Spielberg to Remake “Jaws”

The idea of creative control is a funny thing.

Control freaks crack me up. Mainly because I am one. Knowing the behavior so well, I can spot it easily.

On the one hand, I can understand that a songwriter or band leader might have a specific vision for a song. I've written songs myself and heard them in my head. But the reality is that they will end up different when you let them out on their own, and that's a good thing.

What's funny is, when you ask a songwriter which one of his or her songs are his or her favorite, they will often tell you, "they're like children, I can't pick a favorite." Well, like a child, you can't control what they will be or become once they're out on their own. Use the whole analogy if you're going to use it.

I think people who are too much of control freaks are defeating themselves. Sometimes the best moments happen because of things that are out of your control. My favorite example is Bruce the shark. Bruce was the shark in Jaws, but because of ongoing technical problems, Steven Spielberg had to shoot the movie in a more Hitchcockian manner where you didn't see the shark as much as he originally intended, but you experienced it instead. It made for a much better movie. Imagine if he made that movie today. He'd have a frickin' CGI shark doing backflips over the boat or something. Instead of the enduring classic, it would be another forgettable summer blockbuster.

As a songwriter, the ultimate moment isn't when you finish the demo that you've been working on by yourself in your studio late at night, it's when you hear your band or another good band nail it. The individual contributions by the musicians, letting them interpret the song and put themselves into it, make it better than you even imagined. They're not getting in the way of your vision, they're taking it places you never even thought of. The people you are working with aren't robots there to perform every moment exactly as you demand, they're creative interpreters of the work bringing it to another level. Don't fight it, enjoy it!

Mon, 2009 11 30 at 10:35 AM |Permalink for this entry

That Was Some Fun

First gig in a while and some other updates

Yesterday afternoon I had my first gig with Collective Hallucination (CH) in a while. It was a nice feeling to go to a gig and be as prepared as you know you can be. I mean, yeah, you never really feel 100% about these things, and with Ant, you never know what direction things are gonna go (all the more reason to catch a CH show!), but you do what you can and remember the one secret to dealing with these kinds of things.

No matter what you do, no one's gonna die (probably).

The curve ball came shortly after I had finished setting up. Ant had a singer doing a few songs before CH to open the show up. At the last minute, their keyboard player didn't make the gig. Guess who got "the call"?

The bass player tells me he can write out the chords for me, which I say I definitely need. Turns out, he had only worked thru the material for the first time the day before, and was hoping to follow the keyboard player.

I think they changed what they were going to do shortly before we went on, because there were two a cappella songs that I didn't know about. The first song I played on went pretty well as far as I was concerned. In fact, after a certain point I started getting into it and "noodling around" with it. Nothing complicated, just adding some drive and interest to it.

The second song I had a little trouble picking up the progression at first, but then I finally found it. It didn't seem long after that that it changed, though. There was a change I knew of in the song, but I wasn't hitting it. Nor did the original progression seem to come back, so I winged it. I have no idea if I was close, but at least nothing I played made me cringe. Ha! The singers seemed to be fine, so that was good. The bass player didn't know what happened either.

The CH set went pretty well. I had one issue that I was far from prepared for. Turns out, I was set up directly under the A/C vent, and that thing ran the entire show. I was freezing. Being that cold, clenching and shivering, sucked all the energy I had out of me. That's something I'm going to have to remember to watch for in the future. It's funny, other people on stage are sweating like crazy, and I'm freezing.

Some of the changes that happened in the CH set kept me from stretching out like I had hoped in a couple of spots, but I only realized that later and I didn't feel restrained in any way. There were just a couple of places that I found I could do some things leading up to the show that I didn't get to do. Oh well.

Meanwhile, here are some updates on other things.

The blues band I thought I could have the gig if I wanted has not called me back despite them doing other things. They acted like they were interested, but now it seems like they've gone in another direction. I'm slightly disappointed but I suspect it's for the better in my case.

The jazz duo thing hasn't progressed much, because I haven't spent the time I should on it. I'm hoping to dig into that material more soon.

I've sat in once with the other performer who is putting a band together, and will do so again next month. I need to work a bit more on his material, mainly to build up some more chops so I can really let loose when I play with him. I dig his music and playing with him, and hope this works out.

I haven't sat in with that "gig I'd really like." Shame on me.

One new item, I contacted a great piano/organ player that's here in town about lessons, and am going to meet with him on Tuesday to see if we want to work together. Since that's still up in the air, that's all I'll say about that for now.

The good thing is, I have been practicing almost daily, and I've started to realize when it's time to move on from pieces that are "assigned" in the books I'm studying. You can sit there and keep trying to get a piece perfect or keep working on it for whatever reason, but after a certain point, you realize that you've been on it for too long and there's still a whole book in front of you. When I did take lessons previously, even though I knew the piece could be better, the piano teacher would say okay and move on to something else. I've only now realized that they were keeping things moving. Besides, I can always go back to a piece later and work on it some more if I feel like it.

I was talking to a keyboard player friend the other night and he said if he doesn't gig regularly, he starts losing his chops because he doesn't practice on his own. "Between stupid Facebook," he said, at which point I said, "if I spent as much time at that keyboard [pointing to his keyboard on stage] as I do at the computer keyboard, I'd be an awesome player!" To which he said, "yeah!"

That made me feel a little better that I'm making a decent effort to practice. If he keeps not practicing, maybe I will catch up to him and play as well as he does someday. And pigs will fly.

Sun, 2009 11 15 at 3:38 AM |Permalink for this entry