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Looper's Delight
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Looping is a juggling act, and a bit of magic. It takes a bit of slight of hand to keep all the balls in the air. I think whatever is done with INTENTION to achieve this "counts." When I say that looping is a juggling act, I mean that (back when I was looping all the time) I found that something new must constantly be added to the loop for it to remain interesting. (To me or the audience... I make no distinction.) So I found the shortest possible means of "building" each of my songs. (Not that I always chose that route, but good to have the musical "straight line" on tap.) But sometimes, there is just some necessary space that has to happen... while switching instruments, letting a cycle finish, whatever. So sometimes I would throw in a line of vocals or even something as simple as smacking all the open guitar strings so they'd ring and fade, or perhaps an unnecessary momentary reverse. Anything to keep it feeling live. (I also found that the mix needed to be at about 60-65% loop to make up for the extra energy and volume of the live inputs or else the loop would automatically feel stale and canned right away. But I can't fit that into my juggling metaphor.) So if some video slight-of-hand can expand the psychological experience of freshness by offering additional stimulus, great. I would add that it should be, as I say, "intentional" but everything is really, to some degree, just by the simple choice of what video to add. The more intention put into it, the more it "counts" as a legit "musical (aka experiential) element." When I start looping again, I will be triggering video loops live as well, saving those video clips with various lengths of sound bites for the more "experimental/challenging*/soundscapey/whatever" sections that stitch the songs together. * Regarding the word "challenging..." I get the meaning, and there is truth to the idea that music may be harder to listen to if it breaks certain culturally learned attributes, but one (speaking to myself here as well as most loopers) must be careful not to use this dynamic as cover for music that's just not fully evolved yet. Because when we get it right, when it truly resonates (rather then something masturbatory or without some new symmetry or other element of true beauty) then that cultural bias is mostly negated. As for sales... so far I've done everything at a (huge) loss, and mostly for myself. But I do feel that when things are done with intention and from the heart, they succeed. (So do corporately chosen and backed teen musicians that fit the latest provenly marketable archetypes. There's more then one route. Which reminds me...) If there's some rich looper on this list who wants to invest in something cool, let me know! I'll tell you what I'm up to and the final components I need! ---Christopher. On Dec 30, 2009, at 7:26 AM, Warren Sirota wrote: Nice discussion. |