Don’t Come Back as a Hologram

New single by Kurious “Much Higher”

The new single from uptown NY legend, Kurious. Produced by J. Cosell and myself for Team Demo and recorded and mixed by yours truly at Depth Charge Studios. The single is circulating through promotional channels now and will be available for digital sale at the end of April. Below is a stream of the clean version so you can play it for the kiddies.

http://player.theorchard.com/orchardplayer/player/viewplayer/type/artwork/id/917

Moral Dilemmas

In my early 20s while studying philosophy in college, I like many freethinkers, believed morality to be subjective.  I now believe this is not the case.  Morals can vary drastically between cultures, but I do believe there is a baseline morality that can be measured objectively through reason.  If we as humans can agree to a simple objective standard for morality, we will find two things.  First, that all cultures are not equal when it comes to questions of morality, and two, many moral codes are actually immoral practices hiding behind the guise of cultural freedom.

As author and neuroscientist, Sam Harris has suggested in his provocative books, morality answers questions regarding human and animal suffering and happiness.  That which brings about happiness or decreases suffering can be said to be moral, while that which causes suffering and misery can be said to be immoral. Freethinkers use this reasoning as a backbone for a sense of wrong and right. People of reason are for the most part, moral consequentialists; meaning we assess moral questions by weighing the consequences of the particular activity or inactivity.  Most religious people are not usually included in this lot.  Religious people are typically moral absolutists.  They believe that morality has been mandated by their supreme being(s) and therefore is cut and dry.  Simply apply what has been decreed in the holy books to the moral dilemma, and you have your answer.  Needless to say, this is illogical and is not appealing to anyone who prefers to think for oneself.  Moral absolutists are often times forced into consequential reasoning when their scriptures conflict or fail to even address a question (it is not uncommon for so-called divine holy books written 2000 years ago to lack the needed insight on modern issues such as contraception or stem cell research.)

If you have ever taken a class in ethics, philosophy or critical thinking, you may have been presented with exercises in moral dilemmas.  These usually start with some imagined quandary where you are given the power to make an either/ or choice and must decide which one has the more morally desirable outcome.  For example, you are positioned at a switch on train track.  A train is approaching and there is a person tied to the tracks who will be killed if you do not throw the switch and divert the train.  What do you do?  Almost anyone who isn’t a sociopath will choose to divert the train.  But then more details are added and one must re-answer the question with new information.  What if the switch sends the train off a cliff and will kill all those aboard? What if the person tied to the tracks is a convicted murderer?  What if all of the people on the train are Nobel Prize winners? What if the person tied to the tracks is a new-born baby? What if all of the people on the train are convicted murderers?  And so forth and so on.  This exercise in moral consequences is often used more to gauge the sensibilities of the participants more than anything else.  However, they are great critical thought training for the likely circumstance that you may one day find yourself in a real world practical application.  These same type of exercises are often debated in political science classes using real dilemmas from history (one of the more common, should we drop the atomic bombs on Japan to end the second world war?)

Moral absolutists run into trouble in these exercises just as they run into trouble in real life.  Their immediate instinct when faced with the dilemma is to seek guidance from the religious doctrine to which they ascribe. But as the variables shift and become ever more complicated, the absolutist often finds himself taking the less popular position and is often confronted with the consequences of his decision by those who have given the circumstances a bit more consideration.  Ask a devout Catholic whether or not giving condoms to kids is wrong and you may get an affirmative.  Now place the kids in Africa where AIDS is rampant.  The Catholic with the consequentialist streak now has a question.  The absolutist still follows the doctrine of his church believing it has divine authority.  When faced with the ACTUAL millions of Africans who have died of AIDS, and the actual teachings of the church in Africa prohibiting condom use, a consequentialist is appalled.  Clearly, using our objective definition of morality regarding happiness and suffering from the opening paragraph, we must conclude that this action by the Catholic church is objectively immoral.  It provides no increase of happiness and contributes to the suffering of many.   If you ever get the chance to run through these exercises with a group of varying people, do so.  It is a revealing lesson in human psychology.  One can learn so much about one’s peers from these exercises.  They often reveal the prejudices, biases and fears of the participants with stunning clarity.

 

Why I’ve Never Fully Bought Into the Image Thing

In my early days as an artist, A & R record industry types always had a lot to say to me about image.  I understood its importance in the music business, but I didn’t put nearly the weight on it that the they did.  My primary concern was my art, creativity and the execution of my craft.  I believed, and still do, that those things matter much more to people than appearance and I believed this because that was always the case when it came to the music I purchased and enjoyed.

When I was a kid, I almost always heard a song before ever seeing the artist behind it.  MTV was in its infancy and radio was still the primary outlet for new music.  I made up my mind whether I liked a record or not before ever seeing the artist.  When I finally would see the video for the record, it would either reinforce my enjoyment of the song, or it wouldn’t.  I can’t think of a single artist or record that I liked but then stopped liking it when I saw the video or a picture of the artist.

I remember really liking Prince’s music, but when I saw him for the first time, my pre-teen mind couldn’t appreciate the androgynous image.  Simply put, I thought he was a sissy.  But that didn’t make me stop liking his music or from buying “Purple Rain” on cassette.  It just made me think he was a weirdo.  When I heard Big Daddy Kane for the first time, I had no idea what he looked like, but I loved his music.  When I saw his album cover and videos, I thought he was a bad ass.  This reinforced his music with me but I still had my objectivity.  When Kane began making some records I didn’t like, his image was of no consequence to me.  I did not buy the records because I did not like music. As Kane’s sales declined, some record executive I’m sure got in his ear and updated his image.  Out came Kane in a hoody and bandanna- a complete 180 from his prior dapper approach. He looked pathetic but more importantly, the music was still in decline.  Had the album been good, I would have bought it despite what he was wearing. But it wasn’t and his image shift only made him look desperate.

When I was in grade school, my partner DJ Dialtone would get records shipped to him every week.  His cousin got him a subscription to a record pool so we were getting access to new music often times months before it would hit the airwaves.  One day I remember we pulled out a promo record in a plain jacket.  The label simply read, Vanilla Ice, “Ice Ice Baby.” We had never seen the artist before and knew nothing about him. We got two-thirds of the way through “Ice Ice Baby” before Dialtone took it off the turntable and smashed it into pieces.  Why? That record sucked.  When the video hit MTV a month later, we were both together and we busted out laughing when we saw him.  The guy looked like a total tool!  Now one might reply, “yes Wise but he sold something like 11 million records.” This is true.  But given the path his career would take immediately following the success of the record, I prefer to look at it as he fooled 11 million people.

And that’s really what image in the music business is all about isn’t it? Fooling people.  It’s why most music is marketed towards a small demographic of younger people who are more susceptible to being fooled.  It is far easier to those with either no musical talent or understanding of it to take mediocre music and trick people into liking it rather than putting together a quality product that sells itself.

Now, as an older music professional and CEO, I still hear the same image spiel from industry insiders and from artists complaining about them.  Hell I’ve probably been guilty of it myself ( if I have it has only been due to a quiet contempt for the music buying public that resurfaces every now and again when I see them falling for some bullshit, but I quickly stifle it.) I want to think that most people, especially those a little bit older with more discretionary income, choose their music by how it hits their ears and not their eyes.  I loved Amy Winehouse and Adele’s music long before I ever saw what they looked like.  It just doesn’t matter what their jeans size is.  I liked Aaliyah’s music when I was a kid, but her being beautiful only made me want to have sex with her, not buy her record.  I believe most people know the difference between those two desires and I believe when it comes down to artistic merit, those who make the best music will sell regardless of their image.  It is only in the vast sea of mediocrity, where the goal of the label is to fool a specific demographic into believing something is really good just long enough to get their money, where image actually means a damn thing.

The Coolest Thing I’ve Ever Seen

Every few months or so, when either of these two legendary gentlemen come to mind, I watch this video. What a flawless and unique collaborative performance by two masters who are no longer with us; not to mention the skill and precision of the accompanying orchestra.  I hope this caliber of artistry is not an endangered species, but I fear it is.

Throwback: Team Demolition “Teamwork” Video (2000)

This past week marks the 12 year anniversary of the release of this record, which was our top-selling 12 inch single in the history of the Depth Charge catalog . To celebrate, I have posted the video. Enjoy!

The First 14 Years of My Career on a Shelf

Digital & analog Tracking tapes, DAT Masters, 3.5 inch Floppy discs & video footage representing 1989 - 2003

I try to keep everything I have ever worked on.  In the days before music could be easily stored as hard drive data, a busy music professional could build quite a collection of media.  This is my new Ikea bookshelf in the lounge at Depth Charge Studios.  I purchased it to store & present my collection of works from the first fourteen years of my career.  The bottom three rows contain double stacks of ADAT track tapes.  There are more than 100 completely filled sets each containing an average of 10 songs each.  That’s quite a few records.  It is also important to note that most of my clients had their own tapes, so this stack only contains all of my company’s productions and recordings along with recordings by studio clients who rented tape from us.

The middle row contains VHS and Digital 8 video tapes of our shows, music videos, making of music videos, various studio sessions etc.  This is one of the few libraries I consider incomplete.  I am missing a lot of video footage from over the years which I would love to have.  If any one has any old Team Demolition or Lower Life Forms concert footage from back in the day, please let me know.

The next row up contains floppy and zip discs storing mostly beats I made on the ASR-10 from 1993 – 2003. The top row contains more than 75 DAT master tapes (digital tapes used to store the final mixed and mastered stereo mixes of records) and more than 60 four-track analog tracking tapes which contain my crew’s early work from 1989 – 1994.  It is pretty amazing to stand back and look at this knowing it represents such an enormous portion of my life.  Thanks to hard drives, my work from 2004 to the present is stored on a couple of machines no bigger than a typical paperback novel.  While the convenience of that is fantastic, it doesn’t look quite this cool.

Merry Super Bowl!

This morning I awoke extra early, donned my footie pajamas and raced into the living room to see what Mike Ditka left me under the Super Bowl tree. Bratwursts, beer, pierogies and pretzels were presented with thoughtful care. Ditka barely touched the chilli dog I left him so I finished it for breakfast. While many lament the end of football season, I rejoice, as it as a sign that Spring is on the way. Pitchers and catchers report in two weeks!

Recording Studio Etiquette – Lesson 1

This will be the first of a probably never-ending series within my blog that will outline proper recording studio etiquette.  As the owner of a commercial recording facility for sixteen years, I believe I am as qualified as one can be to speak on this subject.  Hopefully, you will at least be entertained and perhaps learn from my observations and analysis.

Since this is lesson 1, let’s start at the beginning.  Real recording studios operate like doctor’s offices and law firms, not fast food restaurants.  Recording studios see clients by appointment and will most likely be unable to accommodate you walking in off the street.  It is totally unprofessional to show up at a recording studio, presumably while staff and clients are in sessions, and ask for a tour or worse, try to buy studio time on site for immediate use.  This happens at my facility at minimum once  a week.  Someone calls asking for our hours and informs us that they will be coming by in a little bit to do some recording.   It’s even worse when they show up at our door wanting to use the studio.  These are people who have never used our facility before and have no history with us.   I then have to  explain that we are booked for the day and that they have to call and set up an account before booking sessions.  Busy studios like ours usually book a week to ten days in advance.  Even if no one were using the studio I can’t just work with someone I’ve never met who walks in off the street.  I have seen a couple of ragtag studios attempt a fast food business model and almost all of them fail because inevitably, people either go to real studios and see that is not the way the business is practiced, or worse, the studio gets robbed and eventually closes because they can no longer obtain affordable insurance.

I once had a new client call the studio to inquire about using the facility.  After a nice conversation he told me he wanted to schedule some time so I began to take down his information so I could set up a new account for him in our system.  When I asked him for his name, he gave me a nickname.  I told him I was cool calling him that but I needed his legal name for liability purposes.  He told me he didn’t give out his legal name to anyone.  I told him that we would be unable to do business together. He got angry.  I explained to him that we can’t have people using our $100,000 + facility without a responsible party attached in the event something is stolen, broken etc.  We need to know with whom we are doing business.  I told him I’m sure his physician and lawyer knew his real name and if he wanted me to be his engineer, so would I.  He gave in under the pressure of the logic of my argument, but I was almost upset with myself for even making the argument in the first place.  How likely would it be that this person would make a good client if he’s that unprofessional?  I should have just told him to have a nice day and hung up the phone.

So in summary… Studios aren’t restaurants.  You need an appointment and you need at least a semi-formal business arrangement.  If you don’t want a copy of your invoice, that’s fine.  But it will be in our system and accounted for.  If this is unacceptable to you, I believe there is a so-called studio in Northeast being run by undercover cops that would gladly accept you walking up to the door and knocking.

Wellington – The Blue Note Sessions

Potential cover for Wellington's forthcoming jazz album.