I Thought I Missed the Boat

I love synth pop.  For as long as I can remember.  The first album I ever bought at a record store was Yellow Magic Orchestra's debut, which, being a Japanese import, cost almost three times the normal price of a record. My mom asked if I was sure I really wanted it.  I still have it and still listen to it regularly.  One of my all time favorite albums is Dare, by The Human League.  It's one of the few albums I've owned in the three formats of my life (cassette, LP, and CD).  However, I always felt I was born too late to make synth pop myself.  By the time I started to make music in 1989, that ship had sailed, and I had only begun to learn my craft.

Flash forward 23 years, and I'm still a novice (but getting better, I hope).  And my desire to create synth pop is as strong as ever, but with a twist.  Thanks to Mr. Simon Holland's Bedroom Tapes project, I was thrust into the production of a synth pop tune.  I was almost reluctant at first, because he'd precluded the use of guitar, and since I'd always thought I was too late for synth pop, I'd always included guitar in my pop songs (with rare exceptions).  It's funny to say now, because I'm so on board with the "no guitar" aesthetic, but at first I was apprehensive.

Of course, the fact that it's 2012 means I would have a hard time convincing myself to create a whole album devoted to a genre that pretty much fizzled out almost 30 years ago.  I kind of view it as a waste of time, we should live in the moment, the present, experience zeitgeist.  But therein lies the true genius of Mr. Holland's project, at least as far as I was concerned.

What Simon really wanted was tape recordings made in the 1980s, not 2012 facsimiles.  It was only out of kindness that he let such deceptions into his compilation, but he made a caveat, which was, he wanted it to really seem like the contemporary tracks had been made in the past.  Not just sound like they were old, but also have a faux history and (if possible) old cassette box art for the submitted song.  In short, he was requesting that even 2012 facsimiles of 1980s songs appear to be the real thing, in sound, pictures and provenance.

For some people, this might be an inconvenience.  If all you want to do is make an 80s tune, it might be off putting to have to make some 80s style art to go with it.  But I loved that part of the project too.  In the end, it's was gave me the justification for producing a whole album of songs created in this manner.

Because, while it's a waste of time, to me, to make a group of 80s songs in the synth pop style in 2012, it's actually an interesting challenge to create an album that pretends to be from the actual 80s.  For most people this would be some semantic difference, a trivial thing making no difference.  Obviously, to me, it makes all the difference in the world.  From "waste of time" to "worthy pursuit".

Because, for the months it will take me to complete this record, I will imagine it is the time of the early 80s again, immersing myself in only that music.  It will be hard to ignore all the music that has come since, and it's influences, so I will not expend too much effort doing so.  Instead I will just think about the music of the day and the days that proceeded (50s, 60s, 70s . . . ).  And I will try to imagine, if I had been an adult then, what interests I would have had lyrically, and how to realize them in song form.

When you consider this approach, you can see it's very different than trying to make synth pop from a 2012 perspective.  If I was making synth pop for 2012, it would have elements of Trance and Dub Step.  And lyrically, I would have to reference the web and smart phones and all kinds of cultural things that didn't exist in the early 80s.  And then, in being more of a handshake between past and present, it becomes a bit quaint or nostalgic.  In making a "fake" artifact from the 80s, a collection of songs pretending to be from that time, it becomes less about being nostalgic and weepy for a past that is gone and more about trying to travel to the past in my present body, to be in the moment, when that moment is long ago.

If I was to make a sports analogy: It's not sitting around on the sidelines, drinking a beer with your high school teammates, remembering the good old days.  It's more like suiting up with them and convincing the members of your old rival to do the same, playing the game, and keeping score.  Not to pretend it's high school all over again, but to enjoy the game, fresh. (This is a thought experiment only, I am not responsible for the injuries of people actually attempting this and don't recommend you do so.  Music is not a contact sport, so I am safe.)  Like many analogies, this one is imperfect.  Apologies.

But the real beauty of it all.  I get to make synth pop.  Ignore the mental hoops I'm making myself jump through, I finally get to make an album of synth pop without being self conscious of doing something "dated", because it's completely, intentionally "dated" and I'm not pretending otherwise, lol.

Tape 2

The tape based album/EP has a name now: Retro Grade.  Please weigh in if you love it or hate it.  I love feedback, especially negative oriented, not because I'm some kind of masochist, but because disagreement is an opportunity to learn, and I hope learning is my greatest addiction.  Keyword: hope.

And, I've started the second track, called "Tape 2" for the moment.  A riff on "take 2", lol.  Lame I know, I won't be booked in the Catskills for my comedy act anytime soon.

Basically, I have 6 lyric ideas for Retro Grade, and only two of them are wedded to melodies at the moment.  Tape 2 may or may not be paired with one of those lyric ideas later, because, it started kind of by accident this evening.

Unlike I See You, which relied completely on "period" instruments I owned in the 80s, Tape 2 (so far) uses only modern instruments that sound (intentionally or otherwise) like early 80s instruments.

I'd been programming a rhythm and melodic loop on a Korg Monotribe.  However, having not yet modded it to accept Midi in, I was very unhappy with the melody part.  Incidentally, if you've ever wanted an analog monosynth, you owe it to yourself to check the Monotribe out.  I was really looking forward to the Arturia Minibrute, but $500 for a single oscillator seems ridiculous and I reconsidered the humble Monotribe, which seems to do much of the same, plus it has a 16 step sequencer with three drum sounds.  The midi mod is super easy, making it a "real" analog synth module for a tiny price.

All that is academic, what's interesting about the Monotribe is that it sounds so much like an early 80s drum machine if you use the drums sounds and the step sequencer.  Like the Echo of Echo and the Bunnymen fame (okay maybe that one sounds more expensive), it totally has that vibe to it.

Fast forward.  Tonight, I was playing around on the Micron, in my continuing effort to know my synths better.  Going over the preset sounds again, I started to tweak a few, thinking about which ones might be useful on Retro Grade.  In doing so, I was playing little riffs on the key board.  When I got to a certain sound (I think it was "closet bass" whatever that means), I really liked the phrase I was playing and knew I had to record it before I forgot it (I'm still unable to write my ideas down in standard musical notation).  But I needed a drum track to go with the bass line, and thought of the rhythm track I'd been working on using the Monotribe.  I turned that on, got it going and played the bassline.  A marriage made in heaven.  They complimented each other so perfectly, and sounded so 80s, despite the fact that the instruments were decades too late for the party.  With only a little effort, I laid down the rhythm track for Tape 2 and felt like the project was really on it's way, the sophomore effort having been launched and sounding really good so far.  IMHO.

Writing Challenge

This is a follow up to my post:

The Retro Project

Originally, as I was thinking about this song, I imagined I would sing, as I often do, for the majority of my songs.  But then I had another thought.

I was thinking about Kraftwerk and how much I like when they use speech synthesis in their songs.  While I would not be breaking any rules using a speech synthesizer (since they existed in the 80s), I didn't have one, so I'd be breaking my own rules, to only use instruments and tools I had in the 80s.

While I didn't have a speech synthesizer, I did have a Speak 'n Spell.  I was a terrible speller, so my parent's bought it for me in the hopes it would improve my spelling, and it did, but not nearly as much as auto correct has in the days since.

Now, you cannot dictate language to a Speak 'n Spell, right?  I mean, it won't say whatever you want, it will only say what it is programmed to say from the factory.  With one exception.

It says all the letters of the alphabet, and the names of some letters can be combined to make sentences:

I C U

And this created a very interesting challenge to me, could I write song lyrics like that, only using letter names to make sentences.  The answer is yes, but I'm not going to reveal what I came up with (after all, there should be some mystery, even as I explain how the sausage is made).  It was both challenging and cool to be forced to write this way, but I cannot see getting more than a single song out of this method.

The Retro Project

A long time ago, between 2005 and 2007, when I was starting to make music again after a long hiatus, I thought it might be fun to do a song (or two) only using instruments I had back in the late 80s.  At the time, I actually had to re-aquire some of them, like a Synsonics drum set:


http://www.burnkit2600.com/synsonics-drums/


After a little poking around the web, I abandoned my idea.  Here's why.  What I was planning to do was to use only vintage gear to make a song using a modern DAW (digital audio workstation), but what I discovered were people going much more extreme than what I was planning, making my effort seem pale and moot.


What I did do, though, was use some of those old instruments to add flavor to my "modern" recordings.  Flash forward: last week.


Last week I was surfing around, reading tutorials about creating complex bass synthesizer sounds.  It's something I've been working on for a few weeks.  Trying to create "live" playable versions of popular contemporary bass timbres.  But I stumbled on something very interesting, to me and I wish I had a link to share (see comments when I find it), but someone had rediscovered their cassette 4-track recorder in their attic, and decided to make a recording with it, and had posted said recording on soundcloud.


I was so curious to hear this track, and I was so happy to hear a modern recording done with something so completely obsolete.  I didn't imagine I'd ever follow in that guys footsteps . . . but,

I had also recently dug out my own 4-track (see above) because someone who once performed in a video of mine asked to see the finished video.  Nothing sexual, but the video wound up being a little to personal to post on the web, so no link, but I digress.  I had long ago lost the finished edit of the video, so the only way to share it with my friend was to make a new master.  I located the edited video and then set about marrying it to the 4-track audio tape containing the music and narration.  So my 4-track has been set up in my studio for months.  But that alone didn't get me interested in actually using it to make music.  Perish the thought.  What a pain it would be, to use that old thing to record a song, to say nothing of the crappy quality of the output.  Read on,


I could not get that guy's retro track out of my head.  It was so cool to hear the sound of tape again, the kind of warm smooth sound digital can only aspire to, with its crisp precision and perfect replication.  I started to think, it might be interesting to try and record something with the 4-track, just to break the monotony of the way I normally make music now.  But then I remembered all the trouble my 4-track was having when I stopped using it.  The erase heads don't work as well as when they were new (meaning, you can't fix mistakes you might make while playing), and how the machine will not stay in record mode without some strong packing tape.


I then remembered, the last time I checked, you could buy a new cassette 4-track for about $80, so maybe I should just replace mine, if I was serious.  However, a little sleuthing clued me in to the fact that production of these machines ceased several years ago, and the price, has, of course, gone way up as a result.  The cheapest "new" one is now about $240, best I can tell.  Way out of my budget for something I may use only once or twice.


However, I became kind of obsessed with seeing if I could find one cheaper and wound up discovering a lot of people who, beyond being nostalgic for these old devices, were actually waxing about the benefits of using them, today:


http://yearoftheboy.com/2011/04/03/4-track-cassette-recording-a-few-thoughts-on-why-older-recording-techniques-are-sometimes-better/


I started reading more and more about analog 4-track recording, it's history, demise, all the while, thinking, I really want to give this a go, at some point, feeling like I was just getting the dominoes lined up for some future knock down show.  Until I found this:


I am attempting to create a compilation of like-mi...


Simon Holland (a.k.a. Carrillion) is creating a compilation audio project of music recorded on or using the techniques and instruments of old cassette tape 4-track recording, with a single rule, no guitars.  Now this is a little different than anything I'd been contemplating before, as my retro track plans always included a spot for some guitar.  But I'm totally up for this challenge and it changed my future looking into present action.


As such, last night I dug out both my old casio keyboards, a VL-1 and Casio MT-540.  I had an idea to lay down a click track using the built in rhythms of the VL-1. If you are familiar with the Trio song: Da Da Da:


Trio - Da Da Da


You already know how the drums on this little synth sound.  Here's what it looks like:

I connected the VL-1 to an old delay unit from Roland/Boss and started to created the feel I was looking for.  I ended up adding a flanger to the loop too, to give the synth sound a little more dimension.  I also had an idea for a "sequence" type melody.

Recently I've been trying to get a handle on being able to actually play all my instruments, especially the synths.  I was recently working with my Korg Kaossilator:

And noticed it was set to "Ionic" scale.  I was not familiar with "Ionic" scales, so I consulted my friend, wikipedia and wound up also looking up pentatonic scales, which I had heard of before but never bothered to learn more about.  On reading about pentatonic scales, I thought they would be very useful for a novice like myself, because it's very hard to get discordant in that mode.  

After coming up with a nice sequence melody.  I set about making a good bass timbre.  Remember, learning how to make cool bass timbres was how I wound up going on this whole retro journey in the first place.  I took the Casio MT-540:

Blended the Brass Ensemble (an old favorite) with the Funky Clav sounds but ran it through my old Roland Boss Octaver, which creates bass sounds one octave lower than what you put in, and the sound was fat and rich.  Now, I have no idea what the eventual bass line of the song will be, but that timbre is going to be great.

I have yet to decide on a voice for the main melody, but there will be additional drums provided by the Synsonics (and maybe a 'real' tambourine).  And I started to develop some lyrics, though, given the retro nature of the project, I'm tempted to grab some of my old poetry instead, and edit it to fit the song.  Time will tell.