The State

I usually turn to Twitter to moan, but right now 140 characters or less won't really cover it for me.

This post is going to be divided into two sections, a quick moan about myself and then a nice vent about how I feel about the current state of the music industry and those involved.

First things first.

So, I go back to University next week, no mean feat, let me tell you that. I finished year one back in late May, where I walked away from my exams with the biggest pair of balls on this lingering scent of arrogance that followed me out of campus, which in the end was all in vain.

The long and short of it is, I came very close to failing my first year due to a lack of effort across the board, at this point I'm still not in the best standing as I believe I'll be resitting ESPL in it's full fucking self along with my year two modules this year, which is really not the best thing ever.

But I guess what I'm getting at is.. work hard, seriously. No matter what you're doing, do a good job first time and life will be easier. It won't leave you with people disappointed in you and you losing every wink of sleep because you're so fucking terrified.

So, anyway.

The music industry, or the vacuous hole that used to be the showcase of the finest talent in the world.

My hobby is recording, I got into it a few years ago with a shitty microphone and Audacity, which over the years has currently reached a Pro Tools based system and some tasty outboard gear that I love to pieces.
Why do I record? Well simply because I write alot of music, but also because it's so much fun! My ethos with recording is the lauding of mine and my band mates ability to do "One take Jakes" where a guitar or bass part is recorded in one shot, no edits, no nothing. Which sounds simple, but when you're layering 6 guitar tracks, 2 bass parts and however many layers of vocals, when you're returning to zero when you make a mistake, it can be frustrating.

Why do it? Well it preserves the performance, sure I might be a second behind a note on track 5, but the fact is, you can hear me play that and you know it's human!

What winds me up is the emergence of the "Sturgis" recording school, a group of engineers and bands who are recording guitars NOTE BY NOTE. Which sounds like an exaggeration, but it's absolutely true.

These people sicken me, watching vids of them performing life is almost as laughable as it is cringeworthy.

I'm not going to moan over and over about this, but god damn. We take our time to provide our fans with the best performance we can, both live and on record, yet theres jokers out there who pull that shit?

This is why I hate the big leagues.

James