MusiMenagerie Vol. 1 – Paths (Lost)

I have run into a little bit of a hitch in thinking of how to write the information for Paths (lost).  See Paths (lost) is a re-envisioning of Paths from Stories.  So to tell you about Paths (lost), first I have to tell you about Paths which I swore not to do.  Well it appears its time to break that vow and tell you a little bit about Stories.

Stories started out as a single track, the instrumental of Sub Ojec.  From there I wrote out a horror story outline, with characters and all, and then I wrote the album.  The track before Paths is Gunjazz, which is essentially about trying your hardest to save someone and failing miserably.  Paths is the escape that happens afterwards.  And Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” very much was part of the inspiration for the title.

The inspiration for the music in Paths came from an Adult Swim commercial for the Escaflowne movie that was running back in 2004 or 2005.  I’ve never found out who wrote that particular piece of music.  It was primarily a string affair and really invoked this great feeling in me.  So I found a few programs with some below average string samples and went to work.   I also really wanted to implement a key change in one of my songs since I had so little pieces that would accommodate something like that.  I also wanted a bit of a noise hip hop vibe in parts.  There is a lot more I can say about the original version but I need to move on to the new version.

It took me about two years to finish Paths (lost).  Its hard for me to tell you where the remix began, as it did start as a remix.  Part of me wanted to make something a little dancey but not an outright dance track.  I also really wanted a lot of beats that would start and stop.  And I wanted to incorporate some self made chaotic background noise.  Trent Reznor used to have a habit of having these great noises in the backgrounds of his songs (Downward Spiral era) and while Reznor very much looped these noises I really wanted something that evolved quite a bit more.  I probably spent more time manicuring the noises you hear in the background more than anything else on the track.  A musician I used to work with used to make fun of me for my use of static asking why I’d bother changing an existing musical sound or drum into static.  It really quite surprised me.  It all has different textures and movements to it.  And a melodic static can be very deceiving which I enjoy.  Play it with a minimal beat and you’ll hear something completely different when it backs a melody.

The cello and harpsichord are really the only sounds I added for Paths (lost).  A friend told me that the harpsichord reminded him of Castlevania.  I’m pretty sure he didn’t expect me to take that as a complement.  It was actually what I was going for , playing on that dark sophisticated mood you get from old horror stories that involve Victorian nobility.  The point is its a sophisticated darkness.  I don’t think a lot people see dark and evil as different things but I most certainly do.  Evil has a habit of being rather obvious.  But the dark has no real allegiance to good or evil which I immensely enjoy putting in music.  But again, all my songs have multiple reasons and meanings and emotions.  And I’ve always been more interested in hearing what it means to the listener than telling about what it means to me.

MusiMania (Interview)

The following is the transcript from a video interview with John Beauchamp, a.k.a. MusiM.  The interviewer asked for their name to be withheld and consequently, so has the video footage.

Interviewer:  So tell me about MusiM.  Where did the name come from?

John:  Nope.  Next question.

Interviewer:  Uh, okay.  Well then…  Uh…  How long have you been doing MusiM?

John:  Since I started writing music in high school.  The project went through several names.  Really it didn’t culminate until around 2003 or 2004 though.

Interviewer:  *cough* So what’s the idea behind the project?

John:  Everything really.  I’m not a fan of “make up a new band name for a style change”.  Change is the one constant of the world.  I don’t want listeners who expect me to re-write the same club track over and over.  If I don’t learn something new writing a song, then I’ll probably trash it.

Interviewer:  So tell us about your first album “Stories”.

John:  “Stories” is an atmospheric noise excursion, built as a soundtrack to a horror story I wrote.  A re-visioning/remixing of the song “Paths” is included on the C/Fe sampler.

Interviewer:  So I understand you have a new album coming out?

John:  Yes… “In the Worship of Monsters” is due out in the next month or two.  Completely different concept from “Stories”… It has a large range of styles from noise, to club, to down-tempo jazz and so on. There is no ultimate story connecting the tracks but there is an overall feel, idea, and progression of emotions.

Interviewer:  How did you come across C/Fe Records?

John:  The other bands on the label, which I’m a big fan of, contacted me and I brought my two bands in.

Interviewer:  Lets see…  *shuffles cards* Ah, so what inspires your writing process and what are your influences?

John:  Well…  I write one thing and then I write the next.  It’s never the same.  Often times a song is inspired by a conversation with a friend, a small aspect of a song or story I find intriguing.  And often the song is finished with even more influences.

Interviewer:  Do you have any musical background?

John:  Yup.

Interviewer:  *scoff* Well?  What is it?

John:  I was in church choir, took music theory, had lots of piano and guitar lessons, but really…  you learn the most by doing.  And I played a bunch of gigs and wound up learning some flamenco style strumming from a bluegrass banjo player.  That satisfy you?

Interviewer:  Uh… Sure…  Now tell me about the tracks on the C/Fe sampler?

John: Just go look on the C/Fe homepage, www.carbonironrecords.com.  I will say the three tracks are exclusive to the sampler and I have no intention of putting them on anything else.

Interviewer:  Anything else you’d like to add to this interview?

John:  You’re kind of a jerk for an interviewer.  Its not like I expect you to kiss my ass but some decency and organization would be appreciated.  Or maybe some thought out questions.  Don’t you have to have an English degree or something to do this job?

Interviewer:  Are…  Are you serious?  Okay fuck this.  I’m out.

John:  Is this how these things normally go?

“Vanity, Vanity” Says the Teacher, AllThisIsMeaningless (Interview)

CultureShockLewis—So how did you get involved with C/Fe?
Michael—I had always intended to get serious about music. I even thought I was serious about music for a long time, but I guess I never really was. Anyway, I’ve been friends with Dennis, our executive producer, for a long time, and he’s one of several elements that finally got me serious about music. Frankly, it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
CSL—What do you mean?
Michael—Well, now that I am serious about music, I don’t really have time to commit to it. I’m in graduate school now, which is another factor that has got me serious in a strange way. I’d been in Korea for four years, part of that time with Dennis, which is also where I met Ikarus and Willem (Jonz and Wayfarer, of the Still Lifes). I was burned out with my job and decided to return to get my M.A. in Dramaturgy. My dissatisfaction with my education has ultimately made me realize what I should be doing. But now I have nine months left, so I may as well get another degree out of it.
CSL—So how do you write music?
Michael—That’s a big question. I know very few musicians that have a set method of composition. So it varies quite a lot. For me, methodically speaking, if I’m trying to force creativity I usually work basso continuo, from the ground up. I will start with drums and bass, then build on top of it. I often start with a guitar as well, usually acoustic. Hospital Girls was written on guitar. Gate 36 was written on guitar. Well, actually Gate 36 was written mostly on guitar. It actually started with some rough lyrical content and a bass line that Dennis came up with while messing around on my Korg Prophecy. But sometimes I will have a melody in mind, or will run across a synth patch that I like so much I have to use it right away, which is more in line with a second, more inspirational, method. This usually happens as a result of something I hear – a drum pattern, a bass line, or anything. It could be a trio of crickets. I go to my computer and begin by recreating some part of it, or my interpretation of it, and mold it to fit my own needs.
CSL—Have you heard anything recently that has inspired you?
Michael—Musically, it’s hard to say, because I haven’t heard a lot of music lately that has held my interest. I think my main source of inspiration lately has been YouTube, honestly. I’ve been watching a lot of videos of people doing keyboard demonstrations, improvising, showing off random patches, or whatever. I hear something I like while someone is messing around, and it’s usually only three or four notes, or a sound, and I immediately start building it into something in my head. By the time this sound or those notes go through my mental process, then through the creative and production processes, it comes out as something entirely different. I rarely end up with what I intended, but I like to be surprised by music.
CSL—You said you hadn’t heard a lot of bands that have held your interest lately. Does this imply that there are some bands that have got your attention lately?
Michael—Oh, absolutely. Much of what I’ve been listening to lately has been interesting to listen to if you want to listen to it, but ignorable if you just want some music in the background. A lot of these help me concentrate on whatever I’m reading for my thesis, or class. Out of this has come an exception. A few months ago I happened across a wonderful release from Arturo en el Barco, called Music for Students. Two songs in particular, Candy Tucker and Beth Dorris, I can’t help but to drop whatever it is I’m doing and just listen whenever they come on. I don’t analyze, I don’t break it into parts, I don’t read into it in any way. It’s very much phenomenological—feeling and experiential.
CSL—Any last words or final requests?
Michael—Am I about to die?
CSL—Possibly.
Michael—Okay, then. Final words: Thank you, Kim. For everything.

Life with The Still Lifes (interview)

Around the mid to late nineties, a small music zine made the rounds, The Wardrobe. The editor in chief was one CultureShockLewis. At that time, his specialty was interviewing. He had a knack for making the interviewee feel and ease and opening up to him in a free flowing conversation. Csl would then report the interview word for word even including the sighs so that the reader could easily visualize the interview taking  place. CultureShockLewis has actually gone on to work with Siemens with their off shore wind turbines. However, I was able to track him down and convince him to emerge from his journalist retirement to interview a few of the C/Fe artists. The first interview features Ikarus Jonze of The Still Lifes. Unfortunately, Willem was unavailable at the time of the interview. Csl is actually working on an expanded interview which The Still Lifes will soon be posting on their website, http://thestilllifes.wordpress.com/.  Until then, please enjoy Csl’s reluctant return to interviewing!

The Still Lifes

CultureShockLewis—So, how long have you guys been making music together?

Ikarus Jones—We started around 2000 calling ourselves Gypsy Street Legacy, but it was primarily an instrumental project. We did one song will vocals, both Willem’s and mine, “At the Back of the North Wind.” We also did “You Never Close Your Eyes” at that time which we are incorporating in the next album. We started the Still Lifes a year later with more of a focus on my spoken word, but we also included Willem’s vocals more prominently. Dennis saw us in 2002 playing somewhere in Oklahoma. Huh, it was sometime after that when we broke up due to Willem heading off to University and me being too busy trying to start a career.

CSL—And, when did you guys start back up?

Ikarus—Dennis emailed me about playing in Korea. He was there teaching English. Willem and I both had wanted to go to Asia for some time. What better way to visit someplace than to play a show there? It was heaps of fun and quite interesting. Willem and I decided to start recording again, and Dennis came back to the states with the idea that he could release our stuff. It’s taking us a long time to finish the music. Even the three songs on C/Fe Menagerie aren’t finished yet. Hopefully we’ll be ready for release in Spring 2010. Considering the futuristic, sf theme of the album, 2010 release will be perfect. I just need to write a song about a fetus hovering over the Earth.

CSL—So you guys didn’t start with the sci-fi schtick?

Ikarus—Haha, I like the way you put that. Well, no actually we started out a little different. “At the Back of the North Wind” was based on a faerie story and “Great Divide” was based on a similar type of story, but most of our other stuff before was just…well…actually our other stuff was kind of boring in retrospect. I’m wanting to move on eventually to something more like the progressive dance of the late eighties and early nineties. So, the theme then would be more romantic.

CSL—Sounds pretty cool, but I’d like to know more about the three songs on the sampler. Could you tell me about how they were written…and stuff?

Ikarus—Certainly, Willem wrote the kernel of all the songs. I added my two cents to the music and put together some words for two of them. The first, “Sebastian…,” is instrumental, and I just added a little guidance and a couple of sounds here and there, but it was collaborative enough that we made it a Still Lifes track. It reminded me of my favorite sf movie, so that’s the reason for the film allusion of the title. “Future in Question” on the other hand was all Willem musically. I just added the lyrics which are actually a compilation of some of my favorite quotes about the future. It’s kind of like sampling literature into a individualized piece. “They Sent Us Their Dreams” was actually a track that I loved musically, but the poem is very personal to me. It’s based on a (Ray) Bradbury novel seriously struck a chord with me. It took me a little bit, but I finally agreed with Willem that the music perfectly fits the lyrics.

CSL—It sounds like you have a lot of literary influences. What are your musical influences?

Ikarus—For Still Lifes, I take inspiration from Steve Scott, T Bone Burnett, and William S. Burroughs for the spoken word. Willem is trying hard to not allow his influences to affect him when he writes for our stuff, but I think you can see he likes Steve Reich and Louis and Bebe Barron. We both like Laurie Anderson and Suicide and others from that scene.

CSL—What about some spoken word influence from Shatner?

Ikarus—Haha, well naturally. I loved Has Been! But I must say Stewie’s cover of Shatner’s version of Rocket Man is somehow better than Shatner’s

CSL—Final Question, what’s your favorite scenario of the future?

Ikarus—I’m not really a big fan of Kurzweil’s values, but I imagine they will gain importance. I’d say…Roddenberry’s future dream really.

MusiMenagerie Vol. 1 – Scrap

I thought I would tell you the background info of the songs I’ve included with the C/Fe Sampler.  I normally don’t do this, mind you, as I am much more interested in what songs mean to the listener rather than myself.  I will try not to write too much but I always find there is a multitude of reasons for doing things, especially music.  Honestly the most frustrating parts of writing this post for me will be the parts I leave out, as I always think of more reasons as to why I did something.  As of now, to keep the posts from getting too long, I will stick with doing one song a post.  The subject matter of this post will be my first track on the compilation, Scrap.

I tend to stick with simple titles to songs that give aid to the visualization a song while still leaving the imagination open.  The word “scrap” when I was in high school was slang for fight, and this song very much denotes a course of rather dramatic events leading up to a fight.  The word “scrap” also brings to mind scrap pieces of metal, which some of the opening sounds in the song mimic.  And the word “scrap” is also associated with junk or scrap heap, which complements the song’s dirty, junk like feel.   Also I enjoyed the contradiction between the implication of the word “scrap” and some of the sounds in the song, such as the muffled choir sound at the beginning.  Choirs tend to be associated with monks and churches and such, which really creates a nice dynamic for the title “Scrap”.

Musically this song came from several places.  I had just finished playing the video game “Ico” whose soundtrack absolutely captivated me.  It used these muffled, shrill choir sounds for emphasis in the few battles that took place in the game.  So I took some choir samples in an old version of Reason and modified them to achieve a similar effect.  I improvised the intro and recorded it down.

This song was written in either 2006 or 2007 so my memory is a bit foggy in places.  I remember intending to place something of an electronic rock beat with accompaniment similar to And One, Funker Vogt, and Feindflug but quite a bit darker.  And One always has a great feel for rhythm in their songs and often use these non-constant basslines in sections of their songs that add a nice energy to things.  Funker Vogt usually has an entertaining if not overused lead synth.  And Feindflug always creates these great marching epic rhytms and melodies.  Personally, I think if you go listen to these bands and then Scrap you’ll find little to no similarites, but I did find inspiration there.

The guitar during the chorus sections in the song was really inspired by arpeggiators.  Being a classially trained guitarist, I tend to frown on not actually playing the instrument I’m recording, meaning I have a hard time letting myself use the appregiator, among other devices.  Well the idea here is rather obvious, I decided do some hammer on style lead guitar to mimic an appregiated synthesizer.  I also am constantly looking for unique ways to employ guitar in electronic music, as  guitar in electronic music tends to be rather basic and bland.  The lead guitar around the second verse was really just a desire to put a lead instrument there and include something that a traditional metal band would use that wasn’t a power chord.  Plus I’m always looking for more ways to differentiate the sections.

The start and stop portions of the end really came from my listening to too much Mindless Self Indulgence and wanting to do an EQ cut of the chorus section.  MSI really enjoys their studio tricks, which really doesn’t help them live, but I always felt it gave their songs an interesting feel and decided to try it out.  I found it quite fun.  And since I approached the song a bit more like a rock song, the increasing drum rhythm at the end seemed and felt rather appropriate.

Well there you go.  More than you ever wanted to know about my song.  But this blog, in my opinion,  is really for the people who have heard the music and want to know more.  I’ll post about Paths (lost) and Dirt Hero #10 eventually too.

Sincerely,

John B.

MusiM

The Still Lifes’ three songs on C/Fe Menagerie Vol. 1

The lyrics for the songs on C/Fe Menagerie Vol. 1 have just been posted. We actually have three songs on there, but one of them is an instrumental. The last two songs are actually alternate versions from what will appear on the album. “Future in Question” and “They Sent Us Their Dreams” were both mixed specifically for the sampler. The album versions will be more focused on my vocals.

“Sebastian Says, ‘Checkmate I think’” is primarily Willem’s. However, there was enough collaboration involved with a few sounds here and there and a suggestion or two which make it very much our song. One thing I am very proud of is my work with the urn.

“Future in Question” was mixed to sound more like a proper song than the intro as it was originally conceived. The lyrics are actually a number of quotes about the future conglomerated into a single work of art. Performed live, the piece becomes more a propaganda tactic than a song.

“They Sent Us Their Dreams” is based on a Ray Bradbury novel, a myth about the human condition. I don’t really like talking about my lyrics too much. I think they stand as pieces of art without the need of explanation, but I take no issue with dropping a couple of clues for the reader and listener to gain some sort of perspective. The song has two very different versions. It was hard to choose which version would be the album version and which would be the sampler version. Ultimately we chose the version with the more dynamic soundscape for the sampler.

C/Fe Menagerie Vol. 1

C/Fe Records proudly presents its first sampler Menagerie Volume 1. It will feature alternate takes and otherwise unreleased tracks from four bands--deciBel, The Still Lifes, MusiM, and AllThisIsMeaningless. They will be available in late September.

 

Track listing:

deciBel

1.Subsistent

2.Tears (Imortal)

3.Vexation

The Still Lifes

4.Sebastian Says, “Checkmate I think”

5.Future in Question

6.They Sent Us Their Dreams

MusiM

7.Scrap

8.Paths (lost)

9.Dirt Hero #10

AllThisIsMeaningless

10.Gate 36

11.Hospital Girls

12.The Temptation of St. Anthony

C/Fe Records

C/ Fe Records is an independent record label that is artist owned and operated which means our artists own shares of the company. Since they own shares of the company, they have a greater share in the profits made from their art.

As an artists' collective, we allow our artists to be the talent scouts. We search for bands with unique and creative sounds that can afford to produce themselves according to the high degree of quality we demand. The collective handles the mastering and the merchandise which we obtain at a premium through a special network so that the quality and savings may be passed on to the customers.

Our core values are: Originality and creativity in music--it may not be obvious everytime, but we push the current envelope with every release / Professionalism and community--our professional relationships become personal relationships / Quality and thrift--you get what you pay for, but we seek the lowest price for the highest quality available

Our target market are the geeks, the gamers, the comic book nerds, the science fiction afficianados, and the fashion designers. We seek to represent as many styles of music as possible filtered through our signature sound. We are a small American company, but we have an international viewpoint.

Our latest sampler, C/Fe Menagerie Volume 1, will be out by the end of September 2009. We are very excited about this release as it will feature many otherwise unreleased tracks or alternate versions of albums tracks. Please check back for ordering information. The CDs will be available for $10.