So we've just cracked 70 posts, and hit 10,000 visits a week or two ago, so it's been a really exciting time for me as the writer of this site. When I started this site in May, I didn't think it would be where it is right now-- I've gotten to interview many great artists, some of whom I even consider favorites, and others that are soon to be favorites as they release more music.
Something I've noticed with many of the guests is that there's now a blurred line in music production that didn't exist 20 years ago. It used to be common for artists to only write their music and perform it, and the producer would record them, and make their records click and sound well on the radio. Hiring a good producer and recording in a good studio costed thousands of dollars, so in order to get to that point, unless you were rich, you needed to impress a fair amount of people. Now, with the advancement of computers, artists are doing almost everything outside of selling their music-- they're writing it, recording it, mixing it, programming it, using all the effects.
It's this sort of production that makes me wonder where the real talent lies in some of the more mainstream cultures of music. Watching American Idol and the X-Factor shows off a ton of people who have "good" voices (I use quotes because it's really about taste at the end of the day) but many of them-- even most of them-- don't know the first thing about writing songs, or playing an instrument, let alone recording outside of their own voice.
I find it alarming that you can look up the producers of the top ten songs on iTunes and elsewhere and realize that the producers who craft those tracks are the real talent and yet go unnoticed by most of the public. Would you have guessed that one of the producers who's made Katy Perry's Teenage Dream (the record) such a hit also did Britney Spears, Pink, and even some of N'Sync's hits back in the 90s? That's all the work of Max Martin, who you've probably never heard of but is consistently selling millions. What is the value of those singers, besides "good" voices and looks? As American Idol and X-Factor show us, there's plenty of "good" singers, and with autotune, you don't even need a good singer.
I think part of the reason I'm so drawn to electronic music is the fact that you can usually trust who made it is who made it. There's no disconnect-- generally the "demos" are what you hear as the final finished record, albiet a bit fatter or better produced in the purely "clean and big" sounding way. There is, of course, many different levels between the singers who are their producer's marionettes and the producers who are the artists. Visitor, who were guests a couple months back, send off their demos to Diamond Cut who re-records some synth parts for them. Starsmith and Ellie Goulding sit in a room together and write, and while Ellie is certainly a talented singer, without her and Starsmith working together, probably wouldn't be quite the hit they were (although it's technically the Ellie Goulding record).
So what does this all mean, really? I hope there's more acts that work like Ellie and Starsmith, or Visitor and Diamond Cut in the future, or just Producer-Artists. The producers who work in the shadows on the hits feel so misleading to me. There's a ton of people (most likely younger people) who probably think someone like Katy Perry is a hit because of her talent-- I won't say she's a bad singer (how can you tell anymore? Is she auto-tuned, is she even singing live?) but she's certainly not only reason her music sells so well.
A little food for thought on a Sunday afternoon.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
The DSI Tempest is almost here...
All you lovers of drum beats and Analog/ Digital combos can rejoice that the much sought after Dave Smith Instruments Tempest is almost here!
The release date of this soon to be legend has been clicked back a few times, but it looks as though we've just about made it-- I've most recently heard it should be just about ready in another week. If you haven't heard about this thing, be prepared to be talking about it for the next twenty years-- this is just about as classic as it's going to get. Dave Smith, who helped pioneer polyphony in synths and created the Prophet 5 and Pro One, teamed up with Roger Linn, who created the LinnDrum and other classic drum machines. Mixing these two together is a recipe for awesome, as they're both incredible innovators in music technology. Great drum machines seem to be dying down, and analog drum sounds are becoming even rarer, but the Tempest is going to change all that. Not only does it feature analog oscillators and the warm Curtis filter found in the other DSI products, but it also includes 2 digital oscillators per voice as well. Not only that, but it also has samples of Roger Linn's older drum machine creations. This represents such an important step in music tech because of the beautiful marriage of analog and digital sounds, which compliment each other so nicely, as we could see in the DSI Evolver and PolyEvolver. This is pretty much the perfect piece of equipment if you're looking for a high end drum machine of today-- but enough gushing, watch the video below.
Hopefully we'll see this thing shipping in another week or so-- I'm sure the last little bits are just tiny software issues ironing out and are worth the wait. After this, who knows what's next for DSI? They have synths in pretty much every price bracket... perhaps we'll see a keyboard version of Tetra, or something even grander...
Monday, September 19, 2011
Frankmusik Interview: On Do It In The A.M., Erasure, and the perfect Pop Record
Of course, when I heard FM had moved to L.A. for his next record (if I recall correctly, I remember him tweeting in 2009 how if Complete Me wasn't a hit, he wanted to move to L.A. and make a pop record) I was a little concerned. In my opinion, he'd have to change drastically for US radio. Was the singer selling out? My concerns grew when his collaborations with Far East Movement, who are very much in the rap/pop realm of the US currently, landed him on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Was FM trying to be the next US pop star? Would he trade his awesome original niche for a taste of some stateside fame and boring electropop? I voiced these concerns via Twitter and that's when FM first got in contact with me.
A little over a month ago, I chatted with Frankmusik about his new record, Do It In The A.M., but didn't get enough information at the time for a proper interview. After seeing him in Philadelphia, he promised to finish up some follow up questions I had sent him via email. The first set below are from our chat over Skype, and the second half is from our email correspondance. I've edited the Skype chat a bit to make it more readable and taken out some dialogue, but there was no edits to the words. Enjoy!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
The Sanfernando Sound remixes Kites & Starlings
The Sanfernando Sound, a guest on the blog a month or so ago, has been recently been keeping his hands full with some awesome remix work. The most recent is "The Disappearance of Becky Sharp" by Kites, released just a couple days ago. I'm not familiar with Kites, but they seem to have a great nostalgic feel to them-- a perfect coupling for the talents of The Sanfernando Sound. This is his second remix for Kites, the first being "A Flower Is All That Remains" shown below.
My personal favorite of the new remixes is of Starlings' "Dark Arts" which is, again, a great retro-sounding track with a whirlwind of classic synths that makes my feet want to shuffle in my chair. Check out all the great remixes and be sure to watch out for the official release of the remix to "Dark Arts" on October 10th.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Synth Magic's LUCEifer: Awesome Free Poly Moog Emulation for PC
Synth Magic has just showed off a new freebee for all you PC users out there-- sadly I'm a mac user, so I can't be playing with this, but this demo sounds so good I HAVE to show it off.
Judging by the sounds of the YouTube clip above, this one is going to be a hit-- it offers a great emulation of the very famous PolyMoog-- all the sounds are straight Gary Numan and other 80s classics. Much of the clip even reminds me of Blade Runner and Terminator. I'd love to hear what you guys think, so be sure to give a shout to me or praise Synth Magic on Twitter for his awesome work.
You can download this VST for free here. Be sure to check it out!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Monday Mix
Below are some recent great tracks that have come through in the past few weeks. Check them out, and be sure to check out the artist's SoundClouds by clicking their usernames. Some of the tracks are FREE as well, so be sure to download!
AIMES - 'Sorry Bout Ur Fame' 2011 Summer Promo Mix by Aimes
Friday, September 9, 2011
Frankmusik Live at the Theater of the Living Arts, Sept 8th 2011
It's been just about 2 years since I last saw Frankmusik live-- the first time FM played as a last minute guest for the Perez Hilton tour and opened the show for 3 other artists. At that time, Complete Me, his first record, had only been out for a month or so. The performance was a stellar track by track type set, featuring some beat-boxing. Much has changed since that show. FM now lives in LA, and has his upcoming sophomore release Do It In The A.M.. So how did last night's performance compare to 2009's?
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