Of course - in order to make "Severhead Come Alive" - I had to figure out how to play that stuff as a soloist.
Yeah - I could've just put on a CD with the bass track dropped out. But . . . that's not really my thing. Besides - figuring this shit out is a blast.
So - I took the most studio wankery piece of the Ruiner Severhead project (a tune called "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" ) and made it the latest subject of Jeff Schmidt - video blog.
"Don't Tase Me, Bro!" - the studio version features massive studio trickery, heavy use of samples and all kinds of brutal processing. I think the session easily topped 30 tracks, and had GIGS of raw material - mostly noise made from horrible bass abuse. ;)
Here's how I figured out how to play it live - by myself. Just as noisy.
Check it out.
grab the original track - for free - to kids - no forms to fill out.
Easily, the most exciting thing for me right now is knowing that no matter how far I push my studio & production vision - I can still find a way to bring it to a live environment in a way that goes beyond mere "backing tracks".
That's where I need this stuff to be. No limits in the studio . . . figure out how to play it live later.
oh yeah - if you come to a Ruiner Severhead gig I'll let you hit the "Dont Tase Me!" button.
Both gigs will feature solo bass performances by several SF Bay Area solo bassists. While I'm playing too - I won't be playing my solo bass music.
Instead - I'll be playing selections from Ruiner Severhead's "The Jesus Fist Tapes", including the epic - Don't Tase Me, Bro! It can be done. It will be done. And it will rule. I promise to play the most offensive material from the CD. (physical copies of which will be available while they last - I'm down to a little more than 20)
Halter Boy aka - Andy Cervantes is going to join me for a 2 bass version of "In The Name Of..." if he doesn't forget how to play it by then. ;)
First gig - thursday night in the wonderful North Beach district of SF at Grant & Green.
Second gig - saturday night - Modesto!
details in the gig section on the front of my myspace site here.
It’s a totally informal chat with LARGE amounts of profanity and childish behavior. SO beware if you’re sensitive like that.
This episode much more closely resembles what it sounds like when we’re all hanging out having beers than a typical formal interview "SHOW". Which is exactly what I hoped for. Off the cuff - no holds barred conversation. Duck!
You may or may not learn anything (probably not) - but at least you can hang with the gang!
RUINER SEVERHEAD (aka = me) produces the debut music project for "Demond - tha bomb- Wilson" (aka = jay terrien) - "The Jesus Fist Studies" live in Alien Anal Probe Studio in San Francisco CA
March 20-24 2008
C’mon & chat
Or not . . .cuz we might be busy. But look up there cuz maybe not.
How else to follow along?
FLICKR -
check out photos from beginning to end - updated in real time HERE
recorded this morning (in US) via Skype - a 55 minute chat with UK Solo Bassist Steve Lawson about all matter of music and geek related stuff.
I like talking with Steve about this stuff because he is similarly attracted to all things geek & web as I am. He's articulate on the philosophical aspects of music & bass that I really enjoy engaging in as well.
This will be a regular thing - every few weeks or so and will likely evolve over time into all kinds of issues & topics. I wanted to name the podcast something different than my usual "beautiful bass podcast". Nothing fancy really struck me other than that this is really a bullshit session.
Subscribe to the podcast in Itunes - just search for Jeff Schmidt in the itunes music store and you'll find the podcast - this way new epsiodes and BULL SCHMIDT sessions will be delivered right to you as they become available.
Also check Steve Lawson's site as he'll make these available in his own way I'm sure.
In a recent article for Fast Company magazine, Duncan Watts, network scientist at Columbia University turns upside down the entire idea of HOW certain trends & ideas gets lots of buzz and become a hit while others do not.
The answer? Something most musicians and artists already know.
It's not dependent on talent or merit. Buzz happens - or at least seems to happen almost randomly.
You can read the whole thing on Duncan's blog HERE.
But here's a particularly eye opening excerpt:
Watts wanted to find out whether the success of a hot trend was reproducible. For example, we know that Madonna became a breakout star in 1983. But if you rewound the world back to 1982, would Madonna break out again? To find out, Watts built a world populated with real live music fans picking real music, then hit rewind, over and over again.
Working with two colleagues, Watts designed an online music-downloading service. They filled it with 48 songs by new, unknown, and unsigned bands. Then they recruited roughly 14,000 people to log in. Some were asked to rank the songs based on their own personal preference, without regard to what other people thought. They were picking songs purely on each song's merit. But the other participants were put into eight groups that had "social influence": Each could see how other members of the group were ranking the songs.
Watts predicted that word of mouth would take over. And sure enough, that's what happened. In the merit group, the songs were ranked mostly equitably, with a small handful of songs drifting slightly lower or higher in popularity. But in the social worlds, as participants reacted to one another's opinions, huge waves took shape. A small, elite bunch of songs became enormously popular, rising above the pack, while another cluster fell into relative obscurity.
But here's the thing: In each of the eight social worlds, the top songs -- and the bottom ones -- were completely different.
For example, the song "Lockdown," by 52metro, was the No. 1 song in one world, yet finished 40 out of 48 in another. Nor did there seem to be any compelling correlation between merit and success. In fact, Watts explains, only about half of a song's success seemed to be due to merit.
"In general, the 'best' songs never do very badly, and the 'worst' songs never do extremely well, but almost any other result is possible," he says.
Why?
Because the first band to snag a few thumbs-ups in the social world tended overwhelmingly to get many more. And who received those crucial first votes seemed to be mostly a matter of luck.
Word of mouth and social contagion made big hits bigger. But they also made success more unpredictable. (And it's worth noting, no one in the social worlds had any more influence than anyone else.)
So yes, Watts figures, if you rewound the world to 1982, Madonna would likely remain a total unknown -- and someone else would have slipped into her steel-tipped corset. "You cannot predict in advance whether a band gets this huge cascade of popularity, because the social network is liable to throw up almost any result," he marvels.
Predictably, the music industry received the analysis -- "Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market," published in Science in 2006 -- with a cocked eyebrow. When Watts presented his findings to executives at a major record label last spring, the younger among them were reasonably receptive. They're accustomed to the unpredictability of hit-making online, so they can grasp the terrifying randomness of success.
But the older execs?
Watts laughs. "They were all like, 'I think it's bullshit. I'm still going to go with my gut,'" he recalls. "And I'm like, Okay, good luck to you. You're going to need it."
Lots of implications in this.
For one - I have shied away from pursuing, and publishing testimonials from other artists about me in promotion of myself.
Perhaps this is a mistake. Maybe getting thumbs up from an established community is an important signal to the market. I realize that rarely has an effect on me unless it's someone I really respect and trust. For the market at large though, it's probably way more important than I give it credit for.
The bass extremes contest certainly provided that to some degree. I've not even come close to trying to capitalize on that.
I also know my "win" there was totally a product of circumstance, of time & place. Sure talent played a roll. Roll the clock back and re-do the whole thing again and I'm 100% positive there would have been a different result.
Have you ever been in the right place @ the right time?
Any ideas on how to keep showing up at the right place at the right time with the right idea?
Or is even thinking like that a complete waste of time?
Stick maestro Rob Martino shot me a question about recording DIs.
Since this is a question I get frequently I ask Rob if he'd let me share. He agreed.
--
--------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Rob Martino Date: Feb 8, 2008 8:34 AM
Hi Jeff,
I was looking at your recording blog from a couple years ago, and saw how you were noticing the difference between your Boss effects and the Avalon U5 sound. Do you still use and recommend the U5 for capturing your direct bass sound?
I'd like to start some higher-quality recordings of solo Stick pieces and want to have a good foundation and make sure I'm using a high quality pre-amp/DI for my basic tone.
I have some cheaper PreSonus preamp stuff (BlueTube, Firestudio, etc.) and a Sansamp (colors the sound too much) and wondering if stepping up to the Avalon is a big difference.
Rob
My reply:
good question. I liked the U5 for clean uncolored sound.
It has a few prefab eq slopes built in which can help suit it to the specific instrument. The U5 won't make it sound better - it just doesn't take anything away.
The difference in sound between the U5 and the GT-6B was a phase problem. For some reason the GT6B and U5 tracks were always out of phase AND a few milliseconds delayed.
I sold my U5.
These days I'm using a Millennia TD-1 for my clean direct. it has a tube path and more extensive eq - but it's also 2X the price of the U5.
I also hear great stuff about the REDD box. You might want to listen to that too. it does more of an amp sound.
best
--jeff
-------------
I should say that Rob's stuff already sounds great to my ears - but if anyone else has experience with DI or Channel Strip units that Rob should investigate -drop your thoughts in the comments please!
Since mid Dec I've been playing around with new musical ideas that seem to be heading towards similar territory as Outre. Maybe.
One of the advantages of having been through this whole music creation, practice, perform, record, release thing is that I have more confidence that my ideas will actually see the light of day. So this time around I'm going to do a regular video blog about it.
Rather than create in private, and only let it loose into the world once "it's done", I'm going to do regular video blogs about the process I'm going through to figure out all these ideas.
See - even though I have ideas - I have no clue what form they'll take.
So I'm doing this video blog as a way to document the process of figuring that out. And instead of just keeping it for myself - I'm posting it on youtube and embedding the videos here.
The first vid blog just lays out the concept - and shows a very basic over-view of how I'm working. I'll get into nitty gritty stuff along the way.
Creation is painful for me. I go through terrible bouts of doubt and self judgement. But I also experience those wonderful moments when things click. I want to make sure I have some video rolling for all those moments. Hopefully you guys will find it entertaining & inspiring.
