Celebrities
Jun 21, 2007 Personal
Forbes just put out its list of Top 100 Celebrities. There are 24 people on this list that I could not possibly identify. Many others whose names I’ve heard but very little else. Actually, I was hoping to get a higher number. I’m much more tuned in than I expected. Dang Golden Age of Television. Anyone who gets higher than 24 please post in the comments so I can be impressed.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/53/07celebrities_The-Celebrity-100_Rank.html
P.S. Don’t worry; I’m still working on the album. I just haven’t had time to post. I will soon.
Day 24
Jun 6, 2007 Waiting
If you have it, put on Stevie Wonder’s I Believe When I Fall In Love and listen to the piano going into the chorus right at 1:13. If not, you’ll just have to read this entry instead.
On the subject of timing, Questlove in a recent blog entry:
and FEELING is something you aint getting now. this is why i fucks with Rell….even in his program shit and cats telling me “it sounds like a 3 year old programed it…..you don’t hear the chorus rushing on beyonce’s “Green Light”?! that IS the point! that is what made prince the shit: embracing electronics but STILL maintaining a HUMAN feel. all them flaws Pharrell got in programming and chords and whatnot is the VERY thing i like about working with him.
And then
before i met Dilla i too felt out of place cause all the drummers from these parts of town were as perfect as one could get. and here i go tryna approximate some part time drummer from the backwoods of TN who probably played on a trash can drum kit all off beat—but that is what made my personality. FEELING!
Now I’ve never been a big fan of the Roots, but Questlove is without a doubt my favorite drummer. His work as a musical director is awe-inspiring (Dave Chappelle’s Block Party? Jay-Z Unplugged? Voodoo Tour?!!!), and his knowledge and understanding of the music of the past few decades is truly terrifying.
I’m not saying this to blow smoke up his ass - there are plenty people on MySpace doing that already - I’m trying to illustrate just how heavy it was for me to read that. This is a question I’ve been struggling with for a long time, and it’s become more and more important as I start to revisit some of these songs and fill in the cracks. The last time I talked about it, I was still vacillating. I knew I shouldn’t work so hard to clean up my “mistakes,” but it was just so hard to listen to them and think about other people listening to them critically.
But Questlove is so so right. And it was just what I needed to hear, just when I needed to hear it. Because Far Side needs to be loose and sparse on the verge of falling apart in order to work, and before today, I was too chicken to make that happen. Too concerned about it not sounding “professional” enough or “slick” enough.
But you know what? I have to do what I do. My music is my music. My feeling is my feeling; my flaws are my flaws. I’m going to make this album my way, and some people are going to hate it, and I am going to take that as a sign that I did something right. I’m psyched.
Oh yeah, worked on Far Side today. Piano parts blah blah blah drum programming yackity-shmackity.
Over and out.
Day 21
Jun 3, 2007 Waiting
More work tonight on Far Side. I redid one of the verses and made it sort of stark. I tried some reversed harmonies, but immediately it sounded like I was trying to do Radiohead. The song is Thom Yorkey enough as it is.
But it’s turning out well. It’s meant to be haunting, and working on it for hours today has gotten me into a very weird place. Sort of sad and hopeless, but at the same time knowing that it’s only because I’ve really immersed myself in the song. That everything is in fact OK.
Bizarre.
Also, Arthur and the Geniuses have our first gig tomorrow night. Just a few songs, but stage time nonetheless. I think it might be my sister’s first onstage performance ever, or at least as an adult, so I’m excited for her. She’s gonna rock. We’re all gonna rock.
Rock.
Big News
Jun 3, 2007 Uncategorized
So I didn’t get any work done on the album Thursday night. But I had a good reason, really! I swear!
We auditioned a new drummer, and I was sleepily milling over the recording of his audition, while triple-checking with Matty and Marie to make sure my excitement wasn’t unjustified.
It wasn’t. He’s awesome, and his name is Brad. The band is back in session.
Tags: Arthur and the Geniuses
Days 19 & 20
Jun 3, 2007 Waiting
I’ve been working for the last two days on “The Far Side of Town.” It’s so nebulous right now. I’m not even sure if that’s what the song is called.
It started life, as many of my songs do, as just a musical idea that I fleshed out in Logic with nonsense lyrics. Then I added some lyrics so that I could start performing it, but I found that the way the original was recorded, as much as I liked it, didn’t work live. I had to change the melody of the chorus and revamp the structure.
So now I have these two very different versions of essentially the same song. That’s what happens, I guess, when you make the switch from a virtual band of unlimited instruments to a group of 1-4 actual people. But the question becomes, how do you reconcile them? Do you treat the live version like a software fork, letting each one develop separately based on its own needs and trajectory? Or do you try to combine the two, making one master version that will work in both settings?
Hmm. More on this as it develops.