Sonic Youth Gossip - View Single Post - I will have a drink with you if you are from melbournne

Johnny "Magic Fingers" · 03.23.2008, 10:10 AM

Hey Phoenix,

How are you doing?

I saw a couple of yr posts today and yeah - you seemed a bit moody. That's cool. I've got a melancholy thing going myself at the moment.

I'm house/cat-sitting for a couple of friends until Wednesday - I'm at the halfway point now and I suppose being in this empty house by myself, I've had too much time to think about stuff . . .

I was gonna PM ya, but that's not a go-er. That's okay. But one on one is a different prospect than spilling my guts in a very public forum like this. It's like in social situations - if it's just the two of us, I open right up. But in a group, sitting - say - around a table, I'll keep quiet and I won't say a thing. But I'll pay attention to everything being said. Classic Introvert.

But hey - who said I have to spill my guts?

So yeah, the story goes like this:

I've got two things going: Music (well more like "sound art") and Writing.

Music-wise, I went from wanting to be a Rock God (when I had my beautiful long hair) to a serious composer (when I was studying Music at La Trobe Uni) - to what is really my thing - Sound Art. I think that gives me the spectrum to encompass all my aural interests ( I really am a music slut - any style: Rock, Jazz, Classical, Avant Garde, Electronic - as long as it's good and not some homogenised generic crap, I'm into it). The stuff I come up is quite lo-fi, but unique. I don't have much of these audio-software things you hear people go on about. I have a free version of Pro-Tools (only get 8 tracks - that's like only having 8 colours - so sometimes I have to combine two tracks into one so i can free one up). And then I use what I've got - my guitar, my piano, my voice, my FX pedals, old radios, broken turntables, a couple of old synths and away we go. It's hard to explain the end result. I don't have a site yet (working on it - stay tuned!) so I can't pimp out my stuff.

I've only really completed about 3-4 pieces. Most of the other stuff I've done has been for plays, short films and exhibitions.

I've actually been more successful as a writer. Plays to be exact. I've had a couple of things performed - but the last one was around 1999-2000, so we're not talking about recent times. It's kind of the same deal with the music/sound stuff. It took me a while to find my voice. I started off trying to be this middle-class tortured artist type - a wanker in other words. I was lucky at La Trobe - I did a semester of creative writing which was taken by Alex Miller - who's very respected - I think he's won a Miles-Franklin award or something. We had to submit two things - a piece of writing and an essay on why you write. My creative piece was a wank-fest play about three characters who are actually the same person with all these literary references and show-off gimmicks. But my essay on why I write was done very much in the way I'm writing now - a bit weird, with too many asides (how you coping with all my parentheses?) and not trying to prove or be anything or anyone. He really, really liked what I wrote. (But then again, he 'really, really' liked what everyone else in the class wrote).

I've done fuck-all since about 2003. I got caught up in a crappy job and kinda lost my way. Now I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

I'm channeling Michael Stipe now:

"Oh no, I've said too much..."

<sigh>

Last time I was on this post, it was about ponys and ding dongs.

They were the carefree days....

03.23.2008, 10:10 AM	#42
Johnny "Magic Fingers" children of satan Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: A downward spiral Posts: 318	Hey Phoenix, How are you doing? I saw a couple of yr posts today and yeah - you seemed a bit moody. That's cool. I've got a melancholy thing going myself at the moment. I'm house/cat-sitting for a couple of friends until Wednesday - I'm at the halfway point now and I suppose being in this empty house by myself, I've had too much time to think about stuff . . . I was gonna PM ya, but that's not a go-er. That's okay. But one on one is a different prospect than spilling my guts in a very public forum like this. It's like in social situations - if it's just the two of us, I open right up. But in a group, sitting - say - around a table, I'll keep quiet and I won't say a thing. But I'll pay attention to everything being said. Classic Introvert. But hey - who said I have to spill my guts? So yeah, the story goes like this: I've got two things going: Music (well more like "sound art") and Writing. Music-wise, I went from wanting to be a Rock God (when I had my beautiful long hair) to a serious composer (when I was studying Music at La Trobe Uni) - to what is really my thing - Sound Art. I think that gives me the spectrum to encompass all my aural interests ( I really am a music slut - any style: Rock, Jazz, Classical, Avant Garde, Electronic - as long as it's good and not some homogenised generic crap, I'm into it). The stuff I come up is quite lo-fi, but unique. I don't have much of these audio-software things you hear people go on about. I have a free version of Pro-Tools (only get 8 tracks - that's like only having 8 colours - so sometimes I have to combine two tracks into one so i can free one up). And then I use what I've got - my guitar, my piano, my voice, my FX pedals, old radios, broken turntables, a couple of old synths and away we go. It's hard to explain the end result. I don't have a site yet (working on it - stay tuned!) so I can't pimp out my stuff. I've only really completed about 3-4 pieces. Most of the other stuff I've done has been for plays, short films and exhibitions. I've actually been more successful as a writer. Plays to be exact. I've had a couple of things performed - but the last one was around 1999-2000, so we're not talking about recent times. It's kind of the same deal with the music/sound stuff. It took me a while to find my voice. I started off trying to be this middle-class tortured artist type - a wanker in other words. I was lucky at La Trobe - I did a semester of creative writing which was taken by Alex Miller - who's very respected - I think he's won a Miles-Franklin award or something. We had to submit two things - a piece of writing and an essay on why you write. My creative piece was a wank-fest play about three characters who are actually the same person with all these literary references and show-off gimmicks. But my essay on why I write was done very much in the way I'm writing now - a bit weird, with too many asides (how you coping with all my parentheses?) and not trying to prove or be anything or anyone. He really, really liked what I wrote. (But then again, he 'really, really' liked what everyone else in the class wrote). I've done fuck-all since about 2003. I got caught up in a crappy job and kinda lost my way. Now I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm channeling Michael Stipe now: "Oh no, I've said too much..." <sigh> Last time I was on this post, it was about ponys and ding dongs. They were the carefree days....
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