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The idea of using state of the art technology to enhance human
interaction was fundamental to the making of this record. The
technology that we hopefully used to its ultimate capability is
readily available to most. lt is now possible to exchange creative
musical parts down an ISDN line in a matter of seconds with anybody
anywhere in the world. The international techy rnusic-making genre
for me is already a bit old hat. Having revelled in the spontaneous
nature of live music making on stage for many years, I was hoping to
capture that same wonderful flying by the seat of the pants that has
eluded most modern studio recordings.
If someone had said to me a year ago they were going to document the
making of an album I'd have thought "oh my God, more knobs,
switches, control room humour and the back of some balding
engineer's bonce". Although I wouldn't advocate the largescale use
of hallucinogenic drugs excessive alcohol abuse or making records
with semi-clad persons wrapped around your neck, many of the classic
recordings of all time were not sterile, contrived or laborious. My
drug of choice is adrenaline. An ideal creative environment for me
is being in control of the means of production and by knowing my
creative abilities and limitations be able to press that record
button whenever and wherever the excitement is.
I started recording the essence of Ether, that is, my voice, guitar
and basic groove, at home on my laptop - the wrong way up by most
people's recording standards. I then worked with Tristan Banks to
bring together varied grooves into cohesive rhythm tracks. Pete
Sinden was then available to cast his bass ears over those basic
tracks. The plan was then to go out with the Mac, an audio
interface, some microphones and other minimal equipment to a number
of appropriate international locations where we had some contacts
and let things happen!
In the beginning there was a plan to record songs in specific
places, but it soon became clear that the best approach was to meet
people, many for the first time, play them a few of the tracks and
gauge which ones to offer them to make a contribution to. The travel
schedule seemed gruelling, but, like electricity, I find the
potential difference of travelling to many places over great
distances quickly, generates a lot of creative power. So, enjoy this
record and check out our forthcoming art road movie Ether which
documents its making. |