Re: Why I produce LOOPING FESTIVALS: is looping a valid musical artform?

["Dennis Leas" <dennis@mdbs.com>]

Rick, you are a constant inspiration!  May your enthusiasm be highly
contagious!

Thanks for the posting!

Dennis Leas
-------------------
dennis@mdbs.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Walker/Loop.pooL" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>
To: "Loopers Delight" <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2002 1:22 AM
Subject: Why I produce LOOPING FESTIVALS: is looping a valid musical
artform?


> Dear Fellow Loopers (and fellow artists who don't consider themselves
> loopers but use looping tools in their music).
>
> I've been reading with increasing interest about potential Looping
Festivals
> in places as far flung as Emeryville, California,
> Seattle Washington and somewhere, mysteriously, in Germany.
>
> I've also noticed that the debate keeps coming up about whether LOOPING
> should be considered a separate musical artform
> or whether such festivals are "legitimate" or not.   Indeed, in the past,
I
> have spiritedly debated this with our list coordinator (but
> NOT leader) the esteemed and talented, Kim Flint.
>
> I can't answer that question for anybody.  Each person needs to have 
>their
> own take on it and figure out where they stand,
> but I have produced 14 Looping specific Festivals in Northern California
in
> the last three years (with several festivals in the works for later this
> summer and next year)  and I thought it might be good to let everybody
know
> why I am working as hard as I am to promote the cause of LOOPING.   I am
> making NO MONEY doing any of it directly (although more on that subject
> later ;-).
>
> With regards to the debate about Looping as an artform or Looping as
merely
> a tool that individual artists use in their works:
>
> Music is music and obviously with the diversity of styles and types of
>  musics on this looping site alone (from   Tom Heasley's gorgeous Tuba
> mantras to Richard Zvonar's sample manipulations to Andre LaFosse's
> brilliant abstract guitar excursions to my wacky  'found sound' aesthetic
to
> Stan Card's surf rock grooves
> to Steve Lawson's wonderfully melodic and crazy electric bass mantras,
we
> can't consider
>  Looping to be a 'form' of music.
>
> Why then, for god's sake, do I produce Looping Festivals?
>
>  Here's the answer:
>
>  1)  I want to foster community.................something sadly lacking 
>in
>  our culture...............
>
> Calling ourselves loopers creates a sense of  family and belonging.
> This feeling was very palpable, as I'm sure anyone who was there would
> agree, at
>  Hans LIndauers' LOOPSTOCK in San Luis Obispo.................enough so
that
> Larry O graciously wrote us up in Electronic Musician last month.
>
>  2)  Journalists and Radio DJs are sick of the status
quo................we
>  have not been in such a horrible static slump in mainstream
>  pop music in almost 30 years.     Calling attention to the new
technology,
>  Looping,  both educates and gives journalists and radio/televison dj/vjs
a
>  handle................it makes them feel like they are part of the
cutting
>  edge.............it gets great publicity:
>  I'm performed on air to a million people for a total of about 3 1/2 
>hours
> in
>  the last three years because of my efforts to promote
>  'looping'...................
>
>      You just can't get that kind of exposure any
>  other way as someone who is 'out of the box'  (the dominant, major label
>  paradigm that has strangled creativity for so long).
>
>  3)     I'm so invested, personally (and I think we should all be as
> independent
>  artists) in exiting that box (lawyers, contracts, distributors, labels
and
>  usury in general).   Being part of a new 'movement', such as it is, is
just
>  a way of identifying with something that doesn't have a strong
>  precedent..........It's a way of getting people's attention that
something
>  'new' is coming.   People are starved for new creativity.   Mark my
words,
>  the next 3-5 years will see a new musical explosion even in major label
pop
>  because people are so starved for something outside of the Major Label
> paradigm.
>
>  4) Just having something tangible (the label LOOPING) to identify with
has
>  gotten me offers to do musuem gigs, festivals, tours,
>  soundtracks, modern dance commissions and resulted in several artistic
> successes.
>
> Two cases in point:
>
> A)   The World's First Bass Looping Tour featuring bassists  Michael
> Manring, Steve Lawson, Max Valentino
> and myself (as the only bass playing non-bass player on the tour enabled
us
> to
> play a 30 minute set on KPIG, the worlds' largest internet radio
> station.......2 weeks later, the head of TALKBASS.com
> e-mailed me and told me that mentioning his website and the tour diary
that
> we posted every night after each cities' performance
> had caused 20% raise in the hits to his site and that his website traffic
> had stayed up consitently for at least the next two weeks.
> He was very appreciative and I felt very proud of all the artists who
> participate in that.
>
> B)   The success of this tour's performance so excited the director of 
>the
> San Jose Museum of Art that they have subsequently
> hired me to curate a whole series of shows that showcase emerging trends
and
> technologies in both Music and Live Video
> Animation.    This has already resulted in the planning of the 1ST 
>WOMAN's
> LOOPING FESTIVAL on Friday, October 4th,
> the FESTIVAL of LIVE COMPUTER ANIMATION, where top artists in this field
> will be 'jamming' visually with the loop based music
> of WALKERS (my duet project with my brother,  Bill Walker) and subsequent
> BASS LOOPING festivals and festivals of Experimental Guitar.
>
>
>  5) This new technology is allowing certain kinds of
>  music to be made that has never been possible before
>  and , certainly, never by one human being.................I can do 
>really
>  'outside' timbral things and suddenly incorporate them into
>  a pop song in real time, if I want.................Some of the work 
>being
> done
> with Repeaters, EDPs, MAX/Dsp  and !LIVE computer looping software
> is unlike any other music that I have heard from one or two performers.
>
> For the first time ever, I can sample or loop a found object right in
front
> of an
> audiences face and then 'play' that sample like a melodic instrument with
> my wind synthesizer (or any other midi controller:  guitarists,
synthesists,
> drummer/percussionists
> take note).    Heretofore,  audiences have not been able to
> connect strongly with how much the sampling world has effected modern
music.
>
> 6)  I learn like a m*therf*cker every time I do a festival with other
> loopers.  I get my creative juices
> stimulated incredibly.  I produce better 'art' when I perform at a
festival.
>
> That's why I produce Looping Festivals..................in what other way
> would I successfully be able to
> promote a concert with myself and , say, a genius like Tom
> Heasley..........what do we have in common:
> LOOPING!!!
>
>
> We are in the baby stages of learning this technology (or at least, I am)
> and in learning how
> to 'put it out' to the world in a viable way.
>
>  Vis a viz, making money with Looping, as far as I can see, it cannot be
> done much yet, but it is only a matter
> of time.
>
>  So what I shoot for is:
>
>  1) not losing too much money with a tour (I have a 12 country solo
looping
>  tour scheduled for Europe and the British Isles for
>  next summer (2003).  I
>
>  2) making as big a splash as possible by aggresively connecting to
>  indedpendent, pirate and college radio DJs and journalists
>
>  3)  Always roping in one to several other artists (usually loopers in my
>  particular case) to
>     a)  double or quadruple our draw and
>     b)  create a sense of community
>     c)  save expense money by scoring 'floors' to sleep on :-)
>     d)  meet and collaborate with new artists  (I'm an improviser, so I
love
>            to do two solo sets and then a set of imrpov at nights' end)
>
> Those are my thoughts on the subject.   To anyone who is remotely
> considering putting on a looping festival
> in their locale, please consider me a source for moral support and/or
> advice/information about what I"ve learned
> to make these events have maximum impact.
>
> To those of you who grumble and say "I don't care what he says, Looping 
>is
> not a musical form"  I say,
> so be it................no need to compromise your values and
> aesthetics..............but it is o.k. to let
> us naive ones' have our fun, right?     Also,  I would invite you to come
to
> the after performance dinner
> (or breakfast as in the case of Loopstock) and soak up a little of the
> wonderful and exciting artistic
> giddiness and vibes that happen there.   After Loopstock, I was brimming
> with so many ideas for
> new things to do that I'm afraid I wore my poor brothers ear off on the 3
> hour trip home...........I was high for
> weeks.........I'll bet others were as well (thanks so much Hans).
>
> Do I reveal myself for the idealistic, communalist, aging hippy that I 
>am?
> DAMN STRAIGHT!!!!!
>
> Loop on my friends and go get 'em Emeryville, Seattle, Chicago, New York,
> Germany, Wales, London, Paris and anyother
> place that is considering having a looping festival.
>
> yours,    Rick Walker (loop.pool)
>
>