Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
Interesting thread! RandomLFO@aol.com wrote: > Given that, how do we reach out to an audience that has enough >problems > understanding echoes and reverb, much less looping, etc.? My suggestion: Play compelling, authoritative, expressive music. People don't need to know about minor pentatonic scales to enjoy B.B. King. They don't need to know about embrochure to appreciate Miles Davis. They don't need to understand beat-matching or turntable torque to dance to a DJ all night long. They don't need to know about 7-string guitars to buy a Korn record. If you really want to reach out to people beyond the techno-savvy musician crowd, then make sure the music is using technology as a means to an end - a strong musical statement - and isn't the whole end in itself. Amy Neuberg and John Whooley didn't bring the house down at the Santa Cruz Looping Festival in July because they had particularly fancy gear, or because they lectured the audience on what they were doing. They got strong reactions because they're dynamic, compelling, engaging performers. Steve Lawson isn't opening for Level 42 right now because Mark King was looking for a bass looper; he's opening for them because he's bloody good at playing cool music (which happens to be loop-based), and bringing the audience into the performance through his musicality and his highly entertaining demeanor. The very favorable comments currently being posted on his guestbook on an almost nightly basis from Level 42 fans underscore this fact. For myself, the best gigs I've played - both in terms of sheer music, and in terms of the strength of the audience reaction - have been in rock clubs or coffee shops, largely to audiences who had no idea who I was ahead of time, and certainly no particular grounding in music technology. My guitar teacher had a great line about this kind of concept: "If a musician knows what they're doing, and where they're going, then they can play the most flipped-out thing, and the audience can go with them. But if the musician doesn't know where they're going, how is anyone else going to follow along?" Meanwhile, I need to get back to making a freaky-funk dance album... Woo-hah, --Andre LaFosse The Echoplex Analysis Pages: http://www.altruistmusic.com