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Looper's Delight
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> 1) What could we do better? write better music, rehearse more, polish our stage craft, same as every other musician. I think it's dangerous to get too into a technical gimmick and lose touch with the composers/improvisors craft. That's what the 80s shred metal guys did, and most of them are now working in WalMart. > 2) What would make our performances more fun or interesting to watch or > listen to. tell jokes, get some squirrels to dance while we play... there are a million things one could do, that are the same as any other performer. > 3) What are your pet peeves about looping shows? that the 'looping' part becomes more important than the music part. Looping can be a great tool for getting some press (as Rick has so masterfully shown in Santa Cruz), but for the musician, if that takes over, you're doomed. The root of it all has to be musical - if it's technical, you're not going to find an audience beyond other people who do the same thing. The general public ARE interested in how looping works, but not to the point where they'll put up with shit music just to watch the button pushing. Great tunes + clever technology x great performance = winning combo. > 4) What kinds of specific critiques do you have (but please don't mention > individual artists so that we can keep this thing > non-personal and positively constructive)...........and how would you fix > the 'problems'. no thought given to what the audience are meant to do during the building up of a loop, poor set up requiring constant unneccesary tweaking throughout the set, no actual tunes in a set that needs tunes (not talking about a found-sound set that doesn't rely on tunes) - same complaints as for any other kind of music - ie, most of it not being very 'good'. > 5) What do you wish you could see people do that you think they have the > capability to do (but aren't doing so far). rehearse. play some great songs. Use looping rather than have looping use them. > 6) What kinds of things can you envision that would make a looping festival > more interesting to watch great musicians. nothing more nothing less. The tag is there - loop festival obviously works in Santa Cruz, and may well spill over into other communities. Once you've got an audience, you've got to have great music, otherwise it doesn't work. There's no 'mojo' to it... > 7) Do you think the whole concept of a live looping festival is complete > and utter bullshit? not at all. An individual might not like what they think it represents in terms of the elavation of gear to headline status, but you've made it work, Rick (though I have a suspicion that with your unhuman levels of commitment, enthusiasm and positivity you'd be able to make a 'midgets juggling turds festival' work - you're a whirlwind, my dear fellow :o) > 8) Are you happy that there are starting to be more and more of such > festivals I think it's great - but I also don't hang any major significance on it. Anything that gives people a place to play is cool. I think there's a danger that people might look at some of the things that have happened in Santa Cruz and think that it'll be easily transported elsewhere without factoring in Rick's tireless promotion of electic music in the Santa Cruz area for two decades, his place within the local music and alternative community, the insane amounts of time and effort he puts in to promoting, publicising, booking and arranging these gigs, and there not being a Rick Walker in every town. I think that a lot of the loop-fest things are as much Walker-fest as they are loop-fest, and that is a testemony to the power of hard work and a positive attitude. I for one am extremely grateful for the time and energy that Rick has put into promoting the shows that I've participated in in the Bay Area, and recognise that if I were going to be involved in putting on some kind of loopfest in London, the model would have to be very different, as I don't have the connections or the media network that Rick has established over many many years in his area. maximum respect - keep it up! BTW, 'Dre - great post. Rick, great questions. Steve www.stevelawson.net