The Cycle of Suck

I've wanted to write this article for some time. I felt on the decline for the last year, stuck in the descending phase of The Cycle of Suck. As the year comes to a close I feel the ascending phase coming back around, and I'm just starting to make the music that I like again.

I think most artists undergo this cycle. Approaching the top of the cycle is where we feel most inspired and do the best work. Thought is forgotten, everything comes together perfectly, we make the music we should be making. Inevitably, this small amount of time comes to a close as we pass through, over the apex, and begin our descent.

Damn Cycle

Although I say that the cycle 'descends' this is actually a time of growth, learning, and developing skills. Conscious thought is brought to the work. Many outside influences are mimicked and their techniques are studied. New tools are attained and mastered.

It's during this time that the final product usually is of no value. The process produces nothing. We work harder. It gets worse. We 'suck'.

As we pass through the lowest point of output, 'suck', we are actually at the highest point of learning. Ascension begins. We worry less about acquiring new tools, outside influences become less important, we start having fun again.

Let It Bounce

I believe the cycle is inevitable. I've always liked the Big Bounce theory of the universe. The idea is that the Big Bang occurs, the universe expands to an apex, then it contracts back into a singularity, then another Big Bang occurs and the next universe is born.

Big Bounce Theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bounce

Growth?

Perhaps a more appropriate title than the 'Cycle of Suck' would be 'Spiral of Suck'.
Each turn of the cycle produces different results, building on previous experience.

♩ The Neverending Sto-o-re ♩

At times going through it can be frustrating and confusing as hell, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I find immediate friendship with other people who are crazy enough to go through it. As my dear friend Dawn said to me yesterday "It's fine when it's sunny, it's fine when it's cloudy." So it never ends, but what could be better? I probably won't be making club music at 65, but I'll be making something, I know that!



cartoon from:
http://www.savagechickens.com/

Interview: Evan Patrick

I met Evan Patrick during my short stint in New York City last year. He had hit me up on myspace asking about synths and all the stuff I could yammer on about for hours. Rather than write back with the usual useless Synth name dropping, I told him let's meet up in person and I'd show him how I approach a beat.



Julien (worship remix)



I got to witness him tear a guitar apart as we jammed a little bit at his home studio in the Fort Green neighborhood of Brooklyn. The dude has chops. He has traveled the world as part of the Taylor Ho, Bynum Sextet playing guitar. His blog 'In This Game A Minute' is amazing, very intelligent and funny, my favorite article is Soft Rock vs. Smooth R&B.



Taylor Ho, Bynum


Loose
Okay, so you're this amazing guitarist, touring the world with a jazz group, being all musical and everything. Why do you care about 80s electro?

Evan
It’s just been creeping up on me slowly over the years. I was developing this Andy Summers-style guitar tone with my old rock band, Red Lights to Rio, and that sound started to influence my songwriting. I was also doing more side project music on my laptop, which I have always done, but it started to get more serious after I got a weekly DJ gig. Spinning hours of tracks produced by Quincy Jones, Giorgio Moroder, Bob James and contemporary producers like Lindstrom and Holy Ghost! made me obsessed with getting that sleek yet popping sound in a song. But I’ve always loved the sheen, bombast, innocence and blatant vulgarity of the 80’s. Like the orange-dusk look in films like “Manhunter” and “Beverly Hills Cop 2”, the raunch of videos like “Girls on Film” and “Let’s Get Physical”, the futurism of Prince, and Gary Numan, the synthy prog-pop of Missing Persons and Rush, all that stuff is fantastic and beautiful.




Julien




Who is Julien?

Julien is a composite of two characters named Julien - Richard Gere in “American Gigolo” and Robert Downey Jr. in “Less than Zero”. Besides sharing a name, I thought it was interesting that both Juliens had delusions of grandeur followed by a fall from grace. They also both pursued prostitution while skirting varying degrees of homosexuality. The parallels were ripe for exploration.


It seems like you're a big soundtrack head, and your music is very soundtracky. In real life, you actually do make soundtracks. What is your favorite project that you have scored?

Eh…honestly I have yet to work on a film or tv show that is really a good match for me. I managed to sneak some of my shit onto that track for a soap opera. But generally, scoring is very genre-specific and I have to create something outside of my own musical interests. I’d love to score a retro sci fi flick, like if they ever made a sequel to “Solarbabies” or “The Wraith” that would be my ideal. Soundtrack composers have also been huge for me. Back in the day, I was rocking the tape of the soundtrack to “Thief” by Tangerine Dream. Then there’s Vangelis with his scores to (of course) “Blade Runner” and “Legend”. Other big scores for me are Wang Chung’s “To Live and Die in LA”, Queen’s “Flash Gordon”, and everything Thomas Newman did between 1985 and 1987 (“Desperately Seeking Susan”, “Real Genius”, “Lost Boys”, etc.)

Original Score by Evan Patrick



I don't see John Carpenter in your list of influences. What's up with that? Is he too minimal for your tastes?

I like the idea of John Carpenter’s music, but not always when I actually hear it. I often just don’t dig his melodic choices. But I will say that his movies are a big inspiration. I definitely had the helicopter computer screen from “Escape from New York” in my head while writing the intro to “Misfits of Science”. And in general, his balance of kitsch and thrills is something I aspire to in my songs. I like a combination of cheeky throwback and real emotion.




You live in Fort Green, Brooklyn. Everybody's always talking about much that area is changing. How do you feel about the change?

Change is inevitable, it’s just not always what people want or what should be. We’re moving out of Ft. Greene for more space in Bed-Stuy. In this case, it’s what we want.



Is Brooklyn a big influence on your music, like , do you think location is a big factor in your sound?

Brooklyn is very creative right now, but I have an extremely peripheral relationship to the musicians here and the various scenes. Those that I do know are in weird jazz/rock/metal bands like Child Abuse, STATS and People. I’d love to meet more 80s electro heads in the area.





Okay, so you're working on this new track Misfits of Science. How do you achieve this guitar sound towards the end? Are you harmonizing over yourself?


Misfits of Science


Exactly! I’m always doubling or harmonizing guitars. It just sounds better that way. I use a Vox Valvetronix with it’s onboard distortion direct to my I/O, then add chorus and delay plug-ins on the track. I take my cues from Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine). Those dudes are my gold standard for rich guitar sounds through overdubbing.


In your blog, you have a couple of articles which critique current artists like MIA, and Vampire Weekend, saying perhaps their music is pulling from other cultures, but not giving credit or owning up to it's referential nature. Sooooo, why don't you hate on the rehash of 80s electro , people like ~cough~ me, ~cough~? c'mon, i can take it—

It’s a different thing. If someone wants to straight jack the beginning to “Love to Love You Baby,” that’s a purely musical choice. It’s a poor choice, but I don’t really care. Whereas Vampire Weekend are the shitty stepchildren of Elvis’s cultural legacy: co-opting ethnic music with diminishing returns. And listening to MIA is like voting for Obama and then going back to sipping coffee and watching your trust fund accumulate assets. Change but no change. She has no real political impact, even though that’s one of her selling points.


Relating to this feeling of detatched reference, you have also reviewed a new book about the phenomenon of Quirk. You say

"making a decision that will reveal something highly personal or uncharted in an artistic medium/genre is preferable to safely adding the clever texture of 'quirk.' "

Do these feelings ever get in the way of your creative process? As you make a track and start writing out riffs are you like, "naw, that's from that, that sounds too much like that, that's good, but it's just too much like this." ?

It used to trip me up big time, especially when I was trying to figure out how to write songs for my rock band. But I distinctly remember the day I was randomly searching music on the internet and discovered this crazy international retro electro universe of people like you, the Valerie collective, Miami Horror, Lovelock, etc. and how it just felt so…right. That was a game changer for me. I saw that nostalgia, when combined with solid songwriting and creativity, could be as effective as originality. But that creative element is important. The mark of the author still needs to be in the music in some meaningful way. That’s why LCD Soundsystem is so great. It’s a total throwback, but only James Murphy could do those vocals.


You know, for me I totally rip off other eras, and styles, like I'm talking like I RIP OFF stuff, but then I wind up changing it and messing with it for so long, the original inspiration would never be heard.

So, I think there is another side of this argument, in the creative process, attempting to follow a reference and the failure to do so can often be a good source of originality.

Totally, mistakes and missteps are often helpful for me too. I have a new song that started out as trying to be Hall and Oates and it just morphed into this whole other thing. It still has that blue-eyed soul/soft rock element, but it’s something else now. And that’s awesome. Now my mark is on it, like an atomic dog from the future.


Okay, so maybe do you think these artists, like Vampire Weekend, don't really appeal to you because they are just really, really, good at hitting the mark on what they are inspired by?

Vampire Weekend tentatively tap the mark, but the Police hit the mark with reggae, Led Zeppelin hit it with the blues, Talking Heads hit it with funk. And on the flip side, there’s this black south african band BLK JKS who take afro pop and hit it with psych and prog. The best bands/artists really get inside the music they’re stealing from if cultural fusion is part of their identity. But that’s not really the agenda of my particular music.


I'm starting to do interviews now, and I was saying how lame I think asking the 'influences' question is, and then I read my first interview I did with Cyndi Seui, and totally asked that question.

So I'm not going to ask you who your influences are.

Just look at my MySpace list and add Roger Troutman.

He’s the shit. I didn’t even know he was influencing me and he was.


In your blog, yet another rant, you say:

"You know what's revolutionary...
Fugazi charging $5.00/ticket for every show they ever played, whether it was a basement or a 2,000 seat venue."

Why is this significant?

For their whole career, Fugazi managed to willfully and exclusively play 5-dollar all-ages shows and sell 10-dollar cds. They were a band with a significant following who could have charged more, but they believed in the democratic nature of music. This was also a big “fuck off” to the whole music conglomerate industry. Fugazi’s credibility inspires me more than any fake polemic from MIA ever could. I’ll never be able to straight rob “Love to Love You Baby” and leave it at that. I will indeed rob, but then I’ll always try to take my songs to a different and personal place from there.



Well, I could go and on, but I have to do some actual 'work' now, to try and make actual 'money', which actually 'sucks', because I'd rather just chill and talk about this kind of stuff.

So , always a pleasure speaking with you Evan, keep up the good work!!

Be sure to check out Evan Patrick on myspace, and also his blogIn This Game A Minute.

www.myspace.com/evanpatrickmusic
www.inthisgameaminute.blogspot.com/

The Making of: Six Minute

I chose to crack open Six Minute since the production style contrasts with my first 'making of' article. This track is not melody driven, so it needs to be approached in a more traditional electronic dance style.



Six Minute

Arpeggiator

The arpeggiator is the main driving force in the verse sections of Six Minute. I use my favorite synth , 'Synth One'.


>>download synth 1 from KVR audio

A lot of synths being developed are getting really out of hand. They're almost total production environments in their own rite, sequencers, built in efx racks, crazy shit. I do use some of these crazy guys from time to time, but for me the most important thing about a synth is how well you can control it. Every time I use synth 1, I never use any presets, I immediately start programming, and I can get exactly the sound I want, the interface is simple and intuitive, and has only what I need. Plus, I think it sounds great. ( did I mention it's free? )


Let's have a listen to the arpeggiator:


If you listen closely, you'll hear some audible 'ducking' on the 1 and the 2. Sounds like the first note is being missed.

Rather than use a sidechain compressor, I prefer to do this manually with Ableton's 'unlink envelope' feature:



Let's listen to the same arpeggiator along with the kick drum:


Okay, so the kick is super clear in the mix. Well, that's because it's not really having to 'mix' , it's playing over nothing. Using unlock envelope, you can tighten it up so it's almost unnoticeable.


I change the arp pattern slightly through the song.

Firstly, I don't use a MIDI arpeggiator before the synth, I just draw in notes and run a really tight loop. Secondly, I use a long envelope to let the sound evolve over time, so it doesn't get too boring. In this case, I put a high pass and do an envelope in the timeline, but you can also use the LFO that comes with the synth.
Both of these things give me total control , so I'm not slave to a preset arp pattern, or an LFO's cycle.

Sample Yourself

I've got like hundreds of tracks from over the years, just kind of laying around. Every once in a while just for kicks I'll take a sound from an old track and just audition it with whatever I'm working on. Since I'm me, and tend to make similiar stuff as me, often times little magical things will happen, the sounds just work.

A sample from an old track I made:


Never throw anything out. Sometimes your old weird stuff from 5 years ago can be just the juice you need.

Sampling is always a bitch though, biggest issue is that things are usually offkey. Every sample I use I always put a tuner, which sometimes works to help me transpose the sample much faster.



>>download G-Tune from KVR audio

Computer Voice

I love Computer Voice. I prefer it over vocoding, although sometimes running a computer voice through a vocoder can be cool to.

I made this sound with the speech engine in Fruity Loops:





I cut up the sample and put each syllable into Impulse. Just to show how you can sequence it I made this pattern:


Hear the pattern of 'elektrik!':


I transpose the syllables in Impulse, so you can get the voice to sing. There other ways to do this, but for rythm I like having each syllable on it's own. I did distort the shit out of this , basically it's unrecognizable from the original output of Fruity Loops.

The same speech engine which is run inside of Fruity Loops is actually made by a third party company, Soft Voice Incorporated.

A lot of these companies let you do live preview on their websites, so you can just use Audio Hijack or something while you're online, you don't really need to run the software locally.

I think their engine sounds pretty good:
sample voice

The Chorus

chorus comes in at like 0:20


I'm very proud of the chorus, the chorus was made by playing synths then rendering the audio ,cutting, pasting, rendering it out again, then chopping again, etc. This is fun, but it's kind of painful, I think I spent like 3 days just messing with the chorus, like just budging these tiny lil' slices around forever.

Definitely I would say it's the sculpting approach. It is a good way to get your melody beyond your own ability to play , or write out the MIDI notes. But , it's sketchy, I remember on that third day almost trashing this, like 'how long am I going to tweak this for?'. I've had many tracks that just never made it past this phase.

That's About It

There's like 5 million other things going on this track, but I just wanted to focus on some practical things about it. Ducking manually is really cool, I always do that, and also that synth and tuner are great, I use them in every single one of my tracks. Thanks for reading!