“boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

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“boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by øøøøøøø » Tue Jan 31, 2023 12:40 am

Second track from the upcoming record is out now:

https://open.spotify.com/album/43uqtdrs ... t8l09adKXw

I ended up playing everything on this one

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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by sal paradise » Tue Jan 31, 2023 4:28 am

This is also ace! Really looking forward to the album.
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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by øøøøøøø » Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:15 am

Thanks so much!!

The drums on this one were recorded into a single RCA 44BX, which I thought a was interesting and is something I’ve never done before.

I’ve been posting some breakdowns of individual elements of tracks on my Instagram, I’ll be doing the same with this one over the next week or two

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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by Jaguar018 » Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:45 am

Do you have a non-Spotify link? :whistle:

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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by Telliot » Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:27 am

Jaguar018 wrote:
Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:45 am
Do you have a non-Spotify link? :whistle:
It's on Apple and Bandcamp too.
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by øøøøøøø » Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:34 am

The top link (as of right now) at:

https://linktr.ee/bradallenwilliams

has a lot of links to various places to listen, thanks so much!

Side note: I understand a reluctance to support Spotify, but I will just say that there’s a nuanced conversation we could have about how such a well-intentioned position might have unintended impacts for the artist.

If an artist shows good numbers there, it can really, really help with things like booking tours, securing agent/management, and being identified as someone with momentum. In the earlier phases of a career, this might very well mean more than a few tens of dollars.

Artists pay thousands for marketing and PR. Being underpaid for a few thousand streams but getting stuck on a Spotify editorial playlist and getting our numbers way up can very well be the better value-for-dollar for us in many instances.

It’s a complex and thorny subject, one that might be worth its own thread

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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by Telliot » Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:38 am

øøøøøøø wrote:
Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:34 am
It’s a complex and thorny subject, one that might be worth its own thread
Agreed.
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by sal paradise » Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:39 am

I wouldn’t bother with that thread. Don’t tend to get a lot of nuance from the anti-Spotify/Apple crew.

I add Apple deliberately as they don’t pay much more. The Taylor Swift thing was such a load of deliberate marketing bs.
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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by øøøøøøø » Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:43 am

There is probably every reason to be skeptical of blitzscaling tech companies that monopolize market share.

But in instances where one of them has already reached market dominance, a sort of symbiosis can be almost a requirement—a fact of life for a small to middle-class operator’s survival in that industry.

If I were a taxi driver and refused to use Uber and Lyft to get more fares, that’s going to make it hard to compete and ultimately to survive, regardless of what I might think those apps have done to/for the industry.

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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by sal paradise » Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:53 am

øøøøøøø wrote:
Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:43 am
There is probably every reason to be skeptical of blitzscaling tech companies that monopolize market share.

But once one of them has already reached market dominance, a sort of symbiosis can be almost a requirement—a fact of life for a small to middle-class operator’s survival in that industry.

If I were a taxi driver and refused to use Uber and Lyft to get more fares, that’s going to make it hard to compete and ultimately to survive, regardless of what I might think those apps have done to/for the industry.
The way I look at is slightly different as I know I’m not going to make a living with my music on there. So it’s a brilliant distribution & recognition tool, like you said, to support other activities.

But yeah, it’s more complex when you’re a full-time independent musician. As a fan, I buy merch, vinyl & gig tickets. But that’s probably not common on a grand scale.

Labels are a massive part of the royalties problem, too.
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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by Telliot » Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:55 am

Both platforms have allowed me a place to widely distribute my music, something that wasn't possible 10 years ago. As much as I hate them I also appreciate that I'm able to put music out as an unknown independent artist. Bandcamp and SoundCloud are great, but they don't have the reach the other platforms do; and let's be honest: record labels have screwed more artists than anyone.
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by Dok » Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:03 am

well, this is fucking rad. Nice work, man! Drums sound incredible (and not even just for a one-mic recording).
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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by øøøøøøø » Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:15 am

Thanks so much!

Co-producer Pete Min had the brilliant idea to see if we could subvert dated riff rock tropes.

We spent the whole project kind of shying away from these overused guitar clichés, and on this one we decided to see what would happen if we just ran headlong into them.

Like… how close to the sun can we fly before it reads as something we don’t really want?

The riff was totally improvised… Pete was like “play a normal rock riff but make it unusual somehow.”

Then after playing it a few times I went to the IV chord and played a different riff because that was the most obvious thing to do.

You can hear that the IV chord riff is slightly different in meter the second time (an extra beat, I think) because I didn’t remember exactly what I had played the first time around.

That’s how most of these tracks came about… just making it up as I went along

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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by Embenny » Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:22 am

Yeah, I got over the anti-Spotify thing once I looked at things objectively. We are living in the streaming age, much as we once lived in the Napster age, the CD age, and the vinyl age, among others. Instead of pissing into the wind, I can just accept the state of the world on this one.

Spotify can get people exposure, and that can translate into financial success in other areas, like Brad said. As for my personal relationship with the artist, I'll use Spotify for convenience in the car, in the garden, etc, but I'll buy a vinyl LP from them (direct from their web site if possible, to hopefully give them a bigger cut, or ideally from the booth at a live show if they come by locally) and/or other physical merch. Depending on how they've set things up, I'll sometimes buy digital tracks on Bandcamp or subscribe to a Patreon. So no matter what, I make sure to find a way to give my money to them as payment for the hours I've listened to them on Spotify.

Back to the music itself, I really like this one, Brad. Tecnologia was a great listen, but this one hits harder for me. I heard some Weather Report in it at first, but then the drums come in and the groove takes a harder turn. I'm listening on decent tower speakers with a sub, and the sonics are fat as hell without getting muddy. The acoustic breakdown really widens things out in a way that keeps things sounding interesting.

Overall, a real pleasure to listen to. It sounds like it must have been a fun one to write and record.
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Re: “boomer” (modular Moog, fuzz x1000, stylophone, one-mic drums)

Post by sal paradise » Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:37 am

øøøøøøø wrote:
Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:15 am
Thanks so much!

Co-producer Pete Min had the brilliant idea to see if we could subvert dated riff rock tropes.

We spent the whole project kind of shying away from these overused guitar clichés, and on this one we decided to see what would happen if we just ran headlong into them.

Like… how close to the sun can we fly before it reads as something we don’t really want?

The riff was totally improvised… Pete was like “play a normal rock riff but make it unusual somehow.”

Then after playing it a few times I went to the IV chord and played a different riff because that was the most obvious thing to do.

You can hear that the IV chord riff is slightly different in meter the second time (an extra beat, I think) because I didn’t remember exactly what I had played the first time around.

That’s how most of these tracks came about… just making it up as I went along
This is some awesome Brian Eno stuff right here. 8)

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