Writing the Second Album

“Everyone always says that a rock band’s second record is a road record, and there’s a reason for that, cause that’s all you fuckin’ did for two years.” Rocking buses, crowded hotels, hungover mornings – life as a touring musician isn’t exactly a writer’s paradise. But after several years spent on the road, Jollet is enjoying some of what he only half-sardonically calls “time off.” What’s he doing with all his free time? Working on ATE’s next album, of course.

“I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like when I got back,” he says, “but it literally took two days and I was locked in a room writing songs.” Jollet, who comes from a background in fiction writing and journalism, isn’t suffering from writer’s block. He describes the songs he’s creating for the new album as covering a range of stories and experiences from the past two years spent touring, a marked difference from ATE’s first album, which was, like many first albums, a broken-heart record.

“It’s not like I have choice,” he says about his subject matter. “I’m just not good at writing things that I don’t really mean.“ Jollet, who has never had any training in songwriting, doesn’t sit down to write with a plan and a verse-chorus-hook structure in mind. Instead, he style tends towards focus on a story or a feeling.

Serving the Soul of the Song

“A song has a soul, and you have to find the soul of the song and serve it,” he explains. “Sometimes I think songs, when they start, promise a certain story, and you have to deliver that story. The hard part is trying to figure out what story has been promised and deliver upon it – you’ve got to have unexpected turns and moments of catharsis, release and reciprocity, that’s the idea from Greek tragedy. You have to have transition.”

For Jollet, the idea that a song’s soul can be formed in an effortless flash of genius is ridiculous. He spends hours editing lyrics to get to the essence of what he’s trying to express. “Usually I have an image in my head of a story or a feeling, and I’m always trying to narrow in on that image. It took me about 8 months to write the song “Wishing Well” and I did about twenty drafts of that song. It went through a lot of different types of lyrics – and finally when it was done, the last chord hit, the song faded, and I was like, ‘that’s it. That’s exactly what I was going for.’”

Building Melody

With all this talk of editing, story, and catharsis, it’s easy to forget that we’re talking about songs here. But for Jollet – who’s not exactly a fan of poetry – there’s no mistaking song construction for that other business of penning poems. The distinctive nature of the craft again comes into play when lyrics must be paired with melody. While Jollet describes his own process as vacillating between finding lyrics to fit a melody, and building a tune to fit some lyrics, he also loves writing around music written by other members of the band.

“We just wrote this new song. Our bass player, Noah Harman, wrote all the music for it, and he created this entire sonic landscape that I thought was beautiful. I took it and put a song in that environment, and the song called “Half of Something Else” came out,” Jollet is obviously pleased with the results. “Sometimes it’s just that, I hear the landscape and just start writing things to it.”

Practice to Play

Of course, for some songwriters, the call to “just start writing” can be well nigh on aneurysm-inducing. It’s not always easy to write a new song, is it? But that’s not what Jollet is talking about. It was only after years of songwriting and home recording that he found himself able to do his job well.

“A lot of it is just work ethic,” he contends. “If you spend ten hours a day at anything, you’ll be really good at it. If you’re an artist, you take some small section of your life and repeat it again and again, and really, really work on that and after a while you can play at it. When you can play and you can riff, that’s where you want to be.”

Jollet emphasizes that the idea of natural genius, sprung fully formed and awesomely talented out of the ether, is kind of bullshit. “The dirty secret of this is that the people who have done well are the hardest working people. As cool as they seem now, at one point in their lives, they were fucking hustling, they were working to get the sound right, working to get the song right, writing and writing.”

Make a Bet with Life, and Bet on Yourself

When Jollet describes this wager with life, the tone of his voice tells you that he’s absolutely serious in the belief that artists are not born but formed through incredibly hard work. “At one point,” he says of great songwriters, “they made a bet, That’s how life works, you make a bet where you bet everything you have on something when you don’t know how it’s gonna turn out. You say, ‘you know what? Fuck this. I’m gonna lock myself in a room for a year and get good at whatever it is. I’m gonna disfigure myself in some important way, and then I’m going to take that disfigurement and make art from it.’”

This transformative process sounds a bit overwhelming. For the burgeoning songwriter, the question seems to be not, “is it possible?” so much as “is it worth it?” But that’s good news, isn’t it? Because it means that our ability to succeed isn’t determined by the quality of the first song written, or even the one hundredth. In Jollet’s words, “If there’s one thing I could say to any young songwriter, it’s that I wrote a thousand songs before I wrote one good one.”

I guess that means it’s time to start writing.

Keep your eyes peeled for Part II of our Songwriting Series, where we’ll be talking to emcee / vocalist Mystic, whose much-anticipated second album is about to drop a world of lyrical insight on hip hop fans. Until then, let us know what questions you’d like answered about songwriting in the SoundOff! Forum!

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“I think it’s a testament to any artist, the way you carry yourself and the way you interact with people, the way that you respect others and the way that you approach music when you have no budget – when you have nothing except yourself and your voice, your ideas, your dreams, your concepts – and people will still create with you.”

That’s Mystic, talking half in poetry even as she discusses the process of writing and producing her new album, Beautiful Resistance. The production is nearly complete, almost ten years after her first album, Cuts for Luck and Scars for Freedom, dropped to the sound of much buzz from the hip hop community.
The Bay Area emcee was nominated for a Grammy in 2001 year for the song ‘W,’ and she was touring and performing steadily. But instead of forcing a second album into production at the time, she took a breath, and took a step back. She got out of her recording deal, went to school, worked in her community, and continued to write and perform, but it’s only now, in 2010, that she’s ready to release her sophomore album.

I wanted to know why she made us wait so long for a new record, and she fired a question right back. “We have our whole lives to put together our first album, and then, what do we have on the second album?” she asked. “I’m a true believer that there are no songs, there is no music without life. Artists these days are putting out projects all the time but I just don’t work that way. Because I’ve had these ten years, and I have grown as a woman, and as a human being, it was fairly easy for me to write about the things that I’ve discovered.”

Writing Beautiful Resistance

Years of practice on tight-deadline film scores and limited studio time have allowed Mystic to develop her songwriting ability to the point where she write almost on command. But her lyrical dexterity is also thanks to a corner of her consciousness that’s always writing. “I’m constantly inspired by who I’m loving, or a child laughing in the street, or something happening in the world. Those things are processed, in my mind and in my heart, so there’s so much to say when I sit down to write.”
Cuts for Luck and Scars for Freedom was produced under an intense schedule of flying down to L.A. on weekends with a handful of songs written and ready to be recorded. This time around, however, Mystic is taking her time, and doing most of her writing in the studio alongside producer Eligh of Living Legends. “It kind of just starts to flow,” she says, describing her writing process. “With the new album, I literally walked into the studio on a Saturday or a Sunday morning with no idea what piece of music I was going to use or what I was going to write about. And I’d sit with the producer and listen to different pieces of music and think about how I felt, and when it hit me, I would write.”

She takes inspiration for the music that her producer suggests. “I don’t write without music,” she tells me. “Whatever music I’m writing to should tell a story all its own without my voice on it. So I really like the music to speak to me, to trigger for me what I need to say as an artist. And writing along with the music allows me to play more within the instruments that exist, in terms of developing cadence, flow, stagger, if I don’t have the music, I don’t know where the pockets are.”

Caring For Your Listeners

While she’s got the craft of writing a song down to a science (and always be able to perform what you record, she emphasizes), Mystic is as deeply committed to her lyrics and the meaning behind her songs as any poet. She writes to heal herself, but the connection she makes with her listeners is a constant priority.
“I know how important music was to me when I was growing up,” she remembers, “especially when I was a teen struggling with identity and the world. I hope that I’m able to create music that people can identify with. The stories people share with me have cemented for me that there’s nothing more important than the connection that happens between myself and the people listening to the music. I have people who are like, ‘you saved my life.’ And literally, their tears run down your neck. They share with you these things that are incredibly painful, but really, they’re saying ‘thank you, I’m not alone.’ And no, you’re not alone. I learned, from putting out the first album, that there are a lot of us out there.”
For Mystic, the responsibility of an artist to care for her fans also extends to the sequencing of an album. “It’s about how it feels, but I also believe that it’s important to take care of each other and to take care of people in my music,” she explains. “For instance, on the first album, I went from a song about my dad into a song about, you know, things are okay and they’re alright, because I don’t believe that you take people into dark spaces and then just leave them there. I don’t believe that that’s safe and that’s important to me in terms of sequencing.”

Owning Your Process

If there’s one thing I get a feeling for while talking to Mystic, it’s that she is passionate about her craft, and, she says, a songwriter has to be to survive in this industry. “Really begin to own your process,” she advises young songwriters. “You can be open to other people who want to help you, but own your process, because if you do not own your process, as you get deeper and deeper into this business, other people will start to own it for you.”
She’s talking, here, about developing a distinctive creative voice, but also about what songwriting can do for your career. “Write your own songs,” she cautions. “It’s great to collaborate with people, but write your own songs. Not only will you get to express how you really feel and where you’re coming from, but that will also help sustain you as an artist.”

Owning Your Publishing Rights

“I wrote everything on my first album,” Mystic explains, “and so now, ten years later, with an album that’s out of print, I still get checks, because I wrote those songs. I own the publishing. And that’s the next step. After you’re writing your own songs, really, hold on to your publishing. The reality is that as songwriters, we may only have one song that is ever popular, ever in our entire lives, but if it’s super popular, then yes, that will feed your children and your grandchildren.”
I say goodbye to Mystic only after extracting a tentative promise that we can expect Beautiful Resistance to be released in 2011. “It took a long time to make it, so I will treat it with respect,” she says. A labor of love, she’s not willing to let the album go simply to the highest bidder.

“Our writing is precious,” she says of her songs, and the songs of all musicians. “If, as a songwriter, you’re approaching the process of songwriting simply for financial gain, that’s one thing, but if you’re a songwriter and you’re writing for your life and what you feel and what you really want to express and to heal yourself and unite people through music, that is something different and powerful, and it may be a longer road, and it may be a bit more of struggle, but I think it’s better.”

In the first installment of this series, we spoke to The Airborne Toxic Event’s Mikel Jollett about his songwriting process. Two brilliant songwriters, two very different approaches to the craft. Who do you identify with most? Let us know!

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Microphones needed
First, you’ll need two mics, one cardioid, and one bi-directional (“figure 8”). It’s traditionally recommended that you use either the same mics (two multi-pattern models, one set to cardioid and the other set to figure eight) or two similar mics, but this isn’t essential. I’ve experimented with a dozen combinations and have always achieved useable and often spectacular results.

Placement of a Mid-Side Mic Array

I find it’s always best to start with the “Mid” (cardioid) mic. You’ll need to aim that directly at the sound source. As with normal cardioid mic placement, adjust the “aim” to taste; but if you’re a fan of close mic’ing, try pulling back from the source a bit further; this will result in a more natural stereo image.

Next, place the “Side” (figure 8 ) mic so that the two lobes of the pattern are set 90° relative to the cardioid microphone (i.e. so that the side of the mic is facing the sound source [see picture 1]). Like the more popular XY, Mid/Side is a coincident microphone technique, so you want to get the diaphragms of the two mics as close together as you can. This position allows the figure-8 mic to pick up ambient and reverberant information coming from the sides of the sound source, although the sides will have opposing polarities.

Note: the bidirectional (figure 8 ) mic is not a stereo mic: if you turn the middle mic off, you will not hear independent left and right channels from the side mic.

Once you’ve placed your microphones in their proper relation to one another, feel free to experiment with position and distance in relation to the sound source. When used to record drums or grand piano, it can be placed as an overhead (for a more direct sound) or further back in the room (for ambiance). The closer you get to the source the more exaggerated the stereo effect becomes in relation to that source. Conversely (especially with Mid/Side recording), as you move further away from the source, you begin picking up more of the room ambience; how the instrument sounds in the room.

In this audio example, I have the Mid/Side array about four feet above the snare drum. I also pay close attention to where I point the array at the drum set. Since the snare drum is generally panned dead center, I make sure to point the mid mic at the snare. This is important to remember when recording individual instruments as well.

If you’re tracking an acoustic guitar, where you point the Mid/Side array will determine where in the stereo field the guitar seems to be coming from. In this case, I prefer to point the array where the guitar’s neck and the body meet. Experiment with angling the array more towards the body or toward the neck depending on where you think the instrument should be panned.

Mic Preamps

Now that you have your mics set up, what next? Well, you need to configure how you record your signals. To do this you’ll need either:

1. A mic preamp with a built in M-S decoder
-or-
2. An M-S decoder plug-in for your DAW and any two similar mic pre-amps (the ones on your mixer will do).
Here are a few suggestions of equipment and software that I’ve used over the years:

1. Mic-Preamps (w/ decoder): ART ProMPA, Mackie Onyx 800, Universal Audio DCS
2. Plug-Ins: Waves S1, Voxengo’s free VST format Mid/Side decoder

Each of these options comes with a few drawbacks. With the M-S decoder in the preamp, you’ll have to decide on the width of the stereo signal before you record. Whatever you choose, you’re stuck with that track as you cannot go back and change the stereo width. When using a DAW plug-in with standard mic pre-amps, you won’t be able to monitor the stereo signal until after you’ve recorded it. However, you can adjust the width of the stereo image to your heart’s content after the fact. If you’re recording someone with this method and they need to monitor their instrument with the rest of the mix (through headphones or in a tracking room), just feed them the signal from the “Mid” mic by itself.

Another alternative, which is my personal favorite, is to use a mic preamp with two identical outputs like the Joe Meek 3Q (a bargain at $250). This option would involve plugging the “Side” mic into the 3Q and sending both outputs into separate inputs on your mixing console and panning them hard left and right (and maintaining identical volumes). You will need to flip the phase switch on one of those channels (it’s the switch with this “ø” symbol on it) and actually record three separate tracks (the “Mid” signal and L/R “Side” signals coming from the 3Q). This method has the distinct advantage of allowing you to both monitor the sound before you record it and adjust it afterwards.

Mid-Side Mic Advantages

In case you’re wondering at this point why you would want to put forth all this effort just to get a stereo signal?   Let me point out the two substantial advantages.

A. When mixing in that previously mentioned acoustic guitar, for example, if you notice the Mid/Side recorded tracks taking up too much space in the mix, you can simply reduce the level of the side mic (narrowing the stereo image). Or, you can eliminate the side mic altogether and still have a perfectly recorded mono track. Just try that with the XY stereo technique.

B. Absolute phase coherency. You won’t hear swishy cymbals or phased sounding notes from a piano or guitar, because the mid mic picks up its sound at the null point. What is the ‘null-point’? Well, the array derives its information from three completely different points in space, so the ‘null-point’ is where these 3 points intersect. The spot where the figure 8 pattern mic picks up nothing at all, and the side mic receives information from both sides of the same diaphragm (when the right side goes in, the left side is going out).

When working with an XY array, you have two independently moving diaphragms picking up much of the same information in the middle but the mics are pointed 90º away from each other. This independent diaphragm movement and the opposing direction of the mics almost guarantee that you will suffer some comb filtering from the sound picked up by both mics. This won’t always ruin a stereo track but it only had to happen to me a couple of times before the Mid/Side became my preferred method for stereo recording.

Back to Decoding

If you’re using a preamp with the M/S blending feature built into it, then your decoding has already been done. Again, there’s no adjusting the stereo image. That glorious, phase free stereo track you’ve recorded is what you’re stuck with. If you’re using one of the other methods I mentioned earlier, let me explain how to record and use those tracks.

DAW Recording

First, add two mono recording tracks in your DAW software, making sure to route the inputs of your software to their corresponding tracks. I have a trick that keeps me from screwing this up! I always organize my tracks as follows: “Mid” first track and “Side” second track. I always use odd/even pairs to send to those tracks.

Example: “Mid” mic goes into channel 1 on my mixer, then into input channel 1 on my DAW software, then into rec/playback track 1 which I’ve labeled “Mid”. The “Side” mic is plugged into channel 2, and follows the same numbering as track 1. This helps me keep track of pretty much any stereo recording method.
Now, record-enable both tracks, make some noise and record for a few seconds. When you playback these two tracks, you’ll hear an odd, sort of “sideways” sounding analogue of your original sound source. This is not what you were hoping for! So we need to move onto the decoding phase…

You’ll need to create a stereo “group/submix” track in your project. Make sure this stereo track is routed to the Master output. Load your M-S decoder plug-in onto the “group/submix” track.
Note: No adjustments to the decoder plug-in are needed; it simply “decodes” the information that’s fed into it.

Now, pan the “mid” track all the way left and the “side” track all the way right. All you need to do next is route the outputs of your “mid” and “side” tracks to the inputs of your “group/submix” track. Set the ”mid” track at “0” gain, neither boost nor cut any of the signal, and set the ”side” track at “-5” gain.

If you’ve routed the tracks properly you should hear your Mid/Side signal in all its glory. If it sounds too wide, simply turn down the “side” track. If it’s not wide enough, then turn it up. As I mentioned earlier, experiment with the placement. Angle the array to the left or right, move it closer or further back, to the left or right. And know that, when mixing, if the song calls for a subdued mono version of your M/S recorded tracks, you can mute the “side” track and pan the mono “mid” track wherever you want to.

So you don’t have an M/S decoder plug-in. There is still hope; oh, and another option for you. You can make a copy of the “Side” track and then invert the phase on it. Simple enough…just add another mono track to your song, make sure the song position indicator is exactly where the “side” track starts, paste the copied audio recording onto that added mono track and then “invert phase”.   Next, simply pan the original and copied track hard left and right while making sure they maintain identical volume levels.  Blend these tracks with your “mid” track and presto, Mid/Side without the decoder! Like plug-ins, you aren’t able to hear the stereo signal until after you’ve recorded and copied it, however, you can adjust the width of the image after recording.

Feel free to comment & discuss further as this can be a bit tricky the first go around.  Again, the results are incredibly satisfying.

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Then, out of the blue, came a scattering of affordable new ribbons by budget mic manufacturers in the faraway reaches of Asia and Eastern Europe.  I know lots of you, like me, bought some of these microphones in the past.  And I’m sure many of you, like me, were underwhelmed.  Most of these mics are dark, murky and damn near inaudible.  Still, I haven’t dismissed the validity of the virtues of ribbons.  I’ve simply chalked it up to the adage “you get what you pay for” and I’ve gone about merrily using my condenser mics for recording vocals, acoustic guitars and drum overheads.

A few years ago, though, a few industrious entrepreneurs started companies that once again went to Asia and Eastern Europe and took advantage of the cheap labor costs and the new designs of modern ribbons, and they’re responsible for today’s new “reasonably” priced offerings.  Having used some of these reasonably priced new mics for some time now, I can say, unequivocally, that all the hype is real.  Ribbon mics offer a realism and multi-dimensional sound that you have to hear to believe. I also find that, at the mix stage, the sounds they record respond much better to EQ and compression leaving me with sonic options I never had before.

Let me be clear, not all of the new ribbons are amazing.  Some are more useful as paperweights.  And when I say “reasonably” priced I mean under $1,000, though there are a couple as low as $199. Some of these new gems include offerings by Cascade and Shinybox out of Washington state, Crowley and Tripp out of Massachusetts, Sontronics in England and SE Electronics in China (yeah, that China).  And since we’re talking about China, that’s where many of the parts that both Shinybox and Cascade use in their ribbons come from (though they’re meticulously assembled in Washington State.)   And one more thing, those parts are also very high quality, so let’s put an end to dismissing all gear with a “made in China” label as inferior.

Before I go on about some of my favorite mics and their uses, let me attempt to describe what these things are. A ribbon mic is a type of dynamic microphone, like a Shure SM 57.  Unlike an SM 57, which uses a coil of wire wrapped around a “cap-like” diaphragm suspended over a magnet, ribbons use a very thin strip of aluminum or nanofilm placed between the poles of a magnet.  These mics respond to the air velocity of the sound wave by means of electromagnetic induction, as opposed to dynamics, that respond to pressure variations.  Most but not all, are bi-directional (figure eight), which simply means they pick up sound equally from both the front and back.  Additionally, the word on these mics is that they were once too quiet, rather fragile (it doesn’t take much to break a piece of aluminum many times thinner than a chewing gum wrapper) and running electric current through them (48v phantom power) would fry the ribbon.

All of the above used to be true of most ribbon mics but not anymore.  Several modern designs are wired to ignore phantom power and can handle sound pressure levels up to 135 dB or more. There are also new, though more expensive, designs called “active ribbons” that actually feature a built in preamp (powered by 48v phantom) to substantially boost their output.  My favorite newer designs are the stereo mics (two ribbons, stacked one on top of the other, facing 90° apart) and the cardioid & hypercardioid models.

Here is my disclaimer: this article is not intended to present all of the good, inexpensive ribbon mics available. I haven’t heard all of them.  The microphones I mention hereafter are models I either own (and paid for) or have used extensively, and of course, this is just my opinion.

One of the first signs that your music career is on an upward trajectory comes with the realization that you have developed a following.  You’ve noticed that many of the same people are continually showing up at your gigs; and when you’re out running mundane errands, you’re starting to be acknowledged in public by those same folks, as well as others whom you do not recognize.  While you’re probably not being mobbed at the local market, or enduring the frenzy of autograph-seekers thrusting pen and paper in your direction, there is a certain sense of pride swelling within at this newfound recognition.   You have fans.

Fanciers and Fanatics

A fan is defined as an individual who experiences an intense admiration for an entertainer, sports figure, or other public figure.  While it has been thought that the term ‘fan’ was derived from the word fanatic; the actual origin has been traced to the 19th century term, fancy, which was used primarily to identify British followers of boxing matches.

We’ve all witnessed the fictional and media depictions of the adoring fan, the psycho-stalker fan, and all of the variations in-between.  Social scientists who examine fan-celebrity relationships have identified three levels of celebrity worship:  entertainment-social (ES), intense-personal (IP), and borderline-pathological (BP).

The first of these, ES, is the normal identification with or admiration of a public figure; the individual who attends concerts, purchases music, and seeks out others with similar interests.  The next group, IP, consists of those whose veneration has increased to having more obsessive thoughts about the celebrity, possibly to the point of entertaining fantasies that the fan and celebrity could share a life together.  Finally, the BP fan is one who has diminishing or no boundaries in regard to their beloved icon, and is generally viewed as a stalker.

Is this stalker type a common problem for those who become even minor public figures by virtue of some success as a musician?  Is it actually possible that your fans could go awry? While isolated incidents of criminal fan behavior do happen, the worst behavior endured by the majority of musicians will be more nuisance than pathological.

The best way to deal with this nuisance behavior begins with knowing what you’re up against. Let’s examine the nature of fans from a more realistic perspective; one that cuts through the psycho-babble and presents caricatures of the most common music fan types.

Gary Gear-Head

This is the guy who loves every painstaking detail about his music hero’s rig.  Gary’s time is spent interacting with other gear-heads; trying to figure out how to create the same sounds as you (generally on the cheap); and researching the minutiae behind every piece of equipment you’ve ever touched.  When he has the opportunity to talk with you, this guy bends your ear asking how you achieved seemingly trivial effects.  If you find yourself with a lot of these guys (and they are usually male), consider offering clinics to demonstrate your style, and supplement your gig income.

Carl & Colin Collector

Carl can certainly discuss your music with authority, but you get an odd vibe of detachment from the guy.  Because he’s such a huge fan of yours, he’s constantly at your elbow asking you to sign anything and everything you’ve ever produced – claiming to be your ultimate collector.  Carl is definitely a dedicated admirer, of yours, and of every other hot musician who can make him some cash.  Your autographs and memorabilia are for sale at hefty prices on Carl’s online marketplace.

Carl has a fraternal twin, Colin, who is also a collector, but not for entrepreneurial purposes.  Colin has a need to fulfill.   By “collecting” musicians, Colin is able to feel important when he extolls you as a friend.  While you might not consider Colin part of your inner circle, he will certainly add you to his collection as soon as you’ve acknowledged his presence with a casual  “Hey, how’s it going? Thanks for coming tonight!”   Colin lives to have his photo taken with you, wherein he will wrap an arm around your shoulder, press his face against yours, and with his free hand, throw a sign, just to show how freakin’ awesome he is, hanging with his main man.

Sam Schadenfreude

He claims to be a HUGE fan, but he is one nit-picking pain.  Sam constantly scrutinizes every aspect of your music, your rig, heck, even the way you wear your clothes.  He expects you to embrace his criticisms, which he condescendingly cites as being purely constructive in nature.   If you don’t take the time to listen to his complaints, or you don’t incorporate his guidance, he’ll take it to a larger audience – your online forum, or better yet, one that’s more heavily populated.

Sam is especially gleeful when others write mediocre or poor reviews about you – this gives him the opportunity to tell you, and anyone else who will listen, that he told you so.  If only you had heeded Sam’s omnipotent wisdom, you would not find yourself in such an unsatisfactory position.

Ursula Unrequited – (hyphenate with your last name)

She will go to great distances (literally and figuratively) to be near you.  Ursula possesses such unconditional love for you, that initially, she is a major boost to the ego.  But, she has another side – Ursula is a disaster magnet.  You can’t help but feel for her when she’s down on her luck.  She is, after all, such a dedicated fan.  You offer her kind words, toss her an extra t-shirt, and she’s so broke – a free pass is nothing, right?

But after a while, your undivided attention doesn’t seem to be enough. Ursula’s behavior alternates between wanting to have your baby and hurling derogatory epitaphs in your direction.  And, when you’re just about to ask her to move along, she tearfully apologizes and declares her unwavering devotion to you and your music (of course, Ursula is unable to correctly name three of your songs).  Your band mates and crew have taken to making sucking sounds instead of referring to her by name – a gentle reminder that your number one fan is a sucking black hole of doom.

Nigel and Nina Normal

They regularly attend your shows, and they bring friends with them.  They buy your CDs, pick up a couple extra copies for friends, and would never ask you to comp them at gigs or give you free tunes.  They’re friendly, but not pushy; you enjoy chatting with them between sets, or after the gig, and you find yourself discussing topics other than your music.

They may occasionally snap some photos or videos of you performing, which they forward to you, along with uploading them to their own web pages or social networking sites.  They rarely ask you for favors, except for an occasional photo taken together, or a song request for a special occasion.  You know their names because you enjoy their company, and their continued support. These folks are great, and you tend to view them more as friends than as fans.

If you’re lucky, the majority of your fans will fall into this latter group, and you will be blessed with a very limited assemblage of Ursulas, Sams, and the Collector twins.

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Most big DJs were part of an event early on, like Pete Tong‘s Family Function, and Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez‘s Masters at Work parties. DJ Smash and DJ Nickodemus were part of NYC’s Giant Step, and Jason Bentley was part of LA’s Bossanova.

Step 1: Find A Need or Niche and Fill It

Finding a need or niche has two aspects: the music and the atmosphere, or “vibe.” Sometimes, the need is musical, other times, it’s merely the presentation or experience that’s lacking.

For example, there are always new types of dance music coming into existence – is there a new one that interests you, and that’s not represented in your local nightlife? Or maybe you have an idea for a memorable venue that offers more to do at an event than just listen to a DJ and drink? Figure out what you can bring to the scene. Do something that stands out, do something that people have been wanting, and everyone will remember your event.

Although most people probably know Jason Bentley‘s name from his association with KCRW (his show Metropolis was the first on the station to focus on forward-looking electronic music), he cemented his reputation by starting a club-night with other local DJs where you could dance to music he’d championed on the show. Eventually, they began to feature guest DJs whose music listeners had been hearing on the radio.

The event that people now know as Bossanova wasn’t playing music you couldn’t hear elsewhere, but it did allow people to come out and dance. Normally, other spots playing that music were non-dance locations (e.g., bars, restaurants, lounges), or events held in underground locations (e.g., raves, private parties). What Bentley and co. did was present the music in a more convenient setting for their audience.

In contrast, Pete Tong (now of BBC‘s Essential Mix) started out putting on events and later moved into radio. Pete made his name finding new music, so it was natural for him to move into radio, and consequently, his shows became the pre-clubbing staple for those getting ready to go out.

Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez played successful parties, and then got into music production, as did fellow New Yorkers, DJ Smash and Nickodemus. Because they started out as party DJs, they brought their DJ sensibility to the music they made. All of them are now in demand as both DJs and producers.

Step 2: Get to Know The Scene
Going out to familiarize yourself with the events and people that make up the nightlife in your area is intimately related to “finding and filling” the need or niche you’ll choose. You can’t fill a need if you don’t know what is or is not going on already. For instance, you need get a sense of which nights different events are happening on and of who is going to them. You don’t want to put on a new night of deep house on the same day of the week as the best-attended event of that kind.

Often, the best way to find this stuff out is by looking for club/event flyers. Music shops are the default place to look for these, but also go to clothing stores, cafes and any place where club-goers tend to hang out. Grab several flyers (the ones that look good and the ones that don’t), and do your research checking websites, MySpace, and Facebook pages.

When looking at flyers and profiles, pay close attention to names you see a lot and note who or what their associations are-often these people are the “movers & shakers” in the scene. Also analyze what gets your attention on the flyer and what doesn’t, because when you design your publicity campaign, you want to use all the techniques that make an event look hot on paper.

When you go to events, pay close attention to the elements you think work well, and the ones that do not-as with the promotional material, both the dos and don’ts are important.

DJ T-Bird

Meet the people who are involved in putting the nights on-promoters and DJs alike. You can never know too many people, and understanding how they all fit into your scene is important. If you need help with something, you want to know who the “go-to” people are.

Step 3: Promote Your Event

To put on an amazing party, you must have great promotion, a good vibe, a good venue, and good music. Notice that music is last and promotion is first-the most important thing when it comes to parties is promotion. Promote constantly! I cannot stress this enough. If no one comes to your party, then it’s a flop by default. There’s no way around this one, you have got to have a good turnout.

Once your date & venue are set, even before you have flyers or other promotional material, let people know when and where you’re going to hold your event. People’s memories are short and even your best friends need notice and reminding.

If you don’t have a lot of friends, find people who do, and figure out how to get them excited about your event. You need them to tell their friends, and get those friends telling other people that you may not even know or have access to. It’s long been said that “word of mouth is the best advertising,” and it’s true. Keep the event, date, and venue fresh in people’s minds often enough to remind them, but know when to draw the line. It is possible to over-promote, and annoy people into non-attendance.

Once you’ve got promo under control, it’s time to start to focus on actually putting on a great event!

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We live in a digitized-networkized-iPodized-viralized-voyeurized society where media is idolized and children are born, oblivious, into already-mundane technology their grandparents couldn’t have conceived of. Not surprisingly, when it comes to how we consume art, one sensory experience isn’t enough. We crave the feeling of being drenched, immersed in sound, light, and imagery. Perhaps naturally, then, the blending of music and visuals has become standard in the concert and club scene, seemingly, at least as far as our grandparents can figure, overnight.

In fact, the injection of visual performance into the music scene began with the arrival of the superstar DJ in the 1990s. Suddenly, thousands of people were coming out to dance to electronic music, but for the first time, the maestro was barely visible to the crowd. Without being able to watch performers, people wanted more to look at than a lightshow.

Enter the VJ

When we say a ‘VJ’ is going to be at the show tonight, we’re not talking about the toothy people-pleasers who introduce videos on MTV. We’re talking about the artists who produce the cadenced, pulsating images that have become standard elements in the tapestry of stimuli woven—not just at DJ events—at almost every large concert and festival production being put on today.

There are as many different ways to perform visuals as there are to make music. While some VJs lug around a ton of equipment, others work from a single, dedicated laptop. Some VJs create all their own video clips, while others buy, borrow, and trade online off YouTube and VJ forums. Some VJs focus on creating an intensely psychedelic experience for the audience, while others tell stories using shadow puppets. Ultimately, the only thing that ties this artistically diverse industry together is the feeling that rhythmic, synchronized imagery brings something important and special, something more, to the experience of live musical performance.

One of the major ambitions of VJ culture—as explored daily at Create Digital Motion—is to refine, create, and discover new technologies that allow video artists to jam along with musicians without restraint. The better this technology, the more these visualists are able to bring to a performance. A good VJ is right there alongside the beat, soothing the crowd down to a relaxed tempo with mellow colors and images, and then revving dancers back up again with fast-paced, unexpected, original video play.

Working in the Background

So who’s your favorite VJ? If a single name fails to spring to mind, you’re not alone. Although visuals have become a standard part of both DJ and live band performances, they rarely get the type of credit that would help club-goers start to recognize favorites.

In fact, sometimes DJs and bands don’t even realize they’re performing with VJs because event producers don’t make introductions. However, there’s an enormous difference between what you get from a VJ, and what you get from pre-recorded visuals, especially when musicians and artists create opportunities to work together.

Rather than showing up at a gig cold, without being introduced to the night’s act, most VJs would love to have time to prepare along with musicians, learning their style and their songs, then finding and creating video that best complements the music.

In a perfect world, all VJs and musicians would work together closely to craft a synchronized performance. However, this usually only happens during large-scale productions, like at big festivals, or when a DJ or band tours with their own visualist as an integral part of the act.

For now, VJs struggling to make a name for themselves deal with obstacles like being excluded from event advertising, ignored by club managers, rarely asked to perform onstage, and even being ordered to haul equipment by inexperienced bands. VJ Lady Firefly wrote an extensive manifesto on the problem, and outlined some possible solutions, here.

Show Some Love!

DJs, bands, and other artists can help VJs out of relative obscurity in several ways. Musicians who really feel the connection between sound and sight can find a VJ to integrate into their act. This is probably the way to get the most out of a visual performer. If you can work closely together, the results will be far more seamless than if the VJ just has to show up at a gig and hope that the images they brought and the timing of your songs somehow blend together.

Usually, a VJ will spend several days preparing images for a show, so if you can help them out by getting in touch and providing a setlist, and even just chatting about your style, the performance will be that much stronger. Don’t know if you’ll be performing with a VJ? Try asking the event producer or club owner. Sometimes, they need a little nudge in the right direction to cough up those details.

Eye Vapor (Los Angeles/San Francisco)

A visual performer is also better set up for putting on an amazing show if he or she can have access to the venue a few days early to run through their set up. They need space, often as much space as the DJ, for their gear, and they need to know what equipment is already on hand so that they can come prepared. If a manager or producer will take time to talk to a VJ, they can also prevent problems that might ruin a show, like overly bright lights or too much dry ice smoking the screens out.

Equal Pay For Equal Work?

Of course, VJs aren’t looking for the rest of the industry to hold their hands and stick up for their rights. Most are simply suggesting that, as the concert and club industry evolves, what they do is morphing from background tech stuff to pretty central to the performance. As such, they deserve the propers, and the salary (or lack thereof), given to any other performer.

What do you think? Are VJs becoming just as important to musical performance as the musicians themselves? Should they be getting more credit for their efforts?  We’ve created a new VJ section in the Sound-Off Forums…

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Tony Ustel, an up-and-coming Canadian DJ who performs under the name King Cobra, remembers the first time he realized that he was watching a VJ at work. “I always thought that people used an edit program to make the images, then put it on a DVD synced to a beat timer,” he says, “then I started to really understand what the VJ was doing, creating eyes for the music.”

Creating eyes for music, windows into the soul of a beat, is an art that VJs are constantly trying to perfect. “There is so much development going on in the audio-visual world right now,” says VJ PO-MO, known by the light of day as Meghan Athavale, “The only limit at this point is the human imagination.”

Don’t worry wannabees! When PO-MO – who specializes in syncing her own animations to music – says that imagination is the only limit, she’s not speaking from a lofty place of unlimited liquidity. Rather, she’s saying that you don’t need a big budget to be an innovator.

VJ mrghosty – a colleague of PO-MO‘s whose craft leans towards playing with found and manipulated footage – has been building his own rig for years using equipment found at antique stores and flea markets. “I was mainly using a bunch of VCRs running through a mixer, with my computer running clips that I could mix a little bit to the rhythm,” says mrghosty of his first setup. ”I then started modifying old analog gear like CED videodisc players so I could mix and scratch picture as well as sound.”

Mrghosty, a.k.a. Skot Deeming, now uses a considerably lighter rig – a dual laptop configuration run through a vintage analogue mixer – but his DIY approach remains intact. “I’m very much someone who tries to use what I have at hand,” he says. “I mod and hack the gear a bit to get it to do what I want, rather than spend the money on the very expensive gear that can be found out there for VJing.”

DIY Inventors

Although the market for pricy VJ gear is booming, the home workshop is the place where much of the development in audio visualization is happening. “Our programmer built a multi-touch surface in an afternoon using materials he found around his apartment,” says PO-MO. “I learned to make a huge back-projection screen out of $5 worth of wax paper. Skot has rigged up LED throwies and modified controllers made out of used and found equipment.”

“We’re also currently working on our own portable outdoor screen design,” mrghosty adds. ”On several actually. Screens are also really expensive. In a pinch hang a white sheet. I got a couple at a thrift store and bleached them. They’re handy to have around.”

Good to know you don’t need a fat wallet to be part of building the future of VJing. But do you have to be as scarily smart with technology as these VJs sound? “Patience is more important than technical knowledge,” PO-MO reassures us. “Technology inspires us to find ways to express ourselves creatively, and that forces us to add to what we already know.”

Audience Interactivity

So what does the future hold for idea-heavy, cash-poor VJs of varying technical know-how? “Adding elements that the audience can interact with rather than simply watching is something I’m very much interested in,” says mrghosty. ”Imagine that we could do our mix visually, but with elements of these visuals being controlled by the audience.”

PO-MO notes that this is already being experimented with at large-scale events like Shambala. “Motion sensors and other interface devices are being used to alter the visual show, so it’s different every time,” she says. And not surprisingly, DJs love it. “It gives the audience a full spectrum of delight,” says King Cobra, “and it gives them a bigger push to get on the dance floor. Since I started playing with a VJ, the floor dancers have doubled.”

Working with Environmental Factors

Another emerging trend is the development of technologies and visual styles that take advantage of otherwise inhibiting environmental factors. While VJs often complain about too much light or smoke in a venue ruining a visual performance, PO-MO uses these elements to add depth and texture to her show. “One of the things I’ve been playing around with is projecting into mist or fog,” she explains. “Certain colors in the spectrum seem closer because they reflect from those mediums better. If I animate a swimming fish and change its color and size gradually, I can simulate it moving in 3D through the fog.”

Evolution on a Budget
PO-MO‘s description creates quite the mental image of a future when concert-goers may find themselves not only staring into the eyes of the music, but actually moving through the mind of the beat, displayed visually all around them. Looks like your mom might have been right when she said you don’t need drugs to have fun.

Blurring the Line between Audio and Visual

For his part, mrghosty envisions a future where audio and video collaboration blends. “The integration of audio/video sampling is a great direction to head in.  Actually taking what we’re doing and adding music/audio samples from our end while we play would add an extra element of interactivity with whomever we’re playing with. This has been going on for sometime, with older a/v performance groups like EBN (Emergency Broadcast Network), Coldcut Crew, and some others.  When a show becomes integrated with picture and sound being produced by everyone on stage; well, I think that’s an incredible thing.”

That would make for some interesting sounds, but what do musicians think of VJs contributing audio? King Cobra, who performs regularly with mrghosty, doesn’t feel threatened. “Skot and I are more like collaboration. He has been my only VJ; he has based all his images to what I play. I think they call it band practice,” King Cobra laughs. “For us, the set-up is easy and so far, I’ve never felt crowded onstage.”

Noise and Light

Can you picture it? A future where going to a concert or club is like stepping into a virtual reality of synchronized sound and color; a ghostly neon creature slithers past you at shoulder-height; a palm-sized LED light given to you upon entry projects tiny birds onto the ceiling that swoop and flutter in time to your dancing; onstage, the performers call to each other in waves of noise and picture like marine mammals seeking each other out across the ocean.

The pressure of creativity pushing up against budget and technology is fueling the evolution of visual performance. But are there limits? Will concert-goers rebel as traditional forms of entertainment morph and shift? Will musicians balk against become part of, rather than central to, a live performance? At Sonic Weekly, we’d love to hear your thoughts on VJs and the directions in which visual performances are headed. Have your say in the new VJ section of the Sound-Off Forums…

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Most tech articles address the ins and outs of equipment. How to use it, what it’s made of, how it works, what the best parts are, and all the nuances of the craft of guitar equipment design.

This month, I’m going to go off the beaten path to cover a much more important subject—organic tone. What does that mean? YOU!! Organic tone is the product of your mind, body and soul.

Go Beyond the Gear

There is an abundance of great gear out there. Guitar, pedal, and amp manufacturers are creating wonderful sounding, well-built products to assist us with our tone sculpting. But you may have noticed that I’ve chosen to use the word “assist” for describing what our sonic tools do for us. This is because when you get down to it, the real source of tone starts and ends with you, not any of your gear.

Sure, you may have what you consider the best boutique amp on earth, and every flavor of the month pedal, all of which are built with the parts and components you and your friends approve of, write about in blogs, forums, and discuss in all those other places where musicians put their heads together and talk shop. But you have to ask yourself a couple of questions:

Do you want to create music? Or do you just want to make noise with expensive equipment?

Cultivate Perfect Tone

The pathway to great tone is through practice, not machinery. You can’t buy tone! Equipment is there to enhance, manipulate, and convey tone. It is not the source—you are. As a pedal designer and manufacturer, I consider myself a toolmaker, and tools are only as good as the mechanic who uses them.

I totally understand how a musician can buy a ton of pedals and spend more time tweaking knobs and obsessing over what parts operate the unit, than actually playing guitar. However, with this approach, you soon grow to dislike the latest answer to “tone in a box,” usually within a week or a month, and then you’re on to the next new box-o-talent. We’ve all been there, myself included. I know how it is. It’s much easier and seems more rewarding to play with a sea of knobs and switches to find great tone, than it is to sit down and practice creating great tone.

If you enjoy being a technician more than a guitar player, read no more.

Every Great Guitarist Does It

In the many years I’ve spent repairing guitar and bass equipment, designing and manufacturing pedals, attending guitar shows, events, and helping clients who walk into the shop, I’ve talked with and listened to many great guitar players. And I’ve found that they all have one thing in common—It really does not matter what equipment they play through—they ALWAYS sound great. Their wonderful tone follows them wherever they go. Hand them any guitar, plug into any amp, and they sound great. The quality, personality, and character of their sound are intact and superb. They all make it work.

How do they do it? Endless, constant, and effective practicing.

Have you ever noticed how your favorite guitar heroes sound nearly the same every time you hear them? From time to time you notice they’re playing through different amps, effects, and sometimes, guitars. But their sound is unmistakably theirs. That’s the result of practice!

Challenge Yourself

Teach yourself new things that are beyond your usual test riffs or the same songs you’ve played many times. Work towards eradicating your weaknesses and not just practicing your strengths. If you have already mastered it, move on to the next challenge. Learn material outside of your musical taste and technique.

A friend of mine, who is a monster guitar player and can play anything, has recently needed to play slide guitar regularly in a new band. He never considered himself a good slide player because there wasn’t any need or desire to invest the time practicing slide playing. However, now, when we talk on the phone several times daily for business, I hear him playing slide in the background while we’re talking. Nearly every phone call I hear him practicing slide. Sometimes through an amp, often unplugged, and it sounds great. He took what he considered a weakness and within a couple of weeks, eliminated it through effective practicing.

Side note: All great players say “Practice with a metronome!!” It’s the only electronic gear you really need for practicing.

How To Find YOUR Tone

You can go very far in your quest for tone just by unplugging your guitar and playing it. Find all the effects you can create with your fingers. Pay attention to the way they contact the strings and the fingerboard. Notice how much your hand contacts the back of the neck influences a variety of tones as well as how tightly you grasp the neck. Explore different picking techniques to command different sounds. How tightly or loosely you hold your pick, the angle and depth of attack when plucking a string, all this changes tone. Even the way you wear your guitar has an impact on tone. Want a little more sustain and feedback a bit sooner? Lean over and let your guitar hang off you by its strap. That allows the guitar’s body to vibrate more freely because it’s not dampened by your body. The point is to experiment, investigate, and discover all the tones that can be created by just you and the guitar. The majority of these nuances will reveal themselves through practice, not electronics.

I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg regarding the creation of organic tone. The rest is up to you, as most aspects of it can only be self-taught through practicing.

So put away your effects. Turn off your amp. Explore your guitar and discover yourself.

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In Part I of this series, we learned about Tom’s unconventional path into the music industry-one which inevitably led him to public radio.  In Part II, we’ll hear more about Tom’s penchant for picking and playing the best in world music artists, and his own brand of advice for musicians looking to stand out on the radio airwaves.

SW: Tell me about the team of people who work with you at KCRW.

TS: It takes all different kinds of people to make a radio station and it’s good that people are different in what they think, and their taste. I mean, Nic [Harcourt] and Chris [Douridas] have such keen ears for new bands, I don’t think I have their golden ears. I think I have ears for other kinds of music, you know, but in terms of new bands, I think the great things about Nic, Chris and Raul-they’re playing bands that never would have had a chance before-never would have had a chance at a record contract you know, records used to cost a lot of money!

People like Nic and Chris and Anne Litt, they don’t care, [they'll play it.]  I mean, if they have something that’s good, it’s so much easier for [bands] to get on the radio than before, and KCRW has an incredible audience, it has like a perfect audience-people buy records, people are very passionate about music, and people are very professional at KCRW, I mean, it’s a really great organization.

SW: So how is a band going to get heard?

TS: They make a CD. Hopefully they put a label on the CD and make it look halfway decent and don’t just write with a sharpie on it and send it in-although some people do actually do that, you know.  And God knows, at KCRW, it’ll probably get heard.

At KCRW we get loads of unsolicited stuff and we actually go through it and listen to it.  So in that respect, it’s better for bands than ever before.

SW: What changes have you noticed on the radio in terms of what’s being played these days on the air?

TS: The radio industry has become much worse; it’s become much more controlled.  Clear Channel taking over the commercial stations, bad stuff.  [A few years ago] the Dixie Chicks protested the war in Iraq, and look what happened to them; it’s like Hollywood blacklisting from the early 1950s you know. And that’s because there are very conservative business organizations that run Clear Channel, so in a sense it’s gotten worse, and in a sense it’s gotten better.  It’s gotten worse in the sense that the community stations are all very tightly controlled and yet a lot of people are listening to KCRW to try to find out what’s happening and what’s new.  Also a lot of the talk radio stations- KPCC, a very popular talk station used to have music. Not any more.  KUSC used to have a free-form segment on every day.  Not any more.  Now, it’s very tightly play-listed classical music.

So they’re not really DJs, they’ll come in and do their voice-over for five days of shows; it’s also cheaper for management.  Management hires them part-time, does not pay them benefits, pays them less-whatever.  They come in, they do all their voice-over, they say, “That was so and so, doing symphony number D for the last hour.”

SW: How does KCRW’s broadcast style differ?

TS: Being a DJ at KCRW means you’re watching your time, thinking what’s next, you’re on your toes.  It’s the difference between someone giving you a packaged meal out of the freezer and you’re [being] cooking a four-course meal-you have to pay attention, you can’t just take a nap.  So there certainly is a gestalt at being a DJ, you know, and it kind of harkens back to the old days of DJs, especially where people were playing 45s, and singles and songs that only lasted 3 minutes or less.  Plus, you have to be reading copy; you have to be putting cards in the announcements and stuff.

I remember when I was 17 the original KPCC in Miracle Mile [district] and we saw one of our hero DJs, Rick Holmes and he was doing his thing, doing ads, putting in the carts, reading copy, and he was like a maniac, doing this, doing that, and it’s like wow!  So it’s better than ever because they don’t have the intermediary wall of the record company.  Record companies are still doing great things, don’t get me wrong-plus, think about it, in the old days, bands had, what-a cassette?  People want CDs.  Well, now anybody can go in and set up a few microphones and a recording machine and come out with something that’s listenable if they do the drums right-and people like Nic Harcourt will listen to it.  It’s better for bands overall than it used to be.