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justforbooks · 5 years

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Rock music isn't dead, but it's barely hanging on

This is true in at least two senses.

Though popular music sales in general have plummeted since their peak around the turn of the millennium, certain genres continue to generate commercial excitement: pop, rap, hip-hop, country. But rock — amplified and often distorted electric guitars, bass, drums, melodic if frequently abrasive lead vocals, with songs usually penned exclusively by the members of the band — barely registers on the charts. There are still important rock musicians making music in a range of styles — Canada's Big Wreck excels at sophisticated progressive hard rock, for example, while the more subdued American band Dawes artfully expands on the soulful songwriting that thrived in California during the 1970s. But these groups often toil in relative obscurity, selling a few thousand records at a time, performing to modest-sized crowds in clubs and theaters.

But there's another sense in which rock is very nearly dead: Just about every rock legend you can think of is going to die within the next decade or so.

Yes, we've lost some already. On top of the icons who died horribly young decades ago — Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, John Lennon — there's the litany of legends felled by illness, drugs, and just plain old age in more recent years: George Harrison, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty.

Those losses have been painful. But it's nothing compared with the tidal wave of obituaries to come. The grief and nostalgia will wash over us all. Yes, the Boomers left alive will take it hardest — these were their heroes and generational compatriots. But rock remained the biggest game in town through the 1990s, which implicates GenXers like myself, no less than plenty of millennials.

All of which means there's going to be an awful lot of mourning going on.

Behold the killing fields that lie before us: Bob Dylan (78 years old); Paul McCartney (77); Paul Simon (77) and Art Garfunkel (77); Carole King (77); Brian Wilson (77); Mick Jagger (76) and Keith Richards (75); Joni Mitchell (75); Jimmy Page (75) and Robert Plant (71); Ray Davies (75); Roger Daltrey (75) and Pete Townshend (74); Roger Waters (75) and David Gilmour (73); Rod Stewart (74); Eric Clapton (74); Debbie Harry (74); Neil Young (73); Van Morrison (73); Bryan Ferry (73); Elton John (72); Don Henley (72); James Taylor (71); Jackson Browne (70); Billy Joel (70); and Bruce Springsteen (69, but turning 70 next month).

A few of these legends might manage to live into their 90s, despite all the … wear and tear to which they've subjected their bodies over the decades. But most of them will not.

This will force us not only to endure their passing, but to confront our own mortality as well.

From the beginning, rock music has been an expression of defiance, an assertion of youthful vitality and excess and libido against the ravages of time and maturity. This impulse sometimes (frequently?) veered into foolishness. Think of the early rock anthem in which the singer proclaimed, "I hope I die before I get old." As a gesture, this was a quintessential statement of rock bravado, but I doubt very much its author (The Who's Pete Townshend) regrets having survived into old age.

It's one thing for a young musician to insist it's better to burn out than to fade away. But does this defiance commit the artist to a life of self-destruction, his authenticity tied to his active courting of annihilation? Only a delusional teenager convinced of his own invincibility, or a nihilist, could embrace such an ideal. For most rock stars, the bravado was an act, or it became one as the months stretched into years and then decades. The defiance tended to become sublimated into art, with the struggle against limits and constraints — the longing to break on through to the other side — merging with creative ambition to produce something of lasting worth. The rock star became another in our civilization's long line of geniuses raging against the dying of the light.

Rock music was always a popular art made and consumed by ordinary, imperfect people. The artists themselves were often self-taught, absorbing influences from anywhere and everywhere, blending styles in new ways, pushing against their limitations as musicians and singers, taking up and assimilating technological innovations as quickly as they appeared. Many aspired to art — in composition, record production, and performance — but to reach it they had to ascend up and out of the muck from which they started.

Before rock emerged from rhythm and blues in the late 1950s, and again since it began its long withdrawing roar in the late 1990s, the norm for popular music has been songwriting and record production conducted on the model of an assembly line. This is usually called the "Brill Building" approach to making music, named after the building in midtown Manhattan where leading music industry offices and studios were located in the pre-rock era. Professional songwriters toiled away in small cubicles, crafting future hits for singers who made records closely overseen by a team of producers and corporate drones. Today, something remarkably similar happens in pop and hip-hop, with song files zipping around the globe to a small number of highly successful songwriters and producers who add hooks and production flourishes in order to generate a team-built product that can only be described as pristine, if soulless, perfection.

This is music created by committee and consensus, actively seeking the largest possible audience as an end in itself. Rock (especially as practiced by the most creatively ambitious bands of the mid-1960s: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and the Beach Boys) shattered this way of doing things, and for a few decades, a new model of the rock auteur prevailed. As critic Steven Hyden recounts in his delightful book Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock, rock bands and individual rock stars were given an enormous amount of creative freedom, and the best of them used every bit of it. They wrote their own music and lyrics, crafted their own arrangements, experimented with wildly ambitious production techniques, and oversaw the design of their album covers, the launching of marketing campaigns, and the conjuring of increasingly theatrical and decadent concert tours.

This doesn't mean there was no corporate oversight or outside influence on rock musicians. Record companies and professional producers and engineers were usually at the helm, making sure to protect their reputations and investments. Yet to an astonishing degree, the artists got their way. Songs and albums were treated by all — the musicians themselves, but also the record companies, critics, and of course the fans — as Statements. For a time, the capitalist juggernaut made possible and sustained the creation of popular art that sometimes achieved a new form of human excellence. That it didn't last shouldn't keep us from appreciating how remarkable it was while it did.

Like all monumental acts of creativity, the artists were driven by an aspiration to transcend their own finitude, to create something of lasting value, something enduring that would live beyond those who created it. That striving for immortality expressed itself in so many ways — in the deafening volume and garish sensory overload of rock concerts, in the death-defying excess of the parties and the drugs, in the adulation of groupies eager to bed the demigods who adorned their bedroom walls, in the unabashed literary aspirations of the singer-songwriters, in mind-blowing experiments with song forms marked by seemingly inhuman rhythmic and harmonic complexity, in the orchestral sweep, ambition, and (yes) frequent pretension of concept albums and rock operas. All of it was a testament to the all-too-human longing to outlast the present — to live on past our finite days. To grasp and never let go of immortality.

It was all a lie, but it was a beautiful one. The rock stars' days are numbered. They are going to die, as will we all. No one gets out alive. When we mourn the passing of the legends and the tragic greatness of what they've left behind for us to enjoy in the time we have left, we will also be mourning for ourselves.

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#JUST FOR BOOKS

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hisband · 5 years

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MURDOC & SYMPTOMS OF ADHD.

ADHD is defined as a chronic condition marked by persistent inattention, hyperactivity, and sometimes impulsivity. ADHD begins in childhood and often goes unrecognized into adulthood. this is especially true in the past, and murdoc, being a child raised in the late 60s and early 70s, definitely got filed into the Unrecognized Neurodivergence category. already looked down upon by his teachers for belonging to a notorious, deeply disliked family, murdoc’s behaviour also earned him labels such as “slacker” and “troublemaker.”

in ri/se of the ogre, it’s mentioned he did things like cutting classes, distracting his classmates with “endless quacking noises” and making “pointless malicious jokes.” while i do think some of that behaviour may have A) been blown out of proportion by his teachers because they didn’t like him and B) was likely the result of his negligent household, i think he also acted out because... well, he couldn’t help himself, didn’t understand he was being disruptive and was never taught how to control those impulses. impulses that he still has, though they manifest in different ways, such as...

becoming easily distracted by low-priority activities or external events that others tend to ignore. anyone who knows murdoc at all knows how difficult it is for him to keep his thoughts in a straight line unless he’s in a professional setting ( and even then, he has a tendency to go off on tangents from time to time ). though he’s excellent at setting goals for himself and taking the necessary steps to achieve them, other things tend to catch his eye along with the way. murdoc is very observant, which is both a blessing & a curse depending on the circumstances.

having so many simultaneous thoughts that it’s difficult to follow just one. see above. murdoc has a lot going on in his head at once, and because of that, he struggles to articulate himself when he’s speaking unless he’s had time to plan out his responses ( being a celebrity, he was likely coached how to do this properly ). this may give off the impression that he’s a bit of a ditz, which couldn’t be the furthest thing from the truth. talking out loud can just... be hard for him.

difficulty paying attention or focusing, such as when reading or listening to others. yes, he can be incredibly watchful... if the situation is of the utmost importance or if he feels like he has something to gain. but when he’s trying to focus on something he really doesn’t care about or that won’t benefit him in some way, you’ve lost him.

frequently daydreaming or “zoning out” without realizing it, even in the middle of a conversation. linked to the point above. also ties into point #2 in regards to murdoc thinking about too much at once.

struggling to complete tasks, even ones that seem simple. like i said before, murdoc often has a hard time motivating himself to do things he has minimal interest in. believe it or not, he isn’t trying to be a lazy asshole; his brain chemicals just don’t work the way they’re supposed to. the brain uses electrical impulses to carry messages from one neuron to the next - messages that help us notice things, pay attention and take action. in the brain of someone with adhd, the brain doesn’t always release Enough of those chemicals. when something interesting or exciting comes along for someone with ADHD, however, then our brains releases a larger amount, which helps us get started and stay glued to the task ( which is why murdoc is such an efficient musician / songwriter a decent chunk of the time ). people with ADHD don’t have voluntarily control of the release - we can’t tell ourselves to get started on a task and make it happen unless we’re really into it, or if we fear something bad will happen if we don’t deal with things right on the spot.

a tendency to overlook details, leading to errors or incomplete work. murdoc doesn’t Always exhibit this symptom because he’s such a perfectionist - at least when it comes to subjects he feels genuine passion for, like music and live performances - but when it comes to things he’s less sure about or can’t really bring himself to get invested in, he gets... sloppy.

poor listening skills; for example, having a hard time remembering conversations and following directions. pretty self-explanatory. his drug & alcohol abuse ( both past and present ) really don’t help with his lapses in memory. he’s a lot better at navigating around new locations than he is remembering something someone said to him earlier that day, however. all the travelling he does has helped him get better at figuring out where he needs to go and not panicking when he gets lost.

quickly getting bored and seeking out new, stimulating experiences. another self-explanatory one. this symptom occasionally overlaps with the risk-taking of murdoc’s BPD ( which i plan to discuss in more depth in future posts ). because of the overlap of his BPD & his ADHD, murdoc experiences a special form of inattention as part of dissociative states when he feels emotionally stressed, particularly in response to feelings of rejection, failure, and loneliness. his inattentive ADHD symptoms are particularly prominent in situations that lack external stimulation ( i.e. during boring, routine, or familiar tasks ). it should be noted that those with BPD have a tendency to resort to self-harm in order to alleviate tension; those with ADHD are more likely to regulate emotional symptoms through things like extreme sports, novelty seeking, sexual activity, and aggression. as someone who suffers from both disorders, murdoc’s got a lot on his plate.

poor organizational skills (home, office, desk, or car is extremely messy and cluttered). it depends on the situation and circumstances. when it comes to matters that are important to gor*llaz, murdoc watches over them like a hawk and ensures that everything is in the correct place & order... most of the time, so long as he’s somewhat sober. when it comes to his personal belongings, though? absolute disaster in the earlier phases. his organizational skills don’t start getting better until around phase 4, in which he copes with the loss of control over his life by becoming extremely anal about how everything around him is presented.

tendency to procrastinate. unless the goal in question is extremely time-sensitive & important, yeah - and even Then murdoc will still sometimes leave shit to the last minute. he frequently forgets the thing he means to do before he starts doing something else. when he’s so distracted by outside stimuli, as well as internal thoughts, it can be hard for him to even make it to the starting line. and once he finally does get started, he may become sidetracked by something else more interesting... and so his original task gets delayed even further. do you see where i’m going with this?

trouble starting and finishing projects. thanks to his ADHD-fuelled boredom, murdoc tends to have a lot going on for himself at once. the problem is, he sometimes has trouble finishing his side projects because new ones pop up and replace them. this is why it’s important for murdoc to have a a Primary Project or Goal to worry about - because without one, he’d be aimless.

time blindness. ties in with issues such as chronic lateness & forgetting appointments / deadlines. murdoc, like most people with ADHD, has a distorted sense of time. waiting in line can feel like hours and what feels like fifteen minutes of fun activity can really be forty-five. if murdoc forgets the purpose of his task, he’ll be uninspired to finish it. those with ADHD have two times: “now and not now.” for example, if a work project is due next week, we figure we’ll have plenty of time to do it - and the next thing we know it’s monday. that sort of thing. this distortion of time leads us to believing we have more time to complete tasks than what we actually do.

constantly losing or misplacing things (keys, wallet, phone, documents, bills). this is why murdoc needs to watch closely where he sets things down. if he’s not paying enough attention, his brain won’t lay down a memory of the event - it’ll feel like it never happened. this can make him a real pain in the ass to live with at times, because more often than not the object he lost will be in plain sight and he’ll be tearing the place apart trying to find it.

but murdoc’s most prominent ADHD symptom of all would be his impulsivity. said impulsivity makes it difficult for him to inhibit his behaviours, comments, and responses. he tends to act without thinking, or react without considering the consequences. he has a habit of interrupting others, blurting out the first thing that pops into his head ( no matter how tasteless or inappropriate ), and rushing through tasks without reading the figurative or literal instruction manual. murdoc’s lack of impulse control makes staying patient extremely difficult for him. for better or for worse - usually the latter - he tends to jump into risky situations that cause him more harm than good in the end. this poor self-control has led to addictive tendencies, as well as difficulty behaving in socially appropriate ways. said difficulties include:

being easily flustered and stressed out.

irritability or short, often explosive, temper.

low self-esteem and sense of insecurity or underachievement.

trouble staying motivated.

hypersensitivity to criticism.

talking excessively, usually about a million things at once.

trouble sitting still. constant fidgeting.

there’s a million other things i Could say about murdoc as a character with ADHD and would Like to say but. i think this covered all of the bases. more later, yes.

#⇩ ▬ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ ᴏғ ᴍʏ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ / ɪ ʟɪᴠᴇ ɪɴ ᴍʏ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ( headcanon. )#( META. )#long post /#am i projecting a bit? perhaps but what can u do

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spineless0and0sublime · 6 years

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Placebo's on the fence frontman lets us know whether he'd rather be deaf, blind, and how many people he's slept with. Right that's £50 for the hour session please...

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained one ability, what would it be?

To be invisible. I've always been a bit of a voyeur, and being invisible would enable me to gain a lot more material for salacious and seedy songwriting. I'd particularly like to spy on government officials and musicians I don't like.

Do you prefer being around men or women?

I've always preferred being around women since I was a kid. It comes form being bullied at school. I've not been a competitive person by nature, and I think that women are less competitive than men. Also men in general have a problem with listening, while women take a lot more in.

If you could use a voodoo doll to hurt anyone you choose, would you? Who would you use it on?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Several British journalists who shall remain nameless. Who else do I fucking hate? Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit. He's number one on the shitlist. Why? Because of a fracas we had at a New York show.

If you knew that in one year you were going to die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you were now living?

Over the past year I've made a great effort to calm down a lot of my excesses...so I think if I knew I was going to die in a year, I would work as hard as possible, and party harder than ever before.

What is your most treasured memory?

My most recent most favoured treasured was being onstage at the Brit Awards with David Bowie, the two of us playing guitar and singing in harmony with each other-that was a real 'pinch me, I'm dreaming' situation. We weren't too bad, we were in the right key at least-but we could never really get the lyrics right. We were doing '20th century Boy'. We had a f***ing laugh.The other most treasured memory is the night I did a gig in a small pub in Deptford called Round the Bend, because that was the first night Stefan came round to see me play guitar, and at the end of the it he said, 'lets start a band'.

What has been your most memorable dream?

I had a dream last night which I think was caused by seeing this film 'Sphere', with Sharon Stone and Dustin Hoffman in. I was dreaming that me and the band had crashed on this deserted planet somewhere, and the Aphex Twin was the soundtrack. It was all to do with my fear of flying, because I had a fear of asphyxiation and I didn't want to leave the planet. I have loads of dreams where I'm naked and a lot of people are laughing at me. It probably means I'm quite insecure in myself.

When were you last in a fight?

It was in San Francisco on our last American tour when we all individually got thrown out of a club for smoking. Cigarettes. Us and the whole crew tried to take on all the bouncers, but when we realised it wasn't going to work, we made a quick getaway.

If you could choose the manner of your own death, what would it be?

Sounds like a cliche, but it would have to be dramatic and it would have to be onstage. Electrocution maybe.

Do you believe in God?

Not anymore. I was raised a born-again-Christian, so my teenage years were a hard philosophical battle with Jesus. I won in the end. If there are any religious beliefs I aspire to, I believe that myself and a lot of people I've met, have been on this earth before. I also believe in karma, good andbad.

For a million pounds, would you go three months without washing, brushing your teeth or using deodorant?

For a million pounds? I'd give it a go. I don't really smell so that wouldn't be that much of a problem. I never wash my hair anyway. It's just the teeth that would bother me the most.

Have you ever considered suicide? What is so important to you that without it, life would not be worth living?

Yes I have. I've been through some intense bouts of depression. I feel much better now. There was a period of my life where three or four times a week I would go to bed and think about dying. What couldn't I live without?Steve and Stef from Placebo, and my NEW GIRLFRIEND.

Do you have a favourite sexual fantasy? Would you like to have it fulfilled?

Um, yeah. I have a lot of them, but it involves multiple people of both sexes, all of them famous - a mass orgy, basically. Fantasies are best kept in your head - reality never matches the fantasy. In that situation you'd probably end up coming far too quickly anyway.

When did you last cry in front of another person?

It was Christmas, in Paris, on a street corner in the Bastille. But I cried this morning - I was practising my acting and I was triggering thoughts in my emotional memory to find out which ones would make me cry. I do that sometimes, because I plan to do more movies. I was basically thinking about someone I love dearly dying.

Would you prefer to be blind or deaf ?

Interesting question. Somebody asked me that two days ago. Even though I'm in music. I would prefer to be deaf than blind. I think I would feel far less isolated from the world, even though everything would be quiet.

Somebody you love deeply is brutally murdered and you know the identity of the murderer. Would you seek revenge?

Unequivocally, yes. Without even thinking about it. In those kinds of situations, morality goes out the window and the primal side takes over.

When was the last time you stole something?

I steal from mini-bars, in hotels on a daily basis. I steal CD's as much as possible. I'm a pretty habitual thief.

How many sexual partners have you had? Do you wish you'd had more or fewer?

F***ing hell! Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. More than 10 and less than 500.Do I wish I had fewer or more? The latter, probably- and safer ones.

How many times during the day do you look in the mirror?

Oh no less than 20. I'm very vain, I will admit it.

Would you be happy with a marriage of the highest quality in all respects except one - it completely lacked sex?

No I'm far too much of a sexual person. I'd probably sacrifice the physical ideal for good sex. you can never get everything in a person that you dream of.

What has been your biggest failure in life?

My relationship with my family. It's a shame that. over time, my family and I have become more and more like strangers.

Have you ever been attracted to someone of the same sex or in your family? If so how did you deal with it?

Never in my family, but you know me. I'm continually attracted to people of the same sex. I have a very big crush on a boy right now.

Relative to the population at large, how do you rate your physical attractiveness? Your intelligence?

I'm in America right now, so I'd have to say for attractiveness 6 1/2 out of ten. Intelligence 7 1/2.

What's your greatest ambition in life?

To never be forgotten.

What do you least like about yourself?

My belly, my tits, My egomaniacal tendencies. And my thoughtlessness.

Would you like your spouse to be both smarter and more attractive than you?

I couldn't settle for anything less. More intelligent and more attractive- Yes! I don't think I'd ever enter into a life long courtship with someone who didn't have a lot to teach me.

#placebo #brian molko #placebo russia #placebo 1999 #melody maker

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singingwordwright · 6 years

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(Untitled) Rock Star AU: Chapter 2

I think I’m going to keep this on Tumblr for now, at least until I have enough written or at least plotted to commit to a regular update schedule on AO3. Then I’ll edit, have it beta’ed, and post it over there.

For now it’s just going to be a casual thing I update when I feel like it. And since we’re probably not going to get any more goodies for the show this week, this seems like a good time.

Chapter under the cut. See end for more notes.

You can read the first chapter here.

Magnus craned his head around to peer over the back of his chair. “Tell me you have news for me, Raphael.”

“I have news for you.” Even Raphael’s deadpan delivery wasn’t enough to quash Magnus’s joy at the announcement. He stared eagerly, expectantly, but Raphael just stood in the doorway of Ragnor’s office, stone-faced.

“You’re going to make me ask for it, aren’t you?”

Ragnor chuckled. “I’m sure he just figures the more opportunity he gives you to blather on and on now, the less he’ll be interrupted later.”

“I don’t blather,” Magnus sniffed, turning back to face him. “I’m simply concerned that any hype I managed to generate while I was on the show will die out before I release my damn album.”

“You have to stop worrying about that,” Raphael said calmly. “Getting people excited for you is a job for Idris Records’ marketing department now, as well as your eventual publicist. Your job is making music. Let them find the audience for it”

Magnus clenched his fists to keep from wrapping them around Raphael’s throat. “But I’m not currently making any music, am I? Because I don’t have a band!”

“Tsk tsk. Be kind to your voice now,” Ragnor chided. “We don’t want to have to put you in vocal therapy before you’ve even produced your first single.”

They were winding him up. The damnable part of it was that Magnus knew they were winding him up but it was fucking working anyway.

“Did Santiago-Fell Talent get a sizable portion of my advance from the label or not?” he asked softly, gritting his teeth. “If you did, then I’m paying you to find me a band, so tell me you’ve found me a band!”

Raphael strolled into the office and slid into the other chair facing Ragnor’s desk with his usual silent, almost otherworldly grace. “We haven’t exactly found you a band...”

Magnus threw his hands in the air, wishing he had something to fling. “Seriously?”

“...But we may have found you something better.”

Magnus glanced from Raphael to Ragnor, who wore a cat-in-the-cream smile and was practically rubbing his hands together in glee. Clearly whatever news Raphael was baiting Magnus with, Ragnor already had the scoop on.

“This is why you don’t hire friends to be your agents,“ Magnus muttered.

They continued to stare at him.

“I’m waiting,” he sing-songed, hoping his bared teeth looked more like a smile and less like he was ready to literally bite one of them.

Ragnor folded his hands under his chin. “How would you feel about singing for The Nephilim?”

Magnus blinked. Then blinked again. That satisfied smile never left Ragnor’s face.

He glanced over at Raphael, who lifted his eyebrows in a silent, yes he’s serious.

“The Nephilim?” Magnus shook his head in confusion. “What in God’s name makes you think that would ever work?”

Ragnor frowned, looking affronted. “You like The Nephilim.”

“Yes I do. They’re catchy as hell and it’s obvious they’re exceptionally talented musicians whose music has been dumbed down by the label to make them more marketable in their target demographic. But when they dropped their first single, Alec Lightwood was the only one of them old enough to vote. Max’s voice hadn’t even changed yet. Their audience is, like, tween pop. Which is fine, because they make really good tween pop, but that’s not my audience.”

“Reality check: you don’t have an audience yet,” Raphael pointed out. “Your popularity is based on performing covers.”

Magnus rolled his eyes. “Okay fine. But they were covers of harder, edgier songs meant to appeal to a more mature audience. That’s the demographic I’ve been targeting.”

“It could also very well be the demographic the surviving members of The Nephilim want to capture moving forward after their tragedy,” Ragnor said, and leaned back in his chair.

Raphael nodded. “They’re rebranding. And I don’t just mean they’re trying to expand their repertoire or gradually change their sound. We’re not talking about The Beatles’ psychedelic/experimental period from Rubber Soul onward. I mean that The Nephilim are actually retiring. The surviving members are seeking a drummer and lead singer to form a new band from the ground up. I’ve been talking with Isabelle Lightwood all week and she says they’re looking for an entirely new sound and image.”

“Let’s not forget, either, that The Nephilim’s original audience is all grown up now,” Ragnor pointed out. “They are presently torn between a shameful affection that they just can’t shake for their dreamboat adolescent idols and self-consciousness over their fluffy tween pop phase. They want edgier, more mature music as well. Remaking themselves may be the only way Alec Lightwood and Simon Lewis can hold on to their audience.”

“And Jace Herondale,” Magnus added.

Raphael shrugged. “He’s a talented bassist but everyone knows The Nephilim owe their success to Lightwood and Lewis’s songwriting.”

“Herondale is also the potential downside to this whole scheme,” Ragnor said darkly. “If he doesn’t emerge from his stint in rehab fully reformed, the new band could have a very big problem on its hands.”

“The sobriety pledge Lightwood and Lewis are asking the new members is promising. Rumor has it, Morgenstern was the real bad apple,” Raphael said with a slight grimace.

“Or he was just the fall guy—” Ragnor began, but Magnus cut him off.

“Sobriety pledge?”

Raphael gave him a knowing look. “Isabelle was quite moved by your tweet thread about responsible indulgence.”

“And I was being perfectly sincere, but that doesn’t mean I plan to stop drinking entirely!”

“Not entirely. Just when you’re in the studio with the band. Or on the road with the band. Or socializing or attending events with the band.” Ragnor really was taking far too much pleasure in Magnus’s spluttering.

“I would be delighted to disembowel either or both of you right now,” Magnus gritted, glaring from one to the other.

“Does that mean I should tell Isabelle we’re not interested?” Raphael asked, smirking.

Magnus narrowed his eyes. “Scratch that. Disembowelment is too good for you. Of course I’m interested. Jackass.”

“Good choice.” Raphael pulled out his phone, his bland expression conveying how unimpressed he was by his impending evisceration. “They want you in the studio with them ASAP. I’ll set up a time and text you the location.”

Entering the soundproofed studio in the walk-in basement of Simon Lewis’s modest Los Feliz house sent an unaccustomed frisson along Magnus’s nerves. Which was ridiculous, because Magnus Bane did not get nervous. Magnus Bane did not get stage fright. Magnus Bane had never once so much as stammered during his stint in that stupid competition show, despite there being a new celebrity guest judge and guest performer every week.

He simply hadn’t ever anticipated that he would need to impress the musicians he ended up working with. He’d assumed they’d be hired specifically to work with him, not the other way around. This felt less like walking into a jam session and more like walking into an audition, only more momentous. The auditions for the so-called reality show hadn’t ever made him feel this way.

But then he hadn’t really cared about the outcome of the competition. His goal had only been to make it on stage for at least a few rounds, where he knew he could turn in performances that would jump-start his social media following. Everything had worked according to plan until the moment Raphael and Ragnor decided to hold off locating backup musicians for him and instead floated this notion of integrating with the remnants of The Nephilim.

Isabelle Lightwood had answered the door for him, and she was every bit as impressive as industry gossip had touted. She slipped her arm through his, leading him down a short hallway into the studio. “Alec is running a few minutes late, but I’ll introduce you to Simon, Jace, and the new drummer. Beware of Simon, he’s a talker and also a big fan.”

A talker and big fan, Magnus could handle. He was more concerned about Jace, who seemed a little pale and gaunt, obviously still underweight despite having spent 60 days at what Magnus was sure must have been a top-notch rehab that was probably as much a health spa as a place to convalesce post-detox. Ragnor’s point about Jace—despite Raphael’s attempt to deflect him from the subject—hadn’t missed Magnus.

Jace was the person here most likely to torpedo this whole endeavor before it ever got off the ground. They would need to watch him very, very closely.

Magnus shook hands with both of them, smiling blandly at Simon’s cheerful babble. Jace, despite his famed charm and notoriously fun-loving, laid-back attitude, was subdued and seemed almost nervous. Watching from the corner of his eye as Jace tuned his bass, Magnus wondered if maybe he wasn’t the only one who was aware of how much of their potential to succeed or fail rested on Jace’s shoulders.

That was a hell of a lot of pressure to bear, especially when someone was trying to stay clean.

“—And this is Luke Garroway, who has done some amazing studio work for Pack Howl and just finished touring with The Clave after their drummer had to have rotator cuff surgery,” Isabelle said brightly as Simon bounced on the balls of his feet, beaming at Luke.

Magnus leaned carefully across the drum kit to extend his hand. “Glad I’m not the only new face here. Was that you on Pack Howl’s latest album? Because I was blown away by the drums when I listened to it. Great work.”

“That was totally him!” Simon enthused before Luke could do more than smile and murmur his thanks. “Wasn’t ‘Prowl’ a great track? Man, I had that on repeat for weeks.”

“Absolutely.” Magnus nodded eagerly. “In fact, it sort of influenced some of the ideas I was tossing around for the theme I wanted for my first album—when I thought I was going to be doing it solo, of course.”

“Yeah, like what?” Simon asked, apparently not at all affronted by the idea of hearing Magnus’s ideas, even though he and Alec Lightwood had always been the creative minds behind The Nephilim’s music. Magnus would have expected him to be more territorial, but instead he seemed genuinely curious, glancing back and forth between Magnus and his equipment as he slung his guitar strap over his shoulder and plugged it into an amp.

“Well, I was considering—”

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” a new voice called.

Alec Lightwood, all six-feet-whatever of tall, dark, and handsome, literally had to duck through doorway. Basements tended to be a little low to start with, and the thick layer of acoustic paneling soundproofing the studio meant that Alec’s head nearly brushed the ceiling.

He looked different than he did in concert and interview videos, of course. Instead of being gelled into a calculatedly careless tousle, his hair looked fluffy, hanging across his brow, and his t-shirt and jeans were a little less tailored to cling to his torso and legs than the ones he wore on stage.

Somehow, that made him look more scrumptious, rather than less.

Before anyone could greet him, a tiny human who barely seemed to reach Alec’s knees streaked past him into the room. “Aunt Izzy! Uncle Jace! Uncle Simon! I lost my first tooth!”

“Hey, Gid, my man!” Simon crowed. “Gimme knucks.” The pint-size newcomer fist-bumped him and then showed Simon something resting in his palm. “Oh yeah, let’s see it. Awesome, that’s a big one! Is the Tooth Fairy bringing you money?”

Small fists balled up to rest on small hips. “Tooth Fairy?” Gideon gave his aunt a look as if to say, Is this guy for real?

“What?” Simon spluttered indignantly. “No one’s ever told you about the Tooth Fairy? Alec, what kind of upbringing are you giving this kid?”

“The kind that doesn’t involve extorting money for every tooth he loses?” Jace interjected quietly, and that bit of banter with Simon was the first remark Magnus had heard him make that sounded like the Jace Herondale he knew from TV and web interviews. He rubbed Gideon’s head briskly, and his smile seemed a little more solid than it had before.

Predictably, the kid only latched onto a single word of that. “Money?” He glanced up—way up—at his dad. “The Tooth Fairy will bring me money?”

“Uh, um, yeah, totally,” Alec said, sounding flummoxed. Then he folded down into a tight squat to get on his son’s level, and something about seeing him do that made Magnus’s heart flop over in his chest. “Hey, buddy, remember what we talked about? You’re going to be in the control booth with Aunt Izzy. She’ll tell you all about the Tooth Fairy and fill me in later. Got your coloring books and tablet? Okay. Don’t come out of the booth while we’re playing. It’s gonna be too loud for little eardrums.”

“‘Kay, Dad.” Gideon smiled a gap-toothed grin. Alec kissed his forehead, then stayed squatting as his son took Isabelle’s hand and disappeared into the sound booth. Only when they were gone did Alec take his eyes off them and rise.

“No school today?” Jace asked, clapping Alec on the shoulder before returning to his bass.

“Some sort of teacher in-service day. Lydia has meetings and his after-school nanny is sick,” he said with a sigh, brushing his hands on his jeans. The left, Magnus noticed, as now devoid of the wedding ring Alec was known for always wearing. His divorce had barely been a whisper on the gossip blogs after the more sensational scandal of Max Lightwood’s death and Jace Herondale’s trip to rehab.

Then Alec turned to face Magnus, and the sight of him full-on drove the breath from Magnus’s lungs. He had always assumed the gold-flecked hazel of Alec’s eyes and the lushness of his long, dark lashes were the product of really good lighting and makeup in photo shoots, but if anything Alec was more striking up close and personal.

“Hi, you must be Magnus.” Alec smiled bashfully and that, too, was a revelation. He was known for being the serious one, the grown-up whose straight-man act tempered Jace’s fuckboy flirtiness, Simon’s class clown routine, and Max’s puppylike excitability. Magnus wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Alec smile in an interview, and in the photoshoots where he did so, it always seemed a little forced.

This? This was the real deal, up close and personal.

Color crept up Alec’s cheeks and Magnus realized he was staring. He extended his hand.

“Sorry, I got distracted by seeing you with your adorable son and forgot we hadn’t been formally introduced. Yes, I’m Magnus Bane. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alec. I’ve admired your music for years.”

Alec’s smile flickered, turned a little incredulous. Clearly Magnus wasn’t the only one who felt that the simplistic mold their label had pressed them into had done their talent a disservice. Their growth as musicians had been artificially stunted until even the man who composed most of their songs doubted its quality.

Clearly at a loss for words, Alec turned away to introduce himself to Luke, which led to Simon chirping up again, “Oh, yeah, Magnus was about to tell us about some of the concepts he was tossing around for his solo album! I figured since we hadn’t yet decided on what we really want our new sound to be, maybe we should hear what he was thinking.”

Alec arched an eyebrow and looked Magnus up and down as if taking his measure, then ducked behind the rack of keyboards and began turning them on. “Yeah, sure, let’s hear it.”

As he spoke, his fingers tickled the keys lightly, the volume turned low as he tested his equipment. Magnus watched him, mesmerized by the length of his fingers and the dexterity of those huge hands. Only when Alec glanced up did Magnus realize he was in danger of staring again.

“Right. Well, my favorite concept, the one inspired by Luke’s work with Pack Howl, kind of skirts the edge of, like, old school prog rock. You know, themed albums where each song is a piece of a larger story.” Alec frowned, and Magnus could see the arguments forming behind his eyes. No one really did progressive rock much anymore; the label would declare it unmarketable. Magnus shook his head and pushed on. “Without the intellectual pretensions or psychedelic influence, I mean. People shouldn’t have to be high or have advanced degrees in classical literature to really get it.”

“How do you figure that would work?” Simon asked, brow beetled thoughtfully.

“Make the narrative that threads its way through, from track to track, something more in keeping with modern-day pop culture. Approachable to anyone who isn’t living in a cave.” Magnus rolled his eyes and pulled up a stool, sitting to face them so they all formed a circle. “Like, maybe a story about superheros, or—my favorite—an urban fantasy tale about demon hunters.”

“Like, what, The Walking Dead?” Alec asked, his lips pursed. His fingers never stilled on the keyboard.

“Or Teen Wolf! Constantine, Grimm, Supernatural, Hemlock Grove!” Simon rattled off, and Magnus laughed.

”All of that. And we’d each play different parts, right? Not like role play,” he said quickly when all of them started to look alarmed. “Not cheesy or overt. No costumes or makeup or acting. It’s more accurate to say the instruments would do the heavy lifting rather than us or even the lyrics. Word painting, in a way, with the instruments acting out the story.

“For instance, you, Simon—” Magnus pointed and stood, approaching him. “You’d be a—a vampire! Not a sinister, centuries old creature of the night, though. Not a predator. An college student who gets bitten and turned against his will, and now you’re pulled into this world and you don’t know how to navigate it. You’re trying to be a normal guy but you have these impulses you need to fight to control. Now...convey that using just the guitar.”

“Really? A vampire? Hmm.” Simon tilted his head inquisitively and closed his eyes, as though hearing the chord progressions in his head. A soft melody blossomed from his fingers on the strings and slowly crescendoed as he found the character in the music he was making. The sudden, harsh sliding chord assaulted their ears, erupting into several loud thrumming power chords that abruptly pulled back, resolving into the original melody he’d started with. “Something like that?”

“Exactly!” Magnus chuckled and started pacing, excitedly gesturing. “You take that sort of notion and work it into whatever the song we may be playing, let it inform your approach. I know it sounds like some weird musical inception shit, but, like, your guitar is that character, and that character is performing whatever song we’re on in the set list. So the only time it can be obvious is maybe when you’ve got a solo. You get what I’m saying?”

Simon nodded eagerly. “Oh, yeah, totally!” he glanced past Magnus at Alec. “If we can make this work, it could be really awesome, dude.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Alec agreed with a thoughtful tip of his head, then looked at Magnus. “Keep going. Give us the whole picture.”

Magnus dropped him a wink. “Thought you’d never ask. Jace, you’re a warrior.”

“What kind of warrior?” he asked, stroking the neck of his bass with a frown. “Another vampire?”

“No. You’re Nephilim, of course!” Magnus beamed when they all laughed. “I’m serious. You’re a half-angel demon hunter, the best of the best. You’re fierce and impulsive. Your bass line should be rapid and unpredictable, always trying to drive the tempo faster, always ready for a fight, a challenge.”

Jace nodded and started in on something that first reminded Magnus of the acid-rock-esque bass line in Heart’s “Barracuda” but which quickly differentiated into something else entirely. Magnus grinned and headbanged along for a moment before pointing at the drums.

“Let me guess,” Luke said wryly. “A werewolf?”

“Not just any werewolf—the alpha werewolf,” Magnus called back one of Simon’s sliding chords shrieked along Jace’s driving bass. “The leader, wise and patient, but savage when necessary. When the hothead over there starts to get too far ahead of himself, you rein him in, keep it steady. His kind, they don’t always get along with your people or Simon’s people, so there’s conflict there, but also the potential to work together for a good cause.”

Luke pursed his lips and jumped in on the off-beat, playing in counterpoint to Jace for several bars until they shifted to sync up so seamlessly the could have been doing it for years. Simon hooted gleefully and laided a new chord progression over their rhythm.

“So if I’m a vampire and Luke’s a werewolf, is there conflict there?” Simon had to shout to be heard. “That’d be a little Underworld, wouldn’t it?”

Magnus shook his head and they all slowly faded out until he could be heard without trashing his vocal chords.

“No, maybe there could have been, but your relationship with Luke has history that makes it more harmonious,” Magnus explained. “He’s a mentor to you, a father-figure.”

Simon grinned brightly at Luke. “Hey, just like real life!”

Magnus blinked in surprise, but before he could ask, Jace smirked. “So I guess that leaves Alec as a wizard?”

“I’m the warlock,” Magnus replied, sniffing. He made a sweeping gesture with his hands. “It gives me something I can express physically, since I’ve only got my voice and the lyrics to play with, and it’s not supposed to be that overt.”

He glanced over to see Alec arching an eyebrow at him, as if to ask, Yeah? So what am I, then?

“Alec’s also a demon hunter,” Magnus said, watching him thoughtfully. “The other half of Jace’s team. But he’s not a scrapper, like Jace. His skill is archery. He’s steady, focused, mysterious, laser-beam precise. He can get in there and dust it up if necessary, but he favors strategy.”

“Mysterious, how?” Simon asked avidly.

Magnus shrugged. “Maybe that’s for us to figure out as we go. He’s a man with secrets,” he purred. Alec frowned and narrowed his eyes, then looked down at his keyboard. From the way Jace and Simon went still, Magnus suspected this was how they’d done their composing for The Nephilim. Alec would lay something down and they would build around it.

It was a heavy, expectant moment, and then it began. A single trilling chord slowly crescendoed, then resolved abruptly into a different chord, hard and staccato. Magnus could almost see a bowstring being drawn back and the arrow being loosed as though it were playing on screen before his eyes.

Then they were off to the races. Alec’s allegro chords were a little reminiscent of “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” but with a slightly darker undertone, bringing to mind images of hunters running down their prey. Jace joined in after a few bars, his bass line a thrumming heartbeat, pounding with the thrill of the chase. Luke’s counterpoint rhythm threw the whole thing into confusion, suggesting something else was stalking the night, and the shriek of Simon’s guitar called into question who was hunting and who was the hunted.

Magnus let them riff for a while longer, ironing out any wrinkles until it came together smoothly, then grabbed the microphone and kicked in with a quickly improvised adaptation of lyrics he’d been working on for months now.

They say there’s two sides to every story As they sharpen their knives and shroud themselves in glory

Might makes right Got the angels on their side But what justice lies in store At the point of a sword?

It was clumsy and cobbled-together, but somehow also perfect. Perfectly full of potential, perfectly full of opportunities to improve and transform it into something amazing.

Alec led them through a transition and key change and they all fell in line like ducklings.

Duckin’ under sightlines Tryin’ to avoid the frontlines Keepin’ my head down Dodging heat from people whose heads never bow

They keep comin’ for me I just want to live, just wanna be Never good enough in thought, deed, or word When’s it time for my side to be heard?

Magnus could feel it, that sense of rightness, of having tapped into something special. It swelled under the music, running through them all like an electric current leaping from one person to the next until the circuit was complete.

When he glanced at the sound booth, Isabelle was beaming through the glass as though she’d won the lottery.

Magnus grinned back and began improvising another verse.

They worked for hours, recording the bare bones beginnings of half a dozen songs that they—particularly Simon and Alec—would polish and refine until they were ready to lay down the tracks for real.

Three of those were more fleshed out than the others, and though no one said it, Magnus knew they were all imagining the way those songs could segue into into one another in a medley. When played live on stage, those songs could easily become a true, fifteen minute long suite, hearkening back to the idea of old-school prog rock that Magnus had led with.

On the album, however, they would probably separate the tracks, to make it a little less obvious what they were doing when it was interspersed with a label-pleasing number of bops, ballads and anthems.

Magnus grabbed the cup of tepid slippery elm tea Isabelle had appeared with when she’d returned from one of several trips upstairs throughout the afternoon, along with one of the face towels off the stack she’d laid on a nearby stool as they’d all worked up a sweat. Even Simon’s perfectly adequate air conditioning wasn’t enough to keep them from overheating.

Luke, Simon, and Jace’s t-shirts had ended up in a sopping pile near the door, while Alec’s dark gray tee was nearly black and clinging to his torso quite attractively. Magnus felt damp and probably a little ripe as well.

Simon glanced at his phone and gasped. “Crap, I need to go. I’m gonna be late!”

“Tell Maia I’ll call her later this week,” Isabelle said with a fond smile, emerging from the control booth, leading Gideon by the hand. He rubbed his eyes and staggered a little, clearly having just woken from a nap.

Jace and Alec groaned in unison.

“Don’t talk about that sort of thing with us here!” Jace groused, batting away the towel Simon flung at his face as he rushed out of the studio.

Then Simon popped his head back around the door. “Luke, tell Clary I’ll pick her up coffee tomorrow morning,” he said, then rushed off again.

“Who’s Clary?” Gideon mumbled, all but falling into Alec’s lap as Alec sat down on the floor to receive him.

“Clary’s a friend of Uncle Simon’s,” Isabelle explained, squatting beside them. “And Luke there is her stepdad. He’s the one who got Simon interested in music, but then they moved when Clary’s mom got a job in Europe, and that’s when Simon joined The Nephilim. But Clary’s mom went away last year, like your Uncle Max did, so Luke and Clary came back home just when we needed to find a drummer. Lucky us, huh?”

“So that’s how you ended up playing for a German band like Pack Howl,” Magnus observed.

Luke nodded.

“Hey, little man,” he bent low and held out his open palm. Gideon give him a groggy high-five and Luke chuckled, something a little sad hovering around the edges of his smile. He straightened and looked at Isabelle. “I gotta run. Clary and I were gonna grab dinner tonight.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said with a gentle smile. “We can set up a time for you and Alec to debrief about how you felt things went musically today, make sure you’re on the same page there? And if you are, I’ll talk to our lawyer about the contracts.”

Luke nodded. “Sounds good. Talk to you soon, Alec. Great work today, Jace. Magnus, I thought your ideas were excellent. This is gonna be good.”

“It was great to work with you, Luke. Can’t wait for our next session,” Magnus said, waving with his cup of tea. The tea was really only a prop at this point, though. With this energy sizzling along his nerves, high on creativity and the overwhelming sense that the group had all really clicked while they were playing, he hoped he might have a chance to debrief with Alec a little now instead of making an appointment.

When Luke was gone, Jace sighed wearily. “I need to go rest,” he murmured. “Good work, Magnus. See you later, Gidlet.”

Alec frowned. “You sure you don’t want to come stay at my place?”

“Nah, I don’t think I should be around Gid until I’m feeling more like myself. As long as Izzy promises to order takeout, I’ll be fine.” He smiled wanly and slipped away before Alec or Isabelle could protest.

“Is Uncle Jace still sick?” Gideon asked solemnly.

Alec sighed and kissed his temple. “Yeah, he is.”

“But I thought he went to the special hospital to get better.”

“He did, sweetie,” Isabelle replied, stroking a hand over his dark hair. “But it’s not the kind of sickness you get better from all at once. The hospital got him over the worst of it, and he’s going to get a little healthier every day until he’s all better again. It will just take some time. But as long as he stays with one of us and doesn’t try to go home alone or anything like that, we’ll be here to help him through it.”

Gideon nodded thoughtfully. “Okay. If he decides to stay with dad, he can sleep in my room while I’m at Mom’s house. It has Captain America.”

Alec smiled. “I bet Captain America would definitely help him feel better,” he agreed. “I’ll be sure to let him know you made the offer.”

“Captain America’s kind of old now. My new room at Mom’s is gonna have Wonder Woman,” he announced.

“Good choice!” Isabelle hooted, high-fiving him.

Loath as he was to interrupt their family scene, Magnus was starting to feel a little creepy, hovering there while they spoke with no way to bring the conversation around to how Alec felt things had gone during their jam session.

“Well, I should get going,” he announced, setting down his empty teacup. “We’ll do our post-game roundup another time, Alexander?”

Alec’s cheeks seemed to darken slightly as his eyes flicked quickly over Magnus and then back up to his face in a cruise so swift and subtle Magnus would have missed it if he hadn’t been on the lookout for it.

“Um, y-yeah. I, uh, I-I need to get Gideon to his mom’s house soon, so I— I, um, have to go soon, myself.”

Isabelle glanced from Alec to Magnus and one corner of her mouth turned up.

“Why don’t you let me take Gid to Lydia’s place tonight?” she suggested, beaming. “We were having fun together in the control booth earlier and I have nothing going on tonight. You and Magnus need to talk about how the session went anyway, so you might as well do it while it’s still fresh in your minds? Especially if Magnus is going to have the sort of creative input it appears he will; that’s totally different from the way the band used to work.”

Alec’s brow furrowed and he looked at his son, who craned around to meet his eyes. “What do you think, buddy? Want Aunt Izzy to take you home?”

“You can show me your plans for your Wonder Woman room,” Isabelle added.

“Yeah!” Gideon shouted and scrambled carelessly off Alec’s lap, resulting in a muffled grunt that had Magnus wincing in sympathy. “I get to ride your car! Can we put the top down?”

Magnus smiled as Gideon dragged Isabelle out the door to transfer his booster seat into what would no doubt turn out to be a very stylish convertible.

“Don’t forget to tell Mom about the Tooth Fairy!” Alec called after them, then sighed heavily. “How much money is the Tooth Fairy even supposed to leave in today’s economy?” he muttered, standing to dust himself off. He glanced uncertainly at Magnus.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Magnus said before any opportunity for an awkward silence had a chance to set in. “Would you care to have dinner with me, Alexander? Then we can talk about the music.”

On to Chapter 3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: There’s a musical technique called Word Painting (and if it has a more formal name I’ve forgotten it in the ~25 years since I learned about it) where an instrument or instruments imitate what the lyrics are describing.

A good example of that would be in Bob Seger’s “Hollywood Nights” at about 1:11 (listen to what the piano does after “They watched the waves tumble over the sand” and you’ll hear the piano is imitating the waves.)

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Another example would be at 4:50 seconds of “Driving the Last Spike” by Genesis. Listen to the tumbling descent of both the vocal part and the drum part on the line “Stone fell like rain.”

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Actually Genesis is a good place to look for the kind of more modern prog rock Magnus is describing in this chapter, especially their later stuff rather than the old-school variety in the Peter Gabriel era. Check out "Driving the Last Spike” for more straightforward storytelling, and then also “Home by the Sea” for a slightly more abstract prog rock piece (gotta love a band that makes a song about a cat burglar getting stuck in a haunted house.)

Pay particular attention to the second part of “Home by the Sea”, from around 4:30 onward, once it becomes wholly instrumental. That’s Tony Banks on the keyboards, whom Alec compares himself to in Chapter 1 of this story. It’s really his skill at the keyboards that stands out about Genesis’s music.

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If you enjoy those songs, feel free to check out the rest of the Way We Walk Live Tour in 1992. It was really a great concert (and one I actually almost got to go to, but not quite.) Again, listen closely to Tony Banks on the keyboards, because I take a lot of my inspiration for Alec’s playing from him. If you listen to the Old Medley starting at around 24:50, you’ll hear part of “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” which I mention in this chapter (you can find the camera that focuses solely on Tony in this video here: https://youtu.be/wXm6jH0z324?t=129).

#shadowhunters #malec #fanfic #my fics #rock star au #addiction cw #character death cw #long post

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eminperu · 6 years

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Dreams Money Can Buy: The economics of a pay-as-you-go vagabond lifestyle

Since my last Facebook post about another jaunt across the world, several people have reached out to me asking the same question: how do I “fund my lifestyle” (copyright Emma). It dawned on me that A) lots of folks are looking to travel the world but B) are not sure how to do that realistically and responsibly. As an additional obstacle, people—even the vagabonds—often get weird and cagey when asked about their finances. Luckily, I’m 100% comfortable letting you know that I’m pretty poor and I’m still living what Cardi B and Chance might classify as close to—if not my best—life. I’m happy to share my strategies for the nomad life as someone who has never considered planning a strong suit and whose butt gets all itchy at the sound of the word “budget.” This is definitely not a how-to, but a how-I-do guide that hopefully can offer one perspective to those who, like me, dream of being homeless and financially insecure—I mean, wanderlusters. Naturally, each point is organized by subcategory titles borrowed from legendary and timeless songwriter Aubrey Graham. Started from the Bottom (now we’re still near the bottom)

Okay, not exactly the bottom, but not far off. I did have some savings before I started traveling, and I think that cushion was pretty important for my peace of mind/not dying famished in the streets. I set a (admittedly pretty arbitrary) bottom line that I would be comfortable—not thrilled, but not fully catatonic—to have when I returned to a more “traditional lifestyle.” I put that amount in a do-not-touch savings account. Luckily, I haven’t really had to dip into this kitty very many times. Though, again, I’m admittedly no financial wizard, I would estimate over the course of the last year I’ve netted about -$2,000. To me, this year, the amount of time I spent not working, and the amazing experiences I have had were worth significantly more than that figure.

God’s Plan/Controlla

You can plan your travels in advance to varying degrees, but it’s crucial to be honest with yourself about how much uncertainty you can stomach without anxiety sucking all the joy out of the cool stuff you’re doing. I’ve had people tell me, “Oh, it’s so crazy how you can just hop on a plane and not know where you’re going next. You’re flying by the seat of your pants!” Two things: 1) I hate pants. 2) More often than not, I do plan at least my immediate next move in advance. This isn’t so much a due my discomfort with uncertainty, but rather how frustrated I get when I’m forced to spend substantially more money on a ticket/room because I couldn’t commit in time. As a general rule, I plan international travel at least a month in advance and try to get things settled for big within-country trips a week before I leave. I make sure to search airline sites directly, especially for within country travel, and I don’t hesitate to call booking sites instead of reserving online to see if if they can cut me a deal—they’re out here looking for that commission. That being said, the best practice is to seek advice from people who have visited or, better yet, live in your destination. Not only can they steer you towards the right locations/companies/etc., they can also advise you when it might be more economical to book real time in-person as opposed to beforehand online (this happens quite a bit, especially in less-developed countries. Trip Advisor is not always your friend, yo.). Plan as much in advance as you need to in order to feel comfortable and excited, not overwhelmed and anxious, for your trip.

Hold On, We’re Going Home

Building off my last point, for me, having a space to unpack my borderline-hoarder amount of clothes and plug in my electric toothbrush is crucial to my mental health. Who doesn’t love a nest? Though a lot of people move intermittently between destinations, I was pretty settled in Lima. Before flying in, we booked a month in an Airbnb. I easily found a three month room to rent on Facebook/Craigslist, and used the same method to find two of my jobs (oh, sidebar—look for and join ALL online Expat groups as soon as you get to a country. Go to a language exchange and ignore the creepy older dudes who try to get you to “teach them English” and look for other expats who are probably new to the area, too). I also knew I was setting up base camp somewhere with an incredibly low cost of living, and that was intentional (Meygan’s intention, not mine, but still).

Mob Ties

This will be a small section, as it deviates from the financial focus of this piece, but I think it’s important: be proactive ASAP in making friends. It’s so, so easy in any city with a large expat population (again, join the Facebook groups). Expats are prone to be quite outgoing, likely share your interests, and probably have lower friend standards than you’re used to! Living abroad is like college, and all the other expats are your new floormates. There will definitely be some weridos, but you’ll sift through them and find the gems. Plus, traveling with friends makes things cheaper, so this section is totally relevant. (Nailed it.)

Hotline Bling

This one is straightforward: Make sure your phone is internationally unlocked and get a prepaid SIM card immediately in each country you go to. I’ve never needed to pay more than $20 a month for talk/text/data (you’ll only really need data) and it is PLENTY (how many of you are looking at your Verizon bill and fuming right now?). International plans don’t make sense in the long run and scrambling from Starbucks to random hostels for WiFi is not a good look.

Nice for What

One of the benefits of living abroad is that as soon as I moved, people started hitting me up to visit and/or meet them places. I’ve had the opportunity to visit magnificent destinations with magnificent friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in years. If, like me, you’re overwhelming popular and well-liked, you have to be realistic and honest about where you can and cannot travel. Whilst on a budget and trying to function in day-to-day life, sometimes merging plans with friends looking to vacation is just not feasible. Compromising is great; it’s also valuable to let the homies know that this isn’t just a trip for you, it’s your lifestyle (did you just throw up a little bit as you read that? Me too. Sorry). I got super lucky and my friends who came and visited me in my more permanent location—Peru—didn’t force me to go to Machu Picchu 96 times! Every country has a bunch of cool stuff to do, and they were more than happy to meet in Colombia, hop on a jungle excursion, or otherwise with plan something that was in my budget/I hadn’t already done.

In addition to being realistic with my budget and with other people, I had to be realistic with myself, which involved some reprioritizing. I haven’t really bought clothes in the last year. I didn’t make my usual music festival rounds. I wasn’t planning to see my family for Christmas. My shoes, which have amassed an innumerable amount of miles, are essentially all falling apart. Time and time again, I chose experiences over things and I couldn’t be happier with that decision.

Nonstop

Having a job, regardless of the wage, always makes me feel better about spending money. You can make money in a variety of ways, but here’s a hot tip: TEACH ENGLISH ONLINE. I AM NOT KIDDING YOU I WOULD NOT HAVE DONE WHAT I DID THIS LAST YEAR WITHOUT IT. There are a myriad of companies (I’m with VIPKID—lemme talk to you about it and get some $$ for helping you apply) that allow you to set your own schedule and teach online from anywhere with a strong WiFi connection. I taught every weekday in Peru from 6:30 am to 9:00am (and an occasional weekend evening) and was done with my workday by 9:15 in the morning. I was also able to teach when I came back to Kansas, when I was home in California, and when I was traveling, Plus, I get money for referring you desperate plebs.

Let me tell you why VIPKID is infinitely better than getting an in-person job (even teaching English) abroad:

The hours and location are 100% flexible. I can open my schedule weeks in advance or the night before, and I can teach fifteen classes in a row or one single class.

There is no lesson planning. Prepping for teaching is an evil succubus that lures you in and steals your time and also several parts of your soul. The VIPKID platform offers ready-to-use lessons that have a universal structure. I don’t even glance at them before I start teaching. It’s the most low-maintenance, easiest form of instruction I’ve ever been involved with.

You don’t need to worry about getting a work visa. For all the work I did in Peru, I was paid cash under the table, as getting a carnet de extranjera (similar to a green card) is time-consuming, expensive, and difficult. I'm not 100% sure, but I feel like this is the case in most countries.

Yes, I make $20-$25 an hour, which can make you feel no ways (real Drake fans will catch that Easter egg), especially if you’ve been making a steady salary in a a place like New York or SF (let’s not get into it here, but all the more reason to advocate for not paying/treating our teachers like trash). However, it’s consistent money, I can do it anywhere, and $20 goes real far in most places outside the U.S.

The Catch Up

That being said, the side-hustle is EVERYTHING. Proofreading, translating, tutoring, working remotely, waitressing, bartending—anything that doesn’t require a lengthy application process and set hours is ideal. While I was back in the States, I very quickly and easily got a temp job working in my mom’s radiologic imaging office; I got to experience an entirely different line of work and gossip and eat donuts with the girls in the front. I absolutely loved it.

Apps like Grabr or housesitting apps are also excellent ways to make money doing stuff you’re already planning to do. Grabr allows travelers to sign up to bring things to people in their destination country that take too long or are too expensive to ship from their country of origin. This utilized two of my strongest skills—ordering items from Amazon and packing a checked bag weighing exactly fifty pounds. On my trip from the U.S. to Peru, I made over $300. Did I bring a kitchen scale and finely ground white electrolyte powders through South American customs? Yes! Did I assume I’d be going to Peruvian jail? Maybe! Honestly, I was more concerned about the giant car part leaking oil that I brought through TSA in Kansas City (thought about leaving a “This is not a bomb note”—decided against it). The point is: it might have taken a little time, some research, and a bit of aplomb to find opportunities like this, but luckily I had all those things in spades. Disclaimer: Use your judgment. Don’t do weird stuff.

Also, in all honesty, got a pretty cute tax refund this year, seeing as I made a significantly larger sum of money in the half of the year when I was full-time employee in California than when I was a part-time degenerate in Peru.

All Me

As resourceful and savvy as I’m feeling after writing this, I have to come clean. This might be a bit of a bummer for those fiercely independent amongst you: I did not even come close to doing this without a ton of help from my ridiculous circle of incredibly generous family and friends (HAHA GOTCHA, IT WAS NOT ALL ME. SEE? SEE WHAT I DID?) My list of people to thank would surely earn me the wrap-it-up music at the Oscars, but I’ll try anyway: My parents helped my broke ass get home so I wouldn’t be alone for Christmas. My friends from all across the world and all phases of life let me crash with them for weeks at a time (and gave me cute clothes that “looked a little weird on them,” made me banana flaxseed pancakes, and did my laundry). My brother and his smokeshow wife bought me flights and let me move into their giant British mansion to be their nanny (they don’t have kids). My saint of a mother literally gave up her bed and shared her tiny apartment with me, advocated for me to get a job that meant her doubling her workload, and let me eat all her food while standing at the refrigerator like a teenage boy. People have given me advice, contacts, hotel points, and miles. Gratitude will forever be the brush with which the memory of this year was painted.

All in all, I’ve had an overwhelmingly positive, life-changing experience with the joys far outweighing the stresses. It’s not hard to do, and I hope this very Emily-specific example can be of some help to you. Remember, you too can shirk all your responsibilities and run away to a foreign country! Even if you’re 25 sitting on 25… cents.

P.S. If you liked this post, please send me shoes.

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sinceileftyoublog · 3 years

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Landlady Interview: Landlady’s Fourth, Best Album

Photo by Adam Schatz

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Adam Schatz loves music. It seems like a basic statement to make about a musician, especially one who has led his most successful band for 10 years and played on a wide variety of records for much longer. But on Landlady’s upcoming self-titled, self-released record, out next Friday, their fourth and first in four years, Schatz pays tribute to all the songs and albums and bands he’s loved over the years, in the car and on the radio, as a consumer and appreciator of art, even if they didn’t directly inspire his music. Better yet, he doesn’t directly refer to any titles specifically in his lyrics or instrumentation, save for an offhand mention of a beloved Beach Boys song. Instead, Landlady is a testament to being in a band, anchored by the skill of Schatz and the three other prolific players in the band, drummer Ian Chang (Son Lux), guitarist Will Graefe (Okkervil River), and bassist Ryan Dugre (Eleanor Friedberger). For four people who live their lives surrounded by other musicians, even in non-music contexts, the creativity clearly wears off.

The basis for Landlady was when the current incarnation of the band, the first time they were a four-piece, were touring in Europe in 2019, and Schatz found a period of five days where they could hammer out songs by day and, in the true spirit of Landlady, listen to records at night. Fast-forward to a week long recording session in upstate New York, and Schatz had what he needed to finish off the record, every decision made with the intent of capturing a live band. The harmony is remarkable; voice, piano, and guitar fill the contours of “The Meteor”. Schatz’s warbling singing emulates the nervous tremolo guitars of “Take The Hint”. The instrumental falls out in the perfect moment in the chorus of pop ditty “Rule of Thumb”. And vibraphone-laden closer “Bulldozer” eventually morphs into a time-signature-complex fast-paced boogie. If there was a lot of post-production on Landlady, you wouldn’t know it. It exudes the type of second-nature looseness you’d expect from a live recording session from a band that oozes musical knowledge, both theoretical and popular.

The COVID-19 pandemic and absence of touring has given Schatz to really reflect on what it means to be a professional musician, and in conjunction with the release of Landlady, he’s been writing various informative, humorous and creative pieces in a variety of publications about his interactions with the biz. For one, his monthly income right now is in the form of his Patreon, where for a couple bucks he’s offered deeper insight into Landlady songs, including those so far released on the upcoming record. He’s also published a satirical Talkhouse piece on how to write your own artist bio and wrote a piece about learning to play a complex Randy Newman song on piano over the course of lockdown. (Newman approved.) Most notably, in an essay associated with the album, Schatz non-linearly recalls almost his entire life as a music fan and touring musician, reflecting on life on the road and the deaths of two dear friends, The Teenage Prayers’ Terrence Adams and Jessi Zazu of Those Darlins. (At one point in the essay, Landlady, driving straight from Seattle to San Francisco in the rain, spun out on the road perfectly synced with the climax of Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta”; death almost became them.) And Schatz is also donating 5 dollars of every digital sale of Landlady to The Okra Project, an organization “that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people.” In essence, Schatz treats his relationship with his fans, the music listening public, his band, and the world at large as a symbiotic one, thriving on a collaboration of not just financial morality but mutual empathy.

I spoke with Schatz over the phone from his new home in East Dover, Vermont last month about Landlady, the associated essay, playing on others’ records, and The Okra Project. Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What do you think is unique about this record as compared to anything else you’ve released in the past?

Adam Schatz: It’s hard to say. Each one feels better to me when we’re done with it. Each feels tighter than the last one. This one was a four-piece for the first time. We used to have two drummers, but one of them moved to the West Coast, and with the economy of touring, it was worth seeing how it felt [with four members when touring the last album]. It ended up being the version of the band that’s toured most consistently. So this is a document of a band getting to that place where we can read each other’s minds. A lot of the arrangements came together in the studio as opposed to in rehearsals beforehand. The older you get, the more you lose that luxury of everyone being around.

SILY: Was there anything new or specific that informed the lyric-writing process?

AS: You know...everything. Everything’s new. Everything’s specific. How’s that for a non-specific answer? [laughs]

I take pretty long breaks between doing this stuff. I’m sort of always recording little voice memos and nuggets of things that will eventually become songs. It always feels like a couple of years between concentrated songwriting sessions. On a personal level, it feels like, “Okay, you’ve got to get your shit together because you’re bringing this stuff to other people.” It’s funny, because I’m sort of gearing up for that again now. This took longer to come out than I wanted it to, and what else am I gonna do right now than get ready to make the next one if I can? There’s always a separate lyrical dump of a million thoughts and ideas I write down whenever I think of them, but 99% of those things never make them beyond that folder. It’s circumstance: what you think through, what you’re listening to at the time, what you allow yourself to be able to say, perspectives you feel comfortable portraying. It’s never conscious. All this stuff, I’m only able to think about when I go back and reexamine my work, which luckily isn’t a drag for me. I like the things I make, so it’s fun. I don’t love the sound of my voice, and I think most people don’t, but it’s an interesting thing. For my Patreon, I’ve been doing an in-depth song breakdown every month, and I’ve been doing it for songs on this record. It’s been lined up with every single that’s come out. I’ll put out the single and then do a couple pages of writing. I’ll sort of just bop around between the circumstances of writing, recording, and producing the songs, and then I’ve started including little stems from the record sessions, like isolated tracks and things you don’t necessarily hear when it’s all piled on to each other.

SILY: There seem to be a lot of lyrics about fire and heat. Is that something you noticed or intended?

AS: No, I didn’t. There’s "The Meteor”’s lyrics, but that song is about a meteor--sort of--as far as I know. That’s all real. That thing’s burning up. It’s an element. I’m watching snow melt right now. I don’t have the answer you’re looking for. I wish I did--that would have been great.

SILY: Why did you choose to release “Supernova” as the first single? And can you tell me about the video?

AS: I’m pretty bad at knowing which songs to put out. If more than one person tells me one is a good idea, I usually just go with it. It was also definitely the first song we got together for the record. It’s the oldest one on the album and has been kicking around for a while. It feels the most anchored where we’d even played it live. Most of this record, we haven’t yet. All other albums, we road-tested the material before tracking it. Probably a few people on my side of things suggested it would be a good one to put out there first. Usually, when I think about what to release as a single, I think about what’s gonna be good in the streaming world and all that crap. I sort of always have to check myself and see which songs have choruses, because it’s usually half or less than half depending on how well-behaved I am. I try to make a point to have everything I write be hooky in one way or another. It’s what I drift towards, so I’m never worried about that. But a chorus is a time-tested way to get someone to recognize a song. “Supernova” checked all those boxes: not too fast, not too slow, showcases the production range on the record. It felt like the best candidate.

SILY: On “Supernova”, you sing, “Why did my friend have to die?” Are you talking about either of the friends you write about in the essay?

AS: I am talking about either of the friends on the essay.

SILY: Did the thought process for releasing “Supernova” also apply to singling out “The Meteor”, “AM Radio”, and “Sunshine”?

AS: You’re trying to get people excited about what’s coming next. On the record, there are some songs that are quiet, some that are short, which I loved putting in there as connective tissue as things that work on their own but don’t make sense as singles, and others are a little long for being singles. It also changes every time we put out a record, what’s customary. Around the time of our first record, it was only 1 or 2 songs and then drop the record. People now put out, like, 5. It doesn’t matter. I try to not lament too hard about the state of things, because you can only help what you can help, and whatever’s happening with streaming, those are facts, and I can say what’s right or wrong about it, and I will, but I’m going to try to build a microeconomy of people who are going to give a shit about the record and buy it and remember that we’re human beings and this is a human exchange. At this point, for this record, it’s like, “Let’s put out a bunch of things,” and it’s nice to have a new song out for Bandcamp Fridays.

SILY: "Sunshine” is a slow-burning change of pace.

AS: It’s sort of the opposite [of the others]. That one, we’ve played live a bunch and I’ve been doing in my solo shows a lot. A lot of Landlady songs don’t feel right doing solo because the band arrangement is too important or they’re not conducive to what I love about playing solo, which is being able to improvise and change things pretty dramatically. “Sunshine” is such a good one for both. It’s the same chords over and over and over again. It’s either one verse or four verses, depending on what you call it, and they happen twice. It’s open-ended. We drew a contour of what we wanted to do in the studio. When we perform that song, the choices people make are different. It feels like a step in a new direction to us and for me as a songwriter. It’s near and dear to me and felt like a good one to put out there.

SILY: Is there an overall mood you’d describe the record as having?

AS: Is there one that you would?

SILY: Uneasy.

AS: Sure. That’s okay, I guess.

SILY: It’s definitely a good thing. Like on “Take The Hint”, any time there’s a tremolo guitar effect, and the relationship between the music, lyrics, and arrangement in general.

AS: It’s why we’re not on many playlists and played in many coffee shops. None of it’s really conscious other than me wanting to not be bored and make music I want to listen to and sound exciting. A byproduct of that is our records are active listening. When our fans find it and listen to it, it’s a great avenue for discovery. It’s not music to drink coffee to, though you can once you know the record. I was at a coffee shop one time with some friends and they were playing a Dirty Projectors record, and I was like, “This is the most distracting fucking thing.” That music is not built to be cruising above your head. It’s hit you in the face.

I try to approach the production and arrangements with a bit more patience than we normally do, roping in our frenetic energy. I’m never worried about taming us. It’s never gonna go too far; if we try to be focused, solid, and patient whenever it feels right, it makes the crazier moments mean more, I think. A lot of really nice moments of that on the record.

SILY: This album’s very much inspired by all the formative music in your life you’ve listened to in cars, and on “Molly Pitcher”, you mention “God Only Knows” a couple times, which a lot of folks consider one of the greatest songs ever written. What’s your relationship to that song or Pet Sounds or The Beach Boys in general?

AS: Pretty late in life discovery of that stuff. Sort of a certain category of band where you hear one version of them, and the right person tells you, “No, they’re actually cool,” and you listen again and it reshapes everything you know. It happens with The Beach Boys. It happens with The Beatles for sure. It happens with The Kinks. I don’t think it happens with The Rolling Stones. I can appreciate them more and more also when I listen to them, but I’m never surprised by it. I always think it’s so weird they’re compared to The Beatles as a face-off situation. They’re such different beasts.

“God Only Knows”, I think in that song I picked because it was a good lyric for our song. [laughs] But the sentiment is nailed there. I want to paint this picture of us listening to a song loud in the car. That’s gonna do that, but it’s helpful from me from a wordplay perspective to pick a song with a title that could also mean something else.

I think “Molly Pitcher” had been written before we started doing this in the van to kill time but also find something pseudo engaging on social media without being totally soul sucking. Around 2017, we were doing these harmonies in the car, and one of the last ones at the end of the first tour we were pulling back into Brooklyn, under the BQE, which is always a really bad reentry when you live in New York. You’ve been on the road where things are hard but almost every other city is easier to reenter. You always hit traffic on the bridge, and you get off and there’s some horrible sound from a truck on the highway. It was dark at night, and we were singing that harmony, and it was a special moment. It makes the whole thing kind of double meta, where it’s a testament to my penchant for trying to hit on universal ideas in a way that doesn’t feel vague or general but, “This means something to me, I bet it means something to you too.” Then it can loop back around on my own life again and again. Driving in cars with friends growing up, and that’s still happening, and that’s kind of what the essay’s about, too.

SILY: There are some lines on “Nowhere to Hide” that make me think you’re talking about touring, where you sing about how your food’s gone bad and “give me a home here and there.” Were you feeling that: “Where do I live?”

AS: No, I forget. Some of that song’s about my grandfather who lived in Maine. Some of it’s about other stuff that I don’t know anymore. So, to that degree, sure, you could be right. That song isn’t really about tour. None of them are, really. “Molly Pitcher” is named after the Molly Pitcher Service Area in New Jersey, and “Bulldozer” sort of is about touring.

SILY: Do you think of some of the shorter instrumental tracks on here like “Western Divide” as interludes, or do they stand alone as full songs?

AS: I think they’re full songs that stand alone. That was sort of a fun challenge in putting them together. I knew I liked the idea of shorter songs living between longer songs, and in some ways, they function the way an interlude would function, but I wanted to have more meat on those bones. There were two more songs that up until pretty late in the process I was planning on finding a way to put in as that type of song. One of them we started playing live, and the loud band version is so good. But I was working too hard to make it fit where it wasn’t the best life it could live. It should just be on the next record as a better recorded version. The other one wasn’t feeling good enough on its own. It was feeling interludey. I had to tell myself, “You haven’t finished writing this song yet. There’s probably more coming after this ends. You’re psyched on the idea of doing cool, weird interludes, but it’s not good on its own.” So we cut it. “Western Divide” and “Take the Hint” are the ones that are really short. “Lights Out” is the in-between. It doesn’t really have traditional song form, but it’s longer. I love how that turns out, too. Short songs are something I tried on the first Landlady record, and it’s something I always loved about the Pixies, and the songs I had been writing since I was a kid were always too long.

SILY: How did you approach the order of the tracks in general on this album?

AS: I don’t know. The last two records we did with Hometapes, who are not a label anymore but dear friends, they sequenced. They put an order together, sent it to me, and I maybe had one question, but not much. It was cool to work with people whose input you might follow blindly. With this one, suddenly, it was me in charge of all of it, so I fooled around until I found an order that felt good. Some songs went where they had to go, like “The Meteor” had to go first. Ryan [Dugre], our bass player, even said that. Hearing our drum groove, it had to be the opener.

SILY: Was your decision to self-release this because Hometapes is no longer a label?

AS: By the time the last record came out, they knew it was gonna be the last record they put out, so we called it a co-release between Hometapes and Landladyland. This one we did a fair amount of trying to get someone else to want to put it out. When after a certain point it didn’t happen, I just wanted to put it out. I didn’t know the date until the election happened. After that, I was like, “I think I feel comfortable putting music out.”

SILY: Would have been a bleak alternative.

AS: It’s all bleak, but it’s a strange question. You ask yourself, “When’s a good time to put something out?” And your body’s telling you, “Never! It’s a good time to run a lumber mill and volunteer and learn things about yourself.” But building a microeconomy around what you’re doing and testing out the Bandcamp vinyl thing which was such a success but felt risky. You never know how many people actually care and how to make the thing work. I’m still very much in debt after this record, but we’ll see what happens!

SILY: Why did you decide to self-title this record?

AS: I didn’t have a better idea. I tried. Usually, I do it after a song name, and none of them felt right, and the ones that would have been right, I checked and they were other albums by other people with those titles. I thought “Tooth and Nail” would have been a good album title, but if there’s too many with the same name, it feels silly. For a while, I wanted to call it “Landlady’s Fourth Best Album.” I like it. It worked well for the album art. Everything fit the idea of what came after in a very spontaneous and accidental way. It was the benefit of deciding to do it myself last year and letting things take the time they took. I hired Case Jernigan to do the “Supernova” video last March or April, and he turned it in and we saw what it was and the band artwork at the end of it, which felt like a pretty ridiculous and compelling album cover. Also the band identity, making it clear this was a band record and performance. It was 6 days capturing this in the studio, and I spent many months toying with it on my own, but every choice I make is in service of communicating the energy of people in a room playing together.

SILY: So you don’t think this is your fourth best album? You actually think it’s your best?

AS: Yes, you misheard me. It’s “Landlady’s Fourth, comma, Best Album.”

SILY: In between this and your last Landlady record, you played on a lot of records, like Adia Victoria’s two records and last year’s This Is The Kit record. Did participating in those and others shape making this record?

AS: In the same way that everything shapes everything, where I’m a product of my experiences and am trying to always improve and get better and love working with people and producing. There are so many versions of that for me. It all ends up. I can’t point to any one thing and say, “This led to this.” I play on the Adia record, I’m up there for two hours, play a bunch of stuff, and it ends up on the record or it doesn’t. But there’s plenty of history with me and Adia who have played together and toured together and made music together. It’s funny, the documented recording is a small percentage a lot of the time of your relationship with someone and how everything connects.

This Is The Kit had done a U.S. tour in 2018 and were in New York and needed a sax player for a show, so I got called because we had some mutual friends, and we hit it off right away. A year later, they were doing another U.S. tour, and I offered to open solo and play in the band. It’s not something I ask to do that often, because it’s an incredible hassle to play in someone else’s band. There are plenty of fun moments, but you’re on tour. But they’re really incredible people, and Kate [Stables] and I became really close really fast. So it felt great to work on the new stuff with them. The drag was that we were scheduled to do it all in person last April, but then I had to record by myself. They tracked the band and I laid down a bunch of ideas for every song. The producer, Josh Kaufman, I know really well, and I knew to play ideas I thought they would enjoy and to bring my energy into their universe, which is what I think about when someone brings me in or I bully my way into a project. I think I have something to offer, with the sounds I have access to and the perspective I bring to the music that’s my own. That’s a joy for me to put into other people’s world. Landlady is my world with my people, and we don’t have to tiptoe. It’s the ultimate freedom to go for whatever we want to go for, and we see what comes out.

SILY: Why are you donating money to The Okra Project for this record?

AS: We need to find a better way for this thing to make sense. This thing meaning being a person on earth and finding what other people have done wrong. I want it to be built into the economy of the project. The price is gonna go up. It’s 20 dollars for digital, which is traditionally high, but I’m gonna donate 5 of those dollars every time to The Okra Project, and that’s an ongoing thing. It’s an organization I believe in, working with trans people of color. It’s such a bare minimum, but if it’s something everybody can work into their work, it’s a better support network.

SILY: Are you doing any live streams or socially distant shows?

AS: No. It’s such a hassle to think about. The simplest answer is we can’t afford it. You think about anyone you’ve seen that looks good, and you’re basically making a live record that exists only once. The people who did that, and I did one with Sylvan Esso last year that was totally wonderful, and the fans got it, and they had the means to produce it, but I don’t have the means to produce it on my end. If I’m getting together with my band somehow, I’d rather just be eating snacks because it’s been so long. The idea that the next time we see each other we have to dive into production mode for something that’s not going to be as good. I’d rather ask people to have patience, and when they can see us live, they’ll see us live.

SILY: Are you working on anything else at the moment?

AS: I’m slowly kicking around new songs. I’ve been going slow on those but want to step back on that gas pedal to see what comes out. I’m working on my third sample pack for Splice of loops and sound design. The first one was loops and synthy stuff, the second, bass clarinet, this one, lap steel guitar. It’s been nice to have something to work on steadily. It’s good. It’s jobby. I’m working on a Landladyland podcast, and another comedy fictional podcast.

SILY: Anything notable you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately?

AS: Since moving, I haven’t had internet, so I haven’t been streaming at all. I’d been away from my record collection for the past year, so it’s been amazing to listen to my records again. That’s been the best. Yesterday, I was listening to this Keith Jarrett live record that blew my mind. I hadn’t heard it quite that way before. There’s also a radio station in Northampton that our radio picks up, and they have this show called Funky Fridays that has been consistently awesome. One night was all James Brown features. The other was all New Orleans, like deep Meters and Allen Toussaint, which forced me to grab all those records from my collection and listen to those. I’m trying to read The Brothers Karamazov and a Marx Brothers biography at the same time. We’ve been watching The Larry Sanders Show. I have them all on DVD. The finale’s tonight, I think. It’s gonna be very sad.

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althinksthings · 6 years

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Top 10 Albums - Part 1

The Brief

“In no particular order – 10 all time favourite albums.

What really made an impact and is still on your rotation list, even if only now and then.”

As always, because I'm me, I'm going to break and change the rules for my own amusement and so it will hopefully be a more interesting venture. I'm going to discuss 10 of the albums that became important to my life. This is partly because the only way I could possibly nail this list down to only 10 albums was to select ones that were particularly formative or influential, and partly because since I'm not very good at analysing music, having some form of narrative behind them will help structure my choices and my posts. In that sense, then, they are in a particular order: I'll be putting these out in a bibliographic chronological series, in the approximate order that I discovered these albums during my life.

A quick note about the way in which I listen to music. I have synesthesia, which means that every song and album I listen to has colours that I strongly associate with it. This, while a thoroughly enjoyable part of my life, sometimes has drawbacks when discussing music as there are certain songs that I just can't help ascribing colours to. As an example in this essay, I couldn't help but describe the song Lord Grenville as “grey”, and I'm sure this phenomena will show up again.

So then.

1. Al Stewart – Year of the Cat. (1976)

YotC was the 7th album to be released by Al Stewart, from his rather extensive discography of 16 original albums, with a few live records and an instrumental one on top for good measure. His genre is primarily folk-rock with a strong emphasis on his spectacularly complex and beautiful guitar style. His favourite subjects for songs are history and wine, the latter even warranted an entire album dedicated to it in 2000, called Down in the Cellar. As for history, I swear I've gained more knowledge about history that has actually stuck because of these albums than anything else in my life. I specifically used one of his songs (League of Notions) to revise for my history GCSE exam, and another one (Post World War 2 Blues) to help me remember information in my history A Level classes. A caveat: this is not actually my favourite album that Al Stewart has ever released. That crown goes pretty unequivocally to Modern Times, released in 1975 and immediately preceding YotC in his discography. So this immediately seems like a pretty stupid pick.

Before the age of 10 I didn't really have a music “taste” per se. My dad reckons that the first artists I ever vocally showed a preference for were Abba and the Eagles, both choices that I will defend because I still think they're both great. I also loved Deep Purple (their album Who Do We Think We Are nearly made the list), but I didn't have any devices on which to listen to music as a solo venture, there were just constant tunes on in the house and car. However, it just so happened that we went on a family holiday to Canada in the summer of my 10th year, and this holiday involved a 10 day road trip in a camper van around British Columbia. It was amazing, the views were astounding, and we stayed in a new campsite every night which meant lots of new sights and exciting locations, but it also meant a rather large quantity of driving. My dad, at this point, had an MP3 player that was slightly smaller than a brick and which he had loaded with however much data a brick could hold in 2006. He handed me the MP3 player and suggested that I listen to this album because he thought I'd like it, so on one of the days of travelling I stared out of the window and listened to Year of the Cat back to back. It was the first time I'd ever heard any of Al Stewart's music and I remember my very first thought being “he has a weird voice”, but as I got used to it the songs stuck and later as we walked around a vineyard I couldn't stop singing the song Broadway Hotel. I think it was my first ever favourite song, and certainly the one that I remember changing how I listened to music. This album wasn't just on in the background, it was playing because I chose it and I wanted to listen. Long story short, YotC was the direct cause of me asking for and subsequently receiving a minute iPod nano that next Christmas, and so I accredit this album as being the direct cause of me starting to listen to music as a whole.

I feel like I should actually talk about the album for a bit. The final track on this album is the titular song Year of the Cat, which to date remains Al Stewart's most famous release. Some of you would recognise it, it still gets played on various radio stations from time to time. It's a gorgeous, largely instrumental song of almost 7 minutes, involving a large array of solos from various instruments. The cat is a year in the Vietnamese zodiac, coinciding with the year in which the song was recorded. The lyrics are a semi abstract reference to the comedian Tony Hancock, whom Stewart saw perform a couple of years before his suicide in 1968. The song has a basic narrative: the tourist protagonist whom we hear about in the second person is walking through a market and meets a woman. He gets distracted by her, loses his sense of perspective and his grasp of time, and the next day realises that his bus has left without him. This coincides perfectly with the meandering solos and instrumental interludes of the single, the listener can feel that they are getting gently lost in the passage of time but (if you're like me), you don't really mind.

So that's the single, what about the rest of the album? As a record it is relatively short, only 9 tracks if you don't include the bonus songs from the 2004 remaster (I don't). I'm not going to go into each song in so much depth, but every track has it's own certain atmosphere that serves to build the overall feeling of a somewhat pensive yet occasionally magical world. Lord Grenville, the opener, is a grey perspective of the situation of Sir Richard Grenville, who was a Lord, soldier, and sailor in the 1500s, now famous for dying when refusing to surrender his ship to Spanish fleets in the Battle of Flores. On the Border is half about the Basque Separatist movement (a situation involving a group of Basque organisations seeking for independence from France and Spain), with the second half of the song revolving around Robert Mugabe, who is now the ex Prime Minister/President of Zimbabwe. Flying Sorcery is a reflection on the life and achievements of Amy Johnson. Not all the songs are based in such concrete evidence: the aforementioned Broadway Hotel is an investigation into people who choose to live in hotel rooms, questioning the feelings of loneliness, isolation, and love that could arise in those situations. It is, then, genuinely surprising that the incohesive subject matter of the individual tracks lends itself to a finished product that feels complete and without tonal dissonance. That may stand as a testament to Stewart's lyrical and musical skill: love songs are treated with no less verbosity than songs about prominent political figures, and the distinctive sound of his intricate guitar patterns is a constant throughout the record.

I could go into this much depth and more about all of Al Stewart's albums, and do full analyses about a great number of his songs, but this was supposed to be an explanation for why the album YotC is important to me and I've already gone way over that particular boundary. The album Modern Times, especially, I think is an undiluted masterpiece of everything that is good about Stewart's songwriting, and I half wish I had spend more time discussing that in this essay. The enigmatically titled Apple Cider Re-Constitution is one of my absolute favourite songs, along with the song Modern Times, an 8 minute long masterpiece of nostalgia and the way in which different people remember their pasts. Other honourable mentions from Stewart's discography include the legitimately harrowing 8 minute Roads to Moscow, (a narrative of the German invasion of Russia during the Second World War through the eyes of a Soviet partisan), and a 13 minute live version of his epic Nostradamus. When written down like this, these songs sound depressing and miserable - and while Roads to Moscow is admittedly not the most jocular of tracks - even despite the heavy subject matter and the sometimes inherent lyrical complexity, Al Stewart's songs are always melodious, engaging, and interesting.

So really, all this to say: when I was 10 I listened to Year of the Cat and it spurred in me an interest in music and history that, I expect, will last the rest of my life.

#al stewart #year of the cat #music #top 10 #albums

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thesinglesjukebox · 6 years

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CHARLI XCX FT. CARLY RAE JEPSEN - BACKSEAT [6.57] Charli, Carly Rae and PC Music? Nah, that's not really in our wheelhouse.

Ryo Miyauchi: The humming synths and the ghost harmonies of "all alone" resemble the static heard when the radio dial is adjusted perfectly to pick up a feed from two FM channels. Both broadcasts play independent from another, each scene unique to the singer who sings them: Charli's escape from hell via partying turns self-destructive while Carly Rae Jepsen's LA hallucination finds two cold souls together in bed. And just when the two stories see eye to eye, this metallic black hole of a noise swallows them whole. [6]

Austin Brown: It's a never-ending source of fascination for me to watch artists like Charli and Carly navigate the pop industry, invested in the artistic potential of transcendent escapism but resistant (to varying degrees) to its dominant tropes and business practices. Lines on "Backseat" like Charli's "I want it all, even if it's fake" and Carly's "I got a thirst for distraction I can't take back" are declarative to this effect, as is the mushmouth muttered repetition of "all alone" in the chorus. In opening the Pop 2 mixtape, it serves as a mission statement of sorts for Charli. "Backseat" isn't nearly as confrontational as Vroom Vroom, which eschewed melody entirely at points and suffered as a result, but it's not full-on bubblegum either, warping Charli's voice and discovering decay and regret in its more grating corners. One point off for letting Carly show her up in the lyrics department, but it's not like she had a choice in that matter. [7]

Anthony Easton: That this starts and ends with melodic noise, and that the subtle metal grinding throughout the rest of the track keeps asking the questions: how do we make pop, nad what does the form of pop mean now, outside of the populist? It's a lonely, almost toxic song, and that it is written and performed by two great pop performers who (with the exception of one or two singles) do not sell well, makes it a fascinating example of formalist expansion, a kind of pop for pop's sake, which would all seem so academic, if it wasn't so fantastic to listen to. [9]

Alfred Soto: They belong together: figures who inhabit pop, approximate stars, scoring the occasional hit. The haze through which this song emerges has the texture of L.A., its smog and the way pop stars, approximate and otherwise, create cogs in the machinery. Because they hesitate about going for the jugular, "Backseat" takes a back seat to even itself. This is why Carly Rae Jepsen and Charli XCX remain approximate pop stars. [6]

Eleanor Graham: In How To Be A Woman, Caitlin Moran describes "How Soon Is Now" as the sound of The Smiths "speeding past us, light-decked and vast, like the Millennium Falcon." "Backseat" is the daughter and heir of that big, spacey nothing-in-particular. Against the synthy void, light bounces off the industrial clanks and screeches, like a city collapsing in slow motion. The opening lines speak to the cinematic kind of glamour that acknowledges its own hollowness but revels in itself anyway, for a lack of anything else. The parties with strangers won't help you figure it out, but you can look out the window in the backseat and imagine that the neon lights are falling on your face in exactly the way you want them to, imagine yourself as violet-coloured and monumental and extra-planetary as the chorus. [7]

Leah Isobel: Given the overlap in Charli and Carly's audiences and their similar places in the modern pop pantheon, it makes demographic sense that they'd collaborate eventually, though sonically their music isn't all that similar; Charli is all neon-bright pop hook, while Carly is more of a singer-songwriter type. "Backseat" does an admirable job of blending their separate worlds into one as Charli integrates fully into her femmebot act and Carly tugs on the high notes with so much, um, emotion that she runs away with the song, at least until the final third explodes the whole thing in a haze of electronic shrapnel. The secret overlap that makes this all work is that both singers have an intimate knowledge of pop-as-machine, if from different angles. They sing to each other from across an impossible divide, the cyber girl and the real girl, able to comfort each other but not to heal. Pop 2 has bigger and better pop songs, but none sketch out the album's psychodrama quite as thoroughly as this one. [7]

Maxwell Cavaseno: Charli XCX's fans insist that her brand of pop does more than the pop she constantly proves she's incapable of writing consistently -- not because she hasn't tried, but because frankly people who aren't captivated by the thought of Charli XCX don't care. The same could apply to Carly Rae Jepsen, the apparent genius of the straight ahead anthem who can't manage to convince so-called 'stupid normies' she's even made a song since "Call Me Maybe." "Backseat" sounds as uncomfortably unabashed as people who cannot separate their philias from their feelings, as the duo rapturously claw at the neon and chrome slidings like half-magpie half-harpies sounding less like a song and more like jarringly reductive fetish art for so many who've singed their corneas by refreshing their Tumblrs a few too many times, and maybe that's the point. Maybe this is the fitting result for the hyperconnectivity of the 'alt-pop' stars who can't succeed at bridging past the voracious net addicts who enshrine them as stars before they actually soar; their relationship becomes a specific kind of fan-service as tether, and in their desperate symbiosis do their damnedest to ensure that this isn't just fantasy, but that it really matters. [1]

Will Rivitz: A word to the wise: if a song is to arrive at a triumphant moment of climax most of the way through, it needs to merit that high. That is precisely what "Backseat" does, smokily snaking through neon rubble until it soars into the sky with its gorgeous trapdoor bass while the voices of Charli and Carly diffuse into the ether. It's the most gorgeous pop song in a very long while, and it grows and glows so perfectly that every moment feels earned. [9]

Sonia Yang: This is a perfect marriage of my perception of each of their thematic tropes; Jepsen's dreamy pining undercut by Charli's wryness. Even the music seems to echo this: smooth 80s-inspired production characteristic of the former's songs marred just the right amount by darker, more dissonant synths from the latter's work, almost in conjunction with when each vocalist makes her entrance. The true beauty is how distinct their voices sound even under layers of autotune; Jepsen floats and flutters while Charli errs sharp and sardonic. "Backseat" sparkles but isn't saccharine, it's melancholy but not weighty. And like a fever dream, it ends almost as quickly as it began. [8]

Katherine St Asaph: Charli ft. Carly, singing about love and, better yet, the solipsistic swooning of getting lost in songs in cars at night alone -- music-geek fanfic of such a high degree I'm shocked it wasn't previously an Archive Of Our Own category. A. G. Cook still can't quite shake the bratty/saccharine dichotomy through which PC Music tends to cast its singers, but "Backseat" is about as well-executed as it gets. It helps that Charli and Carly push their respective roles into the uncanny -- the former's voice has seldom been so robotically narcotized, the latter approaches Nicola Hitchcock levels of vocal shiver. Extra point for playing their respective accents on "half" off each other; I kinda hope it wasn't planned. [9]

Stephen Eisermann: This is the most compelling I've ever found Carly and it's on a track she's only featured on! The production does wonders for her normally nasally tone and the ethereal production and blend of these two lovely voices is entrancing. The lyrics touch on lost love and a wanting for more, nothing too out of ordinary for either artist, but here it feels especially poignant -- probably due to the production. Plus, the addition of the synths and sparkles towards the end of the song are perfect -- if one could ever turn Carly and Charli's voices into sound effects, it would be that starry/sparkly sound. It's all so... magical. [8]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: PC Music-minded catharsis wherein processed vocals and attention-seeking production turn the humanness of the song into something uncanny, revealing something even more human about our desire to escape a reality that overwhelms us. "Backseat" reaches that blissful headspace in its final chaotic stretch, but it renders the rest of the song a slog in comparison. Even so, Carly's vocals are too clean and (ineffectively) awkward for the track, distracting too much from achieving the same goals that define easyFun and A.G. Cook's other tracks. "I want it all, even if it's fake" sings Charli. I do too, but I'm not convinced they believe it. They're in the back seat... shouldn't they be taking the wheel? [4]

Will Adams: I've made peace with the fact that Charli seemingly has no interest in making an actual album in favor of mixtapes that pour on the feature credits for maximum OMG (hi Carly). But I still can't get past my recent revelation that her current aesthetic is really not far from that of her early mixtapes, only sullied by the PC Music touch: Auto-Tune purée, flat synths and hokey car screeches. [5]

Joshua Copperman: Charli's music leaking (down to her unfinished demos) has become something of an in-joke on Reddit and other sites. If someone told me this was one of the demos, I would believe them. There are some stirring melodies and some nice ear candy moments, but it sounds like AG Cook and co. put so much time into the vocals that they forgot to flesh out the backing track. As a result, not much elevates this above Charli's previous kiss-offs (or Carly's kiss offs.) The biggest letdown is the breakdown at 3:15; there was nothing to actually strip back in the first place, and the synth arpeggio feels like it was obtained from a P.C. Music Synth Presets folder. "Backseat" is still good enough, but frustrating in how close it is to being great. [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

#charli xcx #carly rae jepsen #pc music #pop 2

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bitotrip · 5 years

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A Journey into the History of Iranian Traditional Music

The music of every nation is like a mirror in which social conditions, change and decline of society can be observed. Fine arts represent the emotions and moods of each nation, as the sentiments of the nations, are different; the arts of the people are also distinguished by their spiritual outpourings. Each country has its own music, through which the memories of past times, examples of the emotions of the people in that country emerge, are crystallized. There is no doubt that the antiquity of civilization, the quality of life of various eras, revolutions, events, historical events, joyful memories and sad times of the past have all come together, the music of today.

The role of Music in ancient Iran

In ancient Iran, a group of drums, kosas, and kernas played the sun rising and sinking. In the Avesta section of Yasna, doctors were treating their patients with Iranian music. At that time there were three types of traditional (religious), folk and martial music, as well as special celebrations of nature and national and historical Iranian music. During the Achaemenid era, hymns and songs were sung during the wars and festivities of the same name today in Ilam and western Iran. During the Sassanid era, especially Bahram Gour and Khosro Parviz, musicians worked under the supervision of the Khorramash court minister. At big celebrations, these musicians and songwriters performed various tunes and songs. In the Shahnameh, Bahram Gore brought 10,000 laurels (chariots) from India to Iran for the joy and dignity of the people.

The Evaluation of the Iranian Music

Our music has evolved and adapted to the needs of today’s society due to social conditions, which does not fit today’s society, and now our music is stepping out of the circle of the congregation and taking a stand. So people do not find the song they want, so they go to European music, but because everyone is not good enough to understand it, they like the simplest kind. The musicians and singers who have found their sleeping bag are now listening to us in that style and thus making our music corrupt. As we can see today, there is no news about our music in public assemblies and in cafes, and most people are alienated by music that is part of our culture.

In addition, we do not have local, religious and social music in the true sense of the word. Our music has become uniform and as a result, our music has gradually evolved into a more personal and private environment. Music as a mirror that defines the social situation of our time Unfortunately, dark things happen; we are a nation that has lost religion, happiness and social unity in the true sense of the word, so we need to fix it Find out the shortcomings of our music and prevent it from eroding our national music, which is being eroded by the ever-expanding flood of music. With the current state of our music, we can find a solution to the music and social conditions.

It is noteworthy that in this study we do not seek to resolve the deficiencies and shortcomings of Iranian music, but rather to examine the current state of music through musical examination, through various historical periods and thus to reflect on the social situation. Put ourselves through different periods.

Music in the Achaemenid period

There is no accurate information available on Iranian music during the Achaemenid period, and even in one of the remaining ancient sculptures and carvings of the Achaemenids nothing has been discovered about the music, but one can remember it from ancient civilization. He said that Iran has lagged far behind its contemporary countries, such as Sumer, Babylon, Egypt and Greece. And perhaps the main reason is that music in Iran, unlike other countries, has not received religious support:

Herodotus in his History of the Iranians says:

“The Iranians have no altar to offer their vows and sacrifices to God and their saints, they do not light the sacred fire, they do not sprinkle wine, but one of them comes and reads one of the sacred hymns.”

Herodotus states that religious ceremonies were performed in Iran without music. Although Gatsu’s hymns were sung in a rhythmic manner, music was not of much importance in ancient Iranian religion.

However, the Achaemenids had a special kind of music for war that aroused the sentiments of the troops. Their martial instruments, such as trumpets and drums, were played before the war, and were sung with martial arts that served as a good means of arousing the courage of soldiers on the battlefield.

Iranian Music in Sassanid period

Music flourished in the Sassanid era, both because the Sassanid kings were interested in the development of Iranian civilization and in the development of science and industry during their time, and because of the luxury of the Sasanian monarchy, music was revered and honored especially during that period. Some of the kings of this dynasty, such as Bahram Gour and Khosro Parviz Eshrat, were friendly and welcoming.

Thus, with the popularity of the music and its reputation among the Sassanid kings, the Ramshanists and traitors also found a special place in the Sassanid court. Particularly during the time of Bahram Gore, musicians were part of the privileged class of the country and were superior to other classes of people.

The music of the Sassanid period, especially in the time of Khosrow Parviz, was the most developed. The most famous composers of the period were Khosrow Parviz Sargesh, Barbad and Nakisa.

The invention of Iranian devices is attributed to Barbad, and it appears that he has reformed the old system and adjusted the devices. His position with Khosrow Parviz was to some extent conveyed to the king through anyone who needed it.

However, the progress made in the field of music during the Sassanid era stopped with the arrival of Arabs to Iran. Maybe if the music had continued with this progress it would not have been an obstacle like the invasion of the Arabs and the Mongols; now our music would have been in a higher place.

School of National Music of Iran

A school founded on ancient Iranian music and aided by the principles and techniques of Western music to correct deficiencies and complement Persian music. The composers of this school maintained almost the authenticity of Iranian music and developed and expanded the music in the same way as the old divisions.

Alineqi Vaziri (1265) is the founder of this school. Vaziri is the first to translate Iranian music into notes and has attempted to incorporate harmony into Iranian songs and has composed orchestras and written several books on the principles of Iranian harmony, singing and music theory. One of Vaziri’s major tasks is to bring about a change in Iranian music, and in this case he has adopted a particular way of comparing the monotonous music of the past with a great evolution.

Iranian Classical Music School

A school based on the principles of European classical music, and these composers sought to internationalize Iranian music using local themes and songs without observing quadrants.

After the invention of the phonographs the western music pages came to the Iranian market as a commercial product and a group became acquainted with European music and eventually the invention of the radio became more complete. It became common, but after a while, the classical music came to attention. The publication of newspapers and magazines and information on the status of artists and musicians around the world brought the intellectual class to a major transformation in the art world.

Religious music is one of the oldest forms of this art. The effect of religious prohibition can be seen even in the work of Iranian instrument makers; Iranian instruments are smaller than European instruments. (For example, tomboys compared to drums) They are also less intense, our percussion range eventually reaching three and a half to four octaves, while the piano, for example, has seven octaves. The reason for this can be explained that because the music was boycotted, musicians had to practice in a way that the sound of the song would not reach the neighbor’s ear, and this even affected our listening taste; we also liked the loud music. We consider. In addition, the instruments needed to be small in order to be easily hidden.

The post A Journey into the History of Iranian Traditional Music appeared first on BitoTrip.

source https://bitotrip.com/iranian-traditional-music/

#Iran tour packages

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shemakesmusic-uk · 4 years

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This segment features artists who have submitted their tracks/videos to She Makes Music. If you would like to be featured here then please send an e-mail to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!

Dahlia

Dahlia is an Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter and the music she creates is a hybrid of trip-hop, R&B and witch house with lyrics which focus on mental health and bizarre life experiences. Alongside Jordan Russell-Hall on production and Jamie Clapton on drums and live arrangements they are influenced by the forward thinking sounds and attitudes of FKA Twigs, SOPHIE and Young Fathers. Dahlia has just released the double single 'Clarity' / 'Slip Slowly' and here is what she had to say on the offering: "I chose to release these two songs together because they are bookends to a time in my life when I was learning how to identify toxic behaviours in others and unlearn them in myself—shout out to the queens of boundaries themselves Florence Given and Michelle Elman for that one. Opening up dialogues about mental health is something that’s very important to me and my music and these songs demonstrate that. I grew up singing Gaelic folk songs. I’ve found this style of singing and the storytelling style of songwriting has woven it’s way into my current way of working. I’m also heavily influenced by late ‘90s and early 2000s sounds and aesthetics like Portishead but also more contemporary sounds like FKA Twigs and Sevdaliza. These two songs are a marriage of all these things with a little Dido drama at the end for good measure." Listen below.

Gillian Stone

Gillian Stone is a Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist who aims to reconcile tenderness and dark emotion in her work. Her music is an exploration of inner and outer landscapes, turbulent feelings, recovery, and the juxtaposition of femininity and imperfection. She uses vulnerability to create a safe space to explore the dichotomy of beauty and discomfort. Her background in jazz and ethnomusicology has heavily influenced her work. Her upbringing on Vancouver Island also led her to Coast Salish hip hop and the soundscape and scene of the Cascadian bioregion. Stone uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore disparate genres in order to produce a singular sonic environment. New song 'Bridges' is the soundscape of recovery. "I wrote this song in 2009 after a summer of self-imposed turbulence," says Gillian. "I don't remember exactly when or how I wrote it, but it stayed with me and became predictive. For over a decade, I've returned to it as a space to safely express shame. Now it's morphing into a reminder, a call for self-temperance. I'm still discovering what it means. 'Bridges' follows a journey of dysregulated emotions exacerbated by alcohol abuse. The e-cello movement is meant to evoke the feeling of losing one's mind. This is a post-rock night song that ends with a promise of the sun." Listen below.

Gillian Stone · Bridges

Jenna Kearns

Jenna Kearns is a disabled songwriter from South Wales. She has rheumatoid arthritis and spent a lot of time as a young child in and out of hospital, having treatments, tests and operations. She grew up and has lived in a small town most of her life. "I’ve always had music in my life in one way or another but when I was younger it was musical theatre," says Jenna. "It was while studying at university that my passion for writing songs became my main focus." She worked with a songwriter/producer in Leamington Spa and it was there she wrote her first EP Time Has Passed which was released in July 2016. Last year in 2019 the title track of the EP was used on the TV show Dance Moms. During lockdown since March she has been writing nonstop with different songwriters/producers. "I now have such an incredible team behind me that I’m very excited for the near future as a disabled artist," she says. "Personally for me being a disabled artist in the industry who cannot get out of her wheelchair the biggest challenge has really been access into studios/songwriting spaces. The studio I worked with on my first EP wasn’t accessible however it was a simple fix they had someone build ramps for me to be able to access the parts of the studio needed." 'Thank you' is the latest single from Jenna. Co-written with and produced by hotly tipped singer/songwriter Joe Dolman, 'Thank You' is a new spin on the damaging effects of toxic relationships. Offering a positive outlook on this negative experience, the song thanks someone for showing their true intentions. "This year during my 8 months of shielding, I've been writing loads, creating an identity and really honing in on my sound and skills. Part of what makes me unique is being a female disabled artist, having a physical disability people don't see that much disability representation within the music industry, physical disabilities even less so. Talking about disabled creatives or in my case disabled artist will push forward barriers, because I simply do not want to be seen as just the disabled girl, but want to find those who are about inclusivity and talent." Listen to 'Thank You' below.

Jenna Kearns · Thank You - Next Single 13th november

Total Brutal

Total Brutal is the new indie pop solo project from Los Angeles based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emily Moore. Moore is known as a professional touring musician, having shared the stage with the likes of Grammy award-winning band FUN, Børns, Ella Vos, X Ambassadors and many more. With the goal of spreading positivity and self-empowerment, Total Brutal has an ethos of standing up for yourself in order to be heard and seen, facing fears head on and being comfortable in your own skin. Her latest single 'Egypt' is an 80’s tinged song, reminiscent of Phoenix meets Fleetwood Mac. Oozing with soaring harmonies and warm, muted vocals, the funk-fueled track shimmers brightly, creating the ultimate dance-worthy anthem. 'Egypt' narrates trying to get the feeling back of being a kid and the excitement of what the future holds. Nowadays we live in fear of the uncertainty, wanting to bury our heads and hide ourselves away. Moore confides, “I constantly need to remind myself to play more and lighten up. It’s easy to get lost in the seriousness of life but I want to go through life having fun and viewing everything with curiosity.” The sun-soaked track succeeds in lifting spirits, certain to put a smile on your face from the very get go. Inspired by strong female artists, Total Brutal is determined to help other young women make their worth known and their voices heard. She shares, “It took me a really long time to understand that I am allowed to speak up, have opinions and speak directly. I’m starting to realize that I can be myself and be liked and professional all the same. I want to help foster that adventurous spirit and confidence in young women!” Listen to 'Egypt' below.

Total Brutal · Egypt

Kate Boothman

Hailing from The Ganaraska Forest in Southern Ontario, horse trainer turned singer-songwriter, Kate Boothman, emerges with her forthcoming sophomore record, My Next Mistake this fall. Recorded at producer, Thomas Knox D’Arcy’s, Taurus Recording, over 2 snowy weeks in January, 2019, Kate and Thom made what they referred to in the studio as a “massage rock” record. Writing as they went, Kate and Thom’s life-long friendship enabled them to tuck into their shadows. This provided them with instant fodder for the moody narrative that Kate delivers as part prayer, part animal, and entirely her own. This sits nicely against the sweeping strings, heavy bass, twangy guitars, organ swells and sometimes thunderous drums that make the trippy washed out folk scape reminiscent of something Lee Hazelwood would have dreamed up with the help of Mazzy Star. Latest single '17' "is one of those songs that emerged fully formed," says Kate. "It's about that confidence and arrogance that comes with being a spicy youth, and then all of a sudden you're an adult and you realize you knew nothing. You look back and can't help but examine everything you've learned and lost. I wrote '17' after a particularly heavy day during a particularly heavy time in my life. I was overworked, overwhelmed, underslept, heartbroken, and generally confused. I got home late, laid down on the floor, and when I got up, wrote the song in 20 minutes. My songs come fast, but they build up slowly. Festering away inside until they simply can't be contained." Listen below.

Kate Boothman · 17

Clara Byrne

Clara Byrne is a socialist singer-songwriter from Bray. She seeks her lyrical inspiration in the world around her and seeks solitude from that world in the music she creates. 'Conflict Bound' is her first single from her upcoming debut album Handstitched. Clara on 'Conflict Bound': "In a world filled with juxtaposed opinions and clashing ideals, it is getting progressively harder to know where to stand. It can be nearly impossible not to get bogged down in fighting the opposition or slaving towards winning small mercies. It all seems so vast, so utterly impossible to grasp. But there are rare occasions when a clearing appears through the density. These moments when everything is laid out in its most digestible form, is worth waiting for. The woods briefly comes into view and with it a sense that it is all so obvious.We cannot go on like this, in this pressure cooker waiting to be boiled alive. We are heading towards a grand finale; the likes of which mankind has never seen before. As we navigate through the late stages of capitalism, its true face appears clearer now than ever before; we the people are expendable. And like the true dying beast that it is, it will not go down easy. It will not go down alone. Don’t let it’s dying cries drown out what has become clear to you; we’re conflict bound." Listen below.

Conflict Bound by Clara Byrne

Just Costa

For Just Costa, music is just the ticket — to their own sonic theme park. "We call it Just Costa Land," quips Jesse Just Costa, who leads the Montreal outfit with sister Juliana. "We want to bring the sense of an amusement park to our music. The excitement, the enthusiasm, the joie de vivre; that's what we're bringing to life." They have all the building blocks they need. First and foremost are their vocals: Hers clear, supple and sweetly flowing, his lightly sanded and breezy. They blend with the grace and beauty of siblings who finish each other's sentences. Then there are the songs: Richly melodic, lyrically life-affirming and — most crucially — irresistibly groovy. Laced with Jesse's tasteful guitar work, crafted from an amalgam of contemporary R&B, soul, funk, pop and more, their tracks can hold their own next to hits from Bruno Mars, Michael Jackson and Khalid. Enjoy the ride. "'514' is our ode to the beautiful city of Montreal," say the dup of their latest single. "Our hometown's energy is creative and electric. The people are kind and open – you can feel the joie de vivre in the air, especially in the summertime. If your city inspires you, pushes you to open your heart and do better, then this song is for you. This is our first fully self-produced single, recorded in our own studio, with some help from the retro synth wizard himself, Paul Shrofel. The beauty of a song about a city is that everyone has their own unique stories and experiences within that city. Montreal has no lack of open-mindedness, artsiness, or beautiful people, and this city is an ongoing narrative that threads through the story of our own lives."

Just Costa · 514

#submission saturday #dahlia #gillian stone #jenna kearns #total brutal #kate boothman #clara byrne #just costa

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onestowatch · 5 years

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Discover 13 DIY Artists Doing It All

Streaming is king, influence is worth its weight in gold, and there has never been a better time to be a DIY artist. With the rise of platforms like Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram, and an ever-growing list of outlets that allow for artists to connect directly with fans, the day and age of major labels serving as gatekeepers between people and music is seemingly nearing its end. While major labels are by no means obsolete, DIY artists are estimated to generate over a one billion this year, a number that increases with each concurrent year.

Beyond the idea of just existing a financially feasible option for artists nowadays, the notion of going completely DIY or signing to an independent label has given form to a musical landscape that shows no qualms in playing with the notion of recklessly bending genres or exploring newfound sonic territory. In celebration of a new wave of artists who are making the music they want to make, we present to you 13 DIY artists doing it all + an accompanying playlist for your everyday inspiration.

Aries

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“how i made a hit song with a TRASH BEAT (SAYONARA).” Chances are you may have first stumbled upon Aries and one of his similarly titled YouTube videos before ever hearing his music. First cultivating an avid fanbase on YouTube with a series of instructional videos that varied from parody to hinting at the producing genius of the enigmatic artist, Aries’ rise to inevitable fame has been nothing short of unconventional. In similar fashion, his infectious and perfectly indescribable blend of alternative, emo, hip-hop, and electronic has gone on to rack him up plays in the tens of millions, while still remaining completely independent.

Choker

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The endless comparisons to Frank Ocean may simply be because, much like the first time we heard Ocean ourselves, there is simply no worldly comparison to be found when it comes to describing Choker’s heavenly sonic musings. Yet, to simply call Choker the next Frank Ocean would be to do the genre-bending artist a grave disservice. Effortlessly blending elements of pop and atmospheric R&B with a voice that is sure to stop you in your tracks, Choker is an artist not to be slept on. This is music that is the very definition of timeless, existing lightyears beyond its time.

girl in red

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Perfectly imperfect may just be the best way to describe girl in red’s music. Chronicling the lived realities of Marie Ulven, a teenage queer icon for queer teenagers and beyond, girl in red’s music arrives as a perfect blend of lo-fi rock and bedroom pop. Tracks like “i wanna be your girlfriend” and “girls” feel like they could have been ripped straight from the pages of anyone’s teenage diary with their intimate nature and candid lyrics. Circumventing the major label route, there is an undeniable honesty to her work. girl in red in the sort of artist we have needed for ages.

LAUNDRY DAY

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LAUNDRY DAY has turned a captivation with the all-minded approach of musical and cultural savants BROCKHAMPTON and Tyler, the Creator into a veritable mission statement. The New York five-piece outfit is not just seeking to create their own inventive style, but they want to be a band that, much like their initial inspirations, simply does it all. With countless hours already clocked in their bedroom studios, LAUNDRY DAY has emerged with a collection of music that illustrates a breathtaking range and capacity for evolution. We have no idea what exactly to expect from LAUNDRY DAY, but we can promise it will be big.

beabadoobee

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The shift away from major labels has brought not only a wealth of promising talent through new mediums, but has seen an explosion in artists who may not fit your typical pop mold finding homes at independent labels. beabadoobee is one of these artists. Signed to independent label Dirty Hit, the same people who gave us The 1975 and Pale Waves, the 18-year-old phenom crafts music that blends all the melancholy of any of the best bedroom-pop recordings with the raw edge of lo-fi ‘90s indie rock. The end result is a nostalgic yet novel to indie music for Gen Z and beyond.

Deb Never

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Deb Never stands at the forefront of one of music’s fastest growing genre-bending subcultures. Carving out a niche for herself in the nebulous world of grunge meets dark pop, the Los Angeles artist’s delicate vocals skirt across ominous atmospheric production to deliver a musical vision that gives credence to the phrase “putting you in your feels.” As to be expected from the first female signing to WEDIDIT, Never’s music carries with it a palpable emotional weight, yet still finds a way to come across as light as air.

Sam.Sts

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The next Rex Orange County may just be a teenager out of Indiana who goes by the name Sam.Sts. Releasing his first-ever series of singles while still navigating the treacherous waters of life known as high school, the bedroom-produced track “Applesauce” would go on to rack up over a million plays without any major label or outside support. Whether that be due to the references to King Krule and Dragon Ball or the sun-drenched nature of the whole affair is yet to be seen, but one thing is for certain, you need to be keeping your eye on Sam.Sts.

mxmtoon

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mxmtoon came to music for the same reason so many people flock to the art form: a place to escape from day-to-day life. Self-described as rhyming diary entries, the Oakland-based artist’s idyllic musings doubled as both nigh-perfect acoustic pop songs and a way for mxmtoon to express everything she was unable to say in her face-to-face interactions. The result was plum blossom, a debut EP recorded alone in her parents’ guest room that stroke a chord with millions. Now, set to release her debut album the masquerade this fall, mxmtoon’s rhyming diary entries are poised to take a worldwide stage.

Ultra Q

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It would be impossible to make a worthwhile list of DIY artists doing it all without giving a nod to the guitar-driven punk bands that practically coined the term “DIY.” And one of the best bands to emerge in 2019 from that space is without a doubt Ultra Q. Formerly known as Mt. Eddy, the teenage punk band returned from an indefinite hiatus that saw the four-piece outfit finishing high school and returning with a fully-realized musical vision. With only a pair of singles to their name, “Gool” and “redwood,” there is plenty to be excited about when it comes to the future of Ultra Q.

Tessa Violet

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Long gone are the days of a major record label telling you what you need to be listening to. The rise of platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and plenty more have given way to previously unconceived methods for artists to connect directly with fans. YouTube vlogger turned pop phenom Tessa Violet is one of these such artists who has turned her platform into a means of delivering euphoric moments of indie pop–flavored bliss. First striking gold with the DIY viral music video for “Crush,” which saw Violet transforming a family friend’s grocery market into one of the most eye-catching videos of 2018, the rising star has gone on to release a series of singles that have shown her veritable future in the world of pop.

khai dreams

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Truth be told, there is little I can tell you about khai dreams beyond how his music makes you feel, which is to say serene. The musical project of a half-Vietnamese singer-songwriter born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, khai dreams blends acoustic and electronic elements to superb effect. As if to exist in stark contrast to the overcast and rain that permeates so many projects from the Pacific Northwest, there is an inescapable warmth to every one of his tracks, even when those same tracks see him at his most wistful. To listen to khai dreams i tso give yourself over to his endless summer.

Yeek

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If you were to ask what music sounds like in 2019, you may very well arrive at Yeek as your answer. The Los Angeles–based singer, songwriter, and producer originally from South Florida is thriving in a genre-less era. Blending distinctive elements of hip-hop, lo-fi, alternative rock, and pop-minded R&B with a reckless abandon, Yeek’s otherworldly amalgamation of sounds and moods come to life on the track. Seeming to never waste a moment in any of his impeccable genre-bending ventures, Yeek’s music is a deep-dive into the mind of a post-genre savant.

Los Retros

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The rise of DIY music has allowed for a greater representation of cultures and voices that have for far too long been underrepresented in mainstream music. In the vein of artists like Cuco and The Marías, Mauri Tapia, who goes by the moniker Los Retros, is drawing upon ‘70s soft rock and leftfield Chilean pop to create a soundscape that spans generations of influence. Signed to independent record label Stones Throw, the 19-year-old Los Angeles artist may have only just finished high school, but his heartfelt songs are set to carry him to places far beyond far the horizon.

#diy #Aries #choker #girl in red #laundry day #beabadoobee #deb never #sam.sts #mxmtoon #ultra q #tessa violet #khai dreams #yeek #los retros #do it yourself

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allmannerofnerdery · 7 years

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So, what kind of music do you like...

The "what kind of music do you like" question is always pretty weird for me, and I get it a lot. I know you didn't ask specifically, but here goes. I can just point to this the next time I'm asked 😆

I listen to composers for the most part, and I like them for their abilities, and not necessarily for a style, sound, or genre. It's why I'm not so much into listening to artists or performers that aren't writing their own music. That's boxed/can recipe vs scratch cooking in my view, and really a separate topic for later.

I can get down with performance-based music sometimes but it's rarely fulfilling for me. I'm not a fan of any band, really. And while this is changing for me lately, pattern-based stuff falls flat most times. I don't hate electronic music, and some people out there are doing amazing things, but it rarely fills me up. I like some singer/songwriters but most are doing more singing than writing these days and this takes me back to the performance-based point. (To be fair, there are tons of older singer/songwriters that I love.)

Saying all of this makes me sound like some kind of music snob so I just kind of duck out of these conversations most times. It's not like I need contemporary jazz to feel like I'm hearing "real music." Some of that is great, some of it is amazing and inspiring, and some of it is just musical wankery of "the language"...ok, now I'm really sounding like a snob.

I love some pop, I love some old funk, vintage R&B is so fun, but man... those aren't my music tastes. I don't go to Streaming Service A and pull up the Genre Channel and expect to be fully satisfied. That's the weirdest thing in the world to me. Saying that I dig Bobby Brown's "Roni" doesn't mean that I every old 90s R&B song. I certainly wouldn't say that I was an R&B fan. I certainly don't want some algorithm picking out artists/songs like this for me.

I just don't have stylistic preferences in mind when I seek out new music. I kinda don't get these mini genres of mood or feel or synthwave or chip tune or whatever. All of those things are cool, but to me it's like the dining world trends of new pho or ramen or hot pot places. You just want Noodle Dish X, I guess. That's fine. Great. But I'm like, yo, like, who out there legit makes their own broth? How long have they been doing that? That's what I care about. Not the style.

No genre! Cereal! I love video game music and it's kind of a go-to for me, but a lot of it is also total shit! I like it and am interested in it as both a gamer and someone that composes it for a living. I love it for its depth and range and creativity. But I don't love it because it's music from games. This will probably be unpopular with some, but I think that's silly. I love video game music because the people behind it are some of the most creative composers out there. They're quietly making magic year round, and it all stays tucked in the background of some other entertainment form. How cool is that?

I'd guess the assumption would be that I'd only make video game music if my schedule were cleared for the rest of time. Nah. It would be genre-less. Probably ranging from sappy love ballads written for my baritone voice (too many damned tenors in pop music IMO) to sweeping symphonic piano/string super heartstring pull-y instrumentals. I'd write songs about other people's situations. Piano-only musings. I'd score someone's photography. I'd write dog songs. I'd do anything to dig down creatively and potentially move someone. And that's what I'm also looking for as a listener.

Some people say this and sometimes it's bullshit but for me it's really true -- I don't have a genre or style preference. I'm totally open to anything. But I have super, super strong preferences on the intent, creativity, musicality, and philosophy of the music I listen to. I will listen to anything, but I'll have decided right away if it's something that moved me so much that I'll need to listen to it 35 more times that day before I'm satisfied.

I mean, I guess everyone has a sound that they like. I do too. But that's way less important to me than listening to something that makes me emotional. I want to get choked up. And I suppose 40 years of polished chops going into a guitar solo might could do that, but that's not enough for me. I'm looking for that mastery of music that brings a thousand little elements together to make rare sound magic. Keep your grooves and riffs and hooks. I want to be amazed on every level. I want to feel wholly inadequate as a composer. I want to look up at the sky on a walk later that evening and be like, damn, I need to listen to that again.

Short answer: I like super music-y music. Hyper artistic, creative, emotional music. I'm a huge dork.

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zahra-kha · 3 years

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Dear Diary 35

So many things have happened, I admit I haven’t felt very motivated to record things in here.

Where should I begin?

We had one final Plume night before some things happened (I’ll get to that). It was a good night! Well, until the end when Erith drugged Jasper so he wouldn’t go off hunting for another spot to bleed and probably get bled. That man...he’s got such a good head on his shoulders and then sometimes I wanna take him by those same shoulders and give him a good shake. I wonder what it is he’s seeking when he constantly goes off hunting for fight after fight, even when he’s been injured so. Not that I’ll stop him, I don’t have the heart (he’s got this look that I’ve yet to build an immunity to. I’m working on it!), but I also feel it’s not my place. I’m glad there’s others like Erith who can step in when they think he goes too far.

I brought over some herbs and whatever else I thought would help for druggings to Tyme’s place where he and Quin are staying. Not my area of expertise, so I tried to bring whatever I could. Mama sends me a lot of things with her care packages, a lot of it I don’t think I need but she says it’s good for adventurers. I guess some of it came in handy!

There were the semi-finals! A grudge match against the Storm Sirens. They played a good game and we lost fair and square. I had fun, and hopefully everyone else did too. I think there were definitely some heavy feelings. Laguna had it out for Hath for some reason, and of course Scorpius still has some lingering feelings of...understandable resentment towards Khallendra. Maybe they’ll be able to come to terms? Someday?

Bitey is acting his namesake and has started chewing on everything he can find around my apartment - excluding all of the chew toys I’ve bought for him. I swear to gods he’s doing it on purpose. I do have a pen for him, but at first he’d been chewing through the wood and waiting until I’d get ready to leave before busting out and taking off. He’d run through the halls and out to the lobby, flapping and squawking and being a slippery little shite. The first time he did it of course perfect timing happened and someone was walking in from outside and he bolted.

So I had to chase him throughout the Mists. Do you know how fast chocobo chicks are? I found out. Really fucking fast, apparently.

I bought a steel pen after that. He’s been pooping in his pen in protest but he’ll get over it. He can just be stinky while I’m gone. We’ll come to an accord. It’s a slow process. He’s a baby and I’m patient. I just have to get used to cleanings and chocobaths when I get back home.

I’ve been taking him to training lessons in the Shroud of late. he’s been taking well to them. Less poopings now, thank the gods.

I had a few shows this month. I dedicated one of my songs to my friends at the Lucky show, because they’ve been such a profound part of my life since coming to Eorzea, and they’ve helped me through so much. I don’t know how I would have been able to process everything that’s happened to me if they hadn’t been there to gently bring me back to my feet.

I’m writing another song for a pride concert that I hope will be inspirational too. It’s a bit hard for me to write it in common though, so I think I’ll write it in Hannish and see where it goes.

Ah, there was also an incident with Gail. One night, our pearls went off loudly with an alert that something had happened to her. We (myself, Jasper, and Quin) headed off to the location that had been announced to see what’d happened. After avoiding some creepy dolls guarding the entrance (I think they unnerved Jasper the most, while Quin seemed largely unaffected), we managed to locate Gail at one of her safe houses(?) largely unharmed. She’d been injured during a mission out with her moms and something had happened with the armor she’d created.

It was a huge scare, but I’m just glad she’s alright. We managed to get her to her place and resting properly. I hope she takes our advice and stays in a safer place and doesn’t go around alone so much until whatever danger she’s in with her group passes. I’m worried.

Not too long ago, I received my last pay from the Plume. Leih decided to pursue her own interests - she wants to travel! I can understand that, wanderlust is a very real thing. I’ll miss the Plume terribly. I met all of my friends there(and Gin Mill, I believe), and it was there that I outgrew my reservations about fighting. I learned a lot from the fighters there, and I grew a deep respect for everyone, and I just overall had a lot of fun. Goodbye Radiant Plume, my second home!

I also decided to end my apprenticeship with Lucky. I don’t think I’m in the right headspace to be with a troupe right now. Sahrin returned and after...confronting him, I realized I was so heartbroken, I felt so betrayed, and just...everything feels in shambles. It feels wrong to continue running into the arms of another troupe and dedicating myself to them when I’m throwing when I’m still trying to figure out when I need to move on from their betrayal [There’s continued attempts to finish her thoughts that are scribbled out]. I just can’t do it. I need time to sort out who I am and where I want to be. Of course, I still want to perform, I just think I need to do that as Zahra. Not as Zahra of X Troupe. At least not until I can feel comfortable with what a family means to me again.

Because what Sahrin had? That wasn’t it.

I need to write a letter to the others to see if they can come by to speak with Sahrin. I know they’ll want answers.

My performance at the Still & Strings was great. People really liked my first one. Almost all of us opened up about ourselves since it was pride. I talked about myself a bit, how I was pansexual, and how while I can be flirty, I don’t form a genuine attraction to someone unless a bond over time is formed. So while of course I can appreciate someone’s looks, what truly matters to me when it comes to the heart is who that person is. I even mentioned I had someone I liked because I think I was losing my mind - or perhaps I was just in the moment. We were all sharing.

My second performance went off without a hitch and it was probably the best performance I’ve had since I’ve been here in Eorzea. I was very happy about that, as it was a song Martin helped suggest to me, and I see them as a mentor figure. The Stills crew have been very kind to me since I’ve started performing there, and I’d like to think I’ve grown a lot. At least when it comes to performing.

I think in everything else I have bees in my head that tells me to do dumb things. We’ll just say I was riding on the high of the performance and the feel-good of the moment with everyone at Pride when I decided to write Jasper a letter to invite him to the Pride Street Festival with me. Which I thankfully fumbled to an invitation for everyone so I’m pretty sure it’ll be fine. Maybe the moogles had mercy on me and didn’t even deliver it. They’re moogles.

I want to focus on the Bozja front. I’d also like to throw myself into some songwriting and take a break for a while. I need to get my thoughts in better order, and I still have to get to the bottom of everything going on. I can’t do that if my attention is divided all over the place. So next month outside of the BBQ for the resistance and maybe another show if one pops up, I plan not to do any shows and just focus on writing music and helping the resistance with anything they may need. Maybe by then everything will finally be settled and I’ll know where I stand. Or at least, I’ll know where I want to start walking.

Because the question remains: Now that I’m not a part of the troupe, should I go back home? What’s keeping me here, now that I’m no longer on tour?

#ic #zahra's diary #zahra kouris #zahra kha

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readablenoise · 5 years

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Running With The Sound: An Interview with WD-HAN

The Tampa Bay based trio bring the infamous ‘wall of sound’ back into the rock genre, with passion, love and starlight in their wake

Florida- There is a sound stirring. Somewhere, in the far off distance, something has re-awakened.

As dormant as it may have been, it's power is immediate; visceral. Like a great thunderclap ringing through the night, or perhaps like the literal clap of thousands of open palms and readied feet, waiting for the right power to carry throughout the area walls.

It isn't the trailer for a new film, but the definition of arena rock. Iit has always been there, powerful and omnipotent, it's an art form that while debtatable, cannot be denied for the level of skill it requires. To compose songs built for the amps, not Spinal Tap loud but resonant in it's immediate response, and most important of all, sounds that can carry universal feeling. These are the sounds that shaped your youth; the ones you watched on the media of your choice in live concerts and left running in the background as you mouthed every word, or else simply sat in front of the TV and just wondered how that was possible. To create something so vibrant, so powerful that you can feel the bass heavy thumps from the amps in your chest, just as if you were at the barrier.

Whether it was U2, New Order, Muse, Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Killers or any of the other rock giants, the inspiration level stemming from your speakers or otherwise even more magical, in person, is irrefutable. This is live music at it’s best; and yet one of the most notable points of interest is there have arguably been no bands formed within the last 10 years that have been able to accomplish this task.

Arena brand rock has somehow become a less purveyed form, partially due to level of ambition associated with it; legend has become legend and while many bask in the light from the trailblazers, most neglect the fact that the stairs to that pantheon are still there. Waiting for those with musical hearts of reckless abandon, arrows shot toward the moon and happy even just to remain in the same gravity as the stars themselves.

And it’s here, we enter WD-HAN. The best band you haven’t heard of...yet. For the pun worthy remark that the name is cleverly an abbreviation for “We Don’t Have A Name” and the sheer fact that the Tampa based trio are ready to burst into their own, with songs that once listened to even once, will have you asking “How have they not played Staples Center yet?”.

With humbleness and a love for what they do, in addition to the already lovely and potent chemistry of vocalist/guitarist Spencer Barnes, drummer Lea Campbell, and bassist Cal Henry, it results in something truly special. With two albums under their belt and a third soon to be released, their tracks bear the hallmarks of the greats, and all the heart and thunder of Greek heroes. We speak with the act on their inspirations, the current state of rock, and their sparkling future...

First and foremost, the question that must be asked. Does WD-HAN still not have a name, as abbreviated?

Spencer Barnes: Ha! It's one of those mysteries that may never be solved... What we know for now is that the official name of the band is just WD-HAN and it stands for "We Don't Have a Name." I have no idea if that means we have a name or not. We're just going to keep playing music and let everyone else decide.

Your music is a perfect mix of something like Neon Trees, that grime of The Black Keys and bombast of The Killers, accessible in the best of ways with a touch of complimentary pop. Do you feel pop in any genre should cease to be a dirty word, and more a recognized/respected as a style that has just as much potential to explore and grow in?

Spencer: I really don't agree with any sort of musical snobbery, for a couple of reasons. First, being an artist means being able to find the beauty and worth in things, and though I might not seek out pop music that often, in its time and place it can be a ton of fun! Second, listening to as much different music as possible forms the bows in my songwriting quiver. For me as a lyricist I think good pop music is a distilled and sometimes impatient version of what's good about songwriting. It is popular music after all, so I see it as something I can learn from and becomes part of a balance in my songwriting.

Cal Henry: Yes, absolutely! Artists are artists and they should create what they want, regardless of what genre it is. The world needs more art!

You have a new single out, what influenced that track and what has been on your playlists as of late?

Spencer: The new song is called Summertime Star Sign and it's the story of me losing a loved one and not getting a chance to say goodbye before he passed away. Actually, more like not making the chance and not realizing I didn't have more time to see him. This song is really me saying goodbye. It's a sad subject, but the song is hopeful as well and I think a lot of people will be able to relate to it.

My favorite band at the moment is Young the Giant. They're incredible and I think their songwriting and production is so dynamic.

How long have you been together as a band, and how did you get acquainted with one other?

Spencer: We all met in high school, and have been playing together since. I think my first gig with the band was in 2007? Wow, it's been a long time! For us, though, this isn't something we're doing for a while in college, and we're not all playing in 6 bands hoping one of them makes it. We'll be playing together as WD-HAN until we physically can't anymore.

Lea Campbell: We originally met in high school and have been together ever since! About 12.5 years. Wow, I feel old now!

Spencer, you're from Australia. A question we are always interested to know is how a scene has influenced a person as it's where you grow as a person that is a big part of the design in the art you create. The Aussie scene has yielded quite a boastful arsenal of artists with that big, crisp sound that is also present in your music. How does the scene there compare to here, and what have you taken from it?

Spencer: I grew up in Melbourne, which has an amazing music scene. However, I was pretty young when my family moved to the US so I didn't get much chance to experience it. The music scene I did get to see first hand was Florida in the mid 2000s, which was huge in the metal genre. At that time, more than anything for us it was an exercise in persistence and belief in what we were doing vs others, as our style of music wasn't that common in our area. Nowadays, the music scene in Florida is amazing and we've been able to meet and play shows with a ton if incredible bands. It's a great place to be from as an artist!

Lea and Cal, the same question to you both; where did you grow up, and what were the moments that made you want to become an artist?

Lea: I'm originally from Michigan but did most of my growing up in San Jose, CA and Clearwater, FL. I was lucky enough to grow up in a musical household with a dad who plays guitar and drums. A set of drums appeared in our house one Christmas when I was 14. I immediately began jamming with my dad and eventually joined WD-HAN

Cal: I was born in New Jersey and moved to the Tampa Bay area when I was six. So most of my growing up was done here in Florida! I decided to become a musician after hearing Jimi Hendrix. Playing our first show was another big moment for me, that adrenaline rush was something I hadn’t experienced before and I wanted to do it again and again!

One of the reasons for this project is to not only reinforce how strong Florida's music scene truly is, but to bring it more together in support of local bands supporting other local acts. What are some of your favorite local acts right now?

Spencer: Honey, What?, Kodiac, Lions After Dark, Napoleon the Wilderness, The Bad Verbs, Highland Kites...so many and they seem to keep coming up more and more now.

Cal: Ashley Smith and TRO, HoneyWhat and Tides of Man. We have some good friends in those bands and they’re great musicians too!

There is a growing, and more acknowledged presence of women in the music industry, especially behind the kit with an example of Leah Shapiro, Kim Schifino, and yourself Lea. Who were some of your female inspirations in music, and who are some of your current favorites?

Lea: Aw, thank you! It is a HUGE honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as those guys! I have been inspired by so many badass musicians out there, guys AND girls. Brad Hargreaves (Third Eye Blind), HAIM, Alanis Morrissette, Dolores O'Riordan (The Cranberries), Dead Sara, Emma Richardson (Band Of Skulls), Juliet Simms, Wendy Ann Melvoin (Prince), Hayley Williams (Paramore) and SO MANY MORE!

And following up with that question, what would be your advise to any female musicians who are just starting to either get into music, or the scene in general?

Lea: Pick up an instrument and start playing it! Don't be shy. You can even learn some of your favorite songs on YouTube! Then start playing with friends or find some other musicians. Chances are, they would be stoked to have you jam with them! Share your recording or videos on social sites and just get crankin!!!

What is the most surprising influence each of you have?

Spencer: I don't know that I have many really surprising ones! I do like a lot of the old crooner music, like Sinatra, Davis Jr., Martin.

Lea: Beyonce. Of course.

Cal: Biggie, Jay-Z and Lupe Fiasco

Arena rock is an avenue we're seeing less and less of due to a variety of reasons: the decline of rock radio stations, the desire to follow in the footsteps of it's forerunners or a diversion to the mainstream.

Spencer: Wow, what a question! I think when I'm performing I'm not necessarily thinking about how I fill the room, other than I want the people there to get something from me. It doesn't have to be a literal listening to every word, but I want them to feel what we're trying to say as a band. A concert is amazing because it's a conversation, it's an ebb and flow. I play that way whether it's 50 people or thousands.

Cal: Wow, thank you for comparing us to U2! That's incredibly high praise. We all have a shared reality of the kind of music we want to make and have made in the past. We all love Rock music. Each of us have a good idea of what interests the others so when we’re all excited about a song it’s a good sign. I love playing and creating music with Spencer and Lea. And we just create the kind of music we love to play.

I personally don’t have the idea that rock is dying. There are so many great bands still making incredible music today. For example I’ve been listening to Third Eye Blind’s new album, “Screamer” every day since it came out. They started in the 90’s and are still going strong! Their first album was the first CD I ever got

What would be a dream band to tour alongside, or a producer you'd like to work with?

Spencer: I'd love to tour with Young the Giant or Third Eye Blind. I just think what they do is amazing and it'd be a hell of a show every night for us to share the stage with them! As far as producers, we have been really fortunate with the ones we have worked with so I've got no complaints. I would love to work with Jeff Bhasker and Alex Salibian, producers of Home of The Strange for YTG, though!

Cal: There are so many! Beck, Third Eye Blind, Walk the Moon, John Mayer, Oh Wonder, Young the Giant, Coldplay... Ryan Tedder would be amazing to work with and Justin Meldal-Johnsen too! And of course Alex Arias!

You've toured Asia to a great degree of success. Having been, how do you feel music is received there, and how does it differ from the US?

Spencer: We’ve specifically been to Taiwan three times and I can't even describe how amazing that island is. The people there are incredibly kind to any foreigner and their reception of us was no different. If we looked lost in the street, within 30 seconds someone would ask if we needed help! When we played music, that carried through and they were so appreciative. We were the ones honored to be there, and they were treating us like U2 had come to town. It was surreal.

Is there a country you'd like to tour to in the future?

Spencer: Anywhere and everywhere. I can't wait to tour Europe, but if we get the opportunity to play anywhere that it's reasonably safe to do so, I'd do it.

Lea: I would love to tour in the UK! What history!

Cal: Italy - the food over there is incredible!

What's your favorite song you've written thus far and why?

Spencer: That’s cruel! Seems funny, but my favorite is usually the one we most recently wrote. Right now, Summertime Star Sign would be it, just because it's such a personal story for me.

Cal: It’s hard to choose just one so I’ll bend the question a bit and say our three latest recordings. Summertime Star Sign just came out and the other two will be following shortly! We worked with Alex Arias to come up with what I feel is our best work yet. We weren’t rushed in any aspect of making these songs and they represent us really well.

And finally, we always like to wrap our interviews with a question that has proved difficult for the bands we've interviewed but we have fun asking: if you could each pick one lyric to describe yourself as a person, what would it be?

The lyric could be your own, or from a different artist entirely.

Spencer: I think I can answer this for the group -

“Wonderboy, what is the secret of your powers?”

- Tenacious D

Listen and purchase “Summertime Star Sign” here: https://fanlink.to/summertimestarsign?fbclid=IwAR1Z9JC1gLE88UbG5UiHpOzJbwlTJwTYOktmeGQk3xRB8OetN2dDuHMBkW4

Find more information, upcoming tour dates and all things WD-HAN here: https://www.wdhan.com/

-Jenelle DeGuzman

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