THE SOUNDS IN SIGHT…

In the not too distant past, I was on a car ride with friends headed to a music festival. I was a passenger,  so I was able to take in our surroundings a bit more than had I been driving. For a recent work project, a concept had been developed that needed an identity and on that morning when I got in my car to meet Lady Di, the world outside of my home, as it often does, turned into a source of inspiration full of potential ideas for this project’s identity. A blank canvas can be a dangerous thing as sometimes the possibilities can be limitless, and this was one of those days. I have these days often. Days where everything is a potential logo, color scheme, tag line, or source for an idea, spot, or pitch.

Anyhow, during the car ride conversations of all sorts flowed. As we got closer to our destination we went over a patch of rough terrain and the car tires made an interesting sound over a small stretch of the road we were on, making us all take notice. One of the other passengers, a friend of ours that is a sound editor/engineer professional for film and television made the statement that “on our trip home they’d have to record that sound for later use.”

A few weeks prior, I had run into this friend at a music show we both attended and ended up in a lengthy conversation that went well into the night (I apologize residents near that area of Silverlake Blvd. who might’ve been trying to get some sleep) about sound and the way that this person interprets the world due to their profession.

Just like I’d started my day (and continued throughout the car drive) noticing various elements that could possibly be incorporated into the identity of something that didn’t yet have one, and just like when a musician/artist is seeking a band name for his/her musical project (and everything turns into a potential band name) this person shared insight into their daily life of going through their day noticing odd sounds or even run-of-the-mill sounds that are probably lost on the rest of us, as it’s not what our focus is on. The topics of the conversations ranged from how some imperfect sounds could be perfected and the various techniques to cut out white or overpowering noises to extract just that sound they were seeking to even more technical stuff that I may never have a use for in my own life but still kept my attention. I talk to a lot of musicians who are constantly manipulating sound on a regular basis via instruments and effects, but it was nice to talk with someone at length about just sound in general. While I do have some favorite sounds, I can’t say that it was a topic that I’d given much thought to, and I found it highly interesting.

It made me think of an experiment of sound manipulation in the area of music/performance art that artistic duo Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla had presented a few years ago, via their short entitled “Returning a Sound.” As you can see from the video below, the artists had installed an ordinary brass trumpet into the muffler of a motorcycle. So, as the motorcycle rider embarked on his journey around Vieques, Puerto Rico instead of the loud roar usually produced by the muffler a jazzier big-band like climax-building arrangement was the output. At the time I’d wondered what an orchestra of these modified-mufflers might sound like and also what would be the overall reaction of the general public were they to encounter this on a regular basis out in the world? To me the ground shaking roar of many motorcycles is one of the most obnoxious intrusive sounds that uninvitedly finds it’s way into our audio range. How would we feel about it if the noise emitted was one of the french horn instead? Would that be just as intrusive?  I’m sure over time after we get past the novelty, it probably would.  Although, in the beginning it might bring us to attention, bringing to mind the messengers/trumpeters of days of yore.

I know there are many innovators of sound who have tirelessly experimented with sound manipulation and have successfully amassed quite a catalog of musical compositions ranging from the theatrical to pop-tinged numbers to those that can only be described as downright silly. As a final thought, however, and seeing that since the annual Don’t Knock the Rock Music and Film Festival kicks off next week at the Silent Film Theatre I’ll leave you with a couple of film documentary recommendations if the area of composing and sound experimentation interests you. Both were part of last year’s festival.

The one that most applies to this post, which I had the pleasure of coming across was “Deconstructing Dad: The Music, Machines, and Mystery of Raymond Scott.” This is the story of Raymond Scott a gentleman who wore many hats in the world of music (musician, engineer, composer, band leader,inventor, music director). As the story goes although his bread and butter seemed to be with composing (a fact I found interesting was that he supposedly never wrote out his scores, instead demonstrated what he needed–so there was never any sheet music accompanying his creations). His passion also seemed to lie in experimenting with the electronic side of music as he went on to live a life full of innovation resulting in a few inventions for which the patents bear his name such as the Clavivox and the always a work-in-progress Electronium–which in it’s present day non-functioning state is currently owned by Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO. Scott also employed Robert Moog early on in Moog’s career and served as a sort of inspiration for Moog Music and it’s line of Synthesizers. Despite all of his musical contributions most people would recognize his musical arrangements mostly from the early (primarily WB) cartoons (Bugs Bunny, Looney Tunes, Ren & Stimpy, Animaniacs, and later the Simpsons, etc.) to whom his music was licensed to. This film was directed by Stan Warnow, the son of Raymond Scott with whom we had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with and via conversations with him learned even more about Raymond’s Scott’s life, which really was a riveting one music-wise.

The second recommendation is the ‘The One Man Beatles.‘ This is the Emitt Rhodes story, directed by Italian Cosimo Messeri. People may recall Rhodes from the The Palace Guard, The Merry-Go Round,or possibly even the dating game. Although, I actually was familiar with Emitt Rhodes’ music, I can’t say I knew all that much about him. When I’d first moved to L.A. some friends (who happened to comprise one of my favorite bands at the time) I’d made were in the process of working with him as one of their producers and they ended up covering one of his tracks with his blessing. It wasn’t until our paths crossed at this doc’s screening that I actually got a thorough, entertaining lesson in the history of Mr.Rhodes from the man himself.  That night, due to the fact that he wouldn’t sit in the theater as he didn’t want to watch himself on screen, a friend and I sat outside and chatted with him for the duration of the film, until his presence was requested for the Q&A portion of the evening. During that time I learned that he’d only been 15 years old while in the Palace Guard, and was still in high school during the time that the Merry-Go-Round was active, also writing a majority of the songs. He released his first (critically acclaimed) solo album at 20 years old, but was for the most part done with the music industry by the age of 24. The part I found most interesting during our conversation, aside from the “colorful” jokes, was his explanation of the recording process (which is also documented on his website) for that first solo album. He stated having utilized an Ampex four-track, and would always start with laying down a metronome. He also played pretty much every instrument on his albums (hence the “One Man Beatles” accolade) from the piano, to the drums (in the Palace Guard, his role was one of drummer– he’d later switch to guitar for the Merry-Go-Round), to rhythm and lead guitar, bass, and everything in between. The stories kept flowing and it was a treat to get to hear them directly from the horse’s mouth with such candor. Since that date, I have watched this doc a couple of times and think anyone who plays or has an interest in music should watch it, and if you ever have a chance to converse with Mr. Rhodes you should jump at the chance as just as much as it would fit someone like Raymond Scott, the term musical genius is not an exaggeration when it comes to offering a description for this at times overlooked talented man.

Raymond Scott image originally published here

Jul 08, 2011 | Categories: Life, Life in TRAFFiK | Tags: CLAVIVOX, Composing, DECONSTRUCTING DAD: THE STORY OF RAYMOND SCOTT, ELECTRONIUM, EMITT RHODES, FILM AND TELEVISION, Film Scoring, GUILLERMO CALZADILLA, JENNIFER ALLORA, LOONEY TUNES, Los Angeles, MOOG, PERFORMANCE ART, RAYMOND SCOTT, SILENT FILM THEATER, SOUND EFFECTS, SOUND ENGINEER, SOUND MANIPULATION, STAN WARNOW, Synth, SYNTHESIZERS, THE ONE MAN BEATLES | Leave A Comment »