The Music Of JC Harris

positively the most intelligent progressive rock on this here planet

positively the most intelligent progressive rock on this here planet

Rants By Topic

Music Appreciation

Creative Strategy Number One-Crisis

Remember that famous quote, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”? Stress. Limits. Eno. Deadpool. Frankenstein. Marie Kondo.

Roger CortonLast time you said you had various strategies for practicing creativity. Improving creativity the same way you practice scales. OK. Some specifics, please?

JCHThe word ‘strategies’ is something I ripped off from Brian Eno. He had this whole system of things to do to be ‘creative’. There were playing cards.

that’s why I’m such a believer in Crisis. Pain. Suffering. I know it sounds creepy, but these are often the biggest catalysts for profound change. Or failing that, at least a burst of creativity. So much of the reason we don’t improve is because we do things the same way over and over. And it seems like, for most of us, there is something about something ‘breaking’ that unleashes the mutant gene

RCI remember that. When you were stuck, you were supposed to throw down a card from the deck

[…]

It Might Get Loud Trying To Find Your Own Voice

It Might Get Loud. Schickele Mix. Can you teach creativity? How does one practice developing your own style?

JCHYou know that opening to “It Might Get Loud” where Jack White makes a guitar with a nail and a board?

RCKnow it well. I love that. I don’t like The White Stripes that much, but I love that opening.

JCHRight. It’s the classic rebuff to everyone with G.A.S.

RC Gear Acquisition Syndrome for the unenlightened.

JCH Or those who don’t play a musical instrument.

JCHIt’s a challenge. It says that you have this ‘thing’ inside that is gonna get out, whether you use a guitar or a trombone or a nail on a plank of wood. You have something to say. And sadly I think that very few of my students, or even people I work with, really understand this.

RCSo what does that even mean?

JCHOK, if this were […]

Prince Interviews On Tavis Smiley

More on Prince. Tavis Smiley interviews. Re-invention. Fan trust. Covers. What’s in a name? Lenny Bruce. Goyish or Jewish?

Roger CortonI read your post on Prince. You’ve talked many times of the difficulty in mixing yourself.

JCHIt’s awful. You tend to hear the music as you wish it sounded. You don’t hear it as it is. I’ve rarely talked with other musicians about it, but it’s as clear to me as a sky of azure that almost everyone suffers from this to one degree or another. Which is why it’s so dangerous to be a one-man-band. But he had that gift. Apart from all his other talents, that was the deal–seeing reality for what it is.

RCSo you’re downplaying his playing (sorry.) But you do the same things. You do it all.

JCHI’m gonna get punished for this, but from what I can hear he was an OK guitar player, drummer, whatever.

RCSeriously? ‘OK’?

JCHLook, I’m not Trump so don’t […]

Regarding Prince – The Mixer

I met Prince a couple of times in a recording studio (Sound 80?) when I lived in St. Paul. Or rather, I should say, I saw him, waved and he nodded in my general direction.

He and I are… er ‘were’ about the same age so it was notable to me that basically a kid was working behind the huge, spaceship-like recording desk. And the adults were actually paying attention to him; he wasn’t just playing around.

Other than that, I paid no attention to him because at the time he was still not the guy we would come to revere. He was just a kid R&B singer with a sexy poster but not much else to distinguish him. But I do remember this:

When I asked the head recording engineer why they were all watching, he said that Prince was the only guy they had seen who could mix himself. I had no idea what he was on about, but now I know.

Almost all musicians hear the sound we want to […]

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