everafter

I wrote a song that was inspired by a series of strange unrelated events, and it brought back to mind the way I came to write Carmen. I’ve been writing on and off for a while now, but the songs have seemed half inspired, so I get angry and toss them. Others I wrote to commemorate recent events and although I thought they were good, I just did not feel like recording them…

So I ask myself, ‘Self? What is going on?’ and my answer is that I am far away. I want to write, but somehow I have distanced myself from the act itself, or perhaps I have come to that dreaded writer’s curse: I’ve nothing to say. Could it be? No, I don’t think so. But sometimes what we say is not what we mean, and thus this is the feeling I’ve come to regard as the ‘non-me’.

The non-me will write about everything not related to me, for fear that such things might be too close for comfort. And they are! So much has happened in my life in a span of a year and a half that it is staggering to say the least. So after a bit of non-writing writing, i gave myself a break and let it all go….

And then, just as I was thinking about nothing at at all on the freeway on the way home from Minneapolis this weekend… It just came… A real song, something to be recorded. I say recorded because it is the first that makes me feel that there is more, even if it is simple, even if it tells the world something personal. I had forgotten the feeling… So now?

I have to follow it and see where it leads… :)

But for now, it has made me feel all the emotions that have been building up. So after a really good cup of coffee, I will go and work on it…

Minneapolis Show 2010

And so another weekend show ends. It was, I will admit, a rough one. For starters, this show in Minnesota began as an idea way back in June. I was in Lima, Peru at the time. Admittedly, my mind was not on shows but on the mysteries and beautiful nature of being in love, so at first my thoughts were not on it per say. However, eventually as an artist your mind will invariably switch to the craft, to the fans and your obligations. Who can escape them? So in reality, being in artist in this case has nothing to do with it. It is simply part of being human… Working, loving, creating, accepting… So it went…

So yeah, back in June this offer to play in Minneapolis came through. It was not by any means what we usually do, but it was a chance to see a new city, and it was a risk as well. Are we played there? does anyone know Anything Box in Minneapolis? So many questions. I decided to ask Dania and Paul about it and we all agreed: A new city means inroads to further the Abox road. So we agreed to do it. Then I forgot all about it.

The city proved itself to be everything I could ever want in a city, and thus Minneapolis has become one of my favorite cities. It has individualism to the 9th degree, which explains both Information society and Prince quite nicely now. I understand. It has a culture, something that I have been missing in California as of late. Don’t get me wrong, I love California for what it has, but it definitely needs the kindness and warmth I experienced in Minneapolis…

As for the show, it was a strange mix of elation and pain. I set about playing the entire Peace album, and that is just what we did. The order was changed, otherwise ‘Oblivion’ would get played way too early in the set. However this was not without difficulties, as we would soon discover. The album is almost half moody songs and club tracks. so we could have done all slow songs leading up to the finale, but that would be obvious. I opted for little sets, where 2 slower songs led into the faster ones. How wrong was I? well, how do you go from ‘When We Lie’ to ‘all these Hours’? We did it, and it seemed odd, but we rolled with it. After all, no matter what, we were going to do the whole album.

My favorite was ‘Lady In Waiting’, one because it was the first time we did it in its original form, and second because we had done some technical work to save it in the morning hours after breakfast. We almost had to scratch the version, but in the end it all worked out really well…

On the way home from the airport, I suddenly got an idea for a song and wrote it down… Inspired. I loved Minneapolis. Seriously, I could live there…

Claude

A New Arsenal | Analog vs Digital… Again…

During the California show on Saturday, some people noticed parts of my new rig, which was totally intentional of course. Some people asked me questions outside, and some were simply perplexed, so I thought I would shed a light on a few things…

A few days before the show, I got an Omnichord, which I won in an auction on EBay.

I was not planning on using it just days before a show, but when Paul and I worked out Lady In Waiting using it, the Kaos Pad 3 as a drum machine, and his guitar… Well. It was magic. And so we sprung it on the audience on Saturday with only one rehearsal between us. I loved it. But! Just because I strapped it on… don’t fucking call it a Keytar. It’s not a fucking Keytar. I don’t like keytars. I even despise the word Keytar. It is an analog device, not a controller. IHFK <— guess what that stands for? :0

Also in the mix was my Nintendo DS, which saw lots of use that night as both an atmospheric sound affecter and for some pads during I Felt the Pain and Soul On Fire. Somebody’s voice came through the crowd, asking… “Oh my God… Is that a Nintendo DS up there?” Yep. It was. Mine is the red and black, but here’s a pic of the black one…

The idea of having this little thing do what it does through my Kaos Pad was like getting my first analog synthesizer. I LOVE this THING. I plan on using more than one in the future. I’m almost certain of it.

The device I did not get to use was my Gakken, which is a little analog synthesizer that I got with a magazine out of Japan. That little guy is sick, and I planned on using it during Jubilation, but somehow it went on being muted (or I did not hear it in my monitors), which was rather bunk, but it happens. I had it hooked up to the Kaos Pad and it was going to do a theremin solo thing. :( 

 

Yeah, that’s the one. I love it, but it’s not really what I should have on stage with me. So I got this little monster instead for next time… Just out, too! Dave Smith’s Mopho kiddies! 100% Analog!

Now I’m going to make some additional noise… Ooh. Ah… But seriously. I am. This is a dream come true. It’s small, it’s phat, it’s small. Four Oscillators… “All you need is Love…”

If my other instrument would only work, I would be in heaven, but I haven’t given up on it. I don’t accept failure. It’s simply too cool. I made a FLASH BASED sampler, and it is amazing in every way… Except I hate controlling it from a mouse. I tried to do it with a wireless tablet, and it worked, but the response was too slow for my taste. I need to send MIDI to FLASH, and guess what… It is not part of FLASH! Which is a shame. I won’t give up on this though. The computer is part of what I do, so this seems like a logical step. Oh, BTW, I did play some graphic synth stuff via MIDI on Saturday, and that worked amazingly well. If I incorporate the visuals with Mopho I might have something really too cool for words. But I digress. I will put it up on our site soon so that anyone can play it. This was my dream… Sigh.

The other question I was asked was my preference… Surprise… Analog vs Digital. I don’t like that question, because in answering it I appear to give one more props than the other. But I guess this is inevitable, isn’t it? So here’s my view, the final and definitive manifest of what is what…

I love analog. I love digital. They are similar, they are different. They are like twins, only different. I love both. Each has a weakness the other exploits. Each has a strength the other employs. OK?

So don’t make me decide. I won’t. I love both. Forever.

– Claude

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Anything Box in SOCAL! | 9.27.2008 | Detroit Bar

Yes, it’s on a Saturday, which is a great thing. The next day you can sleep in, cause after all that partying and and dancing… Well, you know how it gets. I’m not sure exactly why I’m posting this in my blog, but I’m excited. We’re playing CA, and we just got home from rehearsal, which was great! I have a feeling that this show is going to be memorable. We are very grateful to our FANS, Indie 103.1, Meanstreet, Detroit Bar, and Jonesy’s Jukebox for making us want to rock our backyard with our electronic little beats. Seriously. It’s about time, no? Aw shucks… :)

Feel free to copy this post and spread the word, cause here we come!

Technorati Tags: Anything Box,Abox,New Music,New Wave,Detroit Bar,9.27.2008,September,27th,2008,SOCAL SHOW,Costa Mesa,California Show!