What a year!

Well, It has been roughly a year since I decided to walk into work....and tell them I was leaving to pursue my passion of Video and Audio production. It was a scary day, filled with self doubt, second guessing, and "if it doesn't work out i'll........"

My co-workers looking at me stunned.....but understanding completely that this is who I REALLY am.

Who would have thought a year later I would be on my 180th video project, and busy beyond any expectations. As my own boss......I make sure that I balance work and life, and that my work positively impacts my community.

Thank you to all of my wonderful clients! It has been an awesome year, and I have learned so much from you. I look forward to all of the fun and exciting projects on the horizon.

Most of all, thank you to my wife Ashley, and my scary supportive family and friends who were behind me from day one. I was never made to feel selfish or crazy when I chose this path, and I spend every day working to make you proud.

Sincerely,

Ben Srokosz
Spur of the Moment Media

For the Love of Live Music

Ever since I was 13 and saw my first live concert.....live music has been the source of my love affair with the music industry. To me, nothing compares to the urgency, the feeling of being in the present, the emotion that can be captured, and the experimentation that takes place on a live stage.

Even before that first show......Licorice Fix live at the CAW hall in Chatham, ON........I started watching live music through the lens of 90's Saturday Night Live. Week in and week out, another prominent band would take the stage and prove or disprove whether they had the chops to translate to the stage. Monday mornings at school were often talks of how they sounded compared to their albums....whether the singer could really sing, or whether the drummer hit as hard as Dave Grohl. (nobody ever did of course....). 

When I started to have friends over to jam in my Dad's garage....fondly entitled "the shed", band practice was always executed in the sense of performing for an audience. My bandmates and I would practice our best Thurston Moore impressions, slamming our howling guitars into the speakers and after hitting that final note, holding our hands in the air as if to receive praise from the pop cans and cobwebs that called "the shed" home.

When I got my drivers license, first order of business was to buy a minivan so that I could fill it with 6 of my best friends and head off to a live show. Sometimes they were all ages, other times we slipped in without getting our ID checked. "Act like you belong here" was my mantra. Between the ages of 17 and 21, most of the greatest moments of my life happened on the way to, during, or after a great live show.

For 5 years I drummed in a band called "Square Root of Margaret", a local Chatham band with enough reach that we could easily get gigs around Southwestern Ontario. I was able to play many of the stages that my idols performed on......and while you would think that would intensify my appetite for live music, I actually spent less time going to shows for sheer pleasure. Living through the ups and downs of my own band.....as well as talking to the bands we shared a bill with, put things into a different light. I was surprised how often bands were not enjoying that act.....but rather obsessing over whether they were in a desirable time slot......whether they "screwed up", or whether there were enough people in the audience. I was always grateful just to be playing music at all.....and trying to hit my drums so hard that I broke them. (I only ever broke one snare skin in those 5 years!)

Now that my band has called it quits, I go to shows hoping to see those magical moments when a band locks into the audience and the show becomes an event for all those involved. Most of the time it is a cover band going through their motions.....or an original band not sharing the experience with the crowd.....and the experience is far from magical. When a band gets it right......it is even that much more rewarding. In those times I look around at the sparsely filled venues and think, "I wish there were people here to see this!!". Maybe I am crazy, but there are times when a band is so good I feel as though anyone would be moved.....regardless of what they are into.

I recently sat at a table to mutual friends....so they didn't already know the band that I was there to see. I kept telling them how good the band was, so that they wouldn't leave during the opener and shove off to another bar. The band came on, and killed it. Every person at the table turned around in the booth to get a look and kept remarking how great the band was.....and how they couldn't believe they hadn't heard of them before. I wanted so badly to say...."how often do you come here to see bands? Its not their job to come to your house!". Of course I didn't say it, I was just happy that those 5 people caught the live music buzz that night.

Spur of the Moment Media has always been my way to keep bands connected with audiences, and keep original bands playing live. At times my role is simply cheerleader for a struggling local band, or a father figure keeping them working. Many sleepless nights mixing tunes for not enough monetary reward, but with the rewards of having that music exist forever. Archiving, sharing, and promoting. Pushing the band to get off their ass and believe in themselves enough to take it in front of an audience. Telling them not to give up. Trying to make sure that others will develop the love affair that I did.

What is your experience with live music? Do you only go to the big ticket shows? Do you wander into empty bars in search of that next undiscovered band for the bragging rights that "I knew them first!". I'll take a moment to dig up some videos that pay homage to some of the great live shows I have witnessed, and I'll post them below.

The Human Element?

My last post was about the film "Sound City", and this one kind of touches on the same themes, the phrase Dave Grohl uses several times of the 'human element' to music. Since then, either I am more aware of it, or something is happening out there.......but I hear this theory being discusses more and more.

I am a total gadget nut......I love playing with new technologies, learning how to use softwares, apps, etc. I've never really considered just how much technology can isolate us. I've found myself arguing for how technology connects us, but has technology reached a point that it has replaced human connection? Since the dominance of cellphones, that seems to be the case.

Ever find yourself texting when you could call? Could visit? Could meet someone for lunch to discuss something rather than sending them an email? Maybe I am just getting old.....but I feel myself more and more wanting to battle this tendency to isolate myself from others via technology. I want my son to experience things without googling everything first.

The film Sound City, and the spinoffs it has induced; articles, blogs, etc, has touched on how technology has changed the way music is made. As a former graduate of audio engineering school and a technology freak, I have been all for the Neato!-factor. The gadgets, the different gear, and techniques to 'improve' the sound of music. How that is often done, is by isolating musicians in ISO-booths......or soundproof rooms so that their parts can be re-recorded or 'fixed'. Or simply to stop the bleeding of one sound into the microphones on a different instrument. Or how about not using microphones at all? Direct lining instruments, and then re-amping them later. (The process of taking a direct signal and patching it through different amplifiers, etc, to later simulate sounds). Then the next step is, just laying down all the parts to a song separately.....no longer needing to have musicians in the same room at the same time! Or even being in the same city/country and just sending files over the internet. Or just doing everything yourself. That is the trap I most often fall into.

It doesn't stop there......at music. This 'upgrade' in the way we work invades everything. Teleconferencing, conference calls, living life live VIA satellite. When did it stop being about a way to be there when you couldn't be there......and turn into a reason to just not need to be there?

My fondest memories of being in a band come from band practice.....or being on stage. You feel like a musician when you can make music with a group of people......improvise, push the envelope, challenge yourself to nail a part on the fly. Needing those other musicians to add their part that you can't reproduce. Blending your feelings and passions with another person to create something you can't do alone or in isolation. Why do we throw that out the window when making a record? Retreat to our soundproof booths from behind triple paned glass and go for coffee while the drummer puts down the beat to a click track? Is variation weak? Is being human not good enough? Sure, sometimes the creative process requires some experimentation that can't be done on the fly.....but most of the time that is not the reason to digitize the process. It's the want to make things better than we can humanly do.

The musicians I respect most can perform their music effortlessly live......without the veil of production. The act of playing music becomes pure expression because the want to 'get it right' is no longer there. Getting it right is a state of mind. The buzz they get from stretching music to new heights and never quite knowing what will happen next is the drug that they feed the audience. People miss that feeling or never have experienced it at all. Then they go to experience it and walk away from the concert hall raving about how much 'better it was than the album'. Then they tell their friends to watch the youtube video later to see what they missed, but the electricity isn't translated to the micro speaker on their friends' cellphones. They can't feel the floorboards thump with the feet of 500 fans stomping, hear the way the sound reverberates from the walls and watch the ways the crowd and musicians interact. They don't see the mistakes because they have all been scrubbed out for the video.

Being the guy who generally makes the videos and fixes stuff......I admit hypocrisy.

So.....I'm at the point of the post where I am supposed to start reeling it in. Making the point, giving the pinchline, or the 'what am I suggesting we do about it?'. I don't really know the answer......but several things come to mind. Stop trying to make everything perfect, stop being afraid to make mistakes or sound human! Realize that the 'mistakes' are often the best part because they remind us that we are listening to a group of people making music together rather than a computer. I hear the word 'authentic' tossed around a lot these days. As though authenticity is in short supply in today's digital world.

I'm getting closer to the point.....

Get together with people and make music......try something to see how it will turn out rather than planning everything out. Meet someone face to face to tell them some good/bad news rather than flipping them a heads up text. Go analog......in life. Easy for me to type, (I realize the irony here), but hence why I have all but ceased conventional studio recording and gone back to only recording bands live......or at least live off the floor in my studio. I want to feel that magic and capture a great performance rather than building one from the ground up. I want to make a band go home and practice until they are good enough to sound amazing live.

If you are still reading at this point.....you are either identifying with the musicians perspective or considering how it applies in every day life. And it does. Let's get back to using technology to remove barriers to us connecting......not letting technology connect for us. If you are watching something amazing and everyone is trying to film it on their phones......just watch. Experience it. Let your memory be the only record of that event, and then get together later with people and tell the story. Don't just write it in a blog and edit it till it sounds just right.   **wink**

 

Sound City

Anyone like myself who was coming of age when Nirvana's Nevermind was released in 1991 is probably a bit stunned at the heights Dave Grohl has reached in his career. I don't say that because he isn't deserving or hasn't worked harder than most. Think about it......how many stories are there of drummers stepping out from behind the kit to front a band......then going on to sell over 10 million records....and then going on to direct films? Oh....and collaborate with Sir Paul McCartney on live television? Yes....he deserves all the success he has earned.

I'm sure 19 year old Dave Grohl wouldn't even be able to process it, or even want it. That young kid drumming in Scream, a Virginia punk band would probably look at the success of Foo Fighters and accuse of "selling out".  Boy, have times changed. Grohl is fighting to keep a center in the current state of the music industry; which lives in the left, follows formulas to create hits, and insists that a drum beat must snap to a grid on a computer screen to sound "right". Heck, most bands now record their drum parts and then the engineer copies and pastes perfect drum hits over all the imperfect ones as though the differences in drum hits are some sort of flaw or weakness.

Hence, Grohl's newest project, "Sound City". A documentary film about the legendary music studio in the Los Angeles Valley that recently closed. As the film explains, studios popped up all over America in the late 60's, and through no rhyme or reason.....certain buildings became the environment where our greatest rock records were made. Sound City stayed the course with analog recording throughout the digital revolution, largely due to the legendary Neve recording console that it features. At the time, sticking with analog tape, tubes, and transistors seemed stubborn and limiting. In truth, the limitations of analog often force the musicians to focus on a great performance rather than laying down parts and "fixing it" later on a computer screen. I have been working towards a live recording culture at Spur of the Moment Media....although it ain't a cheap undertaking. Thankfully, I had the pleasure of using a Neve console and recording to 2" tape in college.... but now it is 15 years later and I have yet to do either again. Who has $50,000.00 to set up even the most basic of analog studios? What band can afford to pay a studio bill when their songs are being sold online for $0.0004 per play? I feel torn between these 2 worlds.

If you watched the 2012 Grammy's, you may remember Dave Grohl accepting an award for the Foo Fighters' album Wasting Light. In his speech he mentioned the human element in musical recording, and I wondered that night who was hearing this statement and understanding its meaning. What Grohl was trying to describe in a 33 second acceptance speech is now explored in detail with Sound City.

One point that is made in the film is that in todays world, many musicians would never make music if it wasn't for the ease and accessibility of recording to a computer. Bands can record themselves and release an album digitally at little to no cost. So what is more important......the human element of analog, or the ability for more musicians to make music? How many of today's bands would not exist if they needed a $10,000 budget to release a record?

Grohl is saying that there is a place for both....but again how relevant is this message outside of his world? After all, Grohl grew up in an era where a record label would cut a $60,000 cheque to a virtually unknown band and send them to a studio to craft an album.

In the end, this is a great documentary for any fan of Grohl's, or anyone who has an interest in what magic happens in the analog music studio. I'm not so sure about how the average music lover will appreciate or enjoy this film due to the extensive chat about the equipment and studio elements, but it is worth the effort either way.

Sound City is an important view into an era that is fading away, and I truly believe that analog recorded music must be preserved as an art form. 

Feist Wins the Polaris Prize

On September 24th....Feist Won the 2012 Polaris Prize for her 2011 Album "Metals". I have my own opinion on this which I am about to express. There have been some mixed reactions to Feist winning....and from what I have followed on Twitter, Facebook, and several internet news articles, I wonder if everyone truly understands what the Polaris Prize is all about when they are posting these comments.

The Polaris prize may or may not be something you are aware of each year.....I'm guessing it would be tied to how involved you are in the Canadian music scene. If your idea of keeping up on current music is tuning into corporate radio and listing to the the weekly top 5 at 5, chances are you aren't aware of what is going on. I'm not bashing corporate radio with this paragraph.......but I am acknowledging that corporate radio's idea of "new music" is generally the most recent bands that they are allowed to play by their sponsors. That could be an album release 5 years ago.....or one that isn't yet released.

Beginning in 2006, the Polaris Prize was meant to recognize the best Canadian Album released in the previous year. Remember what I just said....."Best Canadian Album", not artist. I'll reference this later in the post. The Polaris Group Board of Directors selects 200 "Jurors". These Jurors are Bloggers, Journalists, Broadcasters, etc, and no Juror is allowed to have any financial link to any artist. Each Juror picks what they believe to be the best 5 albums released in the previous year.....and based on a points system, (5 for top pick, 4 for second, etc), a list of 40 albums is selected and released to the public. Then the Jurors pick their top 5 from this list....points are awarded, and the list is narrowed to a "Long List" of 10. The top 10 bands perform at a Gala in Toronto in September for 11 of the Jury members, known as the "Grand jury".

There you have it..........a system to ensure impartial selection of the best Canada has to offer each year. Sounds great doesn't it? Well.....there are still many who wonder how an artist like Feist could have won.....as though she is too big of a star and that this Polaris thingy has become a popularity contest. One thing I will stress is that Polaris is not meant to be confined to "Underground", "Indie", or artists that "need the help". There isn't a maximum income requirement. The Prize is open to any Canadian musician. If those 200 Jurors somehow feel that Celine Dion belongs in the top 40, then her record would go into the pool. (God Help Us).

So lets talk finally about Leslie Feist. I became a Feist fan through her involvement in Broken Social Scene, just as many Canadians did. I already knew who she was, I had seen her perform as part of the band "By Divine Right" at a music festival in Hamilton in 2000. Her involvement in Broken Social Scene years later, however, was what made me take notice. The delicate yet powerful voice jumped from my speakers and I couldn't help but notice the sexy silhouette jumping about in the "Almost Crimes" video. For those who only later knew of Feist as the girl from the iPod commercial, they may not realize the sacrifices she made leaving By Divine Right to focus on a solo career.......travelling all over the world attempting to carve her own identity, only to find greater success back in a collective band as a featured singer. When I finally purchased "Let it Die", the genius of her solo work became quite clear, and then looking back to "Monarch", and forward to "The Reminder" confirmed what I already suspected. This girl has the battle scars from the road, the chops both vocally and on the guitar.....and she can write one hell of a hook.

"Metals" feels like a bit of a departure for Feist, almost a back to basics, or the way you get to know yourself again after a break-up. There are no jump out radio singles on the record like "Mushaboom", "One Evening", "1234", or "Feel it All". Therefore, I found myself listening to the album in the background rather than blasting hits in the car as part of a playlist. This revealed to me the beauty of Metals as a complete work of art, front to back. The production is very transparent. Instruments are captured as though you are sitting in the room and feeling the pulse of the bass or the thud of the bass drum from the floor. The acoustic guitar on "The Bad in Each Other" has a tone and timbre that every engineer dreams about hearing through their studio monitors. Some of these elements may have been derived by the fact that Feist chose Big Sur, California as the place to lay down the record. Or the fact that rather than a slick studio, they brought gear to a cliffside home and lived and worked as one. The result is a record that is not trying to please you, but rather a record that invites you in to stay a while.

As you can see, I am in agreement with the choice of Metals for the Polaris Prize. I have not heard every album on the short list.....so I can understand why some may feel that a particular band was robbed or overlooked if they were as taken with one of those albums. Most of the reactions I have read however refer to the fact that Feist "doesn't need the money"..... "give it to someone who does". Again, I repeat..... the Polaris Prize is not based on the bank account or level of opportunity the artists enjoy. (although I am sure Feist would chuckle at the thought that people think she has a fat wallet). It is based on the people who live and work in the industry and their pick for what single album deserves to be known as the best of that given year.

I wouldn't single out any artist in the top 10 as not deserving a win unless I had thoroughly listened to the album and compared. I certainly hope that those who are criticizing the Feist win aren't basing this on whether or not they liked her in the iPod commercial. I hope that they gave Metals a solid listen and it didn't prove its worth. Bottom line.....there is no musical conspiracy with Polaris once you understand what it is all about. I'm glad we live in a country where one of our Musical Stars still has their feet firmly on the ground.


I'll leave you all with a track from Metals, performed live on Jools Holland.

Olenka and the Autumn Lovers

I'm very obsessive when I fall in love with a new band or record.....I'll just play that album over and over in the car to and from work. Then when I get super crazy about it I'll start pushing it on my friends. There have only been a handful of records that have qualified for this obsession in the past decade....but when I find one it is all that much more sweet. Although there are many great bands out there today writing many great songs.....lets face it, we live in a world of singles in 2012. 

Every once in a while a band crafts a GREAT album. What qualifies for a great album? There are so many factors.

Obviously pure musical ability is a factor.......maybe a great voice, great production.......but when an album is elevated to GREAT, for me it is because of how the album flows. How one song relates to the next, and the way the first song grips you and takes you through to the final note. 

A year or so ago I was in Grooves record store in London, ON. (the place to go to find GREAT music). As usual, I'm asking the dude behind the counter who the newest or best local band is at the time. That day the clerk told me to check out "Handsome Dan and his Gallimaufry". Pretty elaborate and interesting band name I must say. Is there a guy in the band named Handsome Dan? Is he in fact Handsome? Anyways.....when I asked "what do they sound like", he replied...."Well, the guy from Handsome Dan plays in Olenka....so.....they are pretty cool".

I ended up purchasing Handsome Dan, but when the guy tried to explain how good they were by referencing the other band that he plays in.....I couldn't help but wonder who this Olenka was. The store was sold out of all their Olenka albums, so I went home and bought "And Now We Sing" from iTunes. 

The first track "Odessa" showcases all aspects of lead singer Olenka Krakus and her group the Autumn Lovers. Deep, soulful singing........soaring harmonies, bouncing classical guitar that is kissed by rich violin and cello. Initially, I couldn't make it much past the first track. Just kept repeating it over and over and singing along. Once I started letting the album play through, that was when I realized the Gem I had discovered.

The next song that really gripped me was "Mama's Bag". I can't tell for sure if it is a romantic tale that Krakus is recounting from a novel she read....or whether it is a more personal story. Either way, the combination of the lyrical imagery, and the way the vocal and guitar melodies intertwine.....a very pretty tune.

The deeper you listen into the album, the more you understand Krakus' vocal mastery. Similar to the way Bjork tests the boundaries of the human voice.......Krakus busts out a vocal clinic. For anyone that remembers and loves the Velvet Underground and Nico album.....imagine if Nico could actually sing. (Thats right, I said it).

The other elements on "And Now We Sing" that should not be overlooked are both the warm, intimate production, and the blazing lead guitar work.....both electric and slide guitar. Recorded at the House of Miracles in London by Indie legend Andy Magoffin.....the album has an electricity that is captured with brilliance on each track.

And just like any great album..........there is an epic track. Louise of Littleville is that track that just nails the coffin. A singalong melody, and a slowly building momentum that pulls together the records' best moments and holds them up for all to hear. 

I realize I am pretty late to the rodeo with this post......many Londoners are probably reading this and wondering where I have been, considering Olenka has been a fixture of the local music scene for years.  Well, that doesn't make me any less of a fan.....and I'm hoping to spread Olenka's music to some new ears. I had the opportunity to speak with Olenka when she was in Chatham for Culture Factory's Indiefest this past August, and learned that she is putting the finishing touches on her third full length album. I'm not sure how she plans to top the greatness of "And Now We Sing"......but something tells me I might be writing a follow up post in the new year.

Sheepdogs

If you are a fan of indie rock and haven't read the August edition of Rolling Stone, shame on you. That article is the story of the Canadian Dream.....for every young musician who wants to try and have a life in music. In fact, reading it reminded me a bit of a Cameron Crowe movie. With the Pitfalls, and triumphs of a blue collar band looking for direction in a music industry full of roadblocks, monsoons and stolen vans.

So why am I writing this Blog post now? After 4 months of having the Rolling Stone in my magazine rack? Well.....because I had the chance to see the sheepdogs live at Call the Office in London, Ontario of course. Fitting......as I spent the majority of my young adult life seeing bands come through CTO; destination unknown. What a crazy sensation to see possibly Canada's biggest band on their upward trajectory.

I had heard that Sheepdogs were coming but it was sold out as fast as I could even think of booking it. I wasn't at all surprised. Turn on any rock station and you'll hear "I Don't Know" and "Who" played every couple of hours. About 2 days before the show, I get a text message from a friend that they have tickets and one of the holders backed out of the show. Its mine if I want it. I have to get up at 7am the next morning for work.....but in my mind there is only one right answer. There you go, I'm going to see Sheepdogs.

We all take a Van from Chatham to London, 5 of us, all caught up in the cinderella story. Sure we have heard the hits and we bought the album.....but part of the draw is still the legend of the rolling stone cover. I couldn't help but think of what it must have been like back in the heyday of 70's rock, going to see a band like Led Zeppelin in their raw state. Not yet one of the greatest rock bands of all time.....just a damn good band burning up the airwaves.

We arrive in London, and out front of Call the Office is a massive tour bus pulling a trailer. Hmmmmm we thought, is there a rock show tonight? The funny part is......I have been going to call the office for 15 years and I've never seen that. But could it be any other way?

My favourite exempt from the Rolling Stone article:
- The Sheepdogs' nightmare touring stories are epic. "Basically anything and everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong for us," says Gullen. They can't agree on the most dispiriting moment, but the time their van's transmission blew on the way to Calgary is near the top of the list. For the last 4 hours of the drive, they had to stop every 10 minutes and pump in gallons of transmission fluid. They finally ditched the van 15 minutes from town, had friends drive them to the gig, and returned the next day to discover a pile of broken glass in the van's place. Or when they drove 34 hours to Toronto for a big-city club gig and arrived to find that the club was closed that night. (they all peed on the door.) Or the tour when their van was broken into 4 times. Or the multiple times they've booked shows in Halifax, only to have nobody show up, making the 50-hour drive back to Saskatoon even more depressing."

So I ask you....is there any better symbol of success in Canadian indie rock than the "Tour Bus"? I have seen countless artists roll up to Call the Office in minivans or cargo vans. The Dears, Hawksley Workman, Thrush Hermit, Eric's Trip, Sebadoh, Hayden, Wintersleep.....you name it. I think once you have the tour bus you can safely say you are doing something right.

It was also the first sold out show I have been to at CTO for years. It brought back a rush of memories.....having to stake out a spot and send runners to the bar, puffing out my arms and shoulders to keep a pocket open large enough for my friend to return. Drinking Labatt 50, the forgotten ale. Legs sore, back sore......secretly hoping for the night to end before I collapse yet unable to take my eyes off of the stage. Ahhhh those were the days.

The Sheepdogs were fantastic. Absolutely nailed every note of every song, vocal harmonies dead on as well. They played with the urgency you would expect from a young band with their dreams coming true.And they are YOUNG. Could I be any more jealous? I've played that stage before, but never to a crowd like that.

I only hope that somehow the success of Sheepdogs can spark some sort of action in the Canadian Music Industry. There are countless amazing bands out there that you'll never hear. Maybe with this rags to riches story the label execs will look a little further down their noses and give some more young indie bands a chance.

I thought I'd troll youtube for some posts of the show from Dec 8th....and I was able to find one. A nice Jam called "Down By The River". Below that is a nice live clip of "Who" from CBC.