Hi everyone,
I’ve made ‘music’ for over 25 years without having to learn to play an instrument properly, with very little music theory training and by not caring if anyone listens.
I currently have two projects:
notv / robotMONSTER:
It begins with a sound, on a computer. It doesn’t matter where that sound has come from but what you do with it.
I like to stretch sounds, I like to bend sounds, I like to layer sounds. I don’t tend to write songs, or rhythms or melodies – I like to create textures.
I like to create many layers of texture and then blend them together – sometime random, sometimes planned – see what happens.
Listen back and fill the gaps. Not enough bass, too much treble, too little going on – well fix that – add another layer, copy a layer and distort it some more, reverb – perhaps, or some echo, or EQ out most frequencies, cut it down and loop it, delete it.
When it sound complete, mix it down, if it doesn’t – put it aside, come back to it, days weeks or months later – the beginnings are easier than finishing it off.
Circuit Monster:
It begins with a guy, and me – him in Japan, me over here.
We each record drum machine tracks – on various things and send them too each other.
We then layer electronic music over each other’s drum machine tracks, we tend to use sequencers.
So much different to the method above and differently satisfying – and more akin to what I used to do – before getting into the ambient-industrial I described above and after the industrial bands I mention below.
In the 90’s I was involved in many musical projects, all with an industrial/punk-rock bent which played live; TMA-1, C.O.D, Spastic Crunch, Placenta Cookbook, Kerosene, Whispering City, The Aesthetics, The Strap-Ons, notv, and MiG-21 to name the more important ones.
What did I do in these? – I played bass, and guitar, and keyboards, and drums. I wrote lyrics, I programmed drum-machines, I bashed pieces of metal, I played backing tapes from cheap tape recorders, I played kazoo and sang.
What did I learn from all these? – you don’t really need to learn to play an instrument properly – what’s the point in that – it’s useful if you want to play other people’s songs – but to make your own just go for it – tune the guitar to suit yourself – use the keyboard as a source of noise the bass as a source of rhythm – and go for it – have fun –that’s what music should be about.
If you’d like to hear any post-2000 notv / robotMONSTER or Circuit Monster drop me a line – I’ll send you some links. Or send me some links of yours.
James
[email protected]
Christchurch, NZ