I love seeing my friends do well. I like to watch them learn and grow and progress through life, especially when they're awesomely talented and it's just a matter of everyone else catching up with the facts.
So it is with Slingers - a sci-fi series written and created by my friend Mike Atherton, AKA Sizemore, that could well be the next Firefly, but please God without the getting inexplicably canceled mid-season...
here's the sizzle for it. It looks like magic to me :)
Thanks to just getting a comment on the video, I've been watching this video of me playing Jimmy James, from a house concert in north London last year.
Apart from the slight weirdness of me sitting watching myself on Youtube (I was watching to see what sounds I used in order to answer the question in the comment), I was struck by the really slow build on the loops. Then realised that the reason it sounded unfamiliar is that it's only at house concerts where I can get away with playing that slow, that measured, where I can give each layer and musical idea the room to grow that it deserves.
The reason is this - for music to work, the silence in the room needs to sound good. If what happens when you're not playing is nasty background noise - whether it's traffic or coffee-machines or people talking, or air-con units... whatever it is, the music can't have holes because it's primary purpose becomes covering up that other noise. After that, you get to be good, interesting or whatever...
Have a listen, tell me what you think - I love the pacing of this, and it's inspiring me to want to get some new music written, with lots of holes in it. Swiss Cheese music. :)
Firstly, gotta love the idea of multimedia reviews - makes perfect sense: listen, watch, get more info.
Secondly, the EP of Susan Enan's they're talking about at the beginning of the review, Moonlight, has me on bass - it was recorded by Jez Carr (and features him on piano) and Evil Harv on guitar - I intro'd Susan to Jez and they worked together for a few years after that.
Thirdly, it is indeed a really lovely album, and y'all should get it.
Click here to listen to it (I tried to embed the player with the Paste widget, but it doesn't work, sadly...)
(Susan's is the first review, and I'm now listening to the others - good call, Paste!)
Actually, I haven't. I've got a fixed bass. Fixed because it was smashed up by British Airways, who paid for it to be fixed. But it sounds different. I love the sound of the bass as it is now, but just occasionally I go back and watch vids like this recorded before the accident, and miss the sound. There was something pretty miraculous about the bass as it was... Maybe I'll grow to love the sound now as much, especially as I start recording a new album soon. Till then I'll just have to remember to not stop Believin' ;)
The conversation continues, and despite her boss being won over by the solo bass gig, he still doesn't trust her judgement from the start...This conversation also happened. Probably