When I started re-discovering ‘electronic music’ as a thing apart from ‘electronica’ I thought I’d connect with a whole new universe of old. I knew there was a thriving culture of people who were totally entranced (pun intended) by vintage gear and I thought that in addition to being good material for the new record, it would be fascinating to see how that culture had evolved. But the current world of synthesisers is just not what I expected at all.

When I first saw a synthesiser in 1975, that world was largely either rock stars or people at large universities trying by gain some respect in the ‘real’ music world. The common denominator in both cases was deep pockets. Synths were about as expensive as a small airplane and just about as easy to use.

But everyone with an interest really wanted respect for their new instruments and they attempted to get it in three ways:

By creating idiomatic music, […]

So the other speed bump to getting things rocking on the new album is the fact that I smacked my finger with a sledge hammer last month. (Don’t ask.) But I kept it on the down low. I was even playing a theatre gig and it’s not exactly Birds Of Fire-ish so it hasn’t been a huge musical problem.

Strum, strum, strum, strum. Strum, strummedy, strum, strum.

The only detail was that the gig was one of those ‘modern’ plays where the band kinda interacts with the audience a bit. And my index finger stuck out ninety degrees perpendicular to me hand. Apparently a ‘manager’ complained to the MD that it looked as though I was ‘flipping off the audience’.

“Hybrid picking technique. Absolutely essential for authenticity. Learned it from Albert Lee. Really.”

That HR crisis solved, I moved on to seeing a doctor. But apparently, by the time I got it looked at, the darned thing had already started to ‘set’. So $229 gets me a professional opinion that popsicle […]

Well, there have been a few speed bumps on ‘The Rocky Road To…’ the new record. Nothing too dreadful but two (not five) things to report. Here’s the first. All the breathing stuff has created a musical problem I never anticipated. But as Morpheus might say while watching TV, ‘Life is not without a sense of irony.’

When you record vocals they’re usually done last. OK, that’s what I do. You lay down a ‘guide vocal’ for the other guys to play against. And after all that racket is recorded, one spends a day (or nine) recording take after take to achieve vocal magic. Now sometimes the guide that is the keeper because everyone knows the first take of any idea is often the best. And this has always been easy for me because one thing I could always count on was the consistency of my voice. You may like it, you may hate it but it’s always the same. I recorded some takes of songs that were on Positive […]