Re: Who cares about the audience

["Rick Walker" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Someone wise once said that Artists are the antennae of their 
culture....................they see changes coming
long before the general population does, due to not only their sensitivity 
but due to the fact that they are
specifically focusing their sensitivities to be aware of new and aesthetic 
things.

I lead a bit of a schizophrenic world vis a viz audiences:      much of 
what 
I do is done sitting in front of a computer
and involves no audience participation whatsoever (though it's surely nice 
to have some call your record a 'gem' or whatever)

On the other hand,  I'm a complete and utter live music 
animal.............I 
love to perform and the energy of the audience is
extremely important to me.

At the same time,  I find that the world is so full of 'status quo' music; 
it seems to be so hard for artists to really stick their necks out
to do something really different (facing obscurity by doing so) that I 
feel 
compelled to continually try to innovate in whatever ways
I possibly can.

This means that I purposefully 'push' artists by confronting them with 
things they may have never heard before.

As an example I played with a fantastic (and fairly conventional) 
singer/songwriter,  Melanie Redman two nights ago.
She is wonderful and very respectful and she said,  come do any looping 
you 
want in between songs if you feel like it.

Well,  I was humorous about it with the audience because it was obviously 
a 
little out of place for the venue and the nature of the gig,
but I did a couple of little Line 6 improvisations with bottle blowing, 
unusual extended vocal techniques, beatboxing and pipe overtones as 
instruments.
I kept them very short so as not to push the audience too hard,  but they 
were incredibly well recieved.

I know a lot of musicians who are concerned about their effect on the 
audience wouldn't have been comfortable with my little stylistic
aberations but I felt really good that we kicked ass in our gigs and yet 
also the audience got to hear something they may have never heard.

I find that a lot of audiences are actually a lot more sensitive, 
intelligent and willing to go along with what you are doing if you just 
give 
them the chance.

I have been really successful getting elementary school kids to play odd 
time signature rhythmic ostinatos in unison in the first hour I work with 
them.
Conventional wisdom says one should never attempt such folly.

So, I say,   'Care about your audience...............just don't be afraid 
to 
challenge them a little in really supportive and friendly kinds of ways'.