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I’ve grown so fucking sick of DAWs and computers— yes I know what’s great about them. After 20 years of sitting in front of a computer to record music, I’ve decided to go back to my roots. Making music without the rancid glow of a massive screen, without Safari lurking in the dock, without the gnarly centerpiece energy of a huge Apple product, has been liberating. I’m done with Tetrissing ideas, done frame fucking waveforms, done dragging 1s and 0s with a mouse. So now I’m focused on making sequences on the MPC one, building my own kits, and sampling audio from an array of synths or records or life— and it all goes stereo-out into the Tascam 446 that Beardo gave me. The vulnerability & humanity I’m interested in experiencing through music gets watered down by the digital horseshit we readily accept as software convenience.
May 30, 2023
Related Recs
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I’ve grown so fucking sick of DAWs and computers— yes I know what’s great about them. After 20 years of sitting in front of a computer to record music, I’ve decided to go back to my roots. Making music without the rancid glow of a massive screen, without Safari lurking in the dock, without the gnarly centerpiece energy of a huge Apple product, has been liberating. I’m done with Tetrissing ideas, done frame fucking waveforms, done dragging 1s and 0s with a mouse. So now I’m focused on making sequences on the MPC one, building my own kits, and sampling audio from an array of synths or records or life— and it all goes stereo-out into the Tascam 446 that Beardo gave me. The vulnerability & humanity I’m interested in experiencing through music gets watered down by the digital horseshit we readily accept as software convenience.
May 30, 2023
Akai is the home of many stand alone music production centers. My favorite is the mpc one. This decision holds sentimental value to me but I also love this machine because it doesn't need to be attached to a computer though It has to be plugged into an energy source. I don't mind because it's similar to when the internet was locked away in the family room. It encourages intentional time even if it leads to nowhere. If making beats is not your thing, I do hope everyone has their own version of what the mpc means to me. Don't leave your inner child behind as you grow
Sep 19, 2024
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Throughout my whole life, I had awful music teachers. I had a piano teacher that made me sit on my hands because he was frustrated with the way I played scales and a music teacher in primary/middle school that gave me so many anxiety attacks that my doctor finally gave me a note so I didn’t have to go anymore.
I was told so many times throughout my life that I had no music talent, discouraged from going further than scales but all of those people (teachers!!!!) were wrong. They just couldnt fathom that I had a different musical brain than them.
When I was 23, I ended up having to move back home from LA after my job rescinded their promise to sponsor me for a visa. I was depressed and heartbroken and lonely. I went to school for writing but didn’t want to write anymore so I ended up opening GarageBand on my iPad.
I was inspired by all the things I could do on it. I suddenly felt like I was entering a new world. After making a couple beats, I started moving everything over to the laptop version of GarageBand. I bought big headphones, a cheap usb mic and a keyboard off of a guy from Craigslist and continued to tinker. One of my favorite things to do at the time was to download karaoke midi tracks of popular songs I loved, import them into GarageBand and change the instrument until I felt like I was making something new. I would then use my shitty mic to wail on top of it.
I used GarageBand for years after that to make tons of songs that I just uploaded to SoundCloud without thinking about it much. Eventually I got a controller/sampler and access to Ableton and thats when the fun really started.
My love for music making snowballed after that, I amassed more gear and skill and eventually made an album after a couple years. I was obsessed with making it and while I feel really whatever about it now, I don’t feel whatever about the experience.
Music has allowed me space to express parts of me that there are no words for. The best thing I can impart is to take advantage of this. There are some things that you can only explain with a kick drum or a sine wave or a really hard bassline.
Music is still a huge part of me! I made another album after that first and now I’m working on my next project. I recently reincarnated myself (everyone in the ~industry~ advised against this but I’m a different person now) and I’m excited to see what’s in store for me. I don’t expect to make money or become famous but music feeds my soul in a way nothing else can.
Have fun!!
May 4, 2024
Top Recs from @jeff-kite
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French Prog Rock from 1979. Are you naked yet? Very little is written about this extremely weird and cool record. I randomly got this on vinyl a long time ago, not knowing what it was, and it has become impossible to find anywhere except of course— someone loaded it onto YouTube a while ago. The magic comes from the DIY nerd-flow of melodic ideas, the bedroom-album ambition, the tactile energy of the tones, and BONUS: there is limited Muso-Overplaying that so much Prog Music gets defined by. It sounds like 1779 had sex with 1979 on a bed of Parisian cassettes.
May 30, 2023
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Scrolling through some of my recently watched…Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)16th century conquistadores driven to madness in the Andes. You can tell that these dudes were in the shit while filming. Always thought of this film as the original Apocalypse Now. Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. Good stuff.Badlands (1973)Seen It many times. Timeless visual beauty and performance chemistry between Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Terrence Malick’s directorial debut. Love it.Network (1976)This screened the other night in LA while I was out of town so I rented it for the twentieth time. As relevant now as it was then. A stone-cold masterpiece. Paddy Chayefsky won an Oscar for screenplay, but it lost best picture to Rocky. Taxi Driver was also nominated. What a year!Tess (1979)Just saw this for the first time. One of Polanski’s best. Feel like he was inspired by Barry Lyndon.Year of the Jellyfish (1984)A French friend recommended this one. I think it’s kind of cherished by some as a trashy cult classic. But if you’re looking for a film full of gorgeous, topless French women on vacation in San Tropez in the 1980s, this is for you!The West (miniseries) (1996)I rewatch Ken Burns documentaries all the time. Jazz, Country Music, Baseball, Lewis & Clark, all of them. I’ve seen each one multiple times. The West is remarkable. A comprehensive deep dive into 19th century American history. 20-hours replete with unmistakable, soothing Burns-esque narration and somber songs of the old American frontier. Fascinating, harsh and profoundly sad.
May 30, 2023
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This trilogy is one of the most interesting and ambitious things I’ve ever read. The scale of the story consistently expands, and there is unique profundity to the concepts that the author introduces. It leaves you contemplating the depth of our place in the universe, and the philosophies upon which we entrust ourselves to evolve further into the unknown. It's going to be a Netflix series soon, so read it before it gets ruined by Corporate Money Goblins!
May 30, 2023