Thursday, October 9, 2014

On Talents and Suicide



Along with celebrating my brother's birthday today, I will be remembering another event that happened on this day, October 9, back in 1992 - my first (big) live concert on the stage of the Big Hall of Yerevan (then) Polytechnic Institute (now State Engineering University of Armenia).

I was the bass-guitarist of “The Breeze” band then. The new and expanded line-up had been existing for two months already, and was ready to hit the stage by the beginning of October. Since clubbing life was at its embryonic stage, all our groups were aiming for one big concert, after which they normally went into euphoria. Not all of them thought about the need to go forward: some of them didn’t even make their second gig, but some did though, heading to another gig, and even moved to the recording studio.

I remember the first song, which actually lasted some four minutes, seemed endless to me! However, quite soon we got into the right way and we “made that night”. The gig went absolutely fantastic for those days, at the end of which our full line-up (9 musicians!) went on stage to perform Kiddy Jones (five "electric" musicians + string quartet). It is important to mention that our line-up was changing constantly on the stage. We presented electric quartet (with our drummer on vocals), electric quintet (with our lead vocalist), electro-acoustic quartet, a guitar solo-composition played on 12-string guitar and sung by Arsen, string quartet + 12-string guitar, string quartet + electric quintet, and ended up with a song, sung in three voices accompanied by grand piano/bass/drums trio. And we were called out for an encore!

What happened after we played Kiddy Jones song – oh, it worth that all! I still can see in front of my eyes that overcrowded hall through the stage with all of us standing still with shivers running down our spines. They were all applauding and cheering us up, asking for more. I even got a present from an unknown girl – a book that is still with me. And it went in harmony with all that happened on stage and in our hearts in those days. We were then writing our own music, improving ourselves, we had our dreams.

But then, reality started telling its rules, so many of our good musicians ended their musical lives up through suicide. It became difficult to create something, unfashionable, unprofitable... Ah, creating! It always means “giving”, doesn’t it? But the musicians already started to want to get. So, having some bargain with our Dream, we decided to continue our creative union in a new, commercial way. And he wave reached some success, however the overall spirit of our work was already different. But, as for many other Talents, we missed something to bring this work to its end.

Arsen, who is the author of most of the songs, continued his relations with music, however today his talent is being wasted, in my personal opinion, on “things” like this.



I find it hard to call this music, hence the “thing” word is used. No-no, I do not contest the genius of this McCartney composition in any way... But this is McCartney, and it could have been Adonts instead! Without any doubts, he can sing and play, and for sure, he does it quite well, but... we have probably lost a lot of good songs during the past years, for he could “pick them out of thin air” and bring them into this world.

Soon I will be telling the world about my activity I have been occupied with for almost two years. It correlates very well with all I’ve wrote here today, and I hope I am not doing this in vain. I was also granted with something, something I do now want to kill in myself. And I want to be sure that the Universe that maintains the balance of all things, will not let Arsen’s Talent fall into Oblivion...

Eh, probably some other guy or girl on this planet was already granted with the same talent and s/he will soon make our lives brighter with a new Song.

P.S. By the way, here is an example of the songs Arsen was able to write that I was talking about:

Friday, September 26, 2014

Tribute: Introduction



While working on the project mentioned earlier on the pages of my Journal, I wanted to know about the origins of the word "tribute", used so frequently today.
According to the page on Wikipedia, the word "tributum" (Latin. Tributum) was originally used to designate a special levy in ancient Rome, which the properties of citizens and provincial lands (as part of the public property (ager publicus)) were subject to. Most of these charges were used for military purposes, and if, during the next war, the enemies were defeated, they had to cover all the military expenses, out of which citizens received their tributum back. Subsequently, the very essence of tributum and meaning of the word itself changed, but this is not the topic of our conversation today.

So what is a "tribute" in terms of music? “This is when musicians gather together and record their own versions of songs of some artist, which are then published in the form of a music album", many would reply.

The longer we live, the older and "more classic" becomes the music on which many generations grew up and new musicians were brought upon; it dissolves in our minds and nature, becoming an integral part of ours, blurring the lines between the present and the past. Music written many years ago is being played and replayed over and over again, sometimes by surprising line-ups and in unique arrangements, and it is not surprising that the works of Mozart or Liszt can be played during the same concert, by the same team on the same scene as those of Lennon or Blackmore. Young musicians want to play classics, and it's good!

However, if there is "good", it is always possible to find something "bad" hanging around. To anticipate the question "what is wrong with us playing the classics?" I would like to say: not moving forward. In a way, the word "classic" goes side by side with the word "past", so how can one go forward when he is constantly dwelling on the past? Even if the reader hasn’t yet formed this question in mind, I would say, "Yes, we must go forward!" "What about you? Are you going forward?", you may ask me. "Time will show, but for now I need to pay my tributum, which, in the event of a successful battle, will get back to me."

The idea of the tribute project, which is now in its sixth month of pregnancy (the duration of which has a chance to coincide with that of human) was born during another attempt to direct strengths and creative abilities of the members of one of the social network groups in order to repeat what was done in mid-90s, with the difference that this project will be implemented solely by the participants of one group, and the only basis for their work is to be their enthusiasm. No promises, no obligations, no expectations of any commercial benefits (it is supposed that the result will be available for free download). It will be a Labour of Love[1], a tribute, and a gift for.... for birthday, maybe, or it could be for Christmas. We'll see.

The readers of my Journal already know what artist I am talking about, especially since I participate in this tribute project myself (oh, what a narrow-minded person I am!). From the very start of this work I already knew who the person I had to ask for help was. I needed an experiences musician, with decent musical luggage and specific musical flair. Moreover, it was necessary for him/her to know what the studio work is about. Finally, s/he had to be able to play drums. From this perspective, it would not be surprising to meet me sitting on the bench in front of the State Philharmonic Hall together with Ashot Korganyan.
Having spent two hours of that spring evening in discussion, we parted. Shortly after, the idea of involvement of another musician established. It was due to the violin in the song proposed by Ashot. At first, I was skeptical about this idea, because it seemed impossible to me. However, Ashot insisted, so we gathered together for one single rehearsal on one day in May. One hour passed by almost instantly, but it was enough for me to confidently say "Yes!" My question "and what about violin?" received Ashot’s calm reply: "Rima can listen to the songs and prepare the music sheets ". That is how Rima Mirzoyan appeared in our part of the project
Soon, the list of the songs to be recorded in the studio was formed. It took several weeks to reduce the number of candidates from a dozen to four. I have to say that for the tribute only one song (maximum - two songs) was required. Initially, we had just a few performers to go with the project, so it would be wise to have one reserve track to be able to provide a full-length album in terms of duration. Today, the number of possible performers increased to sixteen, and there is the prospect of a "double" album (and maybe the Volume Two of the project). However, I have already been nurturing a new idea, the implementation of which is necessary for me to make one step forward: to make my own tribute album.
How can you recreate what has already been created, and created brilliantly? The task is very difficult, but at the same time it is quite interesting. As it was mentioned above, recording a tribute is not a big surprise at all nowadays. Tribute songs and entire albums are being regularly devoted to many significant groups. They are all different, just like are the approaches used for their creation. Let’s consider some of them in the list below, which does not claim to be complete in any way.
  1. Just to replay a song, to play it "as is" is one of the approaches. It is less attractive to me, for it lacks the aspect of creation. However, it clearly demonstrates the skills and abilities to recreate what was heard. It's like a qualification in sports.
  2. To play a song in your own way, or to play it "as is" with addition of something different, something special, listening to what will make people say "your version" of this or that song.
  3. To absorb a song so deeply that you start playing something that is not in the original. "Sorry, I can do nothing about it, I just hear it that way", the artist would justify himself in this case.
  4. Change the song so that the listener is shocked and does not accept your performance at all.
Of course, other approaches are possible, but you always have to leave the essence of the song, something that is important and which does not contradict with the spirit of the original, so to speak.
I have listened to only two performers from the whole list so far. They turned out to be so good that now I am dying to listen to the rest. However, it will require some time to make the project alive, and, in my turn, I need to spend this time wisely. One of the activities I am going to dedicate this period of time to is understanding the concept of my personal tribute album, which was mentioned above
What does it going to contain and how do I see the process of its creation? Of course, it will include all the songs already recorded in the period of preparation for my portion of the team tribute project. A few more songs will be added as well. Which songs exactly will be recorded is yet unknown even to me, although there are obvious candidates. Such choice became apparent because the essence of the choice is clear to me, and the choice is well-grounded. The process of creation, I think, will not differ from how we prepared the first group of songs: homework, sleepless night hours in the studio, the final mix. Just two lines…. so easy to write them but difficult to implement. However, this is what must be done
I will be covering the working process of both the team tribute and my personal one. In the meantime, I need to think about the implementation of another creative idea that has only an indirect relationship with the music.


[1] Song title from 1981 album

Monday, July 21, 2014

Summing Up



No, I have not abandoned the idea of the Journal, although thirteen and a half months of silence could strengthen this opinion quite well. Probably, there were some more important things in my life, or some other circumstances added to my laziness. So now I need to quickly sum everything up and move on.
The Lost Time mercilessly punishes for each of its hours. So today I can hardly remember just what I've been busy with this whole year. Only some details of my creative life remained, around which my narrative can further revolve. And talking about all-consuming life routine makes no sense to me now, although even some aspects of creative life turn into it.

1. Writing. So far, I already have two stories, to which I somehow need to give birth officially. The ideas on writing them came spontaneously, just like on their constituent episodes, characters and storylines. The first of them was being written as long as 16 months. It happened gradually, but without push. I did not want to invent development myself, so I waited for the continuation to reveal itself. I was really wondering just how the story will end, and to be honest, by the end of the process I was a little bit nervous, I was afraid that I'll miss the right moment. However, this story has eventually found its logical end. The second story formed in my imagination quite long enough to be then realized very quickly. 41 days passed from the moment I started typing the first words up to the last period, typed just yesterday. Now I want to give some pause to understand what can be done with all this. I really hope that in the near future I will be able to talk in detail about each of these two stories, or maybe three, or maybe about their future destiny.

2. Music. The calm in my Journal activity coincided with that in my musical life. Playing with Road Movie band no longer gave me the satisfaction as before, and so the natural process of alienation came, which was aggravated month by month, and reached its peak in mid-November 2013. When making music becomes justified only by its financial side, it becomes just another part of everyday boring routine, and one starts closing his eyes on everything else, and that happened to me. The social situation in our city (and, perhaps, elsewhere) significantly lowered overall interest in attending concerts for our public. Clubs and concert venues become deserted, and, alas, the financial aspect is also stops working. Practically, no more reasonable motivation to move forward is left. Almost. In my opinion, the situation could only be ruled if we had documented and summed the previous stage of the group’s activities up. We needed an album, which based on the format of this incarnation of our group should have been recorded "live in studio." Only then we could think of going forward. Too many bands in my country live by just playing cover versions. Each of them may produce good session musicians, but not the creative work. No, I do not think it is shameful – to play covers. After all, there are bands concentrating on a given group. For example, please take a look at the list of the bands playing the music of Genesis. But when you create your own music....

The group needs new blood, but I too myself had to change qualitatively. Currently, I play in a purely commercial pop project that meets my expectations of mercantile-material nature and develops my musical horizons. But when you want to play your own music....

Another paragraph in this section is taken by one project, which I must write about very soon. It directly relates to my passion for the music of pH/VdGG, and therefore must be described separately. The main thing in it is not only to pay tribute to your favorite artist and get back to the studio work, but the opportunity to sum ​​up my long-delayed past, to reconcile with it and begin to create my own music. Because when you create your music....

Once again, I thank all those with whom I was able to work with, with whom I am working now, and with whom I will work in the future. Without you I wouldn’t be able to understand lot of things.

3. Translations. In the field of translation I was not able to realize my plans (and I wanted to finish translating the entire catalog of the lyrics of Judge Smith), but I still have time to do that, I hope. However, there was a pleasant exception worth mentioning here. It’s due to the feedback received from a reader, the translation of "Curley’s Airships" has been significantly improved. I also managed to participate in the review of a couple of translations done by Sergei Petrushanko for his site, but a much greater contribution was made by me to the "Chords" section of that site. The prolonged contact with my classical Yamaha, the New Year gift I received a couple of years ago from my wife and brother, gave its results. The guitar itself started revealing her secrets, giving hints at how to play a particular song. On this wave I have offered my own versions of chords to perform a number of songs and albums by pH/VdGG, which are being gradually uploaded on Sergey's Russian pH/VdGG Official Web-Site as soon as they are prepared and provided. Incidentally, this occupation had a huge contribution to the activity described in the last paragraph of the previous section, as well as to the purchase of a new acoustic-electric Yamaha guitar, which I managed to use in recording and played one show with it, which, alas, I will regret about for a long time until I wipe it off clean from my face with a normal performance.

4. Happiness. I’d like to sum up the results in finding happiness. Did you know that happiness can be physically felt inside the chest? It is so! The main thing you need to do is to find the right song for the moment. And if it is a song of your own....
No no, I have not yet recorded my songs in the studio, although I am on my way towards it, but I definitely believe that on the day when it happens, I will have another page of my Life Path summed up and closed, and a new one open.

To sum it up, today I say: we are happy in creation.