Ok, in advance I'd like to apologize for any potentially "far out ramblings
of a madman" in this post . . . I've been in a bit of a vacuum of
late-culturally, intellectual, musically-so if this comes off as non-topic,
ill-informed, or half-baked, please forgive, because at the current juncture
in my life, I've got no other resources to turn to. If you've got the time
and want to maybe offer constructive advice and input, read on. If not,
DELETE NOW.
Still with me? Here goes . . .
I've recently relocated to Yu Chih, Taiwan, living literally in the
mountains (5,000 feet) in a small farming community whose primary crop is
Betel palm which the natives here chew like tobacco as it reputedly induces
a mild buzz. My wife and I are teaching ESL (English as a Second Language)
at a small college for students who couldn't hack the EXTREMELY difficult
university exams here in Taiwan. We came here for a couple of basic reasons
. . . neither of us are overly religious, but we did see a "mission"
opportunity of sorts. We were turned onto the whole idea of teaching for
schools with intense need at Andrews, the university we both just graduated
from in Berrien Springs Michigan (about 2.5 hours from Chicago, and 4 hours
from Detroit). Also, after university, building a personal studio, and
general life expenses (which would include an obsessive love of
music/cds/vinyl on my part), we were not only broke, but deeply in debt. We
made arrangements to pay back our debt with a debt consolidator and started
making payments of $750 a month . . . quite a dent in our salaries. When we
got wind of a potentially meaningful job with good compensation, we jumped
at the chance . . .
I grew up in the far suburbs of Detroit . . . and the first concert I can
remember going to was The Red Hot Chili Peppers (my friends and I chose to
see them solely on the name, we knew nothing of their music) who were
playing at St. Andrews Hall near Greek Town . . . that night, after the
concert, we found out that our ticket stubs would get us in for free at the
Shelter (the club below St. Andrews) so we poked around back and through the
big pink door . . . a DJ, who then called himself Richie Rich, was playing
"Join in the Chant" by Nitzer Ebb mixed with "We call it Acid" by D-Mob . .
. my life would never be the same . . .
I threw myself wholeheartedly into the Detroit scene, and went to every
party I heard about. I had always had an interest in electronic music
because my mother is a piano/organ teacher and I thought things with keys
that made far out sounds were really cool . . . especially boxes like the
ones I saw a guy named Michael Iceberg play at Disney World when we visited
there when I was about 8 or 9. I begged my father to buy me a mackintosh
and a Matrix 6 . . . got the matrix 6 which was years beyond my abilities
programming-wise. Still love playing with it though . . . in fact, I could
turn it sideways with me in bed, pull up the covers, and play chords over my
earphones until I fell asleep.
Anyway, I kept up the party scene all through college, even after I moved to
southwestern Michigan . . . friends and I would drive weekly to Record Time
to buy new music and go to parties. Around my junior year in college, I
figured out that if I didn't eat, subscribe to cable, or buy textbooks, I
could apply for full-blown student loans and buy gear with the money . . .
It worked out pretty well (except now I'm in debt and paying those loans
back) and I picked up my first two pieces of gear . . . an OB-MX (I loved my
matrix 6 and figured this thing would have to be the bomb), and an ESI-32 .
. . borrowed a friend's Alpha Juno 1, and ran the whole lot through a Radio
Shack DJ mixer. Made some pretty good tracks and had a HELL of a lot of fun
with my college roommates and our artsy-fartsy friends pretending to be
Throbbing Gristle and Genesis P. Orridge . . . moved to England for a year
and got turned on to the FAX label as well as that whole
mellow/mushroom/planet dog sort of vibe . . . saw the Orb live and thought I
saw God up there with Alex at one point . . .
Came back Stateside and immediately bought Technic 1200s, bought the entire
Plus-8 catalogue on vinyl and threw myself into honing my skills . . .
meanwhile, I was still making tracks with friends and falling in Love with
my now-wife. Was studying art and English and had all these brilliant ideas
on how to illustrate the theories I was learning in music . . . but then I
graduated. Got married. Found myself $25,000 in debt.
Reality check.
I suddenly needed to be making money. I'd never done music for money, it
was always fun . . . even the parties I played for roomsful of drunken
friends after having dragged all my records and equipment halfway around the
State were for free . . . I had a policy of never charging. I just really
enjoyed gigging for the sake of it.
What does one do with an English degree? One teaches. So here I am in
Taiwan. Teaching.
I'm an hour away from the nearest big city of note (Taichung) and it has 3
record stores. None of them carry vinyl. Mariah Carrey's latest CD is
plastered all over their walls as "US NUMBER 1 SMASH HIT!!!!" I found a
Chemical Brothers CD. I've not seen a music gear store anywhere. Not even
in Taipei (the capital). This week, "Babe, Pig in the City" and "Something
about Mary" made their big-screen debuts on the island . . . I've yet to be
to a cinema where the screens are bigger than 8 feet across . . . I have
friends with bigger TV screens (not really but it feels like it). The only
club I've been able to find is literally owned, operated, and frequented by
gangsters . . . they play Goa Trance and NO ONE dances . . . they sit in
black Armani suits and peer over their black sunglasses while pounding shots
of hard liquor. My students have never heard the word hip-hop or techno.
All of my students want to learn English to "get better jobs," their tuition
per semester is about what I'll make in a year . . . money runs like water
in Taiwan. But my job, as it is "mission" work pays squat. Enough to live
on, and a little to pay back our debt each month. This wouldn't be so bad
if I was actually needed as a "missionary," if I was showing people who were
starving in a desert how to irrigate and grow food, if was feeding starving
babies in an orphanage, if I was smuggling sensitive literature into
forbidden countries. As it is, I'm teaching kids who show up in a Mercedes
Benz, whose family most likely are land owners, and have never had to
question where the money is. They are here to make themselves more
marketable . . . and there is nothing wrong with that at all, its just my
wife and I basically amount to cheap labor . . . we're the poster kids they
can show in the promotional pamphlets for the school and say "Lookie here!
We got foreigners!"
Now if we felt satisfied in our work, like we were doing something for a
meaningful cause, we'd stay. If our lives were full of good times and new
experiences which edified and built us up, we'd stay. If there was the hope
of finding soul mates who felt and understood the way we do, loved music in
all forms and felt deeply committed to an underground, we'd stay. But . . .
Was it Ginsberg who said "follow your bliss?"
I miss my turntables, I miss my studio, I miss creative input and
stimulation from people around me, I miss a scene . . .
I initially thought that going to Taiwan for a year or two would be healthy,
let me step back and reflect. But I feel like I'm slowly getting snuffed
out . . . all creative juices sapped. I agreed to leave my turntables at
home (too big and bulky) and instead, got a flight case custom designed
which fit my TR 909, MPC 2000, and Nord Modular. I packed a Mackie 1402 VLZ
and a Digitech StudioQuad into my suitcase and moved. I was thinking things
along the lines of "GREAT!! Now I can really concentrated on track writing
fully." And I've actually done some stuff I'm pretty pleased with. But,
what good is a track if no one ever hears it? I mean my wife likes some of
them just fine, but what will others think?
http://www.glimmering.com/lr2/337is.htm
My new web-site where you can find 9 MP3s taken from my self-produced CD
"337is Made in Taiwan." All the tracks have been written in the 4 months
that I've been cloistered here in Yu Chih. If you can't deal with MP3
format, there is information about ordering the CD from me . . . if you need
more information, write back to me.
Now, here is where I need a little help. First if you download the tracks,
please give me some feedback as I have NONE here. No one but my wife and
she loves me so how can I trust her opinion? Second, and this might be a
bit more complex . . .
All these tracks were written, recorded, and then the machines were turned
off . . . nothing was saved. I have no comprehension of how to save my work
. . . this can be a disaster at times (like last night when I did what I
felt was a brilliant 15 minute sound-scape only to find out that I hadn't
plugged in the Mini Disc properly and nothing made it to disk) and there are
times that I'd like to go back and remix tracks but can't. My roommate in
college used to take care of all the technical aspects of recording and all
I had to do was compose . . . ain't got that option now and I need to learn
proper methods. I'll use last night's fiasco as an example of my problem:
The 909 had a simple pattern which I could mute various parts of on the
Mackie as well as on the 909 itself, it was synced to the MPC as a slave to
MIDI clock outputted by the MPC . . . the pattern that I created on the 909
is the only part left as the 909 immediately saves when writing a track.
The MPC had an 808 sound-set loaded into it an I had written a six part
pattern into it which looped every 8 bars . . . I had hard panned the
individual sounds using the MPC's mixer function. Track 7 on the MPC was a
simple chord progression from the Nord Modular. I also opened up a blank
slot in the NM and built a really cool bass line using the NM's internal
sequencers which I synced to the MPC. Aux 1 and 2 on my Mackie go out to my
StudioQuad which was dialed up to a guitar chorus type effect which was
turned on to the 909 hi hats and the Nord's chords (good song title there!)
After setting everything up, I recorded a real time performance of the whole
thing . . . when I was done, I yanked the MD out of my recorder and ran to
the stereo to hear it . . . but stupidly, turned off everything before
checking the results. The MD was blank and an hour or so of work was
wasted.
What I want to know is, is there a way I can save my setup to disk on the
MPC so that I could insert the disk, power up, and everything would be just
as I left it last? In other words, the 909 would be on the right pattern
and synced correctly to external clock, the 2 patches would be just waiting
to be tweaked in the NM, the 6 tracks of 808 samples loaded and kicking in
the MPC, and the chorus effect on the Digitech ready and waiting to warp my
sounds? I know that my mixer setting on the Mackie would have to be hand
set again as it is not digital, but that wouldn't take to much effort on my
part. I just want mastery over my simple road setup . . . can someone clue
me in?
Last bit of help . . . knowing a limited bit of my history and where I'm
coming from, how do you think Boston would fit me? My wife and I are
looking into relocating there this summer . . . she still wants to do ESL
type stuff and there are several really good firms there. I'm thinking
about getting MCSE and finding a computer day job which would allow me to
peruse DJ-ing and track writing at night and on the weekends. Is there hope
of collaborations there and how is the scene? Any input you have as to
other places (geographically) and other options of leading a fulfilling and
meaningful life would be greatly appreciated. Not that I'm asking for much
really . . . ha.
OK. Enough of this . . . thank you if you made it this far, and thank you
if you can offer and help and suggestions.
337is mired in thought, lonely, and looking for a light.