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"Beginnings"How would you describe your first musical sounds and ambitions? |
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My first musical sounds were, quite likely, out of tune- learning to get
the electric guitar in tune and in proper intonation is a small art in and
of itself! My first ambitions were the same as my current ambitions- to
get the sounds that I heard in my head out into the "real world". I'm
finally getting to the point to where that's happening on a regular basis. - Jeff Pearce: ambient guitarist
Musically, I consider them to be 'training'. The sort of stuff that is as
relevant as your award in 6th grade for making a really nice science
project. You don't want others to see / hear it -- but it was necessary to
get you on the road to where you are now.
When I was young boy , I saw a movie about Chopin. I was overwhelmed.
I made my parents get me a piano. Those were my first musical sounds - scales
and exercises. My ambition was to become a composer and Parisian dandy -
composing, and hanging out at the theater, opera, and ballet. I sort of made
it, but I hang out at the theater, opera and ballet in New York.
It has been at the age of 12 I got extremely interested and fascinated by
sound. Along with early experiments on turntables and my first analog Korg
MS20 synthesizer, I could call my exercises in music pretty experimental
and even industrial. At this very early stage, I can consider that the
'music' was more an act of protest than being ambitious in scoring the
sublime in sound My musical beginnings were as a club disc jockey, for many years I played other peoples music in a rock venue in Bath England. As a music technician for a University I had access to various equipment and a recording studio. At the time when dance versions of popular tunes were in vogue I decided to do a dance version of Lou Reeds "walk on the wildside"; This was picked up and released by Island Records in 1988. I had always wanted to produce electronic and experimental music, so I began to learn to use "Csound" a software synthesis program with a very steep learning curve, but open ended structure.I wanted to use this in the context of popular music as apposed to the purely academic use to which the software was generally put.
I am working towards its integration in more mainstream form of music,
although this is a gradual process. I have always been fascinated by sounds in the environment. When I was a baby, my mother used to strap me in a seat near the kitchen door. She tells me I would move the door back and forth for hours, listening to its squeaks and groans. Twenty years later I discovered Pierre Henry had already recorded a musique concrete piece called "Variations for a Door and a Sigh," in which the main sound source was a squeaky door. My earliest ambitions involved getting my friends to make music with me. Well maybe not "music," but "organized sound." I was taking piano lessons and couldn't stand the whole recital scene. But I was great at telling people to hit blocks together or smash metal trays, to conform to whatever noise symphony I was hearing in my head. Everything changed when I was 11, and played rock and roll at a party with my older cousins. I assembled a drum set for myself out of spare drums and cymbals. We played songs like "Oye Como Va" and I loved that people seemed really happy and danced to the music.
After a long and winding road through rock and punk bands, I'm currently
back where I started, trying to coax strange sounds out of doors and
scrap metal, and listening to the symphonies in my head. I just liked making music/sounds as a kid. I was interested in music for as long as I can remember and was exposed to quite a wide variety of things, from my mom's Jazz to my dad's Clancy Brothers. The Beatles were probably a profound influence too, they always looked like they were having fun making music. I probably just wanted to be a cartoon character like them!
I guess my first ambitions were really just to make music, I enjoyed the
experience of having sounds come from things I did, instruments I played
or two cans I banged together. I think I also wanted to make albums, I
remember being fascinated by the thing-ness of an album, the packaging,
the concept, the whole works.
First musical sound is mother's heartbeat, but I can't remember.
I think the heartbeat inprinted whole life of ancestor's life and culture
to me. First (or always) musical ambitions are to sow the seeds of music
and imagine people find their own joy in different way.
My first musical ambition was that I wanted to join Duran Duran. Of
course, at that time, they didn't have any openings, and by the time all
the Taylors started quitting, I didn't want to be in Duran Duran any more.
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