OK Dudes, lots to talk about. I’m not going to even apologize for being inconsistent with this here blog, just deal with it, love me for who I am, ok? Ok.
Its been a busy few weeks, which I enjoy after the fact, during it can be mildly stressful. I think it took it’s toll unconsciously last night. I’ve been working on a new musical project with my now Massachusetts based musical partner in crime Blasco , called Modern Solutions (www.myspace.com/modernsolutionsmusic) in a fashion Eric Tarn calls “The Internet Service.” Ideas are sent from one party to another via email, then compiled and mixed here in the NJ. The first batch of 3 songs was completed from 8am to 4pm, the next batch will take even longer!
It was my first time recording drums at 8am, but I feel it helped me focus, and not try any silliness. I had to be done by 9:30 when work at the studio begins, so I kept it minimal. Giant ass kick drum, snare drum…that’s it. No hi hats, no cymbals, you bet your ass there were no toms involved.
After the acoustic drums were recorded, I began working on some “beats” or “Beatz” to send up to MA, and start the process backwards perhaps. So I went through the archives, and found a session done 2 years ago at my original rehearsal space. I had set up some mics, and recorded to a click track…perhaps forseeing this very process happening in the future! So…I’m kicking some beat making ass, editing, mixing, effecting….and 2 are completed. I go to back up my session, as any good technology using musician should…and notice there is an older version of this same session on the drive I am backing up to. “do you want to replace the older folder with the new one?” yes, yes I do.
Until the next day.
Then I didn’t anymore.
For some reason It was pulling audio from the other drive…and now that audio has been lost to the technological ether. I’m not gonna go any further with this, All I have left is 2 Wav files of the rough mixes. Ouch.
On We Go.
Last week I got a call from the BBC, for an interview with Keith Jarrett. This is pretty special apparently, he doesn’t give too many interviews, and only does them from his house. I do appreciate some Keith, but for me the coolest part was that the interview was being conducted by Ethan Iverson from The Bad Plus, a band we here at Stevenaustinweiss.com love dearly. And by we, I mean I. The only possible danger of this, was that I had scheduled an on location multitrack session for 9pm that night. I wanted to get there a bit in advance for a soundcheck, relax a bit, make sure everything was working. But one does not really ask Keith Jarrett to “move the schedule around” (I mean, even though I tried, it just wasn’t gonna happen on that end) So we would have to have a little bit of faith that the day would just work out. I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to hang with 2 very serious musicians who I greatly admire. The interview was scheduled to begin at 4…a 2 hr drive from Manhattan where the later gig was…and they warned me that if Keith felt like taking…it could go on for hours. Well…The load in was moved to 11am with the help of the badass David B, old school NJ Crew, and we were ready to go.
The Jarrett Compound, as I affectionately refer to it, is hidden waaaaaay west in NJ. Its basically in that area just after the map ends. In fact, we were given fantastic hand drawn maps on how to get there. Once off the highway, it gets pretty rural up there. We passed through some serious rain, emerging into wonderful sunlight, hoping it was a good omen.
It was the most intimidating interview I had done of this type. Most of the more famous musicians are very laid back, friendly people. Eddie Palmieri bought me a grilled cheese sandwich, Pat Metheney was a totally kick ass dude. Not many have a reputation like the KJ (as I will now call him.) But right from the start, it seemed to be going well. KJ sat down and said “I haven’t seen this type of microphone before” so I was all like “it’s a peluso, kind of like a Schoeps, a guy in North Carolina makes them” so he was all “its gonna be good, I can tell” I didn’t totally know what he meant by that, but I was all for it, that’s just the way me and KJ converse, homes. After some detailed adjustments with the room lighting, it was on.
Well, the Iverson hit it out of the park, they talked for about 2 hours. Barely any dull points, the conversation moved along at a comfortable pace, much like the Ferrari in the garage below the studio we were sitting it.
By far the most surprising part for me, came near the end. Jarrett was searching for the name of a drummer, he was all “It was that guy from The Band, who was he?” and I thought to myself…he can’t mean THE BAND The Band…not Levon, this is Keith Jarrett, Musical Astronaut, Pioneer of Sounds, Expanding beyond things mere humans have played in the past…..but I went out on a limb and said “levon helm?” in a very quiet voice…and he goes “Yes, Levon! Jack Dejohnette and I have such great afftection for Levon’s playing” That was pretty much the most unexpected thing that could have happened. I mean, aside from “yeah, you know, in the 80’s I was really influenced by Slayer. Particularly Reign In Blood, I mean, it just changed the entire way I viewed harmonic structure” But alas, we would have to settle for the Levon reference.
So It all went off without a hitch. We booked it out of western Jersey back into the city, and I was able to make the 9pm Multitrack session with time to spare. I even ate a sandwich back at the venue. I call that the Sandwich Of Success.