Sneak Preview of Afficianado Of The Club Nostalgia

Lets see it this will work: It's a rough version of track 2 of the new Vanity Dog single



https://soundcloud.com/clarksongznz/afficianado-1-ruff


This is kinda mixed, but still a bit rough...

Dedicated to the more mature musicians amongst us...

On getting old and playing Geetar...

I'm busily working on a song at the moment. It is Ray Davis-inspired a tragicomic look at t.he - shall we say the 'ageing' musician.

I imagine the pleading and distress of their loved ones and spouses:

Let it go. You've gone too far.
In the name of humanity, 
Put down that guitar....

When I was in band (did I tell you I was in a band?, oh well, more of that later...). I recall John the Bassist saying: "I hope I never end up being one of those old geysers who keeps telling young people 'I used to be in a band'".

And it occurred to me that I have become that old geyser!

Anyway, last year I started working on a song who I thought was too uncool to play to anyone, so I kept it for my personal amusement. I mean how can I claim to be New Zealand's answer to Radiohead with tripe like "An Afficionado of the Club Nostalgia' ?... and now? Well one of the benefits of getting  'older' is that you end up not giving a rat's ass.

It is incredibly liberating not having to be 'cool'.

When I was younger, so much younger than today, I'd write a song and if you didn't like it well it was your problem. Then I matured and got all angsty and involved and meticulous about my 'craft'. 

Now I'm back to square one.

So anyway should there be an age-bar on 'Rock'? I know, I know The Rolling Stones and all that. But Mick is still pretending he's in his forties when he should know better, so I think it is better for the youth of the world, (especially the females) if he's kept off-tour. But then Johnny Cash kept on till the end, and I reckon some of his finest stuff came from that later era.

In fact Johnny Cash was a living monument to the virtues of just hanging on in there and keeping on doing what you love to do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVRtoU5-A_M

Bowie and mic-craft

I love this little known tune by the late lamented David Bowie.

It's like 'What would happen if you put Marc Bolan and Iggy Pop in a room and got Bowie to write down the result?"

But I could be wrong.

But what I really dig about this video is how Bowie use a common or garden SM58 microphone, live.

Observe, gentle reader as David Bowie sings into the microphone, moving in close, and backing away as he sings louder, in order to save the sound-mixing guy a living nightmare of playing around with the volume fader. A real craftsman at work...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsYp9q3QNaQ

The Prophet Hens Album out now...

The Prophet Hens are perched to achieve legendary indie-status as they lay another golden egg in the "Dunedin Sound' nest, with 'The Wonderful shape of backdoor Keys' issued on fishriderrecords.c.

I especially enjoyed: Basically, (Track 3), and the rock-steady drums and guitar in Track 11: D Modal, which really soared as a post-indie workout.

According to the Prophet Hens themselves, they are:

... melodic jangling guitars, fairground organs & voices singing about hope & despair, joy & regret, ambition & reality, coming together & drifting apart.

I got essences of kitchen-sink drama, what has been called “psychédélisme plaintif”  (Les Inrockuptibles,) shortly observational sardonic reportage about well, life. There is more than just jangly guitar action here; the songs are well crafted and structured with great use of male and female vocals (Penelope Esplin and Karl Bray ) each deliver with a dead-pan sense of integrity, it would take someone like me years to cultivate... :o)

Anyway reader, do have a listen..

Don't Confuse me with Taylor Swift... I really mean it this time...

Ok, I'll admit it SOMETIMES I DON'T SING IN TUNE. Yeah, I said it. 

I feel that modern audiences are being conditioned to not know what singing in tune actually sounds like courtesy of 'AUTOTUNE'. 

If you want to know about this commonly used device and consider artists who have used it see: http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/27/3964406/seduced-by-perfect-pitch-how-auto-tune-conquered-pop-music

I have no issue with the mere existence of AUTOTUNE. It's a tool, like any other, and if people want to use it, then fine and dandy. I've even noted young performers are unknowingly teaching themselves to 'warble' their voices to replicate the auto tuning they unconsciously register on their idols' voices.

However, if AUTOTUNE is overly used, there is a hazard that when people really hear you sing, well - you know the rest.

Personally, I like to hear 'real' vocals, and history will be the judge of how 'good' a singer is. In fact, being able to make contact with people on an emotional level is one of the defining qualities of a great vocalist. 

Did Elvis Presley, Nat Cole, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Morrissey, Ray Charles, Dylan, Stevie Wonder, John Foggerty, Anita O'Day, Billie Holiday, or any of the greats, use autotune? Of course not, but they are still great to listen to, perhaps as much for their flaws as for their messages.

But lately, I'm thinking more and more about the pressure on young musicians to sing 'perfectly'. AUTOTUNE can be like an aural equivalent of photoshopping a model's body to make it more 'perfect'. This is accompanied by a spate of young women hating on themselves, because they are being pitched an ideal they can't possibly match.

Spoiler: I really like Taylor Swift so don't think I'm accusing her of anything 'bad'. But I find it ironic that she issues a single called 'Shake it Off' and video which is cute and self-deprecating, but has thrown every electronic trick in the book at the production of a 'flawless' performance. But it's just what happens when songwriting is reduced to becoming 'product' designed to shift 'units'.

From the viewpoint of a guy who makes music in a converted barn (and trust me, it does look like an actual barn, not one of those tastefully renovated versions) making music with glitches in it is part of the pleasure, and serves to establish another reason for people not to confuse me with Taylor Swift.   (Heh, like I need another one....)

You gotta love yourself - don't say it like it's a Bad Thing...

Spoke to a friend today, and she pointed out that if one performs to the best of one’s ability people will accuse her of ‘loving herself’ but if she is unanimated and introverted, people will accuse her of not being a 'real performer'. 

So you are stuck with one of two negative judgments.

I’ve mentioned this before. If you decide to take up stamp-collecting (Philately will get you anywhere), the world and his wife does not expect you to justify why you like to do that. They don’t get together over a drink and unload their negative stuff all over your dreams of stamp-collecting.

Unless they have mean spirits.

But here’s a thought. Why not completely disregard the negativity that other people appear too willing to unload, and just enjoy what you do, simply because you do, and have every right to do so.

Besides, what is wrong with loving oneself? It is only people who are insecure who confuse that with vanity or pride.

Surely if you are comfortable with your own needs and your own ways of enjoying yourself to the fullest on this oh-too-brief journey we call life, you are entitled to do so.

Just Let it Go – you know, the tendency that some musicians have to feel you have to somehow justify themselves to others.

Enjoy the gift you have been given.

excuse the irony

I came into this year with some formative notions about how to make my music matter to me and to others. To others, in fact, to such an extent that they might be persuaded to support what I do financially. To this end I looked into some of the webinars and advice from interested parties out there, who usually wanted me to sign up for something and pay them cash. Now I make that sound like a bad thing don’t I? Why should I they are just trying to make money like I want to.
Need to grow up and smell the napalm. It’s not a sin to make money from your music. OK I’m never going to be the next big (or even little) thing, but perhaps, there is a market out there for what I do. So I aimed to set myself up on Patreon, Bandcamp, Kickstarter, Bandcamp, spotify, and youtube as well as facebook and get a website on weebly.
The idea is to build a fan-base of sorts so that I may confidently market my music. Otherwise, what I’ve been doing with it is – if you’ll excuse the irony of this post – just blogging. 

But is it music?….

 I’m thinking of the old adage about ‘if a tree falls in a wood, and no one is there to hear it,  did it really fall?

Which is daft. Of course it did. Whether it makes any difference to anyones lives should it stand or fall, well is another issue. 

But anyway. It caused me to ask;  if a musician plays a song, and no one hears it, is it music?

What vital components are required to make music ‘real’ Is an audience the vital final factor? 

Then, is it enough to have the music heard? Does it only qualify if people are prepared to ‘buy’ it? 

Is music only valid if it is sold?

Is a musician only a really a musician if people pay him or her to be one?

How many people?

I mean, is a musician and his or her music only valid if one person is prepared to buy it, or if one hundred people are prepared to buy it? Or one thousand?

 Or one million?

Is music only really music if it makes a difference to other peoples’ lives?    

Post-Indie Bricolage - The Auditory Revolution

People ask me: What kind of music so you play?

I call it Post-Indie bricolage. it’s a term I’ve devised to describe what my music, and what motivates it really is.

I cut my teeth in the nineties as an indie musican coming out of the post-punk New-Wave generation, to cut a single and create a label (‘Go Discs”) with some band members in an attempt to publicise ourselves. Te music industry was in stasis at the time, dominated by the major labels who had successfully fought a rear-guard actions to contain the enthusiasm of punk.

•Like so many other of my musical generation, I got a job, raised a family, became embittered and isolated feeling like music was passing me by.

•The common perception that music is dominated by the mainstream, again asserted itself, and the tide went out, leaving a mass of old men with guitars to play at local markets and to reminisce about how they once ’were in a band’

•But the desire to write and perform music never left. That’s why I never stopped. I consider my musical career to be in its fourth decade now. Only problem is, I’ve never been famous. Have shifted hardly any ‘units’. I am not a household name. but I am a post-indie bricolage artist.

•My percussion section consists of a shaker and old-school tambourine bought at a boot sale, and a piece of dowling and old axe handle (claves).

•I have a three-stringed Bass into which I put an old guitar pick-up (again, boot-sale purchase) , an electric guitar with earth problems, an acoustic guitar my dad gave me and a few mouthorgans. Oh, and a ukulele.

•I’ve dabbled with computer-recording, but really prefer to use a workstation – a sixteen track Roland digital recorder then ‘drop’ it into the applemac so I can publish it on bandcamp.

•I write unfashionable and catchy songs, and I am unconcerned about fancy production, or how to ‘auto-tune’ my voice. I actually ‘autotune’ my voice by using it to sing .. Like, … you know,  … in tune’.  (yes, this too, is debatable).

•I’m a post-Indie Bricolage songwriter. That’s my ‘microniche’.

•This means I set my own recording schedule, and release my songs when I want to. I get to keep in touch with friends and relatives with the ‘gift of song’ and I hold total artistic control (or lack of it) over my material.

•That being the case, it’s my birthday on January 12th, and I’m putting out a single.

•Because I can…..

Andrew Beszant Does not Leave Vanity Dog

In a shock announcement today, it was disclosed the Andrew Beszant has not left Vanity Dog.

https://www.facebook.com/vanitydogband/

The Auckland based duo , who astounded the critical cognoscenti with such radio-friendly hits as:

• Six
• Summer Shakespeare
• Sweetheart of Mine
• Hang on to the Ones That You Love

today announced the Andrew has not actually left the band, just is resting due to the nervous tension which accompanied a rigorous touring schedule and the promotion of his latest album November Meteors.

https://tothebirdsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/november-meteors

Fans and journalists who have been eagerly awaiting the next release from Vanity Dog, may experience a spectacular aural explosion on January 31st of this year.

Lee Clark has announced he is working on two new tracks:

'Gloriavale' and 'An Afficionado of the Club Nostalgia" and Andrew might be persuaded to contribute something from his recent essayes en musiques: 'Pater Familias'.

Watch this space....

Clark: Shooting the Video in the Heady world of pop

You see, once upon a time that was, like a major undertaking wasn't it?

Back in the olden days we would 'shoot a video' using super-eight or VHS. We'd story-board stuff, set up a location and props, direct it, then hire an editing suite and two of the more 'special' members of the band would 'produce' it.
With hilarious consequences:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX0V_Dfz9Aw

Gosh I wish I still looked like that! Yes, but that was in the olden days....

Nowadays, you get your kid to stick camera in front of you, sing into a fake mike, render it in black and white,  and 'drop' it onto youtube.

So that's what I'm aiming to do. Just as soon as Owen and me work out our differences of opinion about whether he's allowed to go on the internet after bed-time has been declared.

Such is the heady world of pop that that I inhabit...

Committing Career-Suicide at Christmas

As an indie musician striving for critical acceptance, I have had to ask myself some tough-to-answer questions about how to best present myself. Amongst them was: 

"What kinds of musical endeavour  could I undertake that would damage my street-cred?" 

"Who really gives a f**k what you do?"

And of course, the answer to both questions was "Make a Christmas album!" 

I grew up in a golden age of Christmas music in the mid seventies when every two-bit hustler in a shiny jumpsuit was knocking out a Christmas release. It was the era of Glam. When scaffolders from the Midlands and every other working-class environ its the Great British (and Scottish, and Irish, and Welsh) nation dressed up in camp gear and boas,  put on make-up and platform shoes, and released photo-punk post rock and roll to teenagers such as I. 

Roy Wood and Wizard, Mud, Slide, Gary Glitter, and others produced 

'IT's CHRISTMASSSSS!!!!!!!!' songs and I loved them.

So, in part as a tribute to what I feel about Christmas as a time mixed emotions; nostalgia, regret, drunkeness and unacceptable behaviour, I released an ep: 

https://clark2.bandcamp.com/album/critical-mass-ep-2016 on Bandcamp, for Christmas. 

As an indie artist, I'd long wanted to write a Christmas song but it had to meet various criteria:

• not be only relevant at Christmas.
• not be a slushy mainstream song.
• not be novelty song.
• not mention Christmas.

This brief kept me intrigued enough to explore some ideas. and I became so impatient with myself for not getting down to work, I released the Critical Mass ep as a collections of demos.

https://clark2.bandcamp.com/album/critical-mass-ep-2016

I'm intending to release at Christmas album next year, and have started to discuss this with various potential collaborators. But for now, this is all I have. Hope you enjoy.

Notes  on the songs:

I really wanted a special day: Is supposed to be a duet, male and female, about two sides of a couple brought together by Christmas to show a united front to the children.

Wishlist: Is about a mother and child where the mother knows that although the child may want lots of material gifts, the real gift she will understand, when she grows up, is the gift of a mother's love.

Hard to Believe: We celebrate the brith of Christ, but actually don't care about the original intention of Christ-mass. We want out cake and to eat it, by enjoying the time, but disregarding what we are asked to believe.

Why I did it. . . .

I grew up in a musical family, both as consumers and as makers. But then everyone was in those days. A piano in the parlour, guitar at Christmas,  dad and uncles singing for beer in the local on a Friday.

Initially, I was heavily influenced by my dad and uncles who would sing post rock’n’roll close harmonies together. In particular my uncle Rod, who could pick up a tune from a record, and play it practically at first listen. He was such a brilliant guitarist  I didn’t stand a chance. He was rumoured to have been in the first rock’n’roll band in the town I grew up in, and this was like living with a celebrity.

I really took up song-writing so I could have control over my own stuff at least, and because I felt so hamfisted playing others’ music in comparison to Rod. I still do. In nineties I was in a rising indie band in the UK, but left before our debut album was released. A footnote of history.

Various other things happened to me. I stopped writing songs.

I started writing seriously again after a break of ten years. Shock and horror. I had to relearn everything I thought I already knew. More shock and horror. I never really learned how to in the first place.

Now, ten years on, I’m cranking out songs with reckless abandonment, publishing on Bandcamp, hassling people on facebook and generally being an uninvited and annoying presence in other peoples’ lives. I love it.

Someone once said to me (and I took it as a challenge, from someone who was suggesting I only do this song-writing lark for a pose) “First you have to work out why you want to write songs.” Because that’s what people do isn’t it, demand that an artist justify themselves. Like if one has a hobby like woodturning or stamp-collecting would they be told: “You have to work out why you want to collect stamps”. They just do it because they like doing it! Isn’t that reason enough? B

But any-way….

I’d already been writing songs for thirty years when this advice was offered, so I thought “Well, it can’t hurt to wonder..”  and I went away and thought about it.

The result was: “I write songs because I have a number of stories to tell, and feel that putting them into songs is the best way to tell them.”

All of my songs are a form of reportage. Stories. I don’t consider a song completed until it has a narrative I can relate to and understand.

My songs are vignettes of life. Often informed by autobiography, they work on the premise that if I’m feeling something, then others out there must have felt similarly about something, and well, they might relate to this song or that.

My songs are the antithesis of ‘cool’ They are ‘anti-cool’. I’m not interested in making music which has to subscribe to a some notion about what is ‘cool’.

In fact, tmy songs are mini-anthems (often) about people who aren’t cool, and who are perhaps uncomfortably aware that they aren’t.

My songs are ill-crafted brocolage (that’s D.I.Y. in French – it just sounds more polished like that). They are produced on a shoestring while I regularly attend the naïve school of art, hoping to one day qualify, and get a grown-up job. as a real musician.

Some will find my stuff decidedly unfashionable. But  I don’t write it for people who are hung up on fashion. Some may find it too romantic. But the world is full of people ‘keepin’ it real’. Some might feel my music does not speak their language.

Well, as long as people have ears to listen with, I’ll just keep plugging away. It’s just what I do.