Its been an enlightening few weeks - a time of contemplation and a deeper understanding of why we do this... ( FREE - because we’d do it anyway - that’s what no one ever seems to realise....) Understanding what we’re about... what do we believe in and what are we gonna do next.....
The future - gigs, more recording - maybe press some CDs because thats what we’d like to have.. a real CD in my hand..... and maybe you would too...
See, we do what we do because we like it - not to please the Man, not to please the manager, not to please the market, the radio, the TV show producer..
And lets be clear about the music we set out to make.. you’ll hear soon the early songs we recorded way back in 2002 when the computer, the sampler and the drum machine and the Mash up gave us the inspiration. We liked the MC5, we liked the Kinks, we liked dance music with its loops and bass drum beat.. we liked the idea that any music was possible - Blues with the Prodigy, programmed drums , no drums, loops, (yes of course we’ll use real drums live, loops are a pain live..and Dominic plays GREAT).. Guitars.. jamming for an hour on one riff, playing long solo's because we love playing........and because there was NO ONE TO SAY NO YOU CAN’T... !!!
We do what I’d like my favorite band, my dream group to do.. because at last the power is with us - not only can we write the songs like we did all those years ago, sitting in a teenage bedroom holding a guitar.. but in 2010 we can record those songs too .. AND best of all, Mj and I can do it all by ourselves... Now look, yeah, we might get a better sound or a better production if we went into some big fancy studio with a lot of expensive trained engineers and producers telling us what to do and how we ought to sound to be on the radio... or to sit comfortably in the rack down HMV record store ..but we’ve taken some real decisions here.. LETS JUST DO IT OURSELVES.. and fuck it, what comes out is just about us. So yes, we might sit here looking up how to get a great guitar sound on some internet blog ..moving the microphone about just like all those years ago watching what Bill Price did ...and now we do it ourselves..
Sitting in this studio we jokingly call the Bunker - just like in some black and white movie - the two of us sit making our music.. engineering it, producing it, mixing it.. Ourselves. For the love of it.
And quick, real quick, in the moment... so that when we drive home that night, we both have a CD in our hands.. DONE, and to US it sounds just right, the sound in our heads. Yes, sure the drum sound could be a little better, the bass a little more compressed, the reverb a little more expensive - but hey - we don’t give a fuck about that because it’s just about the song.. do you feel the words? how is the tune? do you feel it in your heart? ..Its the way you hit the guitar, feel the bass, clap the claps.. do you hear the solo in your head for real...?
And everything else is BULLSHIT! It don't make a damn bit of difference. Ask Neil Young.
And yes the two of us sit there with the rock and roll library of books, movies, photos and art that we like and with the Photoshop manual in the other hand we can do all the graphics ourselves... the Photoshop manual like some giant paintbrush in our hands. The graphics give the music a different context. It lets us tell a little bit about the story each song has in our heads.. and see if again, just like with the recording, if some one else came in they would change the energy in the room, impose their values and ideas....
And now...hey, along comes a £100 hi def video camera and iMovie 09 and we’re in the video business.....
And along comes uStream and we’re in the broadcasting business...
Watch us live in the studio while we write and record the next song.. as it happens all into the little camera into the top of my Mac laptop...
And what you see is just what we do, what we hear, what we see, what we have to say. And Nobody tells us no.
So... thats the plan.. you’re with us, engaged, interested in something that is real. Are you with us? if not...welllllll, there are countless other bands out there doing what they believe in, doing it their way and you can tune into their lives.
I believe we should encourage everyone. Everyone has the future in their hands now. There’s a group of sixteen year olds out there tuning up as I write, about to astound me somewhere out in the world with a song on their Myspace page. There’s a fifty year old with a story to tell typing on a laptop somewhere and pressing upload to his Blog that’s gonna touch me... there’s a film maker who no one believes in yet, making a film that’s gonna gross a million dollars...
Lets listen, forget the production values.. listen and look at the idea. Encourage, Engage, Help... and marvel at this exciting age we live in now where creativity is in our hands, we can do it Ourselves.... and that’s why the Man’s on the run......
OK. OK I know I get carried away, but I want to tell it like it is, tell what’s in our hearts. I feel with Carbon/Silicon we stand at the beginning of a new time again. A time where we seize control of our destiny. I still believe we should give the music away AND press it up on CDs because as I said back in 2005, the two can co exist together harmoniously. I want to make more films of the band, do live broadcasts of rehearsals, more Carbon Radio shows... more gigs everywhere (and yeah don’t worry we’ll get to your town one day - it takes a while to put all this together and make it work - when it comes to playing live reality DOES have to be reckoned with, people have to get paid and vans hired...).
I’m gonna do more blogs talking about the creation, the ideas behind this band, telling what we’re thinking, more stories of past times I’ve experienced from watching the Snooker with Johnny Thunders to the realities of sitting here today with this band I believe in.
OK then...
the plan for the next few weeks...
Start Booking shows..
Get people around us who believe...
CD cover artwork... and what about a Box set?
What about a load of new t-shirts?
Record more.. (we can’t stop)
Remix the Early Years tracks (the ‘Bangers and Mash’ album)
Write more blogs.. have more thoughts
Play guitar... rehearse the band
Oh yes ...and have a happy Christmas...
There’s a lot of work to do. And a lot of FUN to have. That’s what its all about isn’t it?