SOME THOUGHTS ON THE STATE OF THE LOOP

[ArsOcarina@aol.com]

Hi there,

For the first time in several years now I DID NOT get to go to the NAMM show. In one sense it was sort of a relief not to have to go and fight the big crowds, breathe the smog, endure the gawdawful noise, big hair, the flash, the flesh and the spandex of the thing. But I do miss meeting up with many of my looper and other musical cohorts and colleagues. And, I did miss out (it seems) on the debut of some interesting new looping devices this year -- at least one of which was from a major manufacturer (Roland). Anyhoo, all of which has caused me to muse a little, philosopically, on the practice and possible future of looping.

There once was a time when any doofus with a guitar, or a synth, or a kazoo for that matter, could cobble together some sort of looping rig from an array of tape loop machines, modified or homemade analog or digital delays and set themselves up as "avant-garde musicians" of some sort. It almost didn't matter if the individual was particularly proficient on their "input" instrument, the fact that they were using echos and loops and processing what they were playing in a still fairly unorthodox way (for the time) was enough raison d'etre. It was exerimental and at least it SEEMED like art at the time.

Now it appears like technology has caught up with us. New devices are popping up all over. Most popular music seems to be loop-based (even if still assembled after-the-fact of an actual in-studio performance). The loop concept is getting out there in one form or another. One-man/woman-band singer/songwriter types are starting to appear as solo touring entities in clubs, bookstores and coffee houses. Times are changing. The banner of looping will soon likely no longer be carried, practiced and promoted by an elite and funky cadre of amature-to-semi-pro avant-gardists and musical non-conformists. It's going to be carried by the meat-and-potatoes weekend rock warriors, church worship band musicians and neo-jambanders and hippie vegan campfire song strummers. 

Personally, I've believed for a long time that just being a "looper" was not reason enough for my musical activites to persist and exist. Although looping is still damn fun and a significant part of "the thing that I do" I have made a conscious effort to actually try to do less and less of it -- or at least not make it the MAIN FEATURE of what I do. It's been a process that has taken me about 10 years to wean myself away from complete dependence on. It was like going through some sort of withdrawal process in many ways.

To those of you who've had "musical lives" long before discovering looping this will seem a little srange perhaps. But my experience was really not that way. I had a long infantile period of being a musician wannabe 'til I was able to start looping myself in the late '70s and early '80s. The looping helped me blossom and mature so-to-speak, and enabled me to gain confidence as well. I had no real musical life before I discovered the possibilites of looping. I, essentially, was that "doofus" of incomplete skill with a guitar I refered to earlier. 

I was really sort of "masquerading" as a musician through the back door of the avan-garde. I was lucky early on and fell into a circle of artists and musicians who were "the real deal" as far as I was concerned. From them I learned . . and (hopefully) have somewhat become something approximating "the real deal" now myself -- or at least a resonable facsimile thereof in my "better" moments. I have a good (if excentric) command of my guitar and I know my FX gear well enough to know when (and when not to) use them. And . . . it's no longer enough just to be a "looper" for me. I want to be a musician . . .even a composer.

I think we will see a time in the near future where "looping" will be just another technique that a lot of musicians use to do what they do. It will have no special "cache" in and of itself -- no market value as a label for what musicians do. It will be like the advent of electrical amplification for instruments. Someday soon, a performer will appear at you local Barnes and Nobel bookstore and will be playing in the coffee franchise space and the fact that they are "looping" will not need to be "demoed" or explained (except maybe to really old folks) and will go largely unmentioned or commented on as being a musical "distinctive."

I don't know about you all, but I think it's high time we all "got over ourselves" as a general sub-category of musical activity. Yes, it will be useful to continue to talk about equipment (or software) developments and techniques. It will continue to be helpful to bandy about the wheres and whys and hows of looping. It may be comforting to know that there is still a community of us here in cyberspace. It will be great to get together and play at "Loop fests."

But soon (very soon I think) looping will be everywhere. It will be done by the Xmas carolers at the mall. It will be done by bluegrass fiddlers, and country musicians in big hats. It will someday be done down at the local Baptist church. It will be done by streetcorner buskers with no more than a harmonica, a Pignose amp, cheap microphone and a pedal looper. It probably already has been.

When that day comes I wanna have a reason for artistically being and for making new music other than simply exploring and exploiting the next new wrinkle in loop technology the industry has to offer. When that day comes I don't want to find that my musical identity has been defined by what particular FX box I owned or didn't own. 

I am not sure if my writing is making much sense here. But I am working really hard these days to make sure my musical epitaph reads somthing other than "Beige Faceplate Oberheim EDP Owner" as though what I used was my reason for being. I'd like to think it's a little less simplistic than that, a little bit more complicated, and perhaps deeper . . . maybe. I should be so lucky.

Anyway, I'm just an old fart rambling now. But for some reason I felt the urge to set down the idea that we all ought to start thinking about how we define ourselves as musicians. I sort of see a day coming when the term "looper" will begin to lose some (if not all) of it's meaning in terms of refering to a category of musician. I myself, and many of you have invested a lot of time, sweat and ink promoting ourselves as such. 

Like the first species of animal that wriggled itself up from the ocean to live on the land, we look around now and see that we are increasingly no longer alone on dry ground. It's going to get more crowded still soon. Maybe . . . just perhaps . . . it's time to start thinking about what the next evolutionary step will be.

Best regards,

tEd ® kiLLiAn

"The only true free-thinker is he whose intellect is is as much free from the future as from the past." -- G.K. Chesterton

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