Why I prefer a healthy earth-space balance
Ever since I started making my own music, I've experienced a push and pull between my interest in drums and acoustic instruments (earth sounds) and futuristic electronic textures (spacey sounds).
The first music I made as a composer was actually mostly electronic at its core. I used a couple synthesizers and a drum machine to create a majority of the pieces, and added percussion when I felt it necessary. This process gave me so much control of individual sounds. In fact, I still don't know if I've ever worked as hard as I did then--tweaking sounds and adding / removing layers for hours and days at a time. I literally would get lost in my own world of sound--spinning up environments I hadn't previously imagined.
However, my interest in that type of creative solitude fell away pretty quickly once I discovered the joy of leading my own band.
With a band, sure I had to learn to explain my ideas to fresh ears, which took time... But hearing and feeling a group of people bring my concept of a sound to the next level proved to be an addicting--and much more socially satisfying--thing.
My bands have usually featured at least one electronically-driven sound (usually a guitar with lots of pedals) blended with acoustic instruments. At first I felt this was the only way to make relevant instrumental music. Even I had perfectly great band recordings, I felt the need to add things like electronic hand claps or subtle synthesizer textures, just to keep us in the 21st century.
However, my deepening relationship with the drums and the overly-electronic lifestyle of the pandemic lead me to develop a passion for pure acoustics. The experience of recording a solo drum album at home--retuning drums, adding objects to the drum skins, and swapping out cymbals to get the right blend of tones for each piece brought me back to the beautiful sound world days of my early electronic projects. I began to wonder if a reliance on electronics was just a lack of creativity. Why spend hours with wires and computer programs when you could just tape a jar lid onto the drum in front of you to get a similar effect?
Emerging back into the musical world swung my sonic pendulum back towards the center though. I think what I've realized is that I prefer live performance and crave textural exploration, and those things can be accomplished on both acoustic and electronic instruments. The Track Earth - Space Balance on my Prosthetic album is a tribute to this. Me and Aidan Epstein create an energetic earthy groove that evolves beneath Julius Tuckers shredding on synthesizer keyboards.--I'd like to think it's a kind of folkloric music for the smartphone age.
Going forward, I plan to push myself to keep striking this balance. As much as I love playing acoustic jazz and appreciate the majesty of all acoustic bands / orchestras, I feel as an artist I have a duty to reflect something of our current world--and we definitely live in an electronic one that could use a reminder (but not a full return) of its earthy roots.
There's a personal disability-related element to this too.
In the current debates about AI, I tend to fall on the side of extreme pessimism , but mostly because our technology can only be as good as us, and generally speaking the us that has control of the more powerful technology isn't that good. As it stands, we're on the path to having a few techno billionaires comfortably exploring space sooner than the time everyone on Earth who needs an electric wheelchair can get one.
On the other hand, there are a lot of proposed radical back-to-the-earth futures that legitimately sound nice in story form, but I think would look awful for people with disabilities. I'll be the first to admit that technological development (including smartphones) has massively enhanced my ability to participate in society (though that does come under threat frequently as money-grabbing technological updates outpace efforts to keep software accessible).
And I'm not even someone who relies on a technological device to maintain basic life functions.
Long story short, as in music--where we have to combine the art form's historical importance as a facilitator of social interaction with the development of new means of production--with technology I think we have to keep moving forward, but find a way to bring more humanity into the equation. I don't want developers to help me optimize my life--I just need a little help for the time between the moments when me and my friends are learning together how to make life better for all of us.
If any of these thoughts intrigue you, you might enjoy my upcoming performance of the improvised Earth - Space Balance Suite this coming Saturday. It's a spinoff of the concept from my Prosthetic album, and it will feature me and Trevor Hill's earthy drums, woodwinds and small gongs drenched in Erica Miller's electric cello and synth textures. We perform at 8:30pm this Saturday 9/9 at Elastic Arts as part of the Ritual Rhythms Series.