a creative game plan

a few months ago i wrote a journal-like post about my previous 20 years of recording and my creative angst that usually gets in the way of me producing anything autonomously anymore. for the past year or two, all i've done is played a few shows, and recorded some drum tracks for through the sparks. i have a show coming up on saturday as a bassist. this is the lowest level of activity for me in quite a while, although there's nothing wrong with that.

i only played 4 shows in 2004, and all of those were before mid-july. the same goes for 2005 - i didn't play any shows after july. however, in 2007 i played somewhere around 40 shows. lately i've been in an existential arm wrestling match with myself over what exactly to do with my musical creative urges that doesn't immediately fall into the black-hole of anonymity and utter pointlessness. see what i mean?

lately, thanks to the phantogram record, and an ever evolving appreciation for niche/vintage recording gear, i've discovered a style of music often referred to as synthwave. the most influential purveyor of this genre that i've heard thus far is com truise. he records (seemingly) with vintage 80's gear and hardware effects and arrives at a neo-80's electro sound that is incredible. within his songs you can hear inferences to glitch, hip-hop, aphex twin-like rhythmic studdering, and advanced sampling. he takes it a step further by introducing sonic artifacts like crackle, warble, tape-hiss and meticulously programmed synth pitch modulations.

recently i posted all of my best demos for some musician/songwriter friends of mine. while i got a positive response, thus far there hasn't been any movement toward collaboration. this is fine with me, as i tired of these demos years ago. the newest of these demos are probably 8 years old. the oldest are over 15 years old.

a huge chunk of these tracks display some 80's era gear - notably the roland jx8p, dr550 drum machine, recorded to 4-track cassette - while many other demos employ the now usual protools apparatus and software effects, etc.

this hand crafted synthwave production ethic, including the mastering to cassette tape, step-sequencing drum patterns, and rudimentary approach to synth editing is pretty darn appealing. one aspect of this that i like is having a pre-existing set of individual tracks stored on cassette tape from which to build and reinterpret these demos.

i also have a lot of cloudy, newer ideas that i'd like to add to these, if my existential angst ends up giving me the clearance to do so. to this end, i've begun constructing some virtual vintage drum kits... linndrum, drumulator, roland tr 808, 909, old beat boxes, vintage rhythm ace types, along with larger sample sets.

i have a lot of what i need for this type of production. synth-wise, i'm sitting on a nuclear reactor of power. i have a roland jv2080 with various expansion cards, a novation k-station modeling synth, my 25 year old roland jx8p, a mint xlr input analog 4-track, of course protools and misc plug-ins, basses, guitars, mics, amps, a gigantic apple garageband series of loops and instruments, and an actual drum kit.

at worst, i can come out the other side with a realized, quirky and relatively unique sounding electronic album that flies in the face of all abletonistic modernity - and i could easily get it reviewed on some blogs, a few small publications and eventually have it up on itunes for posterity. who knows, maybe the larger global synthwave scene could end up being a cool one to be associated with. now... what to call it?

here are some particularly impressive com truise tracks, along with links to his fantastic blog/podcast site:

slow peels
norkuy
klymaxx

comtruise.brokenradar.org
comtruise facebook

here's a few examples of my demos lying dormant that i'd like to evolve into something more definitive. these are all direct mp3 downloads:

depeschist
dbtec1

pizzer