Produce my next album. Yes, I mean you. No experience necessary.
Category: Music
I got some really interesting feedback from my last post about the future of (my) music. In that post, I made mention of how I'm going to make this new record... with you.
This is to explain how that will happen. First, here are a few important things to understand before I explain my idea:
I've read in a number of sources that a lot of people claim they don't buy full albums anymore because most records have only one or two good songs on them. I've heard this in a lot of conversations with people as well. They say: if artists made better albums, well then of course they would buy the whole thing. People are, it seems, still willing to pay for quality... or at least the promise of quality.
Normally when an artist goes through the creative process of songwriting, song refining, and choosing songs for an album, he or she works with a producer. The producer acts as a sounding board for the artist's ideas, and steers the artist in a (hopefully) better direction than the artist might have taken by himself/herself. To wit: the producer's goal is to make sure the artist puts out the best possible record.
3. YOU CAN'T PLEASE ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME... but you CAN try to please most of them most of the time.
So now that we're on the same page, here's:
THE DEAL:
-I'm going to record one song a week for the next five months. That's a total of twenty (20) songs.
-Statistically speaking, a few of these will be great. A few will suck royally. And most of them will need just a bit of help to bring them where they need to go.
-You (and by that I mean "those of you who want to") are going to give me feedback on these songs, and ultimately, you're going to decide which ten (10) make it on to the next record I put out.
You are going to be, in essence, my 'producers'.
-Every week, I will send you an email with a high-quality MP3 attached (it will be a decently-sized file; big, but not huge). The first of these will be delivered on Wednesday, July 9th, and the last one will be delivered on Wednesday, November 26th. There is only one week during which there will be no delivery made, at the end of September/beginning of October, and that is because I will be on tour in the United Kingdom at the time... it still works out that there will be four (4) MP3s delivered each month.
-In each of these emails that deliver the MP3s, there will be a small feedback form, and every week, you'll get to send it back to me with your opinions and comments until the next song is delivered.
-At the end of every month (that is, after every fourth song), I will poll my 'producers' for that month as to how they feel the delivered songs stack up, in order, from 1st place to 4th. The 'producers' will have 48 hours to participate in this poll.
-The song that comes out on top for that month will be slightly re-tweaked using the best of the feedback I've received, and will be re-sent to all my 'producers' for that month along with an email containing anonymous samples of their feedback, my notes, and thoughts on the creative process involved with all four songs.
-At the end of five months, I will post one-minute clips of all twenty songs on the internet. Anyone who has been a 'producer' of the project at any point will be asked to choose their "Top Ten" songs from this list to pick the final songs for the album.
-Those 'producers' who have been more involved throughout the process will have their votes weighed more heavily than those who were less involved. This is partially because of the familiarity the more-involved 'producers' will have with the material. For example, if you were a producer for Month Five only, you would have heard the full versions of only four of the twenty songs. While it is important to get people's general impression of a song from a shorter preview clip, it's in the best interests of making a great album to consider the more informed 'producers' opinions more heavily. The more you've been involved by that point, the 'louder' your voice will be.
-Any 'producer' who has been involved for two (2) months or more will receive free copies of the resulting album, as described in a few paragraphs...
THE DETAILS:
-Anything goes with this. Some weeks I may do solo bass and vocals; other weeks I may invite guest musicians to play with me, or I might send songs by email around the planet for other friends of mine in distant lands to overdub themselves onto. I might do a song with drums and a keyboard part. I might do a song with very few words; or maybe a song that never repeats a word twice. There might be a completely instrumental solo-bass piece in there. I might record my upright bass on a song and invite other people to sing with me. I could do a bluegrass-style song. A jazz-style song. A complete heavy-fricking metal song. I could record two basses, a zither, and a kazoo. I could record my dog barking and play it back through my loop pedal to create a rhythm track. I could be just as surprised (or not) as you by the whole thing.
-The point is, those of you who opt to be a part of this will get to hear the sounds of my creative process. You'll hear everything UN-filtered... the raw material I start with. You'll choose how far you follow the songs as they develop, and you will guide that development process ("Dear Seth, while I really did like your use of the Norwegian fishing chant in last week's song, maybe following it up with a German drinking song-style tune this week wasn't such a fresh idea...")
THE BUSINESS END:
The opportunity to invest in this production costs $10 a month; you can pay fifty up front and be involved from the get-go all the way through until the album release, you can tread lightly and pay one month at a time, or you can forgo this whole operation, sit back and trust the capable and refined ears of your peers... the choice is yours!
Your level of commitment will determine just what you get out of your investment, as follows:
-$10
Four MP3s (plus one re-vamped song version) in one month, and a vote for the Top Ten at the beginning of December.
-$20
Eight MP3s (plus two re-vamped song versions) in two months, and one copy of the physical CD when the final version is pressed. In December, your vote for the Top Ten songs will count twice.
-$30
Twelve MP3s (plus three re-vamped song versions) in three months, and two copies of the physical CD when the final version is pressed. In December, your vote for the Top Ten songs will count four times.
-$40
Sixteen MP3s (plus four re-vamped song versions) in four months, and three copies of the physical CD when the final version is pressed. In December, your vote for the Top Ten songs will count seven times.
-$50
Twenty MP3s (plus five re-vamped song versions) in five months, four copies of the physical CD when the final version is pressed, and a producer's credit in the physical album's liner notes. In December, your vote for the Top Ten songs will count ten times.
And yes, if you decide to try this out for one month and then decide to re-up, your status will accumulate... For example, if you pay $10 the first month to try this out and then decide you'd like to stay on board for the whole project, you can pay $40 more and reap all the benefits of those who pay $50 from the beginning.
Basically, if this sort of thing is up your alley, you can't lose with this. :) I get to make a record that stands a chance of resonating with a large number of people, and you get to help me make the record you've always wanted me to make.
MAKE SURE YOU SEND THE EMAIL FROM THE ADDRESS YOU WANT TO RECEIVE YOUR MP3s AT. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.
Put the words "seth horan production" in the subject heading
In the body of the email, please include your name, and how much you'd like to invest into the project (10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 dollars).
I will reply to your email with a PayPal invoice (you can pay with a debit/credit card on PayPal), and once we square that away, you're officially part of the production team!
This is going to be a huge step forward, folks. Not just for me... if we're successful in this, other people will copy it, and you can say that you were part of the thing that changed the music industry.
(Yes, I am in Germany at present, and yes, there will be a blog about it... sit tight and read this in the meantime! :)
No matter what you think of the state of the music business, you probably think it's time something changed. See, it's not a question of "if" CDs will stop selling; it's a question of WHEN.
Being an artist who sells my music to make a living, I'm faced with an interesting combination of factors: People born up until around 1978 or '79 for example, still see a compact disc as a thing of value. It's something they either adopted to replace cassettes or something they grew up with, and people in this bracket tend to have something in the way of a tangible "record collection". When they were in college, Napster either didn't exist or hadn't reached critical mass, and the idea that illegal downloading carried serious consequences wasn't laughed at openly. These were the last people who shopped in "Used CD stores".
Anyone born between 1980 and '81 saw the whole transition go down... peer-to-peer file sharing was blowing through the roof just as these folks' college years hit, and though these people were probably decent, record-buying americans in high-school, by the time they graduated, deferred, or dropped out of college (gooooo Gen Y!), they were all about the MP3.
Anyone born after that pretty much looks at a packaged audio CD and says, "WHY?" They think of them as flimsy, breakable, and due to the CD-R's endless and cheap availability as data storage media for computers, virtually worthless. iPods and iTunes came about while these folks were either in college or high school, and it's hard for them to remember life without the option of the .99 cent download, so that's how their perception of the value of music has been shaped.
I announced a few months ago that my album "Notwithstanding" is officially out of print now. My first album, "...this is the session.", has only a small number of copies left. My "biggest" release to date is "Conduit", and that album was pressed by a label in greater numbers than the others, so it'll be around in CD form for awhile longer, but my fourth release, "Happenstance" will be going the way of the Dodo in short order as well. Each of these titles, however, continue to sell each month via CD Baby and iTunes... as digital downloads (and for those who didn't know, when you download an MP3 album from CD Baby, you recieve the album artwork and liner notes as jpegs).
I think people still have the desire to buy music, and I think that desire is strongest at concerts -- people feel most strongly about giving back to an artist right after they have experienced that artist's performance. The idea of buying a download works against that, but what is becoming more common now is the sale of "download cards" (like the ones you see at Starbucks). Think of it as a "promise to download", because you're paying for the album up-front, and you're being given a plastic card that you'll take out of your pocket or your purse when you get home, and it will serve as your reminder that "Hey! You already paid for this!! GET IT." These cards have access codes that, when you enter them into the appropriate website, allow you to download the album in question instantly. I've already started selling download cards for "Notwithstanding" at my live shows, and as the other titles in my catalog sell out, I will add download cards for those titles, too.
(I should note, however, that the new Download Card-version of "Notwithstanding" contains BONUS TRACKS featuring live versions of FOUR of the songs on the album.)
Now, my latest release is a DVD, and a double-length DVD at that. DVDs aren't looked at the same way as CDs just yet, and the feedback about "Between Two Oceans" has been overwhelmingly positive... this is something most of you have been wanting for years; a slice of the live concert experience that led most of us to cross paths in the first place. Co-X Entertainment and I feel justified that what we're charging for the DVD is a fair price, and nearly everyone who's bought it says they're getting a great product for their money. So the DVD will stick around for awhile longer, at least.
But what about NEW MUSIC? The old method of making albums just isn't going to work for much longer, is it?
Well I'm going to give it one more try, but with a twist: I'm going to make the next record WITH you. At least, I'm going to make it with those of you who want to be involved. :)
Stay tuned for the next update, and I'll tell you how. ;)
Ah! Would you look at the size of this blog? All nicely laid out with oodles of cool info and links for you to check out... One might ask:
...why don't I do this more often?
Actually... I do! Less than a year ago I migrated my email list over to a new server, and each month, I send out a mailer chock-full of coolness. I started posting that monthly mailer as a bulletin recently, but every day I get more proof in my inbox that the bulletins just don't get through to many of you... they get bumped down in the bulletin list too quickly for most people. And if I post the same bulletin more than twice in one day, I get pissy notes from folks with smaller friend counts who consider the multiple messages spam. Like the saying goes, you can't please all the people all the time.
So that's some incentive, right? If you haven't already done so, please: JOIN MY REAL EMAIL LIST. It's an update-a-month unless there's something special going on (like a show in your town), and there's no wondering... I know that my message will actually get to you, and you don't have to wonder if you've missed an update from me! Win-win! Go! Now! Sign up here!
May 31st - "Anonymity" is "Track of the Day" at Garageband.com
My song "Anonymity" has been receiving some really nice reviews over at Garageband.com, and has quickly climbed up the "Acoustic" charts there... so much so that they're making it "Track of the Day" this Saturday (May 31st). To celebrate, I've made the song a FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD... if it's not already in your collection, you can get it by clicking on the button:
So I took this Finn back to my hotel room in Germany, and we made a video...
Remember my blog about the Frankfurt Music Show at the end of March? Remember the cruel, teasing, 4-second clip of Petteri Sariola and I on stage? Remember I promised that there would be more footage of us jamming together some day? Remember...? Yeah... me neither. ;)
3MOB
3 Men on BASS
is finally TOURING! And we're doing it in ONE MONTH! After our increasingly talked-about shows in Boston for the past few years, we're taking the experience to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City this year on our way back to Cambridge's legendary Club Passim.
Pay special attention to the next bit of info if you fall into any of these categories:
-you live within 2 hours of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, or Boston
-you have at some point said to me "I've never seen anyone ELSE do what you do!"
-you haven't been to one of my shows in awhile...
This nice big magenta and blue flyer is for you. Print it out and stick it on the fridge. :)
Inflation sucks!
...but it is the reality of the situation. The United States Postal Service just increased all their rates, so as a result, I've had to bump up the price of ordering my new DVD, "Between Two Oceans", by 1 (one) US Dollar. So you see: the early bird gets the worm, and gets it cheaper.
Don't wait for some sudden, random paper shortage drive up the price of padded envelopes... if you don't have your copy of "Between Two Oceans" yet, click back onto my page, scroll down to the big picture of the cover, and order it now!
The Affirmation Sessions
You may know my friend Joel Ackerson from the years we spent touring together. You may know him because he makes a guest appearance or two on the new DVD. You may not know him at all, but you need to change that, because Joel just released a new album that makes the hair on my arms stand straight up and makes me want to take long drives to nowhere just so I can listen to the whole thing in one sitting. Remember when people made albums that could hold your attention from beginning-to-end? My friend Joel Ackerson just put out a masterpiece, and I'm proud to have played a small part in its creation.
I belted out harmony vocals on one song, I bowed my double bass on another song, and I co-produced a third song, so if you need to know my connection with the project to accept my recommendation, there you go... but if you just want to hear a great full-length album like nobody seems to make anymore, check out "The Affirmation Sessions". And know my friend Joel Ackerson.
Click the cover to listen:
There's even more cool stuff coming in the June newsletter... don't forget to join the email list if you haven't already!!
Some of you may have this DVD I've been peddling, "Between Two Oceans", and even if you haven't gotten your copy yet, you may have seen the cover art all over my various web pages:
But what you might not have seen is this: the original photo that it started as...
Contrary to what some would believe, I did not actually stand around in a room filled with pictures of myself, staring at Me while absent-mindedly playing my bass during a photo shoot. That cover picture is one of many wicked photoshop-creations by my lovely and talented wife, Gina. She's also responsible for making a very small amount of people into a huge line in the middle of the desert on the cover of Justin McMahon's CD, "Worth The Wait":
She's not just a photographer, and not just a graphics guru either. She's also a painter in oils and watercolors, and currently she's devoting herself to the most odd and endearing project I've seen her undertake so far (I mean, BESIDES living with me, which definitely counts as "odd"):
She calls them "iFs". That's short for "imperfect Friends", and they've made the house a bit more eccentric than normal as of late. Imagine finding these little buggers in random places around your home at different times of day and night:
Every time she sells one off I get a little misty, actually.
Anyway, she's my sweetie, and she's ridiculously talented. And she just got a Mac with all her magic graphics programs in their latest and greatest forms. So if you need something to look better than it currently does, I highly recommend having your people call her people.
...or just shoot her a message. She's my top friend (of course).
...by Will. Will's fifteen years old, and first posted this on YouTube last year. He's just posted this updated version. Will's been completely humble about the way he's nailed this tune. I've seen players with 5 times Will's playing experience try it and come nowhere even close. Leave this kid a nice comment, eh? He's earned it!
I’m in the finals on OurStage.com... so why am I so pissed?
Category: Music
APRIL 28th UPDATE:
Well, my songs maintained a strong presence in the Top 10 for the Newport Folk Festival competition for FOUR DAYS STRAIGHT...
...and then, suddenly and inexplicably, both dropped to 12 and 16 just as that round of voting ended.
Not only that, but six other artists who had shared strong standings in the Top 10 with me all suddenly disappeared from their rankings as well. Poof. Like that.
I was just as confused as I was upset... I mean, this didn't just happen to me; this happened to SEVEN ARTISTS at once. What are the chances?
So I did some searching online, and discovered that a guy who had never gotten out of the lower rankings had posted information for his fanbase, instructing them very specifically on how to cheat. So not only does a guy who didn't deserve to be in the Top 10 get there, he's figured out a way to alter his competition so that he has the best chance of winning.
So I take back what I said about OurStage being "fair" and "unbiased"... apparently it's not as un-hackable as it claims to be.
"Something Pretty" is still in the final voting round in the Singer/Songwriter category, and yes; you can still vote for it, but after what I just watched happen... I'm not so sure the votes really count for anything. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special notice to all you web-savvy folks who're looking for a way to waste some time at work for the next couple days!
1. There's a site called OURSTAGE where artists get judged on their songs.
2. They judge songs in different categories, and each month, the winners get some cool opportunities.
3. This month, THREE of my songs made it to the semi-finals: "Something Pretty" in the "Singer/Songwriter" category, and both "Understatement" and "Anonymity" in a special category for the Newport Folk Festival. If I win that one, I can get a performance slot on the same stage where Bob Dylan shook the folk world by playing an electric guitar for the first time...
...how sweet would it be if I got to go play there and be the first one to play a solo electric bass?? :D
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
This isn't the sort of thing where you just go to a site and click "vote for Seth". You can't "stuff the ballot box" at OurStage, and that's why it's so cool... you actually have to listen to different songs matched up against each other and pick which one you like more.
But since you're only judging the semi-finals, there are only TWENTY songs in each channel, so if you judge for 20 minutes, you are almost DEFINITELY going to hear one of my songs!! And then... well, I sincerely hope you'll give me a big old "CLICK" and send me off to fame and fortune. :)
You sign up for a username, which takes two minutes, and then you put on your headphones and GO, baby. Makes the time fly by at any desk job, and you'll be doing me a solid.
Again – both "Anonymity" and "Understatement" are in the "Newport Folk Festival 2008" channel, and "Something Pretty" is in the "Singer/Songwriter" channel!
Thanks in advance for the support... wish me luck!!
In my latest emailer, I encouraged everyone to check out the new iLike Sidebar. I’m entirely sincere in my endoresment of it -- I think it has a leg up on internet services like Last.fm and Pandora because it interfaces directly with iTunes... music that you know you like, because you already paid for it, and you’re already LISTENING to it.
In the past 48 hours, Myspace has announced a partnership with three of the four major record companies, and they’re going to turn the Music section of Myspace into something they hope will COMPETE with iTunes.
Now this may sound great, but it’s not. Not good for listeners, not good for artists, not good, in short, for MUSIC. Here’s why:
The Myspace Music site is endorsed by RECORD COMPANIES. Do they make a flag that red? Who do you think determines the Myspace "featured artists"? The "Myspace Secret Shows"? All those placements are sold to the highest bidding label/movie studio/marketing firm/etc. Once the major labels all have a stake in Myspace Music, it’s going to get even more ridiculous, and you’re going to see nothing but homogenized, pappy crap everywhere you look. These desperate, desperate record companies who are clinging to this as their last hope of retaining power (read: $$$) in the world of music... if they fail in this, it’s over for them, and believe me: that would be awesome.
iLike is endorsed by a large (and growing) number of actual recording artists, from the virtually unknown (hello?) to the iconic likes of U2. Nobody’s forcing these artists to post content on iLike or interact with their fans; they’re just doing it to establish a more genuine, fun connection between themselves and their listeners. If you download the iLike sidebar for iTunes, and then you listen to a song by an artist who’s involved with iLike, the sidebar will show you exclusive bulletins, videos, contests, and blogs from that artist. Or it could show you six acts you’ve never heard of that get listened to by the majority of that artist’s fans. Or you can simply browse to see what people with similar tastes to yours are listening to. It’s very efficient; what’s displayed is a result of your listening choices and common statistics, and because the interface is iTunes, it’s very REAL; the information is gleaned from your actual music collection... not some internet radio station playing stuff you may or may not like. Because of this, there is a far greater liklihood of iLike displaying information you might actually be INTERESTED in, as opposed to some stupid banner ad or pretty, underage "featured artist of the week" who obviously had their status bought by a label.
Here’s how it all breaks down:
Buying a track off iTunes, you get the song as an AAC file, which is better-than-CD quality. You pay .99 cents for it, Apple takes .30 cents of that, and there is still .69 cents left over for the artist (and CD Baby, or whoever else is involved). You get a high quality product for a fair price, and even after everyone takes their cut, the artist still makes a decent royalty for their work. And I should add, Apple is very good about making frequent payments to the owners of the content on iTunes.
Buying a track off the Myspace Music site, you will almost certainly be getting the song as an MP3 file. Maybe a high bitrate MP3, but they just don’t hold up to AAC files; it might sound the same on your computer speakers, but once you try playing it on a system or through headphones, you’ll realize it’s pretty crappy. I’m guessing you’ll pay slightly less than .99 cents, because Myspace wants to give people a reason to buy from them instead of iTunes, but if you could buy the cream of the crop for .99 cents, why would you pay... let’s say ten to fifteen cents less... for something that is nowhere near as good? Then consider who’s in charge of the Myspace site... one of the reasons the record labels are dying is because they always try to keep too large a cut... so once Myspace and the record companies take their "fair share" of what will almost definitely be less than .99 cents... what will be left for the artist? I’m guessing it will be .25 cents (probably less) per song. And to put the final nail in the coffin, the LAST time Myspace tried to get involved with selling music was with that abyssmal company SNOCAP, remember? CD baby stopped working with them after only a few months because they weren’t paying the artists what they were owed... and Myspace didn’t see a problem, because SNOCAP wasn’t missing any payments to them. History tells us that a large-scale Myspace Music Store will be a lose-lose situation for both artists and listeners.
So: iLike Sidebar for iTunes: very forward thinking; very easy; very good. Download it HERE: http://www.ilike.com/download
...and this new Myspace Music site that will be unveiled shortly? Unless they pull some magic rabbit out of their butts and prove me wrong, it will be a not-so-shocking failure.
...it really doesn’t have the same ring to it as that bygone hip-hop call of the 90’s, does it? No. But get used to it, my fellow Americans. The USA has itself a receding economic hairline, and no amount of tax-relief-rogaine is going to right the ship with the immediacy the talking heads are hoping for. The once-mighty dead presidents are playing second fiddle to the very colorful and multi-cultural icons that inhabit the European Union’s ass-kicking currency. And it’s not that I enjoy the thought that my money isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on anymore, but I have to say that once you spend a week with the Euro, it grows on you. Some advantages of note:
-the denominations are laid out entirely logically. The coins are valued at 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents; then 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents. Then the 1 Euro and 2 Euro denominations ARE STILL COINS. It goes up in that same progression: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, etc.
-the thing about having 1 and 2 Euro coins... most of the world hasn’t printed anything less than a fiver on paper for quite some time now, and it’s pretty practical. I often find myself in situations where I either need change (parking, post office, train turnstyle, etc.) and only have paper dollars on me, or am at a cash register and juuuuuust... need.... ONE... FRICKING.... DOLLAR... grrr... and dig through all my papers and billfolds and crap in my quest. It’s become something of a social faux pas to reach into your pocket and piece together a bunch of coins to make up a buck or two... it’s either inconsiderate to the people behind you, or it makes you look cheap, or it makes you look poor... blah blah blah. So I’m all in favor of having a dollar-coin that the American people will actually CIRCULATE outside of the New York Subway system.
-When you get up to the paper money, each denomination is not only a different color (which is pretty much the case with every currency on Earth excepting the Greenback), but a different SIZE. Fivers are tiny; about half the size of a US Dollar... tens are about dollar-sized. Twenties look the most like Dollars (they’re green), but they’re a bit oversized. Carrying a bunch of fifty-Euro notes in your hand makes you feel rich and powerful... they’re huge, and have a very important look to them, being sort of yellow-orange-ish; they’re very catchy to the eye. I have only once ever held a hundred-Euro note. It was so big I had to fold it in half both ways to make it fit in my passport-wallet. So you see, it’s nice as a musician, you know? Even if you can’t make big money, you can at least make... well... LARGE money. :)
So that accounts for part of why I exchanged NONE of the Euros I made selling my discs at the Frankfurt Musikmesse two weekends ago; they’re cool to look at, and they make me feel like I actually have some money of value. The other reason is, of course, that because of the state of the US economy, those babies are shooting up in value as I type these very words.
So. Anyway... Frankfurt! My third year attending the magnificent Musikmesse ("music-mess-uh") was an excellent time. The setting was better than ever, and while my overall Messe-posse shrank in numbers (Steve Lawson and Lobelia were conspicuously absent; something about tending to mundane, domestic affairs and shrubberies, and Claudio Zanghieri was attending, but was for the most part trapped inside a large bus outside the Messe exhibit halls), we made up for that in quality of personel.
Consider first that my roommate for the event was the esteemed Peter Fischer. As far as Europe is concerned, Peter didn’t just write the ’book’ on rock guitar, he wrote the LIBRARY. His dozen or so instructional books and CDs are pretty much what everyone in Europe learns out of, from beginners to professionals. It’s only fitting that he’s heading up the guitar program at Germany’s newest conservatory, the "Rock Pop Jazz Institute". He’s also got some serious style, man.
Now, back in September I went to an Italian music show in Milan, where I had my musical world rocked by a crazy German named RicoLoop. He and I have kept in touch since then on occasion, and finally got the opportunity in Frankfurt to hang out. What an amazing human being this guy is... and what an amazing performer. I can’t even begin to describe what Rico does with words. Just watch.
Another friend I’ve only had the chance to see during the Frankfurt show is international rising star Petteri Sariola. Two years ago he was an instrumental wunderkind who knew a few funny cover songs. Last year he started singing seriously, and showed serious promise. This year, he sang his ass off and played his ass off, and... and... and boy got no ass left. This is what he’s doing now:
Finally, after years of talking about it, young Petteri and I finally got the opportunity to play together. I backed him up...
and he backed me up...
...and some guy walked by and caught the last FOUR SECONDS of it on video. This is cruel, but fuels the imagination:
Petteri and I also hung out in the hotel to record a segment for something he does in his blog: the Beat of the Week. He tells me this will be uploaded and viewable soon. (Petteri? What gives, man?)
Texanglo-transplant Rodney Branigan was also around, making new fans in droves, and also making old Spanish guitar-makers really pissed off (we should really have him tell the story... maybe he’ll blog about it). Though he and I crossed paths at the NAMM show back in January, we hadn’t really gotten much time to hang out together back then, so it was much-needed and much fun to see him.
The Warwick exhibition stand this year was bigger than anything I’ve ever seen at any industry event, ever. It took up so much square footage (square meter-age?)... it was like a small city within the convention hall, really. And it was loaded with oodles of super basses and gear; really impressive. The only possible problem with that is that I found myself missing the smaller settings of shows like NAMM, London, Italy, and even Frankfurt in years past... those were all settings in which I got to meet and talk with fans and fellow musicians one-on-one, and this year that seemed to have been taken away. I saw some folks I’d met in previous years, but it seemed like many of the first-time folks were intimidated. Hopefully that was due to the size of the exhibition, and not due to me! ;)
Here are some pics to sum it all up:
(Petteri had just signed Rico’s chest...)
Currently
listening
:
Silence
By
Petteri Sariola
Release date: 01 April, 2008
...telling lies about the Jewish or the Scientologist...
Category: News and Politics
How pathetic and disturbing.
My song, "Keep To Myself", has enjoyed a degree of popularity with those who profess to enjoy my music.
I realize that not everyone listens to song lyrics with a careful ear. Some people don’t do it at all.
But some people apparently listen carelessly enough that they COMPLETELY missed the boat on what that song means.
"Keep To Myself" is a call to realize that views on religion are some of the most subjective feelings and thoughts in existence, and to accept that until someone can find a way to record what happens after you die and "bring it back" to show the rest of us, there will NEVER be consensus, or a "one-world religion". Centuries of Dogma have simply become too embedded in our culture.
It is also a reminder that, in the meantime, it’s pretty pointless to shout down someone’s preferred religious stance in the name of... well, in the name of YOUR religious stance (or lack of a stance). You prove nothing; you accomplish nothing; you only put bad energy between you and other people who you might get along very well with in every other way.
I think this point is abundantly clear to anyone with an IQ of over 80 who is not high and who is actually listening to the song.
But I guess that’s giving people too much credit, because I’ve been made aware that tomorrow (March 15th, at any rate), a bunch of people around the world are going to protest against the Church of Scientology, and some douchebag wrote to ask me if I would "mind" if he and his fellow protesters used "Keep To Myself" to blare on a portable radio outside one of the churches in protest.
I considered telling him to go right ahead, feeling smug in the fact that he’d look stupid trying to protest religion with a song that protests protesting religion, but that was overruled by the disturbing fact that this idiot hadn’t gotten the point to begin with, so why should I expect him to get it at all?
So to nip that in the bud, if you were planning on asking anything similar, the answer is: I do not wish to be associated with that kind of hate in any way, shape or form. Please do NOT use my music in that way. Ever.
And maybe something equally important: if you know that song, but are reading this with genuine surprise because you are one of those who had no idea what the song is about...
...well, maybe take that as your cue to just pay more attention. To everything. That small point may be only one of many things in life that have completely passed you by.
-Seth Horan
Currently
listening
:
Notwithstanding
By
Seth Horan
Release date: 16 September, 2003
On the benefits of noise-cancelling headphones, and knowing the way to San Jose...
Category: Travel and Places
February was a fun month.
I did my first corporate gig in a very long time a couple weeks ago, and then I went and did a mini-tour through Upstate New York, which I haven't done in ages. Both experiences were fantastic. :)
Through a seemingly random string of events, I was put in touch with an executive at Adobe. You know; the company that makes all the computer graphic design software hailed as the gold standard throughout the universe? Well, this exec asked me to come do a performance for his sales team at the headquarters in San Jose. I drove over our fair(ly snow covered) Sierra Nevada mountains, across California's fair(ly sleepy little) capital city, and into the fair South Bay. In downtown SJ stands the Adobe campus, and the place is very futuristic. For the geeks out there that will understand, remember any episodes of Star Trek: the Next Generation in which they show buildings in the projected 24th century? The Adobe HQ definitely kicks that kind of vibe. The three large buildings are apparently also some of the "greenest" in the world, ecologically speaking. I performed in a very atrium-like conference room with a high ceiling that went up to the next story and a had a (very well stocked) bar along the inside wall. The far wall was basically just a huge window from top to bottom, and I played as the sun was setting. As this room had never been used before as a concert setting, I can only say: these people really know how to conference.
The show itself was a blast... it was set up to be an informal performance where the team got to ask me all kinds of questions between songs... sort of like what I do at my bass clinics, only the questions had far less to do with bass guitars and far more to do with life, the universe, and everything. These are some very tuned-in people; all sharp as a tack, yet very relaxed and cultured, and very appreciative. I could have played for them all night.
...but they had other plans. After I finished, my executive host and some of his team members helped me bring the gear back to the car, and proceeded to cram all the left-over booze into the vehicle as well. "A token of their appreciation", they called it. Then they took me to one of the nicest steak & seafood houses I've ever been to, and ordered one of the finest bottles of wine I have ever experienced. I was so impressed and having such a good time with these fellows that I would have agreed to wind down the night with them in pretty much any way they wanted to.
And then they invited me to take part in their long-standing tradition of going to a seedy little bar in Chinatown and doing karaoke.
Now, this is not something I normally do. Ever.
So maybe it was that they had been so cool, so kind, such great guys.
Having done a ton of international flying over the past year and a half, I had forgotten what it's like to just zip across the country on a domestic flight to play some shows for a weekend and then zip home.
And the reason for that is that there was nothing to forget! With all the connection times and delays, there is no 'zipping' involved... it takes just about as long to get from Nevada to New York as it does to get from Nevada to England. With an international flight, you get onto one plane and you just go, go, go for hours and hours, but at least when you get off, you're THERE. With domestic travel, rarely can you just get from point A to point B... usually you have to do 2 to 4 hour segments hopping around, and each time you land there's the opportunity for delays. If that wasn't enough, I seemed to have been seated near every single screaming baby in the country over the course of my round-trip.
But I was cool. Calm. Screaming baby? No problem.
I had my new secret weapon. I had my new noise-cancelling headphones.
You've seen the advertisements for these things, I'm sure. And until you try them, maybe you don't understand what an amazing invention they are. But if you ever have to sit on an airplane for longer than 60 minutes, they are the key to sanity. It's like disappearing into your own little bubble. And there's nothing that stops the obnoxious chatter-box sitting next to you like seeing that you are, on no uncertain terms, NOT LISTENING to them. They can't even pretend that you are. It's a wonderful thing.
My arrival to my old home found it just as I remembered it; bitterly snowy, windy, and unpleasant. I didn't mind so much, though; I was too excited to see people and play. I hopped into my rental car, a Toyota Prius, and went to put the key into the ignition.
But there was no key. And no ignition. I went back to the rental counter.
Turns out that the Prius is much like a European car... the lock/unlock-keychain mechanism serves as the key, and there's a recepticle in the dashboard for it to click into. Once that's in, you just put your foot on the brake and press the "Power" button. Then the car springs to life.
Only after I did these things, the car did NOT spring to life. The dashboard lit up, but that was it. I undid everything and started over. I repeated all the actions four or five times, and finally just sat there, frustrated, for a few minutes.
Suddenly, the car started. I was terrified.
But hey; it worked. Progress... apparently it just needed a few minutes to collect its thoughts.
I went to put it in gear, and realized with confusion that the key was still in my hand.
Yeah. You don't even need to use the key. You just press the button, and if the car likes you, it starts.
With arched eyebrows, I pocketed the key and suspiciously drove off to my folks' place, thinking that this thing better give me the legendary gas mileage I'd been hearing about, but being too tired to care all that much.
Here's the run-down on the gigs:
KEUKA COLLEGE
In years past I played a few semesters in a row here, thanks in part to my friend Sarah, who exemplifies what can happen to a person who really gets the "street team bug". Sarah joined the campus activities board at Keuka specifically so she could try and get me a gig. She liked it so much she became president of the board, went to grad school to concentrate on Student Activity Coordination, and is now a Student Activities bigwig at a high profile university on the eastern seaboard. She is living proof that being a Horanimal leads to better quality of life. (Live the dream, kids... join my street team! ;)
...anyway, she was able to take a few days off from her sweet new job to come visit her old Alma Mater the same day I played there, so it was just like old times... only different, because now the coffeehouse at Keuka has been moved into a really nice room in the student center, and I did the best show I'd ever done on that campus...
It was great fun, and afterwards, we grabbed dinner with some friends, drank some beers, and played a wild game of rummy. Wild, I tell you... wild!!
TRAMONTANE CAFE
I thought for sure this gig would be a bust... a nasty snowstorm moved across the state just as I was finishing my drive to Utica to soundcheck for this show, and I figured I'd be playing to the kind folks that run the place. I was therefore pleasantly stunned to find that not only did a slew of folks show up to see me, but over three quarters of them came from as far away as Syracuse and Rochester! My humble thanks to everyone that braved the weather and icy roads for hours on end... I hope it was as fun for you as it was for me, and it was great to see so many old friends again. I definitely gotta start coming through town more often than every 3 years.
SUNY POTSDAM
It had been a REEEEALLY long time since I played up here... so long that the student population has completely turned over, and not even the current seniors were freshmen when I last made noise in Hurley's, the venerable campus nightclub. The campus didn't bring me out; specifically it was their radio station, WAIH, one of the growing number of esoteric college radio stations that gets more listeners all over the world than they do on their own campus, thanks to the wonders of streaming internet radio. I usually find that the best college audiences to play for are the folks from the radio station, because they're the ones who understand the idea that most of the music they will hear from an indie artist is stuff they HAVEN'T heard before, and Scott, the general manager of WAIH, has been a really great supporter of what I do for over a year now.
This is Scott, giving me the opportunity to support HIM. Or rather, support his cape.
He and his extended family of DJs and music-afficionados were augmented by some genuine fans (woo hoo!) and for the first few minutes of my set, some confused country fans. You see, Hurley's was double-booked that night. The actual Student Entertainment Board (the group that WOULDN'T book me) had brought in a full-on traditional country act from nearby Watertown, New York, and they played right before I did. As I got on stage and unpacked my shiny blue electric bass with lights in the neck, I saw a group of line dancers fall out of formation with wrinkled brows and puzzled looks on their faces, seeming to slowly figure out that I would NOT be playing country songs. Oddly enough, I had about triple the attendence of the country band. Go figure.
I shouldn't be snide. For all I know, the country band could've been awesome.
I couldn't tell you though. See, even though I was in the same room while they were playing, I didn't catch much of their set.
