I think that was the final straw. However it seems that amongst the forum there is a subsection of airfix fans- maybe a thread should be set up- I of course will avoid it - hahah

And also I m not really an engineer- I m a musician who’s just had to learn how the technical side works- its not natural at all for me to understand anything mechanical.
I spent 20 years studying chords and scales and different genres before I came to the conclusion that without a knowledge of the technical side my music would always sound lame.

So recording gear… I d like to be able to say that at 3 years old I was recording the milkman with a device I had invented -like some child protégé who had somehow inherited the combined knowledge of Geoff Emerick and Joe Meek- but the sad truth is that I messed around a bit with a Fostex 4 track and a Alesis drum machine in the 80s and early 90s- in fact in about 1987 I was experimenting a little bit with samples but on a digital delay line.- using the repeat to capture bits of Chuck Berry riffs and the New York Dolls and then slow them down and trigger them as an into ��" disastrous of course but the seeds had been sown.

I could never understand why my recordings were not attracting the attention of the major labels- why weren’t Madonna’s manangement banging on my door demanding that she be given the opportunity to be recorded onto the Fostex 4 track-thru the guitar fuzz box I was using as a signal chain. To me of course they sounded amazing- but to others it must have been a joke.

In 1998 I decided I had to do this seriously-I went on a music tech course -I bought a Roland VS840 multitracker- which is the cheapest one of that line- and once I realized I could loop stuff on there- I was away. I then realized I could synchronise it to the family pc and I started creating music with friends and family - I used Cubase and discovered soundfonts and then with Recycle I could chop up bits of singing or guitar playing and trigger them back into the computer- I borrowed an Akai sampler and Oasis ‘s Wurlitzer Electric piano and just started recording everyone. But it was frustrating ��" I was mixing using some blown speakers and the pc was so unreliable- Cubase seemed to have been designed by some madman-
A few victories- couple of radio plays- but some woeful recordings in the technical sense- miles off the mark really.

Then a new PC and onto Logic 5.5- fantastic- really made sense to me- converted the loft- started getting people asking me to record them- I was so cheap- usually free ��" but I needed the experience- also did some remixes for some people - never ever was one used I don t think- they sound like a madman with an axe chopping tracks up and putting them back together randomly with no apparent finesse or attention to detail.

With my 2 brothers I spent a couple of years licensing tracks to various publications-we sometimes had to produce 16 tracks a week- quality control sometime suffered quite badly at the hands of this pressure- hahahah - but just kept getting better gear- some Mackie HR 824 Monitors.

Rented a studio in town to attempt setting up a business but realized I actually hated recording other peoples bands- just wanted to make my own music with people I like. Just working with people who excited me. So I persuaded my brother and a friend to build me a studio in the garden and I just potter about in there.

Then when Apple bought Logic I had no choice but to change to a Mac- now I have a new Mac Pro and an Apogee Ensemble- a real piano- a real drum kit- a digital drum kit-a few decent mics��"a tokai strat ��" the cybercaster- an old EKO acoustic- a precision bass- nothing really good- none of the stuff you would see in a professional commercial studio.

stu

Thanks Stu for a brilliant answer...A bit disapointing about the Airfix though as I was looking for someone to share a tin of duck egg blue... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Per Aronsson]

Hi again Stu, superb answers. Where do you find them? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

You wrote a while ago that a new EP will be released at the end of June or the beginning of July. Can you reveal anything more about the songs, like tracktitles? Your ever curious Swede! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[SDR]

Again, thanks for providing a great answer Stu! I've oredered a copy of the Bill Laswell/Miles Davis cd; thanks for the tip!

Have you ever listened to Coltrane's 'Interstellar Space', and 'Ascension'?

And regarding Airfix kits; did you used to paint them? And if so, did you paint the bits whilst on the frame, or when the model was fully constructed. Once, I asked my dad to get me some paint for a WWII tank I was making and he came back with Humbrol orange, red and a bright blue colour. He said he was in a rush.

Hi Mr Jack-

Hopefully you ve received the CD by now – I really like it- “Black Satin/What if “is always played thru the PA on a Lighterthief night- it creates a really good atmosphere- I ve even played it when DJing- its had mixed results- hahah-its tough to dance to.-

And I own Ascension and have been listening to “Interstellar Space”. To be honest I find listening to John Coltrane a bit like being in the line of fire of a flame thrower- the intensity is just too much for me sometimes. But when he s beautiful I love him- I m probably in the minority when I say that my favourite player on Kind Of Blue is Cannonball Adderley- he sounds really a beautiful man- funny and warm- and he plays really naturally which I love.

Re Airfix kits you should speak to Duck Soup- just keep me out of it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) - and painting them would have made things worse- a lot worse!

[SDR]

Hi again Stu, superb answers. Where do you find them? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

You wrote a while ago that a new EP will be released at the end of June or the beginning of July. Can you reveal anything more about the songs, like tracktitles? Your ever curious Swede! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Hi Per

Yes – I did say that- I shall be careful what I say in future-hahah- as I write this I have a team of dwarves polishing and buffing the tracks before they are presented tomorrow to Head of Quality Control at Ape Records. If they pass this stern and rigorous test (and he has sent me packing a few times- hahah-) then to mastering later this week and should be out within a couple of weeks-

The EP is called “Trick Picture”- I think it’s a lot more commercial than Maximalism- this is our tilt at the Christmas number 1 market.(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The tracks are:

“Up on Hi”- - features Andy on guitar and vocals and also offers the listener a tantalizing glimpse of Ape’s very own princess of the desert- Miss Jennifer Olive- it’s a very very happy tune- sort of African- pop -gospel-hop- its been real fun to do.

“Killing Time”- sung by Matthew Kilford who ‘s a singer/songwriter/guitarist based just outside Swindon and he’s also been coerced into playing keyboards in the Lighterthief live band . I suppose it’s a piano ballad but pushed through the Lighterthief filter- I think its sad and beautiful and bleak- –there’s even big string arrangements and brass sections

“Scream Baby”- features Swindon singer Natasha Griffiths - and Billy “the Onion“ Jones on harmonica- (the Lighterthief Myspace site is a picture of the inside of Billy’s garden shed.)
The track sounds like the band Television have somehow mistakenly been booked to play at the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London –they are joined on stage by a Scratch DJ, Miles Davis’ keyboard player, a drunken harmonica player, a violinist studying the history of atonal music and a young girl who leaps out of the audience and starts singing wildly. By the time they have finished the first song the club has completely emptied☺

[xyzman]

Thanks for the input on all this Stu - great stuff.

I'm really interested in the FSOL angle - how did you end up working with them and what, if anything, did that experience teach you?

I've always found them fascinating to listen to and the recent archive series has been interesting just to hear their rough cuts - I think I can hear some of them in your material (or vice versa!!) so would be interested in your thoughts.

Thanks a lot.

Liam.

[SDR]

Thanks for the input on all this Stu - great stuff.

I'm really interested in the FSOL angle - how did you end up working with them and what, if anything, did that experience teach you?

I've always found them fascinating to listen to and the recent archive series has been interesting just to hear their rough cuts - I think I can hear some of them in your material (or vice versa!!) so would be interested in your thoughts.

Thanks a lot.

Liam.

Hi Liam

Thanks for the question. Yeah I suppose that I’ve been influenced by them a lot – I worked with them on and off for about 8 or 9 years and picked up a lot about their approach to making music and the complexity and depth of some of their tracks- and use of space.

My youngest brother Mikey is a session musician- he’s played keyboards for Sheryl Crow , Oasis, Mick Jagger, and Prince-plus he plays a lot of the trickier Lighterthief parts-(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) - but in 1998 he was doing some sessions in a London rehearsal room in the same building as FSOL had their studio- they heard him wailing wildly through the walls and asked him to play on their new material- they were also after a guitarist who could play in various classic styles for their new album and I was suggested. I actually think I only got the job because I said I liked Captain Beefheart. They’d worked with Robert Fripp before but I think they wanted a different kind of playing- in some ways more traditional. The first session I played on ended up as tracks for “The Isness”- I think this album took about 6 years to make- I ended up playing several sessions for it and the album featured choirs, orchestras, flautists, sitarists, Donovan, Linda Lewis, Herbie Flowers, and a host of other singers and musicians. They were working with composers Max Richter and Daniel Pemberton as well who brought an orchestral thing to what they did. This new project was entitled Amorphous Androgynous and was like a kind of side project to FSOL but based a lot on 60s psychedelia.

I also played a lot of guitar and bass on the next album which was “Alice in Ultraland” – and I make fleeting appearances on “The Otherness" ,"Papua New Guinea Translations” , “A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind” and “Teachings from the Electronic Brain” and did some tours with them to Russia, Sweden and Australia. They had a fantastic live band including Gary Lucas (who played guitar for Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley) and Baluji Shrivasta who is a fantastic sitar player. So on stage we were improvising live with computers and samples and blending electronics with live performances. For this I developed this thing called the Midi Parasite which fitted on my guitar- it meant I could trigger samples at the same time as I was thrashing away. It sort of worked –hahah- there’s a track called “The Prophet” on which this worked best- half funk- half abstract electronica

What was good about working with them was the way that they got the best out of me- they d make me improvise for about 5 hours over loads and loads of material- and then take that material – re work it –put it in another context and when you heard the final track it would be on another song in another key. They had banks of dats on the walls with performances from everyone carefully catalogued- fascinating. In fact the best guitar playing I ve ever done is on a track called “All is Harvest”- I don t even remember doing it - it must have been in the middle of a long session where I was just gone- zoned out- hahah

So as this was going on I was developing the Lighterthief stuff- I could nt afford the session musicians that they had -so I just started recording everyone I knew- students, friends, family- anyone who came round and started re arranging and chopping it up.

I realised that most people play best when they are themselves- I was a rubbish session musician if someone told me what to do or said- “can you solo in the style of Brian May?”- “nooooooo” “ we d like a Knopfler-esq solo”- “help!!!!!!”- but if people let me play naturally I ‘m much better- so in Lighterthief stuff i try and get people to play absolutely naturally- then when they ve gone I twist them to suit my evil plans- hahah.

Cheers

Stu

[xyzman]

Great stuff Stu - thanks for that.

I can see where your coming from - the use of space is very evident in their music and the use of material as collages is fascinating.

Looking forward to your new stuff and when I think of anything more interesting to ask, I'll be back to you!

All the best.

Liam.