It All Falls Apart
I stopped writing about this music adventure right after the Sonic Ranch Trip. I need to get this out of my system so I can move on with my life. Not even sure what my point is right now. Did I get wronged? Am I a fucked up person that cant deal with any other humans? Probably a bit of both.
But why write this? Mostly, therapy. I feel bad at the outcome of all of this, and I'm trying to understand why.
I believe I had a great deal to do with Colby's success. And still think I did it for good reasons. I don't think I did it for me. No promises.
If you're reading this, you should have already read the entirety of my Musik Adventure story. Please note that the latest entries show up at the top, so if you want to read it in chronological order,
Anyhow, it all started falling apart on the Sonic Ranch recording session trip (The third album).
Colby started believing he was good, and destined to become a star. On the trip to El Paso and the recording session at Sonic Ranch, Colby turned on me. He stated on the drive down (we have to drive everywhere. You can't fly an acoustic bass) that "I know exactly how I want it to sound." and "You can write the bass line." Which was untrue because that third album was a drummer album. I added a grand total of two notes to that album. Colby has a history of doing things like this. He used by be with a kid named Sherfy. Here's their one recorded/released song: TBD Dallas (holy shit, the song is gone from Spotify. I'm guessing that Colby had it removed). He once complained to me that he had to share 50% of the writer's royalties on that song with Sherfy because Sherfy wrote the bridge. TBD, more on Colby's ego later.
Anyway. Back to the story:
Having been told in so many words that I was not invited to add value to this album, I watched as they tried to convince themselves that the decisions they were making, musically, were good ones. They were not. I suffered the indignities that only a 23 year old can heap on a 57 year old. Sorry old man. You helped me get where I am, but I'm taking over now and you can go get booze for us smart, young, important people. I put him in charge of this venture. Gave it all to him. It was his dream, after all. I worked my ass off to ensure this venture's success, only to have the little shit get a big head and throw it all away.
Here is evidence of how bad this recording session went (Play this on a decent stereo if you want to understand, not your phone):
First, here is a song as recorded at Sonic Ranch:
Now here is that same song recorded as a scratch track, used to record individual tracks against. We recorded it as a group, with video, against a click track so we could keep the time straight-ish.
Listen to them both and decide which one you like.
I've shown this to a few people, but even people who have no musical ear or talent whatsoever will always pick the youtube version as the better one. Few people can put their finger on why that is. Almost everyone hears it perfectly at an emotional/subconscious level, and almost no one understands it consciously, not even "pro" musicians.
Why did you pick the youtube version?
Timing.
I described in The Groove that there is a give and take of timing between the critical rhythm instruments. Every note is both a query and an answer. "Where do you think time is?" "Here's where I think it is." Also, putting any note directly on the time beat (top dead center, as I call it) is almost always a bad idea. It "feels" bad, like a computer is making the music. And even AI isn't that bad at making music. The juxtaposition in time of the drum beat, the rhythm guitar back beat and the bass hit is critical in imparting an emotional "feel" to music. Here's an over the top example of this effect.
Gerhard Shultz Tolzer Shutzenmarsch
Listen to how far behind the beat the tubas are. The time distance between the beat and the bass hit is so huge as to cause a visual effect of a very fat man wearing a sousaphone marching so far in the back of the band that the speed of sound and the distance cause the sound to arrive much later than the intended beat -- and the effect is to make the band seem HUGE and powerful.
Here's another one:
Matt Monro Music to Watch Girls By
Start listening at the 1:10 mark where they're playing a straight up beat, and then at 1:18 they change to a swing, which means the bass hits way behind the rhythm on the quarter notes. The greater the distance in time, the more powerful the swing. Ask Ella.
I also described that at Sonic Ranch, in order to make the studio engineer's life easier, we sometimes record one track at a time. The upside is that the engineer has complete freedom to mix that track in any way he chooses, volume, time, effects, everything, without bleed from other instruments into that track. The downside is that now the engineer is the most import person in the band. And he's not even in the band. After my 6 hr session recording all my tracks against the drum track and the scratch track, the engineer mentioned offhand that he "pocketed" 15 to 20% of my notes (I suspect it was far more than that). That means that he didn't think my timing was good, so he moved my notes in time to where he thought they should be -- basically moving them to be exactly on the click. Go back and listen to both the Spotify (engineered) version and the live (Youtube) version. Notice that in the live version the bass note does not fall exactly on the beat but lags the drum a bit. Sometimes more, sometimes less -- always for emotional effect. This is why engineers should be very careful "pocketing" artists notes. We put them where we do on purpose. I'll explain more later why I didn't object to this. TBD
I'm starting to get a better understanding of why I always end up on the outs with everyone I deal with -- even my "friends". I have an overdeveloped sense of right and wrong. Of rules. I do believe a good set of rules are necessary in a functioning society. I'm not overly particular about what those rules are, as long as they are consistently applied fairly across the spectrum. In fact, I seem to value the rules more than the friends. Clearly this is a fault of my own, but I just can never let go the fact even people you like and work with on a daily basis will often disregard the rules they themselves set down just so they can "win" (read: "get their way contrary to the aforementioned rules"). And there is also a hierarchy element to this. Most people cannot conceive of a society of any size not having a hierarchy. I, on the other hand believe that there is almost no situation where a hierarchy is preferred over, say, an organization decision making model. Let the best idea win, regardless of who gave it (it's our idea, not mine). Most people cannot conceive of a group of people that make decisions without a leader. And if you're not willing to take on the risks and responsibilities of being the leader, then you have no right to expect your, or any idea, not espoused by the leader should carry any weight at all. And the weird thing about these hierarchies is that they tend to go toward ideas from people that the leader likes, and not thought is ever given to following up on the success or failure of said idea. The victory seems to be only that the leader got his way, even if the outcome is suboptimal. Leaders seldom measure any outcome. For example, in a software company, a standard measure of success may be profitability, or maybe should be efficiency and reliability. In music about the only measure is streaming/financial success. For who can judge success of music except the masses. Sure, the leader or the group may establish a different criterion for success, but the whole point of create a musical message always seems to be maximum distribution of said message. Influence.
Back to the music:
Let's compare whether my ideas on music are helpful to the success in the form of maximum distribution of the message. Let's compare If I Were the Devil with the Vinyl Session. First, which do you like better. Now notice how Colby's voice is a bit of a thin, nasal, high tenor. Not a criticism. It is what it is and he uses it well. But the bass seems to fill in all the holes in his vocal frequency set. I mean, come on, have you never listened to Tennessee Ernie Ford or Jim Reeves. Those guys have deep, rich voices, yet benefit greatly (it seems to amplify those qualities) from having almost the only accompaniment be an acoustic bass). The vinyl sessions with only his voice and guitar seems weak and thin. And timing. Here's something that no one seems to think or talk about. It turns out that you can put a bass note in a place in time that makes another instrument of voice seem more patient and more mature. Go back and listen to If I Were the Devil again. Listen to how the timing of the bass gives a relaxed feel -- and the notes don't always fall exactly in the same place in time. They move around, and that's also part of the relaxed feel. And here's the crazy part: That song sounds like it was recorded with two guys playing together in a room. It was not. It was laid down one track at a time against a click. First the guitar, then the vocal, then the bass. This is counter to the usual sequence, which is rhythm first, the leads, then vocal. We did it this way because I can't play without cues from Colby. We grew the act playing live with me watching him like a hawk and responding to his every change. He could change keys in the middle of a song, do the chorus twice, throw in a dead stop anywhere and I would catch it and play it. As a result, I have no memory of where songs are going next; only what I hear the lead telegraphing. It made for killer live shows, but also made it impossible for me to record without a guitar and vocal track to play against. And the real shocker is that I can play against a recorded track and make it sound and feel more mature and patient. I didn't really figure that one out for a couple years after the album release.
TBD (way last, if at all) I ran the books and projections on future income of this venture and he was on a trajectory to gross $200Mil lifetime. It now looks like it might end up being less than $20Mil and just 5 years. TBD much more elaboration needed here.
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