general fuzz

For the vast majority of people, planning a wedding does not lead you down the path to your chosen profession. I happened to marry the anomaly, which has worked out real well for me so far. I now get to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. After our big day, I secretly harbored the belief that no wedding would ever top the level of personalization and complexity that ours did. Now I know better.

Dave and Erin’s wedding was what happens when extreme creative forces and milestone life changing events decide to party in the woods. The scope of this wedding was insane. The logistics were challenging, to say the least. There was a meeting in the morning where the all days tasks were divvied out those who had been camping on site. Lots of creative problem solving ensued. Every single person who was working the wedding was a friend of theirs. It was a celebration that will never be forgotten. And now, some delicious bullet points:

• The theme was dragonfly. It carried through the enormous dragon fly rice krispie cake that Dave constructed (which  completely lit up in the dark using plasma balls and el wire) all the way to the belt buckle (that Dave also made).



• Nine pies were lovingly made and brought to the ceremony by one of their friends. But this isn’t extraordinary enough. All the ingredients for the pies (except for the flour) were organically grown on the farm where the pie maker lives.



• Best wedding band in the history of wedding bands. Two of their friends are in Albino, the Bay Area afro-cuban sensation that sells out the Great American and the Independent. They hired a couple heavy hitters to round out the band and threw down the funkiest authentic afro-cuban in the woods. Its was SICKNESS. Somehow Dave and Erin have amassed this huge friendbase of total hotties. Amazing music + attractive dancing fiends = yes.
• A talent show run by the most enthusiastic hosts on this planet.
• Their first dance was a sight to behold. Erin’s sister is a dance instructor, and Erin is a serious dancer, so they choreographed a high energy salsa-eque dance that brought the house down. When Dave picked up the morocco’s I nearly pissed my pants.



• They found time to create a entertaining 20 minute slideshow presentation of their incredible 9 month journey through South America where they volunteered at a number of orphanages and organized three large scale community driven murals.
• The setting itself at Ranchno Cicada with the river that ripe for tubing was a scene for constant entertainment. I enjoyed the many hammocks that were setup along the river.



• Their very personal ceremony led by two close friends was very spiritual without any strong religious undercurrents. After Dave read his written vows, Erin made hers by passionately delivering them right into Dave’s eyes. That was the most intensely emotional moment I’ve ever witnessed in someone else’s wedding. I still get shivers when I think about that moment.

My major contribution to wedding was that I composed their processional for piano and guitar. At 5pm, when we were supposed to be providing background music for the arriving guests, Andrzej (the guitarist) hadn’t appeared yet. At 5:15, while I was merrily improvising away, Andrzej shows up out of breath, guitar in hand. Since we had no time to sound check, I plug him in, he tunes up, and then I get the signal to start the processional. That was the most amusing moment of the day for me - I had assumed I was going to do the processional solo at that point.

I spent almost half of my time at the wedding working my butt off with the various tasks at hand, and I performed only a tiny fraction of what needed to be done. It took a lot of their friends giving it their all to pull off this celebration, and because of that, we really got to know each other much more then they would have naturally. We all came together and really felt connected to the celebration at at hand.

generalfuzz events of noteworthiness, friends

Stina took me along for a journey to Belize, and that turned out to be quite a privilege.

We spent much of our time on a island a 10 miles long and half a mile wide. Almost everyone spoke English, which simplified just about everything. Everyone we ran across was extraordinarily friendly, though half of them wanted to sell your something. Tourism is the major industry there.

For the first couple days that we were there, there couldn’t have been more then 10 percent tourists. We really enjoyed  being immersed in the local culture.

We stayed at the crazy swank Phoenix.

Nothing makes me madder then sunsets. Grrr.

An amazing enormous healthy reef was only half mile from the shore.

We journeyed into Guatemala to check out Tikal, a giant Mayan ruin. Our guide was Mayan priest, and he was a trip. In fact, that was a great theme for this trip - all the amazing colorful characters that we met along the way.

We spotted (or rather heard) the obnoxious cry of the howler monkeys in the jungle. That was pretty rad.


We even hit up some zip-lining while we were there. Nice.

generalfuzz Uncategorized

A while back I wrote a blog post describing 6 lessons I learned about creating and distributing music on the internet. More then one person wrote me to say they were disappointed that the lessons didn’t touch upon the process for actually creating electronic music. So now that I’m back on vacation and had some time to ruminate, I’m going to try to jot down a few things I’ve learned about creating computer music. Please bear in mind these lessons are deeply rooted in personal opinion.

1. Pick a Tool and learn it.

All music creation software is going to have strengths and weaknesses. All the major sequencers - Live, Cubase, Sonar, Fruityloops, Reason, etc - have a huge group of loyalists and detractors. The reality, especially when you are just getting started, is that it doesn’t matter much which tool you pick. They all provide the basic functionality required to create music. What really matters is that you spend a lot of time learning the software inside out. They are all extremely powerful and versatile tools, full of innovation and nuances. It will take a lot of work to understand how to bend a sequencer to your will. Discover its limitations, and learn how to work around them. Amazing music has been created on all of them, so you know that it’s possible for you to do it too.

2. Don’t become a collector of software

I’ve discovered that I’m much more productive when I have limited resources. Don’t become a collector of sequencers and synth plugins. It’s so easy in this day and age to either download tons of freeware software or steal commercial software. Buy a sequencer, and play with the built in synths for a while. There are “lite” versions of all major software, and if you are just getting started with computer music the “lite” version will provide you with ample functionality. If you spend your hard earned cash on software, you’ll be more inclined to use it to its maximum potential.

Try not to go on a buying spree of synth plugins, because you’ll never dive deep into the potential of the plugins. It takes time to just become familiar with the presets of a synth. I’ve definitely gone on some synth buying benders, and became much less productive as a result. It’s great to have powerful tools at your disposal, but you need to be familiar enough with your tools to know when to actually use it.

3. Learn the foundations of electronic music

I think it’s extremely important to understand the basics of analog and digital synthesis. Even if you are planning on just using synth presets (as I do for the most part), you’ll want to know how to tweak a patch so it sounds just the way you want them to. I was lucky enough to attend Oberlin college where they offered advanced curriculum in electronic music. Everything essential I learned in the first semester: How to construct sounds on a analog synth, how to build patches on a sampler, how to route and modulate the sound signal, etc.

I think Reason is the perfect software to learn all these concepts on. The software is built just like a giant modular studio, where all the components and the way your tie them together mirror their real life equivalents.

4. Finish a Song

Not long after you get started, you’ll start creating little song snippets that you enjoy playing with. Eventually you’ll flush some of them out so that you have really awesome little song snippets. The real challenge is to create a full song from a song snippet. This is a daunting and often elusive task. So my advice is make a full song out of that snippet, even if it’s  crappy and super repetitive.  It just needs to have a beginning and an end.

The sooner you are confident that you can create a whole song, the sooner you’ll build the confidence that you can do it again. Otherwise you’ll be spinning your wheels indefinitely on lots of little song snippets.  Once you have a complete song, you can always improve it. So . . .

5. Improve your songs

Find a good set of critics. People who you can listen to and take criticism from. It’s important to learn how to take negative feedback. You don’t always have to agree, but an objective set of ears often has a lot of value.  Learn to differentiate from constructive criticism and mean spirited bashing. Its much easier to be a critic then a creator. All artists must learn to grow a thick skin, because almost everyone who is not you doesn’t appreciate your art.

Most listeners attention span is very short, so learn to trim the fat from your music. I’m always going back through completed tracks and finding measures which I can delete. It can be difficult to throw away some of your brilliant output, but songs are usually stronger when there’s less filler and more substance.

I personally can’t stand repetition in electronic music. I’m always looking to make variations in tracks so that it never feels like its constructed on repeated loops. I like to either create slight variations in note patterns or automate filters to keep repetitive parts interesting to my ears.

On the flip side, I’ve also learned to not over obsess over the details in a song. I self master all my own music, which is a huge, painstaking effort. I know a professional would do a much better job then I do, but the process of mastering a song usually reveals mistakes in the mix. At some undefinable point during this process the returns from tweaking a song starts diminishing. When a song sounds pretty much the way I want it to, it’s time to move on.   

6. Iteration

I’ve discovered that I work best by iterating through songs. After finishing an album, I’ll start from scratch. First I’ll create a new song. I’ll work on it a little bit. As soon as I start to become frustrated with it, I’ll create a new one. When the second song becomes less fun, I’ll go back to the first song. If no inspiration hits, I’ll return the second song. If nothing there, I’ll start a third song. And so forth. Always iterating through the songs, starting from the first one. I’m not super strict about this, but generally adhere to it.

After I have four or five songs that I’m working on, I’ll start filtering the tracks. I’ll listen to each one and put them in one of three folders - “likely”, “maybe”, “unlikely”. I’ll inevitable only work on the songs in the “likely” folder. And I’ll iterate through those tracks, creating new ones when I’m frustrated with the ones I’m working on, and when I have enough tracks I’ll filter them again. And so forth.

I used to not do this. I’d bang my head against a song until I couldn’t take it anymore, and would often be in a dark mood until I’ll could push through. I’ve learned that if I’m working on a bunch of songs simultaneously, I’m much fresher to the material when I revisit it. I know this advice seems to contradict with the “finish a song” statement - but there’s a big difference to having a whole song mapped out and from it being done. I also have the confidence that I’ll finish a song cause I’ve done it almost a hundred times. It took a long time to build that confidence.

Since it doesn’t cost anything to keep the songs from the other folders around, you don’t have to throw them away. One day they may become handy where you need a section for a song that you are working on. I often construct songs by taking two song snippets and figuring out how to seamlessly meld them together. I enjoy the challenge by taking two unrelated songs and figuring out how to blend them together. A good example of this is “starry” - the A and B sections were two unrelated song snippets. I massaged the B snippet to be in a related key to the A snippet, and eventually fused them together. Booyeah.

7. Frustration is part of the process

Great art always takes great amounts of work. I’ve now finished five albums, and what I’ve learned is that the pain and suffering you endure to create your music is what makes it so good. It’s the curse of having high standards.

I’m always working so hard to finish an album, but after it done, I become a little lost. If you are playing lots of gigs to support your music there’s lots to look forward to, but if you are mostly a composer like myself, it can be a big letdown. I’m starting to appreciate the process more then the end product. As I’ve gotten older I’m starting to grasp that life is about the journey, not the destination.  Don’t rush the process. Without frustration there would be no fulfillment.

8. Collaborate

The advantages of computer music over a band is that you are in complete control of everything. The disadvantage is that you often get so stuck inside your own head that the music never evolves. To grow as a musician, you have to play with other musicians. Computer music is often a solitary art form. I think its important to find some other people that you can collaborate on tracks with. To work with a someone who has a different perspective or skill set is always a learning opportunity. I believe if  you find the right musical partner(s), 1 + 1 = 3.  As soon as I started using Live (instead of Reason), I started working with other musicians, and it propelled my music way farther then I could have taken it alone.

9. Dissect music that inspires you

Start picking apart the songs that you love. Learn how to play their melodies. Figure out what the chords progressions are, which can often be derived from the bass lines. Count out the rhythms. Make a .wav file of the song so that you can import the song in your sequencer. Then you can loop parts, even slow them down, until you understand how they are constructed.

First focus your attention on all the sounds that are at the front of the mix. After a while, tune those sounds out and listen to all the subtle sounds in the back of the mix. You want to learn to be able to focus on song and hear individual tracks in a mix. It takes lots of practice and concentration.

When I run across music that truly inspires me, I usually go through a couple phases. Soon after the joy of discovering such amazing art wears off, I’ll get depressed, because I’ll never be that talented. This is closely followed by jealousy. Eventually, maybe a couple days later, I’ll be able to celebrate it again. Ok, so I’m moody. Be glad we’re not married.

There are always going to be people who are more talented then you are. That doesn’t mean that your art has no value. Use the people who inspire you as teachers. Or break into their house and set their couch on fire. Your choice.

My approach to composition

I’m an improviser at heart. I’ll just hit the record button and jam with myself on a piano or rhodes until I hit upon an idea that might be worth revisiting. Then I’ll play around with the idea until its time to re-record it with a metronome to determine its actual rhythm and tempo. This will be the starting point for my new song. Then I’ll start flushing out this idea a little bit. Sometimes this initial idea, which is the launching point for my new song, will be removed along the way.

The way I compose music is akin to chipping away at a block of stone to create a statue. I tend to mold rough ideas into fully fleshed out song segments. I go over parts endlessly, tweaking this and that until it achieves the sheen that I want. I don’t often know what the end goal is, but I have the confidence that a good idea will eventually blossom into it’s potential. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, but I can usually tell when an idea is worth pursuing.

In conclusion

I like pudding. One day I’d like to bathe in it. What a glorious day that will be.

I also like comments. Feel free to leave me feedback so I can learn how you resonate with my perspectives.

generalfuzz general fuzz, lessons

We’re in the midst of wedding-paloza ‘09, and I wanted to do something fun for DaveP. So I shot down to LA for a weekend of good times and Dead shows. And now . . . some bullet points.

• I felt the need to be crafty on my day of birth, so I whipped up some appropriate beads



• I ran into my favorite show buddy in line for the plane to LA. We sat together and it set the perfect tone for the weekend.
• Dave and Keri took me to Oinkster for dinner, which is “slow fast food”. That means it’s wicked tasty. Amazing beers on tap to boot. Then we went to “Dave’s Chillin and Grilling” which unfortunately reset my high bar for sandwich snobbery. Now I have two places I must eat at every time I’m in LA. 
• LA traffic is ridonkulous. Even at midnight, there’s crazy traffic on highways. 
• The LA lot scene was fantastic. Two jam packed lanes of Shakedown. How I’ve missed a good lot scene. It was particularly hilarious when the unprepared parking people directed cars down the shakedown lanes. 



The most random thing I found in the lot was this:


• Dave, who likes to be prepared, had enough supplies in his cars to satisfy all our lot neighbors desires. He can also piss like a racehorse.
• I hate seeing shows at Arena’s, but this one had excellent sound. The underground bathroom was a dungeon though. 
• I have no tolerance for annoying hippies. The one right in front of us, thankfully got pushed a few rows back during the first set. During setbreak, full on verbal warfare almost escalated into physical mayhem. It made the long setbreak far more interesting.
• Warren Haynes is amazing. He was the right pick for Garcia.



• The Dead has embraced technology. It made the segment of space -> drums way cooler then it used to be.
• 30 minutes of Darkstar is too much Darkstar.
• Dave’s reaction to surprise is amusingly mild. When we walked into his house after the show Zaq was sitting at his kitchen table. 
• I haven’t slept in the same bed with Zaq since I was 8. The three of us yukked it up on a fantastic road trip up to SF.
• The lot scene at Shoreline ate it, since the fun police were out in force. Boo to that.
• I haven’t gone to a show with so many friends in ages. I’d forgotten how fun it was. Summer = chillin on the lawn at Shoreline with friends and great music




• Apparently the Dead love the Rolling Stones. We got different cover at each venue.  
• It was amusing to walk through the lot after the show where every hippie had locked their dog in their car and they were all going nuts. 

I know I’ve been neglecting my blog as of late. Good thing it doesn’t have feelings. I’m going to leave the country in five hours. TTFN.

generalfuzz Uncategorized

Any weekend that includes salad dressing shots,

balloon animals,

flying brothers,

sand eating,

and a special kind of competition

is probably the DSG Hitchapalooza ‘09.

Our first encounter with the police was an hour after arriving.

Everyone

brought their “A” game.

generalfuzz events of noteworthiness, friends

I was lucky enough to get an invite to a “super secret” Nintendo event, billed as “World 1:2″. I wasn’t sure what it was about, but it happened early enough on Saturday night to warrant checking out. I figured there’d be food and video games, and was right on target. I brought Dave SG with me, which turned out to be the correct thing to do.

The event took place in the gallery of an amazing non-profit arts organization called Root Division. I ended up talking with the director of Root Division for a while, and was totally captivated by their mission to both enable artists to work towards a sustainable living and enrich the community with free arts education. It’s a beautiful goal. Dave SG is a professional artist, and really lit up when he learned about the goals of the organization.

The event was for only 50 people, which is insane considering how much effort went into the event. Nintendo completely transformed this small gallery space bringing in huge amounts of scaffolding, a stage, and Wii Kiosks. There were contests, a DJ, shwag, and ample Nintendo staff. We got to play their two new unreleased flagship games - Excitebots Trick Racking, which was sorta fun, and the new Punch Out, which was AWESOME. They totally nailed bringing Punch Out to the current console generation without sacrificing any bits that made it so fun in the 80s.

My favorite part of the evening occurred when I went to the entrance to grab my water bottle. At this point I was down to my tee shirt, which read “I love Dave Stern-Gottfried”. The tee-shirt doesn’t lie. A lady from Nintendo’s PR firm was working the door, and asked if Dave was from Philly, which he is. Turns out she went to high school with his younger brother. She figured there couldn’t be a ton of Stern-Gottfried’s. That tee-shirt keeps paying out dividends.

As awesome as this event was, to me the most amazing thing was that Nintendo decided to rent out this non-profit arts space. I find it truly inspiring that Nintendo made the extra effort to find a space that really makes an positive impact on the local community community and surely needs this type of corporate sponsorship.

generalfuzz video games

It’s always a treat to see one of my favorite guitarists, Steve Kimock, play at one of my favorite venues, the Great American Music Hall. His current band rotation is very similar to his previous - he continues to have his son John on Drums and Melvin Seals on keys. I fell deeply in love with his new bass player, Janis Wallin. She was crazy cute, and she’d clearly been bitten by the radioactive groove monkey when she was little. She wasn’t a flashy player, but a deep pocket player. She and John already had some solid swing chemistry, and I’m sure that’ll solidify over the next four months of constant touring. They also brought along the classy JGB ladies, who came on and off the stage all night, which made for a far more vocal Kimock affair then I’ve ever experienced. Since the singing is of such high caliber, I have no beef with that. No beef, I say.

Kimock never lets me down. He likes to do some introspective songs which appeals to me probably much more than most people - they just wanna get their dance on.  To me, the sign of a true musician is one who needs to explore a wide range of sonic palates. That, and I write downtempo music. Go figure. It’s also been fun seeing his son play over the past 3-4 years. He’s only 19 now, so you can imagine his growth, both physically and musically.

What I walked away with the most though, is that I need to Janis in her own band, the Family Groove Company.  If she’s any indicator, then their group name will be right on target.

generalfuzz concerts

Phish is back in action, and its stirring up some old obsessive tidings of yore. I actually followed the setlist of their first show in five years on Twitter and that was oddly exciting. The shows, which they released for free for a limited time, we’re sure fun to listen to. 90 songs in 3 days, some of which are exceedingly complex. Almost all of the first sets were 2 hours long. I’ll catch a date or two this summer, thanks to my lucky and generous friends

My brother Doug

accompanied by his camera

and his fiancee, Erin

came to visit. We even saw some family, like cousin Lily.

An obscure snobbery that I harbor is for  sprinkles, or “jimmies” if your from New England. I enjoy ice cream twice as much with jimmies on it, which can be upsetting when the ice cream parlor charges a dollar per topping. My mom just discovered high end sprinkles at my favorite store in Newton, Marty’s. They have redefined how sprinkles should be, and I’m probably worse off for knowing this. I did manage smuggle a large container back with me, but airport security had a field day with it.

The impetus for the trip back east was Ducey’s wedding. That was a REAL good time. Stiners and I re-connected with many a high school friend along with the UMass folks that often are spotted along side the Ducester. One down, at least four to go.






The passing of the torch . . .

generalfuzz Bullet Points, family

Last summer I got a car accident. Boom. A day or two later I apprehensively and rather sorely went to Yoga. The teacher decided that her students appeared a little beat up, so she decided to teach a restorative class. The second half of the class was my first experience with Pranayama, which is a basically intensive breathing exercises. Towards the end of the Pranayama practice, I started swelling up with emotions. It was rather intense and very unexpected. I decided that the experience was important, and should be revisited.

I started attending Pranayama classes about two months ago. Now I unexpectedly find myself walking on the more spiritual path of Iyengar Yoga. During my third class I experienced the emotional charge again. For a couple days after I was a bit manic - extreme highs/lows. Since then I find that I’ll be far more sensitive for a day or two after the Pranayama class. On one hand, it’s awesome and important to get in touch with my deeply buried emotional self. On the other hand, it’s a lot to deal with, it spills over onto Stina, and moreover, when things are not going well I wade too deeply in a pit of despair. My work life has been insane for the last few months. It’s a lot to deal with on its own, and I’m now amplifying the negative impact its having on my self esteem.

I gifted Stina tickets to Wicked for Christnukah. When the day of show arrived last week, I wasn’t sure if I could go. Last minute, I pulled enough work stuff together so that I could take off for a few hours. It was amusing, and a great break from work. We got out around around 11, I promptly began a freak out about having to get back home and start working again. As we walked towards the train home, Stina pointed out a homeless man attempting to sleep on the sidewalk with his socks hung over the sewer vent. That was all the perspective I needed. I have it so amazingly good. I need to not lose perspective of that.

I fully plan on continuing the Pranayama classes along with the normal classes and see where it takes me. I never would have predicted the impact Yoga is having on my life.

generalfuzz yoga

I heart me a random conversation, especially one that Hans lovingly transcribes for me so I can blog it. I feel Hans last remark is why I would elect him supreme overlord. Of my pants, at least.

J = me, H = Hans, RG = (big, possibly intimitating) random guy

RG sits down saying he came in b/c our heater was running.
H: “(looking at the heater that’s barely still alive) Not really.”
RG: “I can still feel it though.”
H: “OK.”
Meanwhile, across the circle, Dave SG is talking about how he wants to paint a giant mural of an orangutan.
H: “(turns to J and RG) I’d like to BE an orangutan for a day…just for a day.”
RG: (shakes his head, looking in disbelief at H)
H: “Just for a day. An orangutan for a day.”
RG: “What’s an orangutan?”
(slight pause)
H: “You know, an ape…monkey thing, you know.”
RG: “Oh yeah. (makes like an ape with long arms) Naw, man, I’m not…that’s not…”
H: “(points to RG and says to J and RG) Oh, he says a day isn’t enough; he’s down for a week.”
RG: “(looking at H like he’s crazy and shaking his head) Naw. No way. Not gonna…no monkey.”
H: “(turns to RG) OK, how about if you got to have a tail you could grab onto things with?”
RG: “Naw. I have hands to do that.”
H: “OK, how about if you got to stay a person but could have the tail to grab onto things with?”
RG: “No way. I still got the hands to grab things.”
J: “I’d take the tail.”
H: “See, he’d take the tail. Me too.”
RG: “But then people might call you a freak.”
H: “People already call him a freak. (laughing)”
J: (softly and seriously, after the laughter quiets a bit) Its’s not true.”
H: “Hahaha, ‘it’s not true’.”
RG: “Oh, see, he’s assassinating your character.”
H: “Oh, shit! That’s true! I WAS assassinating your character. (aside to J) I can’t believe he just said that.”
J: “(to RG) That’s why we call him Fuckface Jones!”
RG: “Cuz he eats a lotta ****y?” <– and you might wonder why I decided to asterix that one. Wonder away.
(awkward pause)
J: “Huh… maybe…I guess that could be part of it.”
RG: (looks across and sees Stina and Erin leaning on each other and turns to J) Are they gay?”
J: “Uh, no.”
RG: “A little bit?”
J: “… maybe a little.”
RG: “I tried to convince my friend to…swing both ways, you know? She was into it one night but that was it. It was cool…but then I saw the other woman and I said ugh, no way.”
H: “She had a tail?” <— moment of brillance
RG: “…I think she had hooves.”
H: “Oooh, that shit hurts.”

generalfuzz humor