I recently started using SoundCloud to host music files, collaborate, and share music. I’m creating this post to test out the SoundCloud widget. Check it out:

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I played the second show of four that I am playing this month. I thought I’d share some thoughts I am having right now about it all.

I’d love to hear others who are musically inclined weigh in with their own experience. (Or if there are parallels to other hobbies/disciplines, I’d love to hear that too). Keep in mind that these shows are small-time deals. 10-20 people there.

On how well my music works as a one man band

This obviously subjective topic is obviously up to the listener to decide. But I’ll just note a few things:

• Pre-recorded backup material is dangerous ground to tread on. It can be boring. It can lead to awkward mistakes live. To try to counteract this boredom, I am trying to stick to drumbeats and bass lines, and to leave any lead instrument to myself. I’m also trying to stick with digital sounds, and not anything that’s supposed to sound realistic. The reasoning being the same reason why MIDI versions of real instruments are usually disappointing. (I once saw a band use midi Trumpets and it was really, really cheesy.)
• I am wary of looping-pedal-fests. I have seen this stuff done really well sometimes (Andrew Bird is a notable example) but I usually do not enjoy one-man-bands in the form of looping parts. It’s kind of like “hang on a minute while I get my song going, dude.”
• It’s hard to translate my full-band songs into interesting one-man versions. I write songs that use drums, electric guitars, multiple keyboard instruments, and multi-vocal lines and harmonies. Shrinking it down can sometimes destroy the soul of the song.
• I tend to default to simple, finger-picking acoustic songs. These are nice, but I think it will be rare that this is all that enrapturing for a listener.

On friends at shows

I’m going to say something that I hate but it’s also something I do and have done. You have my full admission of hypocrisy up front. I hate it when people don’t pay attention and are clearly having full discussions or are incessantly texting during a show. It feels even worse when I watch the video of the show and I can barely hear my performance over the loud chatters of half my friends.

But let me be clear about this reflection:

1. I am thankful for the support of my friends, even if they aren’t interested in my music. Friend-rock, as Sufjan Stevens describes it, is the phenomenon that happens when your friends come to your show and support you, but don’t really care for your music. It happens. I’ve been in that spot. I’ve gone to a friend’s show even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of their music. There’s no reason to feel guilty about this. People like what they like.
2. It is (to some degree) up to me to be interesting enough to be worth giving attention to. It’s not as though I think I can sit on stage and play a dreadfully slow, repetitive, and flat song for 15 minutes and then expect full, enraptured attention by everyone there. This point applies especially to strangers. If I want their attention I have to earn it.
3. I am not a live show nazi. Aside from enjoying the chance to share my work with others, I want shows to be fun. I can’t imagine myself ever saying something on stage to kill the mood or complain to the crowd.
4. For some, a show is nice background music to the real business of enjoying a drink with a friend. Part of going to a bar and seeing a performance is often the fun of taking it in with a friend. Have a beer. Catch up.
5. In any case, this is something that isn’t going to change.

But, none of these facts eliminate the reality that it hurts to perform and to see people not really give it any attention, respect, or much of a chance.

Before anyone grabs their pitchforks to announce my self-righteousness, hypocrisy, or naivete about this, remember that I admit up front that I am guilty of this, that I am aware this will always happen no matter what, and that I realize it’s not worth worrying about.

On singing in a live performance

I don’t have the best voice in the world. No, that’s dressing things up too much. My live singing voice is spotty, depending on the context. Sometimes it’s downright bad. I may hit the pitches most of the time but what is needed is the extra oomph, the gut, the emotion that slides along with whatever song style is happening. I feel like I’m typically just giving a functional performance, but rarely taking it to that magical level.

Recording, though, I can accommodate my mediocre voice with the increased ability to focus on nailing a singing part. I mention this not as some kind of boring (false?) modesty, but because something occurred to me. When recording, I can relax and focus. Live, I am typically “winging it” by having to pick a guitar, play a keyboard, or something else. It’s multitasking.

I think my difficulties with live singing have more to do with my comfort level playing these other instruments, and not so much with my voice itself. The (limited) potential of my vocal talent aside, I think I can sing better than I usually do live. The problem is I need to learn how to be relaxed, smoothly playing everything. The kind of relaxed where you know what you’re doing so well that it’s instinctual and muscle memory — NOT intellectual processing.

Ok, let’s just cut to the chase: I just need to practice. But not just running through songs. I need to practice being in the moment, sunken into the fabric of the song. Ok, enough mumbo jumbo.

On not having a full band to peform my music

It sucks. Anyone want to play music with me?

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I am opening tonight for Balloon Messenger (Marky Dally). This is the second of four nights this month we will be taking the stage at Grumpy Dave’s Pub, above Easy Street Cafe in Bowling Green, OH.

Hope to see you there!

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I haven’t gotten to play with Logic 9 (part of the new Logic Studio) too extensively yet, but here are a few initial reactions:

1. Looks pretty much exactly the same.

2. There is a light/white box around the part of the window that has focus (arrange vs. mixer vs. media/library/bin). Logic 8 lightly shaded the top but now it’s a fully surrounding white rounded-edge box. I guess it’s not that different but it’s perhaps more noticeable.

3. New icon in top right for Notes. I find myself putting lyrics or mixing/recording ideas into TextEdit documents all the time, so to have a dedicated area for “notes” in Logic is long overdue and very welcome. I approve!

Besides, if you collaborate with anyone else and share projects, it makes a lot more sense to attach your comments to the project than to an email or whatever.

Click to enlarge

4. The improvements to Take folders is great. Finally being able to drag audio around without flattening/splitting-up multiple takes is long-overdue. Why didn’t they allow for that in the first place in Logic 8?

5. Creating sampler instruments out of audio regions. In the past year or two I’ve been getting really into sampling sounds for songs. This was always a tedious process of bouncing a sound, importing it, dropping it onto an EXS24 instrument (unless there was an easier way I’m not aware of). Not that hard but time consuming meaning you’re being less creative and doing more grunt-work.

Now you can do all that in one step. This makes me so incredibly happy.

Creating MIDI instruments out of audio regions is easier than ever.

6. Flex-time. AWESOME. I haven’t done anything crazy with it yet, but even just dragging stuff around you can tell that this makes editing the timing of tracks soooooo much easier.

I’ve gotten pretty good at recording drums to metronome over the years, but there are always some hits that are off. The process of chopping, x-fading, and dragging those clips around was so annoying. Now it’s so much easier. Woohoo!

They give you 6 flex-time “modes”:

• Slicing – for drum slicing – preserves speed
• Rhythm – for “non-monophonic sources” like rhythm guitars
• Monophonic – good for vocals, melodies, bass lines
• Polyphonic – most straining on cpu. Complex sounds.
• Tempophone – to do retro tape-warping effects.
• Speed – just flat out changing the speed of the clip. Nothing new here.

7. There is a preference so that if you right-click on the arrange it opens BOTH the tools and options. So I can switch to fade/scissors/flextime tool OR the contextual options for doing stuff to a region. Big win, in my opinion!

Right-click context menu allows for both “Tools” and context-sensitive choices.

Concluding thoughts:

Overall, it’s not a big shiny diamond-coated upgrade, but there are some very solid new features that make me very happy, even if you could argue that some of them should have been part of Logic 8.

If I think of anything else I’ll be sure to update this post. I haven’t gotten to test it much in different situations or workloads so I don’t know if it’s more stable. Supposedly it is.

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Check out some videos of my first live show in years. To see the whole set, head to the playlist I set up on youtube.

You can also download just the audio files if you like:
Michael Edwards – Grumpy Dave’s (Live) – 20MB

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Tonight, I join Balloon Messenger at Grumpy Dave’s for a show. 10PM $3. I plan to have it recorded and can hopefully post media here afterwards.
 

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free music download from Michael Edwards

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I’m playing every Wednesday this month at Grumpy Dave’s Pub, which is in the upstairs of Easy Street Cafe. I’ve been putting together many songs and I’m excited to try them out for an audience. I’ll be opening for Balloon Messenger (Marky Dally).

The dates will be:

• 8/5, 10PM, $3
• 8/12, 10PM, $3
• 8/19, 10PM, $3
• 8/26, 10PM, $3

I’d love to see you there, have a beer, chat it up. Here’s a map of Grumpy Dave’s Pub (above Easy Street):

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A musical colleague of mine who performs beneath the veil of a shifting team of collaborators known as Night Shall Eat These Girls And Boys has a song that immediately caught my ears. The song isn’t flashy, doesn’t sabotage nor reinvent any genres, nor does it have a mind-blowing production value in the humble recording I will provide here.

However, the song is just plain good. In the end, that is more important to me. The technology and production value can always come later. This guy knows how to write songs, and you can’t buy that.

Lily and I are learning, becoming friends
we do this by keeping very far away
we’ve already yelled and kicked and cursed
our drinking throats devoid of thirst
and now that it’s done, i’ve found the silence left to be much worse

lily will not accept our love is dead
she is crouched to the floor, arms wrapped about her head
she doesn’t cry or guilt or dread
jog memories and unmade beds
her head held high
she leaves the house with tail between her legs

lily says she does not know who i am
so cold and so sarcastic to my friends
in my defense i’ve been this way
for weeks and months before today
she looks at my friends
but doesn’t count herself as one of them

i have begun to see somebody else
and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t help
she’s smart and sweet and kind and all
and generally keeps me enthralled
but when I’m down, I’m still not sure exactly who to call

Hear their music at their MySpace page.

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Just wanted to take a moment and point out a few websites I (or someone close to me) has had a hand in. So, without further ado:

Rotating Pilgrim

http://www.rotatingpilgrim.com

With a title inspired by the writings of people such as Søren Kierkegaard and Walker Percy, I started this site to post writings, meditations, thrashings, inspirations, and anything else I find intriguing. It will generally center around literature, arts, philosophy, ethics, and religion. You can also follow Rotating Pilgrim on twitter.

Listen To Your Friends

http://www.listentoyourfriends.com

Storytelling is awesome. Unfortunately, where I live, most of the time we are going to external sources for stories. Whatever happened to telling stories to each other? Reading books to each other? Something about the spoken story told well by someone we know just rings true to me. That is why I started Listen To Your Friends. Anyone can upload an mp3 to this site and your reading will be there for all to hear! LTYF is also on twitter.

What are you waiting for? Get involved!

World Story Organization

http://www.worldstoryorganization.org

World Story Organization is dedicated to providing a storytelling and film production education for communities around the world. My brother, Justin, is the founder. He would love whatever support you can give him!

Further Up & Further In

http://www.cslewisblog.com

Maintained by C. S. Lewis scholar and father of yours truly, Bruce Edwards, this web site is focused on providing essential resources for lovers and students of C. S. Lewis, and his friends among the Inklings. Begun in 1995, as one of the very first C. S. Lewis web sites, Further Up and Further In is intended to serve both the novice and the experienced reader of Lewis.

You can also follow Bruce’s Lewis work on twitter.

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