So many things to say. I have no idea where to
start. How's this:
Two things. First of all, I would like to say that Sam Campbell
has probably been one of the single greatest influences, sonically, in
my life. He has an unbelievable knowledge of all things musically
obscure. I think in one of the many conversations I had with him
(this one was probably about the time I lived in St. Louis--four years
ago), he mentioned an artist who made a CD that was intended to be
played randomly so as to create a potentially infinite number of
possible sonic experiences. Needless to say I was fascinated by
the idea. Unfortunately, I never heard this album. However,
it is an idea that has stuck with me and has been something I have
wanted to try myself ever since this time. I regret that I cannot
remember the artists name.
Secondly, while secretly squatting in an abandoned church full of
musical and recording equipment, one day I went snooping through iTunes
on a computer belonging to Mr. Kit. For whatever reason, I
decided to put all of his music (which is a ridiculous amount!) in
order by song length; shortest to longest. I started at the top
and pushed play. No doubt I laughed to myself, alone in the
abandoned church. There must have been over 50 songs under one
minute long and many of them were only a few seconds. I thought
it was the coolest thing! I proceeded to make a mix CD for Sam
composed entirely of songs under a minute long except for one or two of
the longest songs on Kit's
computer and a few songs that I am pretty sure Sam HATES! (like
U2 or something) I think I made one mix and was not entirely
satisfied so I made another that I liked better and gave it, in CD
form, to Sam. It was rad! But then, I don't know how it
happened, Joey ended up with the first CD (appropriately titled 'The
Most Beautifully Annoying Mix CD Ever!'). And he listened to
it. I am still not sure how that happened...We all lost many
things in the move from Greenville...but Joey ended up with that
CD.
So, here we are, living in Chicago, trying to continually make
music. What better time to create something that I have wanted to
attempt for the past four years? Joey already has some sort of
context, sonically, for the idea. Hey! And while we're at
it, why don't we make it as complicated a process as possible!
One of my goals for this website is to develop new ways for a band,
such as ours, to make music available to anyone who wants to
listen. Considering the medium, conventional parameters such as
packaging and artwork no longer seem to apply. (The one thing
that stood out to me when I read the Fountainhead in high school was
when somebody talked about how the Greeks lived in huts made of wood
and earth before they started to make structures out of
stone/marble/etc. And when they did, they made structures of
stone to look like the structures they made of wood and earth.
And, then, when it became possible to make structures of steel, they
were made to look like structures made from stone that looked like
structures made from wood and mud. Completely
unnecessarily. Steel was it's own unique material capable of so
much more.) In this case, I wanted to make something that was
uniquely tied to the internet. I thought if I could make a set of
songs and sounds that was over 99 tracks (the amount permitted on a CD)
and/or over 78.whatever minutes, that
would be a good start.
But how could I 'package' this set of music in a unique way? How
could I make unique album art? One of the many, many, many ideas
I have had for complimentary artwork was to have a story to go along
with the music. Seeing as how I am not good at writing stories, I
decided to request the help of someone who is. Enter Jake
Russel! I told him, generally, what I was trying to do. I
told him about how I was kind of obsessed with information and how I
kind of wanted to make an album that exemplified this. I then asked him
if there was anything he was working on. Naturally, he had
something that he had been wanting to write. So, that worked out
nicely!
Now we have the music (over an hour of random sounds and songs), the
artwork (a brilliant story by Jake), and all that I need to do is find
an interesting way for the two to interact. However, I have
found that it is excruciatingly difficult to break from the tried and
true
method of discretely bundling songs into the expected sets (EP,
LP).
Especially considering I am a terrible web developer. I don't
even own
a computer!!! I have tried to put the two together, but I am still
figuring out how to make web pages. Then there is the fact that
the program I am using sucks.
So, where are we? Process. One of the great interests
imparted on me from Sam Campbell is that of process. How a person
can make art by a process and/or make the process art in and of itself
and/or to some degree of either/both.
I will keep working. And when I am at work. I will keep
thinking of how to make this work. In the mean time, we will
settle for duality:
The
Sound
The Story
When You download the music, be sure to play it randomly (shuffle)!
I am annoying,
Mat