Re: only a A part?

[Andre LaFosse <altruist@earthlink.net>]

Yo Mark,

Ya said:

> While I LOVE the things Amy X and Brian Kenny Fresno do with their
> loopers (Brian's a JamMan guy) I always get the feeling that they're
> just trying to get away with not having to deal with not having a band,
> you know?  

That's not my take on either of those two at all.  The only way I could
see Amy doing her thing with "a band" would be if her band was half a
dozen or more clones of herself, all singing together and starting or
stopping on a dime.  And that in itself wouldn't take her own
post-modernist/sample-based theatrical performative element into
consideration (i.e. very visibly beating on her drumKAT controller while
different EDP things leap out), which is such a big part of her "thing."

> Amy seems to have her act down to the note.  

Indeed; she's a composer, by her own definition.

> Sure, the
> looper helps her do her show more easily, 

See my last comment above - I really don't perceive her thing as being a
"replacement" for a hypothetical band of multiple Amy Neubergs (which is
what she'd need to play her stuff sans EDP).  It strikes me as being a
very direct use of the EDP on its own terms, frequently to musical ends
that COULDN'T be acheived without it.

Another perspective: Amy actually HAS a band of her own, so it's not as
if she's using the Echoplex as a means of "filling in" for backing
musicians who aren't available.

Third perspective: might one say that playing along to sequences and
drum machines would be at least as much of a "band substitute" as
layering numerous vocal overdubs?  

> but is that what loopers are
> about?  Not for me, I think. 

But for her, apparently so, yes?

How incredibly boring would it be if people automatically assumed that
looping was supposed to be used for a specific musical style or
approach?  

Oh wait... that's pretty much the way it is anyway!  ;)  

> To me it seems to be the difference between
> making soup from a receipe or going to a market, buying what seems good
> and then making it up from scratch.  
> Sure, you'll come up with stuff
> that's not so edible sometimes, but you learn with time.  

Could it be that the "learning with time" angle is another way of
describing a person coming up with their own recipie, which they then
draw upon in their work?

> Maybe this
> not so interesting for the audience, but it's a hell of a lot more
> interesting to me as a musician, and to be honest, with the money I
> made doing more pop structured music, I'm in this for fun now.

This does raise the question: why DO you take your music in front of an
audience, if getting what you do across to them isn't much of a priority
in comparison to your own enjoyment - which you say is paramount in your
concerns, and could certainly be done on your own?

Hmmmm...

All in good humor - but serious interest and intent...

--Andre LaFosse
http://www.altruistmusic.com