Trying to be ‘original’ is a lot like that ‘buy low and sell high’ advice about betting on the stock market. It’s not as easy it seems.

We’re taught from an early age to emulate something (or someone) that ‘works’. Which makes sense. But that strategy simply leads one off course if you’re trying to find your own voice.

I’ve written a lot about progressive rock and what I think it is (or at least what I think it’s supposed to be.) But the real question is, ‘who cares?’

So how is the opera thing going? Not bad. Not bad. Glad you asked. Actually, the thing fairly well writes itself. It’s an odd thing, but it’s clear I wanted to write something about Detroit; that Detroit is the big catalyst of my entire life, since I got here. The real issues are always two:

Is it turning into just a series of songs?
Why the fuck didn’t I pay more attention in orchestration class?

The first issue doesn’t concern me now so much. I’ve moved along far enough where basically everything is developing out of the same four themes I’ve presented in the teaser medley. In fact, the worry now is that there is too much ‘unity’—that the end will seem like 400 variations on the same four ditties. Beethoven may have been able to take four notes and turn ’em into an hour of interesting ‘organic development’. But hey, he was Beethoven. (Which begs the question: would he have still been […]

Steve (Porcupine Tree) Wilson has been writing a bunch lately about ‘the evils of compression in music listening.’ I’ve certainly done my share of ranting on this topic.

Sorry I’ve been out of the loop. I’ve had an ongoing battle with pneumonia and bronchitis that hasn’t let up since Christmas.

I played the absolute worst recording session of my life a couple of weeks ago, with a guy who does a type of music unique to himself (in the Seattle area anyway.) It’s so unique in fact that, were I to mention even the genre to you, I would unmask myself before him and thereby ruin our relationship. (How’s that for some bush league, soap opera cloak and dagger!) But he’s about the nicest guy I can imagine and I actually like the genre he works in a bunch. Therefore, his identity shall forever remain a secret!

And yet, Dear Reader, I feel I must comment on his approach to music because it’s so, so, so… wrong.

He begins the recording process by creating very detailed mock ups of his music in a computer, using synthesizers as his sound sources. He makes sure that every nuance he wants played is electronically […]