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Re: Why...?
On Oct 21, 2011, at 10:45 PM, william middlemiss wrote:
> Why do you 'loop'?
I am 58 years old and have been consistently doing it since the early '80s
- I hardly know how to stop - it's an addiction.
> What got you started on this path?
In the mid '70s a couple of friends took me to the house of another mutual
friend of theirs in a nearby town. This guitar-playing friend of theirs
had rigged up a couple of tape machines on the mantle above the (unlit)
fireplace with a single loop of tape between them. He played some tasty
but rudimentary slide on a Strat-copy guitar into this crude echo setup
hooked to his stereo. I was so entranced by what I heard that I vowed from
that moment on I would figure out a way to do it myself. I was poor and
could not afford gear on my own for a long while yet. First, every now and
then, I'd rent an Echoplex type tape delay from a local music store. Then,
in the early 80's it was a series of daisy-chained analog stomp-boxes (not
terribly satisfactory) and thens a DigiTech DDL of some sort with
something like 4 seconds. A little later that decade, I got my first pair
of Electro Harmonix 16-Second digital delays (wow). In the early '90s I
added the original Lexicon JamMan, and then a Vortex. In '96 I got a pair
of EDPs and kept them and used them until just last year. Now I am using
Matthias Grob's EchoLoop VST plugin to emulate a pair of EDPs from within
my MaxMSP laptop guitar rig.
> Was it a mechanism for solo performance?
Yes. I've played guitar since I was 10, but until I was about 30 I was
crippled by extreme shyness and performance anxiety. I could not even
imagine playing with other people and being in a band when I was a
youngster. It was easier for me to deal with machinery than to ask someone
to come over and jam - and you could totally forget about any thought of
gigging. I just wasn't there yet. Plus, in my nerdy musical/social
isolation I developed a lot of idiosyncratic ways of doing things (bad
habits, never learning to do it right, or in the "conventional" manner).
In all the years between then ad now I have overcome my shyness, and a
good deal of my performance anxiety (though not all). I've learned music
theory, and have gotten out and about, played with people, made a record
or two - not famous, but what's the point of that?
> to record a vamp?
I suppose so, but I have always been a finger-picker, not a strummer. So,
from the beginning, my concept was always contrapuntal, one melody against
another. Of course, I use it like that a lot now, as a repeater and
layerer of all sorts of musical "gestures" - and as a creator of "ambient"
drones, pads, and textures too. Also, to create percussive, rhythmic
patterns. I've always been rhythmically "challenged." I do not seem able
to maintain a steady rhythm on a drum or other percussion instrument for
more than a few bars at a time. Having a looper to capture and repeat what
I AM in fact able to do and then replicate it and keep it steady is a
tremendous help.
> A compositional device, a new avenue of expression? (repetition as
> compositional device?)
Of course, all of the above, guilty as charged.
> An 'artistic statement' in itself? as if to say "I DONT NEED NO STINKIN
> BAND!"
Not at all. At this point I would always much rather play with others and
even not to loop at all if that is required to do so.
> A fallback for artistic roadblocks? (as in--an easy way out)
Possibly, but like I said, I've been doing it so long it is simply what I
do when left to my own resources. I do not think of myself (now, or in
truth, really ever) as a "looper" as some sub-category of musician. I am a
fully-formed and self-respecting musician (at least part of the time, when
my neuroses will allow). People may give me anxiety, but an "empty canvas"
never has. What to do is not a problem I have. There's a whole universe of
ideas to dip into, providing I am well-rested and gear and I both re ready
to play.
> A way of exploring new rhythms?
Sure, things even happen by accident, serendipity, that are very
interesting to me.
> A textural apparatus? sound design?
Dito.
> A means of 'warping sound'?
Having a big enough "rig" to have processing both before and after the
looper(s) has been important to me for several years now. I do not take as
much advantage of this as some - Jeff Kaiser, Andre LaFosse, Per Boysen,
and the Walker brothers (Rick and Bill) come to mind. But as my MaxMSP rig
grows and expands (and, conveniently, without taking up any more physical
space, thank God) I imagine I will eventually do more with this in future.
The only real drawback with doing it in software on a laptop (for me) is
the fact that I am really a poor programmer, and being married with
family, day job, and a mortgage, I do not have time to become a better
one. So it goes. Hopefully I will live long enough to retire on "Looper
Island" with all my other "older" looping friends and colleagues here.
Maybe then I will have time.
> With me, it's been all of the above, and I've jumped among 7 or 8
> devices along the way.
The only way to learn is to do . . . and do a lot. As an alternative to my
larger rig I have always maintained a smaller one (of some sort) on the
side - like owning both a BIG 128-COLOR BOX OF CRAYONS and then a little
pocket-sized one to go anywhere. I am never as entirely comfortable with
the little one as I am the big one (for obvious reasons) so it constantly
changes - pedals and devices rotating in and out all the time. Currently
the little rig consists of a WP20G, Sustainiac Model B, Ernie Ball volume
pedal, Line6 M13, Boss DD20, and a Lexicon Vortex.
> How about you?
Having fun every chance I get. I plan on getting out to the garage today
for at least a couple of hours.
Cheers,
Ted
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Why...?
- From: Petri Lahtinen <kollegavalmentaja@gmail.com>
- References:
- Why...?
- From: william middlemiss <billymiddlemiss@gmail.com>