I`d be lying if I didnt say Son House was an influence on my life as a musician. I first saw House when I was maybe twelve or thirteen years and it changed everything for me.
House`s sounds are characteristically steam driven rhythmic explorations of disturbingly apocryphal and intense gothic desolation, loss, isolation and spiritual retribution. His early experience as a baptist preacher
bleeds through and informs his vocals empowering them with an incantatory, mesmeric resonance that borders on Native American shamanism. House`s lexicon occupies a position of such emotional lucidity and trail blazing acuity that much of what followed after him could be viewed as incomplete, inchoate gestural cliches. It was House who, speaking to awe-struck young blues fans in the 1960s, spread the legend that Johnson had sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his musical powers…but he musta been talking about hisself.
What does it all mean? What does any of it mean to you? In the sixties people were mobilised against the war in vietnam, youth culture was finding it`s footing…but the world has been reduced to a quintessence of dust & there`s a recession – perhaps it`s economical, perhaps it`s intellectual, perhaps it`s at the heart of everything, Mr. Kurtz. I just posted at my other blog regarding quantum thought, belief and mysticism. Does anyone believe any of that “old shit” anymore? Does anyone read Kerouac or Steinbeck? What the heck? Is everyone wrapped up in a load of irreverent Hollywood plastic surgery necrophiliac celebrity lifestyle bullshit?
Religious people have told me that this is a music of god and called me to play in their church. They are right but Amerindian pantheism, paganism and the church of biosphere is more important to me than allegiance to some mere singular “god” – or vain organised form of deceit – Maybe its all imagined in the solipsistic mind of god – we`re just a part of the universe, emboldened enough to consider self, although more than mere particles held together electrically, an experience – I don`t want to be their damnéd messenger.
“It`s peculiar and unnerving in a way to see so many young people walking around with mobile phones and iPods in their ears and so wrapped up in media and video games. It robs them of their self identity. It`s a shame to see them so tuned out to real life. Of course they are free to do that, as if that`s got anything to do with freedom. The cost of liberty is high, and young people should understand that…”
After a couple of weeks off playing an electric I decided to fire up my under the desk guitar rig which consists of a loopstation, a delay and a distortion box into a Music Man amp. After four hours it was about midnight and I was pretty burnt out but I whipped through the footage real quick and here are some random guitar snacks for anyone who gives a damn….
I watched the Motorcycle Diaries yesterday.
I had no idea that Che Guevara was killed in 1967 – that wasn`t so long ago; and with the help of an American Government Agency apparently. Disgusting.
Heroes, freedom fighters, mystics and warriors of consciousness from Jesus to Geronimo, Byron, Malcolm X and more have been persecuted and ripped up by the snarling rats of the “establishment”…
Recorded with no rehearsal and no tune up a couple of years ago whilst travelling aound Aotearoa. This song deals with american history and politics in relation to the 911 terror attacks, the New Orleans flooding and the Tsunami.
Music is inspiration, divination and self exploration and the ancient church of man is everywhere…….that is everywhere we haven`t desecrated it with base architectures and pollutants often incorrectly disguised beneath a veneer of language such as “progress”, “industry”, “change” and more.
Well, its a dirty old world we live in and music is dirty business that`s for sure. Is it possible to separate your art and your integrity, your ego and your conscience from the business of your product?
Sure. There`s no product without a business model or a channel behind it. Similarly there`s no revolution without subscribers to it`s system of belief or even it`s system of belief marketing. [click to continue...]
A couple of years ago I suffered a bereavement. I was twisted up driving around going through my own personal hell at the time. Last time I saw her she was “recovering” and glowing like lightning. I knew I`d see her again. But I was wrong & this really brought the world down around my feet. A year later I was driving across the empty plains out of my mind when I came across a lonely chapel in what I`ve recently found out was a utopian community set up by a man with vision. Doomed to failure all that remains of this mans great dreams are a set of four empty gravel avenues, and the chapel, lined with sycamore trees. I think there may have been a murder there; a tragedy of some kind. I went into the empty chapel, got down on my knees and began to pray. I wrote this close to that that time and threw it down just now as fast as I could. It`s not a lament but a vision too so I guess we all have a streak of idealism on the road or in searching for hope or dreams…
Who do you want to be I
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Here `s a snapshot of an unfinished riff that was recently used in the Auckland Xmedia lab, unmixed and pretty much raw straight into Logic. Followed by another riff thrown down when I fired up Logic and my midi controller for the first time. Play Loud.
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Use what you’ve got – if you’ve got a hook use your telephone, if you can get to a computer just video your performance. Move damn fast, get your idea down and review. Last night I improvised a song & threw it together - move fast `cause the world is moving quicker than you are – also that way, you can dodge the bullets. Get the right tools for you. If you wanna write a song, write it , SO don`t write a song about the equipment, the set up, don`t let that get in your way. You can`t feel a mixing desk, you can`t emote a machine or elaborate a microphone set up – leave that for Ron, later on.
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Make what you want of it and read between the lines but I can assure you that the knives are out.
Drowning ants fall from the ceiling, freezing water`s somehow leaking and the floor`s too cold for kneeling in unsuccessfully appealing to some god.
Blood like cold needles that slide; in my veins – corpse candles hanging in the trees and circling stones.
“I never had the shine of a coin in my pocket” the road mender sighed and every one laughed blood, a hundred sagging mouths.
I rushed this out as fast as I could, finally having managed to get my digidesign interface running.
When you have a song idea it`s best to get it down. Previously I`ve spent up to three years taking a lyric such as this through to a state where I can present it to Turei who will polish it like a rough diamond into a multifaceted stone of refractive light. The germ of an idea is all it takes and I `m not here to produce; simply to document in the roughest infancy the intimacy of the idea and capture the moment of inspiration rather than process it.
blood like cold needles that slide in my veins
you fell from heaven in the yellow rain
steal the flowers of the day
singing fragments of a tender song
black embers of a time now gone, burning embers
crosses and candlesticks, conquests and cathedrals now forgotten
little grey angels surround all your gallows
little grey angels surround all you girl
they all scatter just like shadows
they all shadows you cant hold on…to
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What is significant here is the use of a Steinbeckian idiolect redolent of The Cup of Gold, Pastures of Heaven, Tortilla Flat, and Cannery Row. The simplicity of what are now cliches, such as “steal the flower of the day”, owe their inclusion to William Blake`s Songs of Innocence & Experience. The chorus
takes it`s cue from the colloquial dialogue of Mice and Men rather than the ornate and florid Catholicism of crosses and candlesticks, conquests and cathedrals…
After four years with no acoustic guitar writing songs on borrowed planks and often times on my beloved stratocaster with a collection of maybe 6 guitars left to decay, rot, decline and gather dust, rust and cobweb somewhere in an empty cupboard on the other side of the earth I have finally found a plank for myself. Its a simple rather than a complex machine…An old hofner F-hole! Fortunately the gods here have smiled upon me and hooked me up with Mojo Sound in Wellington for recording with some pricey pricey guitars… [click to continue...]
..it seems like aeons ago, almost another lifetime – in 2005 I left my life behind to come to Aotearoa. I arrived on the plains with a guitar, a biycle and a rucksack. 6 months near the Rakaia river taught me that my whole life had been preparation for the chance to connect with the titan majesty of mountains & rivers. I traveled around as much as I could and I slowly built talismans and people, gifts, and found objects into a huge feathered dream catcher onto the rear view mirror of my van which was my accommodation on excursions across the island…
A friend writes of songwriting, and I`m presuming he means quality songwriting of prescient import like Townes Van Zandt or Bob Dylan…and in quality writing I prefer to mean writers like Faulkner, Steinbeck, TS Eliot, Shakespeare and the like? Certain genres create different spheres of discipline though it is true – but if we consider Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan to be the hyperion of writing achievement then I don`t think just anyone can do it and I don`t think everyone has something to say. Certainly not of value. [click to continue...]
The last recording sessions went well again with the presence of the underworld, the invisible and the unholy taunting us from the ruins of forgotten lives and lessons. Mojo sound, again helped out with guitar supply and we re-tracked the guitar parts for Rakaia River a third time and breezed through the anthemic You Lost It All in no time at all. Film Broadcast quality hardware combined with ultra sensonic microphones and expensive Martin timber really makes a difference. We use hardware made by Sound Devices. Messing about with a slide, in natural open tuning can be pretty good fun here`s an outtake from the session…
if being 35000kms & 5yrs away frm home = struggle-lonliness-inspiration-lyrics-songs then thats what it fucking well takes else u kno nothin 3 days ago
Yessiree, here`s the mighty Son House. I`m not going to say much except this man is 100% the real deal and spent the first half of his life in the Steam Age and the later half working on the New York Central Rail line. If this man`s music doesn't move you - nothing will. You must be dead. In my humble opinion Son House is the greatest blues player of […]
SO if you dont know who Mike Bloomfield is here`s a chance to catch up. Bloomfield was one of the first popular music stars of the 60s to earn his reputation entirely on his instrumental prowess and his early supporters were Buddy Guy, B.B.King, Muddy Waters and Dylan. Bloomfield got together with Elvin Bishop and Paul Butterfield and formed the Butterfield […]
After finding an online video teaching the two-fret (whole tone) string bend as a fundamental blues lick, there has been a certain degree of disagreement around the office as to whether this simple bend can constitute an blues fundamental. How can something as simple as this elicit so much passionate debate? Well, it`s all about emotion, passion and t […]
Michael Jackson`s legacy has left and interesting aftertaste for the guitar afficionado. Jackson`s first album began with the luminescent touch of Larry Carlton and Beat It from Thriller features both Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather as well as Jeff Porcaro and, as usual, Quincy Jones` inimitable production. The following album, Bad, featured Billy Ido […]
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Some of the guitar playing artists featured include buddy Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks, Gregg Allman, Keith Richards, Les Paul, Pete Townsend, Peter Frampton, Steve Vai, and Slash. […]
Here are some great shots of Mark McKenzie`s, one of out tutor`s, stratocaster. Check him out on Songpond. As you tell by both his face and his guitar accoutrements (that`s the pick ups, and the bridge fellas) Mark`s a bloody good player, an amazing teacher and his amps go up to eleven! […]
After a couple of weeks off playing an electric I decided to fire up my under the desk guitar rig which consists of a loopstation, a delay and a distortion box into a Music Man amp. After four hours it was about midnight and I was pretty burnt out but I whipped through the footage real quick and here are some random guitar snacks for anyone who gives a damn […]
INTONATION: Okay so here`s the deal regarding intonation. Intonation problems are created when the length of the guitar string is not precisely matched to the length of your guitar. Why does this matter? Well, when you play a guitar you are dividing the string into different lengths in the process of fretting notes, this causes the strings frequency to in […]
