nostatic at all...

One of my favorite quotes, and I''ve used it in previous blog post. And while I still subscribe to that philosophy, I also realize that sometimes you let the light die. We auditioned a vocalist for SF last night, and it didn''t go well. Besides the noise from the new bad next door, it was obvious to me that there won''t be a replacement for Venus. What drew me to the band was the combination of the songs and Venus'' voice. And more to the point, it was what Venus *did* with the songs. It moved me. And frankly, I doubt very seriously that we will find someone else to sing who will be able to follow. There are some great singers out there, but they would have to do something *else* with the songs, and take them someplace else...becuase the ground that Venus broke with the tunes can''t really be walked on by others.

And last night I came home from rehearsal angry. I had gotten over the initial disappointment of Venus leaving the band, and in fact think I''m still on good terms with her and might do some future projects. But having an audition last night brought up the feelings of frustration and anger. SF had some AMAZING songs. Period. As good as I''ve ever heard. And while we didn''t yet have a huge following, I think that would come in time...especially as the music got out into the wild. And if not, there was still the satisfaction of making great music. But different people have different views on what is good, and what moves them. In kung fu class we''ve been working on perception, and noting that just becuase *we* think something is real and a certain way, that is no guarantee that others see us the same way.

So I''m going to finish mixing the album and we''ll release it. And I''ve got a ton of stuff for remix possibilities. And my own projects have been on the back burner, so I can pick those up again. Then all I need to do is find some sort of live gig to keep my love for performing live fed (an instrumental horn morph of SF?). And maybe SF will fall back together at some point (especially if the album starts getting a buzz). But I''m not going to hold my breath. Plenty of great musicians and great music have fallen by the wayside...just the nature of the beast.

Posted at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As some may know, the vocalist for Simpleflower has decided to pursue other interests. This is somewhat standard band fare, and in fact there has been some discussion of a musical 3 year itch.\r\n', 'The "7 year itch" is fairly well documented in relationship-land. The concept of course being that after spending a significant amount of time with one person (ostensibly in a marraige), one gets bored of the same old thing, and starts yearning for something new. For those of us who are ADD, I think this is more of a 7 day itch, but that is for another thread.

Bands are very much like marriages...except that more than two people are involved. And on top of that, there is (hopefully) a robust creative process involved, and invariably creative people have different opinions. And in fact if they didn''t, the music that resulted likely wouldn''t be very interesting. So given that, is it inevitable that bands will dissolve/morph/explode? I believe the answer is yes, and the mode of exit will depend on the particular personalities. I tend to be pretty laid back, so I haven''t been involved in shouting matches, etc. Instead, people just decide to go their separate ways, although I''ve kept in touch with a few of the players.

In particular, I still talk with my old bass player Harry Hache, having sat down to lunch with him last week when he was in town during a short tour with a band he is/was playing with. But Harry and I go back to high school days, so that really doesn''t count. Be he is bugging me to pick up a guitar amp and come down to San Diego and start playing with him again.

One case in point would be KTQ. We had a great run for about 2.5 years, but for the last half year or so we''d have gigs where it was obvious that Kaz wasn''t happy...things weren''t clicking. I think we likely had different opinions on why that was the case, but that isn''t really important...in the end I think it is the case that playing music requires a great deal of psychic and emotional energy, and after some period of time with the same people, that energy can go away. It becomes rote. And that is bad.

So in the case of Simpleflower, Venus has been playing with Jeff for about 2 years. The whold band has been together for about 9 months. But I think that Venus finally came to the conclusion that the music really wasn''t doing it for her. Which is sad from my perspective, as I *really* liked her voice and (most of) the tunes. Of course things weren''t perfect, but no band is. So now the questions is, "what next?". Jeff wants to audition new vocalists, and I''m somewhat on the fence. To me the attraction of the band was strong songs and Venus''s voice and vibe. So unless someone who comes in is just killing, I''m likely not interested. I don''t need to get signed. In some respects I don''t know if I want to get signed (I''d be taking a pay cut). I just want to play great music. And I want to play it live in front of people. As my friend Anuj commented, I "relish" being on stage creating music. And as commented by a Japanese reviewer, I play "with a perilous stance." It means the world to me. So now to find the next "3 year stand"...'

Posted at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)