Between Times

Video

naal — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:52:20 -0500

A Letter to Facebook

naal — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:40:59 -0500

I wrote a letter to Facebook that they will never read. But maybe you will.
I may have been a little frustrated at the time.

“I’m sure many have voiced disapproval of the way that “pages” have been set up, now. Namely for musicians or artists. I’ve all but given up on using Facebook to promote my art because without being willing to fork over $10, $20, even $50 per day to “advertise” my posts that should ALREADY be going to my followers, I, instead, have around 45% seeing status updates and FREAKING 5% seeing links to my art. 5%, Facebook.

It’s already statistically proven that only around 5-15% of “fans” will pay for my (or anyone else’s) artwork. If you’re marginalizing my reach as an artist to 5% of my audience, you’re basically telling me, “Screw you, unless you spend money on Facebook, you’re not going to make any sales because you won’t make any connections.”

Because of that, I’m sure you have many young artists- the same ones who scour the web buying “likes” and “friends” for their art, spending hundreds of dollars on being able to advertise to the people that ALREADY FOLLOW THEM. So you may think that you have this in the bag. And maybe you do, for now. But as an artist that knows what’s up, I wanted to take the time to write and warn you that your glory days of pickpocketing young, impressionable artists who don’t know any better are numbered. Because those of us who know better will leave you behind for services and platforms created around US, not around making a quick buck.

We will leave you and go to Twitter, and to Bandcamp, and even to the new MySpace if we want. We will go to places we design and build as an alternative to your garbage, because you’re charging us our hard earned cash to do things we should already be allowed to do: connect with our followers. Not 5% of them. Not even 45% of them. 100% of them.

When that migration happens, it will only be a matter of time before the every day users migrate to where the action is, and Facebook will be over. I can’t say I’ll be sad. The ideals that made this place great when it started- exclusivity, minimalism, an ad free environment… Those things are all gone. And what’s replaced it is FarmVille requests, spam messages, incessant ad space, and money sucking “promotion” to people who just want to make connections with their fans.

So screw you.”

I’m making music again.

naal — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:14:00 -0500

I’m making music again.

Sorry I haven’t been keeping up here, you guys. But...

naal — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:18:48 -0500

Sorry I haven’t been keeping up here, you guys. But I’ve been working on something really special, and I want to share that with you.

I have this new video series aimed at equipping and encouraging independent artists and creative types. It’s not just for musicians, either! It’s for anyone who has a creative spirit. Maybe you’re feeling alone? Maybe you’ve gone as far as you know how to go alone? I want to help encourage and equip you. If that sounds like something you’re interested in checking out, click on this link. It’s going to be a biweekly series (with other videos filling the other weeks), so there’s more to come.

This means the blog is going to fall to the wayside a little bit, but don’t worry! There will be new videos for you to catch up on EVERY WEEK on my new YouTube page. I’ll try and remember to post them here, too.

All of that to say, you nebulas of readers here on this blog have been supporting me longer than anyone, so thanks. That means a whole friggin lot. So, here’s to a new medium and to the future, whatever that holds!

-Dave

Tunage Tuesday: Bandcamp Discoveries

naal — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:00:48 -0500

Here’s some awesome music I’ve been discovering on Bandcamp’s new and improved site. You guys should all sign up and check it out. I love it. But remember, you don’t have to sign up to download. Best of all? They’re all free! So feel free to browse.

If Notorious B.I.G and Hammock had a lovechild, I think it would be IG88. Ambient Hip-Hop, you say? How does that even work? I don’t know. But it’s beautiful. DISCOVER HERE, HERE, and HERE

My friends Families introduced me to a band they played with recently, called Divino Nino. I downloaded their music because it’s strange and also good. You can too! DISCOVER HERE

If you’re into post-rock/shoegaze at all, you’re familiar with JESU. I found out that they have the second mix of their first album remastered on Bandcamp and they’re giving it away for free! So strap on your headphones and get blasted back in time with this classic record. It’s so good. DISCOVER HERE

Along similar, but much darker and scarier lines, I discovered this album recently. It’s a doom/drone jam band? Anyway, if you like that kind of stuff, it’s pretty epic. DISCOVER HERE

Finishing on a lighter note, however, TEEEL is an experimental electronic project that caught my attention just last night. I really dig it. It’s kind of like a progressive progressive house sound? I don’t know. It’s good, though. DISCOVER HERE

...

naal — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:11:45 -0500

What happened to this place?

When I Decided I Wanted to DJ (open letter to DJ Tech Tools)

naal — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:14:49 -0500

I had a pretty quiet birthday this year. It was about 7:00 on that November evening, and I decided to do something for myself before the day was up. I had really started enjoying electronic music over the last year and a half, and recently got to facilitate some dance parties where I did some “mixing” of the songs (all I had was a traditional mixer and my laptop, but I was having a blast!). I decided that night that I would buy a controller to take my skills to the next level; nothing too fancy or expensive. Just something to test the waters. And I found something! DJ Tech Tools was having a holiday sale, and one of their controllers was in my price range: the Novation Twitch. So I bought it and called it a day.

It took a week for it to get to my house. I plugged it in and had a great time! When I came back to it later that day, however, it wouldn’t turn on. The thing was dead. I tried a whole bunch of stuff, but it just wouldn’t cooperate. So I contacted DJTT to see if they could replace it. They said they had one in the back they could send me, no problem. So I waited some more. It took several weeks for it to get to my house, with the holidays and all. But the replacement Twitch finally came.

It sat in my living room for several weeks, unopened. I was working in finishing my album, at the time, and work was crazy. However, once things settled down I busted it out and had a fun time with it. But, wouldn’t you know it, when I went back to play again, this one had died, too!

At this point, DJTT had stopped carrying the controller. I was worried I would have to put my DJ dreams on indefinite hold, since there weren’t any controllers in the DJTT store within several hundred dollars of the Twitch, and I didn’t want to pay an extra several hundred for a hobby. So I asked if I could just get a refund, but unfortunately they said they could only give me store credit at that point. I thought it was all over.

I don’t usually ask for ridiculous deals from stores. I realize that everyone has a job to do, and usually see when something’s reasonable. But I thought I would ask, “Guys, could I give a little extra cash and get a B-stock S2 or something you might have laying around the shop? I’m not trying to get free stuff, I’m just trying to explore a hobby, and I’ve had really bad luck this far.”

Long story short, we came to a deal, and not only did they give me a brand new S2, but they gave me all the extras that come with it when you buy it new from them. I was floored. And the thing is great! The S2 is a whole lot better than my first controller, Traktor rules, and I’m having a blast diving deeper into this hobby that I’ve discovered. Maybe I’ll even start playing out here in Charlotte this summer!

Anyway, I wanted to share that story because DJTT’s customer service is the real deal, and those guys have a customer for life. I appreciate Zach, who was the one working with me, as well as the rest of the crew. You guys rock, and you’ve given me a chance to explore this thing you all love so much. So, thanks!

-Dave

Tunage Tuesday: Check This Out!

naal — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:28:26 -0600

OK, yall. Here’s some cool stuff going on TODAY:

On Sunday my friend Andy and his wife Megan had their third child, little Blake. Andy makes music for all of his little ones, and then lets us big ones listen to it also. You can download Blake HERE. It’s awesome. Check that out right now! It’s free.

Also, and this is a big one… Drum roll… Andy is a Noisetrade Featured Artist this month! So you can download his album Migratory Patterns for FREE there. That album is my favorite he’s done to date, so I highly suggest you go pick it up. He’s been really supportive of my startup in the music world, so I want you all to support him as well. Plus, it’s great, free music. You can’t lose.

My friend Karl also put out an album this week. It is also free. It is also awesome. Check it out HERE.

Lastly, my friends The Soil and the Sun were named one of NPR’s ‘100 Artists to Discover at SXSW 2013.’ So, number one, you can download their song I Know It (I Feel It Too) HERE for free, and then if you’re going to SXSW, make sure you see their live show, because it’s killer. I just saw them last night, again, and we all had a blast.

And remember, you can always get my music for free on my website HERE. Shameless self promotion over. That is all.

-Dave

Artist Support

naal — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:58:56 -0600

I recently gave an interview on another blog about my music. Which was a cool experience. But I’ve been thinking a lot about something I ended up talking about at the interview. Read it HERE in its entirety, or just read the excerpt below:

“I want to believe that people who really care about the art, who have a desire to see an artist succeed, will support that person or that art because they care about it. It becomes a community in itself- not something like Justin Beiber fans or whatever- but people who care about the community being built around something that they care about or even love. Maybe that’s a little idealistic, but I think that’s the way the music and art industries are going to survive: we all take ownership of those things that we love and support them, whether financially, or by sharing that stuff with your friends, or whatever. I think that’s the future.”

OK, I want to talk about this for a minute. Expound upon it, if you will.

I talk about music. A lot. Whether it’s on this blog or in person. I like to post on Twitter about my friends’ bands, I make facebook statuses about what they’re up to. I know more than a few people may be annoyed with it. But I wanted to talk about why I do that. And it’s already covered in that quote I gave above- I believe that if I love independent art, I need to support it. I can’t always support everything I love with money. So I do my best to support it by telling my small socialmedia circles about it in hopes that other people might love it, too!

That was one of the reasons I started BTV. I wanted to give artists an open place to share about their work in an intimate way that I would be able to share with my friends in an effort to support that art and that artist. That’s why I’m constantly tweeting and facebooking and tumbling about Kelsey Rottiers, Families, The Soil & The Sun, lowercasenoises, Karl Verkade, and many others. I think the future of the art world depends on the “consumer” not just consuming any more. It is more active than that. Consume, yes, but also share. Share what you love. You talk about your favorite movies or tv shows, why not discuss your favorite local musicians or photographers or writers?

What does the end result look like? I hope it looks like a real community built around the art that we love. Not in a pretentious, what-I-like-is-better-than-what-you-like sort of way, but in a way where we build a true community and share in life’s most beautiful things together.

I hope other people see art in that same way. I hope that you want that kind of community surrounding the art that you love- big or small. But it has to start with your attitude: are you simply a consumer, or are you a sharer?

Wilderlands

naal — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:29:00 -0600

Sorry I’ve been MIA recently. I just released my first full length album last week! If you’re interested in downloading it, you can find it at my new website, NaalMusic.com It’s “name your price,” which means, yes, you can name “free” as your price and pay a whopping $0 for it. So now you have no excuse to not download it. I’m excited for what’s ahead. I learned a lot making this record, and the followup will be 100 times better. I’m really excited to share this journey with you, and hope you don’t mind me indulging in a little self promotion. I promise it won’t happen very often.

Word,
-Dave

My Favorite Films of 2012

naal — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:00:42 -0600

It’s awards season! Here’s my list of favorite films from this year.

Note: This is not a list of my “Top” movies of 2012, which I would base on completely different criteria. This is simply a list of the movies I enjoyed the most this past year, and so I wanted to share that with you in the event that you were worried about it or couldn’t sleep at night without knowing. Thank you for your time.

10. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit was really destroyed by the critics. I don’t really know the reason. Peter Jackson was implementing a lot of new technology in the first part of a trilogy. The first time I saw the movie (standard 2D) I was a little anxious because I didn’t know where they were going to end the film, so it felt a little overlong to me. The second time, though (HFR3D), I was able to relax and enjoy the film as it was intended to be seen. I don’t think the HFR will be the “future of film,” but I think it’s neat tool. The movie itself was still my least favorite of the Peter Jackson LOTR series films. I didn’t like that most of the creatures were CGI. But I still enjoyed the film, and had a good time going with my family!

9. I Am Not A Hipster

The only reason this movie popped up on my radar is because it was selected for Sundance. I happened to see the name on a list somewhere and though, “That is a hilarious title!” So I searched and got my hands on a copy. Man, what a fun movie! It was a little embarrassing that I related so much to this film (it was like my college experience wrapped up in a movie). A lot of the conversations in the movie about art or music are conversations I’ve had over the years- almost verbatim. It was creepy. The movie is about the application of art and music in life to help overcome loss. I dig it a lot.

8. Wreck-It Ralph

This was by far my favorite animated film of the year. It was surprising to me that this year Pixar (Brave) had the “Meh” film and Disney pulled out the stops for a fun, nostalgic, family feature. The story is good, the animation was nice (though simple), the characters were hilarious. Definitely a winner.

7. Safety Not Guaranteed

This was another indie surprise for me. When I got my hands on it I didn’t exactly know what to expect. But I was blown away by the sheer originality of the whole thing. It feels like a much better acted (and lovable) Griff The Invisible, with a better ending twist.

6. Jeff Who Lives At Home

And another indie. Let it be known that I love Jason Segel. The man can do no wrong in my eyes. Basically, this is a film about the meaning of life. If you haven’t seen Signs… You might not get it.

5. Silver Linings Playbook

“A chick flick?!” you say? Not quite. This is the moment where I (and a lot of the world) finally realized that these two stars were actually actors. I’ve never been impressed with Bradley Cooper or Jennifer Lawrence before seeing Silver Linings. But they blew me away. They play amazing crazy people! But more than that, it’s a really interesting commentary on mental health in America, as well as a cute love story. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

4. Indie Game (The Movie)

Indie Game is a documentary that came out at the beginning of the year. I think you can watch it on Netflix now for free. You might be thinking that this movie is about videogames. Well stop right there! Because, although the subject matter is independently created videogames, the movie is really an amazing commentary on the fears, insecurities, and strengths of the art world. It’s amazing, and should have been nominated for an Academy Award. But because it was about videogames and not gay rights, it slipped through the cracks. (Note: not saying anything about gay rights other than it’s more marketable right now than videogames. I thought How To Survive A Plague was great. Stop judging me).

3. This Is 40

Judd Apatow’s best work to date, in my opinion. I find his view of life very interesting, and it hits me right in my melancholy-funny bone every time! This Is 40 is a depressing and annoying look at upper-middle class white suburban America. Very real, and definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. I thought it was great.

2. Lincoln

I was blown away by this biopic. I don’t usually get into historical cinema. But Lincoln outdid itself. Sure, some of it was made larger than life (slightly) for Hollywood. But the performances capture you and don’t let you go. The essence of a political climate more divided than our own rings true. And the message of abolition is one that still needs to be heard in our world today. I loved this film.

1. Avengers

If you read this blog regularly, it probably comes as no surprise that Avengers is my top pick of 2012. I saw this movie 5 times in the theater. 5 times! I have never done that for any movie. Ever. I just cant explain how much I love what Marvel is doing cinematically. I’m a fanboy, sure. But do I care? Nope.

Sound City

naal — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:00:47 -0600

Ben Sharp aka Cloudkicker wrote this blog about the new Dave Grohl documentary Sound City. I’ve been interested in seeing this film for a while, and when I read Ben’s commentary, I really wanted to share. So here it is. Enjoy:

“Last night I had the pleasure of watching the new Dave Grohl documentary Sound City. I have a lot of respect for Dave, and the film is a superb chronicle of the end of an era as told by the people that were directly responsible for it and in the midst of its rise and fall. But there were some things that bugged me.

In the latter half of the film we are shown its creators attempting to rekindle the flame that was Sound City. To them, this concept is the embodiment of pure talent and creativity. Sound City is a place where whatever goes into the microphone is what gets imprinted onto the tape at the other end, and if that can humble people like Tom Petty then you had better be sure that you have the chops to pull off whatever it is you’re trying to pull off long before you step foot in the studio. “Learn your instruments” is a commonly uttered phrase. The film is a laundry list of people that did exactly that and became enormously successful as a result. People like Rick Springfield, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, John Fogerty, Trent Reznor, Josh Homme, Paul McCartney, and of course Dave Grohl (many, many others are introduced throughout the film and during the credits).

All of these are names legendary for their talents, but with the exception of Trent Reznor, how long has it been since any of them were anywhere near the leading edge of the industry? What’s so inspiring about seeing has-beens hash out mediocre songs that wouldn’t even have been popular at the height of their success? Why am I meant to think that unless I record into a $300,000 mixing board (adjusted for inflation) and onto 2 inch magnetic tape that somehow the sound that ends up coming out of whatever speakers I’m listening to doesn’t get to be in the same category as yours? For a film that makes a point of constantly reminding us that imperfections are nothing to be ashamed of, it’s a little strange that the equipment they choose to make music with is worth more than my house.

I understand nostalgia, and nostalgia is a good thing. Having warm feelings about a certain time in your life means that you’ve had a life worth having warm feelings about, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But has everyone in this film forgotten how expensive analog recording was? Just the tape itself is more than $200 per reel. And that’s not even touching the cost of the reel-to-reel machine it sits in, or the microphones you record through, or the mixing board you record onto, or renting the studio you record in. Butch Vig remarked about how crazy it was that Nevermind was recorded on a budget of “only about $60,000”. The world switched to digital recording because it COSTS LESS, I mean orders of magnitude less! So much less that I can record my own music for the cost of guitar strings, and so easy to produce that I can mix and master my own tracks on my days off.

Alas, I am not going to become a millionaire making music. But was I ever? Am I a potential superstar that has been stifled by the current economic landscape of the music industry? Absolutely not. Music was never something I wanted to make a career out of, but it was always something I had fun doing. I don’t like touring and I don’t like soliciting, but most of all I don’t like my odds. I don’t like the idea of scraping by indefinitely with the vague hope that someday if I keep writing and keep booking shows that maybe I’ll play to the right crowd on the right night and then my life will officially begin. So what would I have been without this tectonic shift in accessibility? I would have been some guy that plays guitar. I’m not saying this because I have had such a tremendous impact on the music scene, in fact I’m almost saying the opposite. I’m asking you to look at the aggregate, think of what would have been the unseen, think about all the music that is created by people like me and then think about how it would be if we had all just kept playing our guitars in our rooms instead of instantly being able to share it with whoever wanted to listen. I can think of at least a dozen great albums I would have never heard.

Trent Reznor has a great line that despite the incredible democratization of the distribution of music in the past 10-15 years, we are not inundated with astounding music. While the specifics of his claim are open to debate, the sentiment is spot-on: You still have to be good at making music to get noticed. People still have to love something about what you do in order to feel like it’s worth investing either their time or their money in your talents. The bane of the creative marketplace is the half-asser, the fraud, or the hype-man. Now, maybe more than ever, if you want to stay relevant, you have to be amazing. This isn’t something to be lamented, it’s something to be celebrated! We are all far richer in choice and in quality than we were at any time during the reign of the old cultural gate-keepers.”

Living In The Tension of the Lifeboat Mentality

naal — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:00:39 -0600

I saw this quote of Morgan Freeman saying that the way to end racism is to “stop talking about it.” (said on a 60 Minutes interview in 2005)

I think that’s a great sentiment: if we all just started looking at each other as human beings, not as black or white or whatever, that racism would just go away. However, the reality is that discrimination and racism will never go away; not outside of the Kingdom of God.

In his book, Searching for God Knows What, Don Miller talks about this analogy of a life boat. He assesses that the whole world believes it is in a life boat, and we’re sinking. The only way to keep the life boat from sinking is throwing some of the people off of the life boat. This is where our bigotry, racism, and other kinds of discrimination is born. If we can say, “I am better, or of more value than this other person” based on the color of our skin, our sexual orientation, our religion, our political alignment, or whatever it is, it puts us in a better position to stay on the life boat while the other, inferior people are thrown out. This is the idea that society has drilled into us since ancient times: Us vs. Them.

But then things get interesting. Jesus comes to earth. God wrapped up in a man. And Jesus takes us aside and reveals to us that there is, in fact, no life boat. We are on solid ground. No one needs to be thrown overboard. And that’s not an easy revelation for most people, because it is so hardwired into our being to be self preserving, because of the lifeboat. But that life boat has no place inside the Kingdom of God.

Don says, “In my opinion, if you hate somebody because they are different from you, you’d best get on your knees and repent until you can say you love them, until you have gotten your soul right with Christ.” And that, friends, is the only way discrimination will end.

The reason conversation about these issues is so important right now is because they are still a reality in our world. Racism and bigotry didn’t end with MLK and the Civil Rights movement. Slavery didn’t end with William Wilberforce or Abraham Lincoln. These evils still live and thrive in our world, in our country, in our neighborhoods. And that’s why we need to talk about them.

MLK said, “Evil only succeeds when people do nothing.” That goes for conversation as well. If we simply chose to treat these issues like they don’t exist, or try to will them out of existence through our ignorance, the evil will triumph because we’ve done nothing to stop it.

Andrew Marin posted this week a video of a talk he gave recently. If you are unfamiliar with Andrew’s work, he runs a bridgebuilding organization called The Marin Foundation that seeks to be a mediator between the Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Transexual (LGBT) community and the conservative (political and religious) community. Andrew mentions another quote by MLK in his talk, one that has inspired him and the rest of the Marin Foundation, “I must confess that I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly opposed violent tension my whole life, but there is a type of constructive, non-violent tension which is necessary for growth.”

See, I believe that there needs to be this tension when it comes to intense conversations like racism, like sexism, like slavery. No one likes to talk about these terrible things, and that they still exist. But we need to talk about them. We need to create action plans to end them. And we need to honor those who have gone before us and fought the fight first.

So let’s talk about it. Let’s bring it all to the table. Let’s get it all off of our chests. And as Jesus followers, let’s, together, lay it all at the feet of the cross and say, “I’m done with this.” I’m reminded of Macklemore’s song Same Love, “No freedom ‘til we’re equal.” And we’re not equal until we stop looking at our world as a lifeboat. We’re not equal until we see ourselves in light of the Love of God.

P.S. If you’re interested in watching that video of Andrew Marin (which comes highly recommended) the link is HERE.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

Book List 2013

naal — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 08:00:21 -0600

I got back into reading in 2012. When I was in grade school I used to read veraciously. I would have little 80 page chapter books that I would finish once a day. Then, in college, they MADE me read books veraciously. Which, unfortunately, turned into skimming books semi intently. I guess it left a bad taste in my mouth or something. But I rediscovered my love for reading in 2012. And for that, I’m grateful.

Some of my favorites from 2012 were:
Blue Like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What, by Don Miller
A Year of Biblical Womanhood, by Rachel Heald Evans
And The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning
I also reread The Way of the Pilgrim and The Hobbit, which were both just as good upon the second read. And I read the last Hunger Games book. That wasn’t bad.

This year, I have a huge list of books I want to get through. I want to make a list here and kind of update it periodically throughout the year. In case any of you care. So here’s my list as of January 2013, in no particular order. And here’s to a good year of reading!

Adventures in Churchland, Dan Kimball
Jesus Wants to Save Christians, Rob Bell and Don Golden
The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Stephen Chboskey
Faith of My Fathers, Chris Seay
Through Painted Deserts, Don Miller
Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright
Forgotten God, Chan
The Bhudist Catachism, Henrey Steel Oicott
Guy Fawkes, or A Complete History of the Gunpowder Treason of 1605, Thomas Lathbury
Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Unitarian Gospel, Minot J. Savage
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, John Meachem
Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson
Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin
Torn, Justin Lee
Pure Scum, Mike Sears and Reese Roper
A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren
Deep And Wide, Andy Stanley

Well, that’s the list as it stands right now. It’s a tall order, but I’m going to do my best to limit TV and movies for a while and dive into good ol’ fashioned book reading. Like I said, I’ll periodically update the list as I read things or find new books that I want to read.

Got anything you want to nominate for the list? How about your own lists? I’d love to see what you guys are reading. Thanks for reading. We’ll see you next time.

-Dave

"Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that..."

naal — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:00:25 -0600

“Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something. It’s basically a license to proudly emote on a somewhat childish level rather than behave like a supposed adult. Being a geek is extremely liberating.”

- Simon Pegg

Tunage Tuesday: BTV With Karl Verkade

naal — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:10:56 -0600

It’s Tuesday!

I have this great interview with ambient guitarist extraordinaire Karl Verkade that I want to share with you. Unfortunately, the video file got corrupted. But fear not! I am taking the time to transcribe the whole interview for your viewing- er, reading pleasure! Because I’m just that great.

If you’re unfamiliar with Karl’s work, you can check out his music while you read, and also bookmark his blog right here. So, without further ado, here’s the interview transcript:

Me: Hey, man. What’s up?

Karl Verkade: Not much, man! I just downloaded Skype… I didn’t realize FaceTime and Skype were different things.

*laughter

Me: There ya go…

*small talk

Me: So I’ll just do a quick intro and then we can get going.

KV: OK!

Me: Welcome back once again to BTV! Today I’m here with a very special guest, someone who I have been reading from for a long time and finally get to talk to; with us today is musician, blogger, film scorer Karl Verkade! … Is that how you say your last name?

KV: That is, actually, yeah.

Me: YES! Nailed it… I should have asked that before we started. But, uh, it’s good to have you, Karl. Thanks for being here.

KV: It’s good to be here!

Me: Awesome. I have a couple things I want to talk about… You are involved in a lot of things musically, and so one of the first things I want to talk about is something that’s happened recently that I’ve seen from afar- and I haven’t been able to view it yet- but your music was just featured in a film, right? Full length, in theaters, like, real deal…

KV: Yeah, like an actual… An actual movie! Which is kind of weird. But yeah, it’s super indipendent. It’s only playing in LA and New York and just, you know, just a few theaters here and there. But it was cool, there was like a premiere and so that was, like, a super weird experience… But we were, like, sitting in the theater and every time my music would come on I was expecting it to be just really different and it would be so obvious that it was, like, me, and not, like, professional, and so it was weird to hear it and be like, “Oh… I guess that kinda fits…” So… It was cool! It was a good experience.

Me: Awesome. And what’s the name of the movie?

KV: Broken Roads.

Me: Alright. And you got to go to the premier and everything? Like, red carpet?

KV: Yeah! Yeah. We were awkward there too. I went with my wife and… She was like, “I think we’re supposed to go on this” and I was like, “I don’t know… If we’re supposed to…” and so then we just went on it and posed for a bunch of pictures and I couldn’t figure out… I was like, they all must be thinking, ‘Who is this guy? I guess we’re supposed to keep clicking…’ So… It was fun. It was good.

Me: Right on. I haven’t seen you in any tabloids yet, so that’s probably a good sign.

KV: I think so, yeah.

Me: ‘Who Is This Man?!’

KV: Yeah!

Me: What was the writing process for that like? Was it different than other projects you’ve worked on?

KV: That one was a little different because I didn’t exactly write anything for that film. They found me on YouTube, of all places, and asked if they could use, like, 6 of my songs- it turned out to be like 40 minutes or something- they wanted that to almost be, like, the score.

Me: Wow.

KV: So it was weird to see songs that I had intended to mean, like, one thing, be playing over these other scenes- it was interesting. Like, I didn’t write it for that, you know?

Me: That’s an interesting thing about you playing post-rock, ambient, instrumental… and I play the same thing, and I’ve found it’s interesting to see how people interpret what you write. You could have something in your mind and it can be taken totally differently, as opposed to… Nikki Minaj… Or something.

KV: Yeah.

Me: It’s hard to misunderstand that.

KV: Right, right.

Me: Was it weird hearing your music in the theater?

KV: Yeah, yeah. I think it took me out of the film a little, because I was like, “Oh, I think that’s me!” or, “Oh, that’s not me.” or “Oh… That one sounds bad, I hope that’s not me!”

Me: Do you think you’ll do it again in the future if you’re given the opportunity?

KV: I really hope so! You know, what I’m really passionate about… I’ve always been in love with film, and that’s what I’d like to do is actually compose directly for film. The ones that I’ve composed directly for have been even more independent than this one, so mostly like, festivals and so… That’s kind of what I’d like to do. As far as, like, just different pieces that I’ve written being used in movies, I mean… Yeah, that too. It’s not quite as fun as, like, scoring exactly for the film, but, you know… I’ll take what I can get!

Me: Right on. So… Now that we’ve talked about that, I realized we just kind of jumped right in here… Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself and… You’re all over the place with music, so you can talk about that and just who you are and what you do?

KV: Sure. I guess… I’m an ambient guitar player, which really doesn’t mean a whole lot, you know, pretty much everybody does that now- you can… You know, they have apps that’ll do that. So… But I really enjoy that style and I really enjoy the soundscapes and the layers and stuff so, you know, even if there was no internet I’d probably be doing that stuff for fun by myself… Actually, I was probably doing that before there was internet. So… But I also play for my church, as well as other churches in the valley [California speak], and I also do a little bit of session work, as well as concerts and stuff and just kind of, you know, getting work where I can with that, um… So all of that together is kind of what I do musically. And the ambient stuff, you know, sometimes it’s for a film, sometimes it’s just releasing my own stuff and putting it on Bandcamp… Which… For anyone who doesn’t know what Bandcamp is, it’s like a godsend. It’s kind of where all the good music is now. I don’t even go to iTunes any more, except for maybe a few, choice bands. So.

Me: Cool. And you also have a blog on the internet.

KV: I do! I do have a blog.

Me: Which is another one of those things… Like, “Oh, I have a blog.”

KV: Yes. You have a blog… We have blogged… Yeah, I started that almost 5 years ago now. Um, and weirdly enough, because the church I was working for at the time, the pastor at the church was super into blogging and told all of us on staff that we had to have a blog. It was like a staff requirement. And I’m still not exactly sure… Why… It was a staff requirement? But I was like, “Alright.” So I started posting, like, one thing a week, something random, and then… People started reading it. Which I didn’t expect. At all. I was like, “Woah. Someone commented that’s… Not my mom!” It was just weird. So it kind of took off from there and sometimes it’s a lot of work, so sometimes I’ve tried to cut back and not post, or post super controversial things and basically kill the blog, but it just keeps coming back! It’s got a mind of its own now, so.

Me: That’s true! I know, for me, I found you on YouTube of all places. I think it was when I started getting into playing electric guitar- moving from acoustic to electric. I started watching videos of people and getting lost on YouTube and stumbled upon… It was probably one of your Matchless Amp videos, you know-

KV: Probably.

Me: And I thought, “Oh! These are really nice.” And somehow from that, ended up on your blog and found out, “Oh, this guy plays for church” or whatever… Turns out you were kind of a big deal!

KV: I don’t know about that…

Me: So I’ve been lurking ever since.

KV: Right on, right on. I read yours as well.

Me: It was a cool resource to find; this weird congregation of worship leaders and musicians, hiding in this far corner of the internet talking about, you know, the real heart behind worship, to gear, to cloning pedals. It’s been a cool resource. And I totally recommend it to anyone who watches [reads] this. It’s GuitarForWorship.com

KV: Yeah.

Me: I recommend it to church musicians… Or if you’re in to gear… There’s a lot of gear talk.

KV: There’s a lot of gear talk. Maybe too much gear talk.

Me: Eh. Neither here nor there… But anyway, back to your music. You’ve put out a couple albums this year- which is a feat! To say, “Yeah, I put out a couple albums this year…” and had a part in a film score… I really enjoyed both albums you put out this year. I really really liked Water, which is probably the weirder of the two to connect with… The difference between the two albums, one is more ambient or drone, and the other is more post-rock, or experimental… You cover a lot of ground, musically, and so I was wondering if you could talk about the differences in recording, or writing, or where the process takes you…

KV: Yeah… It’s interesting. I think the first one I put out, Dreams, was more interesting to write than the drone stuff, because I’m able to actually write a piece or tell a story, and a lot of that was written for a film- a film called Semblance. It hasn’t… It keeps getting delayed. It hasn’t even come out yet. So a lot of that was written with the film in mind. I talked with the director and he, you know, had different images he’d send me from the film, and different feelings he wanted to create. So, you know, I usually start with a feeling, and then try and express that feeling through music. A lot of times it even makes that feeling stronger in myself. The feeling and the music they kind of go on top of each other and they build… And that’s, for me, a really interesting way to write. With Water… It was less interesting to write, but the end product… I’ll, at times, go for that one more than the other one. And I don’t exactly know why that is. Water kind of came out of… I’d recorded these “ambient pads” years ago. I had this little Fostex, like, 4 track that recorded to a hard disc, you know? And… Well, hang on, let me start at the beginning. So, I was playing in church, and I really wanted these keyboard sounds behind everything I played on guitar. So I made this second pedalboard. I, like, split my signal and ran it into this other pedalboard. There were like, 10 delays and like 5 phasers going in to another amp, and I thought it sounded great! I was very very young at the time… So then I heard some recordings, and realized, “OK, so that’s not as great as I had hoped…” So I came up with this idea that I would record my guitar doing this ambient stuff, staying within a key… For a lot of modern worship music- and modern music itself- you’re not doing a lot of “dim7” chords, you stay within the key, and it sits in the background. And it ended up working! And I ended up getting requests, people wanted to have those, to do the same thing and run these things off of their iPod or… Their Fostex recorder or whatever. And so I did a new recording once I actually got into Apple and, you know, you can actually do things and not have to rely on ancient technology. And so I recorded those and, you know, I’ll give them away free to churches, or you can purchase them, but those were the ones that everybody just kept requesting and kept requesting, and to this day keep requesting. And I got to a place where my musical abilities had… Progressed from when I had originally recorded those things and I was like, “OK, I really don’t want to be giving these out any more…” I mean, if you listen to them, I hadn’t even hit on stereo yet, in recording. They’re all just straight up mono. So I really wanted to redo them and update them. And so that’s where Water came out of. You know, people were saying things like… You know, I meant for them to be used behind a band setting, and people were like, “Oh, we use them for prayer services.” and I’m like, “… Really?! Doesn’t that get boring? I mean, there’s nothing happening!” So I was like, OK. I have to make some new ones that will work for both, where they’re actual compositions, you know, so there’s a little more interest going on… And the end result is something I really like. Like I said, it’s not exactly as fun to record them, but eventually I get lost in the recording and I think some good things happened that I didn’t expect.

Me: Definitely. And that was definitely one of my top 10 albums of the year. I like it a lot. So we talked about the old school, like, 4 track, but now you record a lot of stuff “live,” like, right out of the guitar, into the computer, is that right?

KV: I do. Actually, everything I record is either my voice or my guitar- acoustic or electric- mic’d up from the amp, into a tube preamp, and then right into the computer. And I do get a lot of people asking me, you know, what my recording gear is because they appreciate the sounds of it, and then I tell them what it is… And a lot of times they don’t really like the answer… I don’t know why. But that’s pretty much all it is.

Me: That’s really cool. I know a lot of people can get lost in the gear aspect of recording… And it’s like, “Oh, well, I have all this gear for my guitar, but when I record, I want to have all of this other stuff…” Preamps, compressors, all that stuff… It’s good to see that simplicity works. Sometimes… But of course that’s all coming out of the “pedal armoire,” so…

KV: Yeah, and that’s the thing, too, is you can choose to have all of your gear… Post… Or pre. And I guess all my gear is pre. And I guess once I got that sound I don’t really want to touch it much. I just want things to faithfully reproduce it. But then there’s other folks who get great results by, you know, they’ll sing a vowel sound into the built in mic on their Mac and then go crazy with post effects and create this huge thing and I’m like, woah. That’s crazy… I guess it’s just different approaches.

Me: Have you ever played out? Like, your ambient stuff, other than church?

KV: Umm… Yes. Just a couple. I haven’t quite found where that market is for like… One dude like… Droning out some notes and then looping some more notes on top of it. I haven’t quite found that niche. It’s one of those things where like, I think it works really well on YouTube, you know, when people are wanting to relax or they’re wanting to engage mentally with music, or cerebrally or whatever. As far as playing out somewhere where not a lot of that’s happening… It’s not a real community, like, fun, ‘Let’s go hang out and listen to the sad, post-80’s, dystopian music for like, 2 hours.’ I used to do some of it in bands, like I would create ambience within the band, and then of course you have some more stuff going on. It was before post-rock was really big, but we had some post-rock-type elements. So that would work and people would actually be able to move around a little bit. I don’t know if I need to find the New Age club or something, where all people want to do is sit around and chill to that stuff, but I do play out every once in a while with that. And I’ve been meaning to get into- there are these guys who will do, like, night shows over Skype or YouStream or whatever, and, you know, anyone can connect with them and then, in the quietness of your own home you can, you know, go to sleep to the music or just connect on your own when it’s not a night out. So that’s something I’ve been meaning to get into, it’s just… I’m not really good enough at technology yet. Like, I thought I was Skyping right now and I’m not [we were on FaceTime]. So I need to get more in to that.

Me: Right on. I didn’t even know that was a thing, so I’ll have to look into that too. So, let’s take a step back from the music and let’s talk about the blog, because that’s another huge internet presence that you have. We’ve already talked about the origin a little bit, so I guess I want to ask: where do you see that fitting? I mean, you’ve even mentioned it’s kind of evolved into this weird thing… More than you posting once a week because your boss told you to. So where do you see it now, and where do you see it going?

KV: You know, I don’t know. Part of me is at the place where I feel like everything I post I’ve posted before and I’m just rehashing other things. And some of the stuff that I’ve been passionate about as of recently, has been a little more on the controversial side. You know, such as pedal cloning and stuff like that where I’m like, “OK, how much of this do I really want to put out there?” But I do want to write about what I’m passionate about. I think I’ve been becoming more passionate about music and less about gear. About actually playing music. About taking that gear, which is a good jumping off point, but then using it to crate music that can display some attributes of God, that can glorify God, that can speak to peoples’ lives. So I’ve actually been thinking of jumping off of GuitarForWorship and leaving that what it is, and creating a new avenue that really celebrates life and celebrates seeing God through art and through life. And it might be one of those things that’s so niche that I’ll be stoked if there’s like 5 readers a month or something, but it’s what I’m passionate about. And I guess my passion has been moving away from, you know… Does the JRC4558 chip sound better or does the RC4558… Which is great, and I had a lot of fun with that for a while and… Now that I’ve said that, now I’m wondering… Dang, gotta do another pedal shoot out!

*laughter

KV: But maybe moving toward life and God and love and all that. And some of that will come out in GuitarForWorship but I really want to do it more in a focused way. So we’ll see what happens with that. I may start some of that on GuitarForWorship and if there’s a good response to it, if people seem to… If it seems like it’s helping and it’s reaching people and serving people, maybe I’ll just keep it there. But if the response is like… “SHOW US ANOTHER KLON DEMO!” or something… “STOP WITH THE FILMING OF THE OCEAN!” Then I may switch to another medium.

Me: That’s really cool. I’m excited to see where that goes in the future.

KV: Yeah, me too!

Me: That kind of moves us into the last thing that I wanted to talk about. You’ve been writing about worship leading for a long time. How long have you been a worship leader?

KV: It’s been my profession since… 2008 I think? And then I interned for a couple of years before that. So I guess I started when I was 18 or 19, so that’s 9 years ago, and then somewhere there was interning, and from there it became my profession. So I don’t know. 5 years? 6 years?

Me: So a long time.

KV: It has been a while, yeah.

Me: So… I guess… I just have down here, “The future of church music and worship leading.” I’m trying to figure out how to put that nicely. Because I guess the… Sentiment in… Creative circles- and that even sounds arrogant. But I mean, people who want more for their art, or don’t fit into the Contemporary Christian- like KLOVE or whatever, I feel like there’s a searching for the next step, where can church music go from here? More than like, the Weekend Top 40 Countdown. Or more than- and nothing against these guys either- but like, Matt Redman, and Chris Tomlin, and Charlie Hall, who have been doing this for a long time, and dominate the genre, or area of worship music… Where do you see that going in 5 years, 10 years?

KV: You know, I don’t know where I see it going. I think where I’d like to see it go is I’d like to see a line drawn between worship music for just worshiping God through the outlet of music, and through leading a congregation in worship. Because right now I don’t think we have any line there. We’ve got “rock star worship,” and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, you know, but we have that and all of those songs that are written for, you know, an album, for the radio, for a huge stadium concert are also the songs that are expected to also reach an individual congregation who may be on the other side of the country, may have 15 people within the fellowship, or whatever, and these same songs are expected to reach them. I would like to see just more of a line be drawn with that, where a worship leader is able to serve the local church and the worship leader able to play songs that may not be as cool or as artistically driven, but they’re more so driven to allow the construction worker who just worked 60 hours that week and who has set aside this half an hour just to focus on God, to where it’s specifically tailored for him to be able to connect to God with that. But then at the same time allowing art in its own way to be glorifying to God and to worship him. Almost like we have our church music, which is written specifically for the congregation to be able to glorify God, and then we have this other music where as musicians, or people, or people who like music, it’s just an outpouring of our soul towards God, and maybe the lyrics are a little weirder or harder for a congregation to sing, but they’re not really meant for that. They’re meant for something different, because we’re also able to have this spot where we’re able to serve the local church. So I think that’s where I’d like to see it go. I’d like to see Christian music as a whole become a little bit less produced, a little more heartfelt, a little more… I guess, risks being taken, where, ‘I don’t know if this is going to get on the radio, but it is what I feel in my heart, so I’m just gonna go for it.’ which, among secular music, is usually where the best music lies, where in a risk, out of brokenness someone just wrote… And I’d love to see a whole other genre, where we have Christian Music, but then we have Worship Music, where the worship leaders are able to care more about people in the congregation being able to connect with and worship God than they are about anything else, any of the other distractions that can happen when we’re up there, you know, ‘Is my delay repeat set well enough where someone will hear this on YouTube and say, ‘Hey, that guy is better than Hillsong! I wonder if we should get him to come down to our church?” or whatever. I don’t want to be worried about that. I just want to be worried about serving them. So I’d love to see it turn back into… I think, what it used to be. I’d love to see it turned back into two separate generas, two separate things that can each glorify God in their own way.

Me: Very cool perspective. If you look back on your journey as a worship leader, who were the people that you were looking to and drawing inspiration from? And the followup question being: what advice would you give worship leaders now to be that kind of influence on the next generation?

KV: Interestingly enough… I don’t even think the guy leads worship any more, and he was never very famous, but there was a guy named Josh Shoults, and he just lead for a little college group I used to go to when I was really young and just getting out of high school. I’ve never seen a worship leader who’s been able to lead the congregation, but at the same time being almost next to invisible. Where you would find yourself going where he was going, but at the same time not noticing him whatsoever. I have no idea how he did it. I’ve never been able to do it, and I’ve never seen anyone else do it. So he was a guy I looked up to, and I don’t think I’ve heard him lead worship in, gosh, 7, 8 years. But I still think about that and still try and get to that place. As far as someone widely known, well, obviously a lot of my influence has been drawn from U2, as with 98.7% of every other worship leader out there. But musically, that style just works really well and sounds really good, but guys like Bono or Brandon Flowers from The Killers… You know, I was at a Killers concert, and I’ve probably written about this on the blog, but I was just struck by, you know, Brandon Flowers singing about a girlfriend that he had that looked like a boyfriend… You know, it’s just nonsense lyrics, but you’re sitting there watching him and you’re just enthralled because he’s just owning it, he’s believing the living daylights out of what he’s saying. Bono’s the same way. You come out of a U2 concert and all you want to do is join Green Peace or Amnesty International for the next few days and then you’re like, “Wait, I don’t even like this, what am I doing?” But I think that’s had a huge influence on me, where us as worship leaders, you know, we’re singing to our Creator, our Savior, and if that’s what’s in our hearts and that’s what we’re passionate about, how much more should we be owning those lyrics and just communicating that to the congregation. So I think those are the things that have really influenced me.

Me: And advice for current worship leaders?

KV: I would say… Just serve the congregation. There’s probably a 1 in a million chance that an exec from Capitol Record is sitting in your congregation… and if you go to a big church, I don’t know, maybe he is. But it’s even less of a chance that he’s looking to sign somebody… And I don’t mean that as in, all worship leaders are primadonnas, but just a lot of times, because I’ve been in this place too, of, sure, I’m playing for these hundred people, but how much more could I do for God if I were to get signed and play for thousands of people. So there’s a really small chance that you’re ever going to be able to reach people on that kind of scale. But there’s a huge chance, in fact, a 100% chance, that you can reach the hundred people that you’re playing for today, right now, 100% chance you’re going to make an impact on their lives, for good or for bad. So serve that congregation. Sing in keys that people can sing, whether or not they make your voice sound good. And 9 times out of 10 they’re going to make your voice sound better! Play songs that people know. If people are worshiping like crazy to Everlasting God and you’re sick of it, there’s a place for Everlasting God. I just think it’s such a sad thing, and I look back at some of my times of leading, and there are people who are coming to church and they just want to connect with God, that’s all they want to do, and I was too worried about other things that I did songs in such a way and my choice of songs and the way I carried myself leading that they weren’t able to worship and they weren’t able to connect with God. And that just hurts me to think back on that! So I encourage worship leaders now, especially younger worship leaders, to focus on their congregations. And that’s actually a whole other area of worship: worship is showing worth to God and so you’re showing it through music, but His greatest commandment is to love Him and then to love one another, and so you’re worship God by loving the congregation enough to allow them to worship as well.

Me: I almost don’t want to like… Go on from there. I just want to let it sink in. But we have to move on. In the last part of this interview, I just have a couple of questions that don’t have anything to do with anything. Just answer them off the top of your head. Don’t think too hard. It’s called The Lightning Round. Ready?

KV: OK.

Me: 80’s or 90’s?

KV: 80’s.

Me: Hotdog or hamburger?

KV: Neither! [vegan]

Me: Ketchup or mustard?

KV: Ketchup

Me: True or false… “Don’t bro me if you don’t know me.”

KV: …….. I have no idea. I think my age demographic is a little too high.

Me: You’re not that much older than me! Favorite book right now?

KV: Mere Christianity

Me: What’s in your CD player? Do you have a CD player?

KV: Radiohead, actually.

Me: Which album?

KV: Hail to the Theif

Me: That’s all I got.

KV: Alright!

Me: Thanks for joining me and for being open, man. I had a blast. Where’s the best place for people to find you online?

KV: Musically, probably Facebook. The blog is GuitarForWorship. Then there are a bunch of other things like Twitter and Youtube that I’ve forgotten about because I’m not good at technology and streamlining!

Thanks, Karl. And thank you for reading! We’ll see you next time.
-Dave

My Top Albums of 2012

naal — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 22:26:00 -0600

This has been a weird year for music. At least from my perspective. 2011 had loads of stand out records- records that are still new to me every time I pop them in. You had Bon Iver, M83, The Black Keys, Death Cab, Wild Flag, Gotye, St Vincent, all with killer records. 2012 had a lot of good records. For me, though, I felt like there was a lot of slumpage going on. Also, there was no red wiggly line when I just wrote slumpage… Meaning that’s a real word, folks. Anyway, there were some really good releases this year, but not many grabbed me in the way last years’ records did. Maybe I’m just growing more cynical. Maybe that just means 2013 is going to be another year of killer records. Who knows. But after much deliberation, I’ll bring you my top 10 list for 2012 so that, perhaps, you can find some good stuff to listen to that you didn’t know existed before. But first, a list of albums that didn’t make the list, but that you should still check out:

Honorable Mentions!

Vows (Kimbra)

OK, now this record came out late last year worldwide, but not until 2012 in the States… I really wanted to put it on my top 10 list, but I decided placing it here would just have to do. I wanted to follow the rules, after all. You probably know Kimbra from her lending of female vocals to the ever-covered Gotye smash hit, Somebody That I Used To Know. She’s that girl. Another Kiwi, Kimbra’s first full length album, Vows, is simply amazing. She has a quirky power and passion to her, and I can’t get enough of it. A great performer and songwriter, if you haven’t added this album to your library, you need to. Now.

Bear Hope (Kelsey Rottiers and the Rising Tide)

This one isn’t on the list because it isn’t a full length (again, stupid rules). However, this is one of my favorite albums this year. Kelsey is an indie artist that I just happened to meet one night at a show, picked up her album, and boy am I glad I did. I just featured her here on the blog, and have an extensive video interview with her where we talk about the album at length. So go check that out if you haven’t, and make sure you pick up Bear Hope, because it’s awesome.

Love This Giant (David Byrne and St. Vincent)

If you picked two of the most quirky, random, and talented people in music and told them to do an album together, you’d get Love This Giant. A mix of mostly a horn ensemble (!?!) and programmed drums, with David and Annie’s vocals over it, this album comes out of left field and doesn’t apologize. Complete with a crazy stage show experience, it’s definitely niche. But I loved it. Maybe you will too.

Death Album III (Dethklok)

I’m not going to explain why this is on here. If you know you know.

Some Nights (Fun.)

There is very little chance you haven’t heard most of this album on the radio. With something like 4 hit singles coming from the three piece in just under a year, Fun. has exploded into superstardom seemingly overnight. I really enjoy this album, despite it being a major hit and (arguably) overplayed on the radio. But you know what? I would rather have Fun. on the radio than Lana Del Ray or Miley Cyrus. So think about that.

Blunderbuss (Jack White)

Jack White’s first exploratory album as a single man, post White Stripes’ break up (which was a sad day for music, indeed). Jack shows us that he’s not done yet, though, with Blunderbuss. And for that, we thank him, and ask that he please give us some more, thank you very much.

“The Nexus” (Derek Webb and SOLA-MI)

I’m including this here because it’s not a real album. Thus the quotations. However, this year marked a release of both the Derek Webb album Ctrl and his side project’s self titled release SOLA-MI. Seemingly two separate releases (one an electronic album about the Singularity, the other about an addiction to technology, among other things), when spliced together, they create one “super album” which I affectionately dub The Nexus, though there’s no real official title, to my knowledge. What both albums lack alone they complete as a single unit. They become an amazing concept album. Check it out.

OK. now onto the top 10 list.

10. Bloom (Beach House)

Beach House is a pretty chill experimental rock band. There’s also something excitingly 80’s gothic-new-wave about them that I love. I’ve been listening to them for several years. They have this weird talent of taking these wonderful soundscapes and putting catchy beats on top of them and then taking a pop song hook and turning all of that into a chill new-wave-rock song. It’s really something. Bloom is a great, relaxing trip down ambience lane. And it sits here at number 10’s spot.

9. Port of Morrow (The Shins)

It seems like forever ago that I was listening to this album non-stop on some very long road trips. But it was just back at the beginning of the year when The Shins rocked us all with the release of their latest record- their first release in 5 years. Port of Morrow is catchy, emotional, dark, and has those melodic hooks that only The Shins can bring to the table. Sadly, I think the enthusiasm for this album died out early on, but I think it will be one that people keep coming back to over the years. It has the same longevity that Inverted World does, and for that, it’s at number 9.

8. What Wonder Is This Universe (The Soil and The Sun)

The Soil and The Sun end up on my year-end list once again. Universe is the maniacal undertaking of some of the most eclectic and creative musicians in the indie scene today. From the tribal-esque percussion (because Ben and gang don’t so much “drum” as they do “hit things in rhythm”) to the energetic vocals of the whole group, to the fuzzy, reverby walls of sound by the band, and the lyrical prowess, this is definitely one of the best rock albums of the year, mainstream or indie. And it hangs out at number 8.

7. Water (Karl Verkade)

Another indie release, most of the tracks on Water lie somewhere in the grey area between composition and drone. And that’s why I like it so much. Relaxing, lush soundscapes mixed with just enough motion to set each one apart from the other, and to keep the listening experience something that is always evolving with each play. This is the album I’ve listened to in its entirety probably more than any other on this list. It is something I will come back to again and again when I need a good drone album. This is the best one I’ve heard in a long time. And that’s why it splashes in at number 7. (See what I did there?)

6. Babel (Mumford & Son)

I wasn’t a real fan of Mumford & Son’s first album. It had some good tracks on it, but nothing that kept me coming back for more. Not so with Babel. I find myself coming back to this more developed, mature version of the folk-rock group. Something about this record just seems more secure than their debut, and I find a lot to like in this record. The search for spirituality and love, mixed with strumming patterns I will never understand, Babel worked its way into my heart, and into this spot here at number 6.

5. Gossamer (Passion Pit)

It’s been a while since Passion Pit released anything new. I remember late-night dance parties and long car drives filled with Chunk of Change’s melodic hooks and synthy beats in my later college years. So when Gossamer arrived on the scene several months ago, we all thought we knew what to expect. But we were all wrong. What I find in Gossamer is some wonderful, multilayered songwriting that transcends the facade of the poppy, electronic melodies and hooks to give light to a deep, masterful addition to the genre. Gossamer is equal parts “get-up-and-dance” and “lets-sit-and-talk-and-meditate-on-this.” And it’s works wonderfully, here at number 5.

4. Shields (Grizzly Bear)

I haven’t been a huge Grizzly Bear fan up until this point. But when I heard the opening riff on Shields, I knew I had something special on my hands. The American-folk influenced rock outfit combines both intricate melodic lines with ever changing atmospheres- going from something like early Fleet Foxes to stints reminiscent of Andrew Bird or M. Ward. This album stays fresh for me, and it’s something I will enjoy coming back to again and again. It’s my number 4 pick.

3. Fade (Cloudkicker)

Cloudkicker is weird because I don’t actually know whether to categorize this musical project of Ben Sharp as a “band” or not. Ben doesn’t play shows. He gives all his music away. And yet, here it is, my number 3 pick of the year. Fade is an incredible progressive, post hardcore journey that falls, stylistically, somewhere between his critically acclaimed album Beacons and last year’s Let Yourself Be Huge. It’s hard to describe the magic Ben uses in his melodies, taking the listener on an emotional journey of the mind through his masterful guitar licks and drum-sequencing genius. Just know that it’s good. It’s also free. There’s no reason you shouldn’t own at least one of his albums.

2. Fragrant World (Yeasayer)

Yeasayer has ever been on the fringes of the indie music world- not to be confined into one genre or scene. Since first being introduced to the strange group’s early work in high school, via bootleg CDs and pirated MP3s, Yeasayer has always fascinated me, but never quite captured my attention. That is, until the release of Fragrant World. Having settled on a kind of organic-progressive-house-minimal-electronic-something, Yeasayer smashed onto everyone’s radar, busting into Billboard’s top 50 with no apologies. It’s something you have to hear in order to appreciate fully the eclecticness of the dancy, earthy, psychedelic group’s latest record. I think it suffers from a serious case of misplanning when it comes to track order, but bar that, this is a fantastic record, and rightfully deserves the number 2 spot for this year.

1. The Heist (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis)

As soon as I heard The Heist I knew it would be my top album of the year. There is something purely magical about the work that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have put together. Busting out of the underground scene seemingly overnight (but it really wasn’t), this virtual unknown team hit Billboard at #2 their first week, only behind Mumford & Son. This is an R&B album. It’s rap. But it’s much bigger than that. Like the greats, Macklemore doesn’t care much for the typical idols of the scene: money, sex, drugs, cars… He says on his track Make The Money, “Of course I want doves and a candy painted ‘lac/But if that’s what I believe in and the reason that I rap/then Uncle Sam is my pimp when he puts me on the track.” Instead, the duo focuses on issues like materialism, gay rights, addictions, and corporate greed. Also thrift shops. This is an album about a lot of things. It’s powerful. Ryan Lewis is an untouchable producer. Macklemore’s talent as a rapper is prevalent through the album. If you don’t listen to anything ever again, you have to get a copy of The Heist.

Merry Christmas. Thanks for another great year of blogging, everybody. Let’s do this again.
-Dave

Sometimes the music just gets me. It was a Monday night in a...

naal — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:33:36 -0600

Sometimes the music just gets me.

It was a Monday night in a small apartment in Chicago when I met Kelsey. She was playing a house show with several of my friends. I’d never heard of her, but talking with the band, found out I had lived near them in Michigan at one point. We traded names, do you know this band, these people? The music scene in the Midwest seems pretty small at times like these.

When they set up I grabbed a prime seat to take some pictures. I don’t think I moved from the moment they played their first chord. I don’t mean to gush even more than I did in the interview, but, what can I say, sometimes the music just gets me. This is one of those times.

Kelsey and her band released their second project recently, Bear Hope, which is an album with a message: people are being sold as sex slaves around the world, and it needs to end. And when I say around the world, I don’t mean around the world as in “over there.” It’s happening here, in our states, in our cities, in our neighborhoods. Kelsey explores that fact and asks some hard questions in Bear Hope, but not ever in a way that is preachy or over the top. Though some of it is hard to swallow (with a topic like this, that should be a given), the overall message of Bear Hope is just that: hope.

Check out my interview with Kelsey as we talk about the album, sex trafficking, tour, future projects, and a whole lot more! And that’s not all! I’m also giving away not just one but TWO copies of Bear Hope to some lucky people! The contest rules are just a little further down the page. Make sure you check it out. Who doesn’t like free music?! Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time.

WIN ONE OF TWO COPIES OF BEAR HOPE by KELSEY ROTTIERS & THE RISING TIDE!

Here are the rules (there are 5):

1.Go to my Facebook fan page (facebook.com/naalmusic), and “Like” that page.

2. Find the picture of Kelsey’s album, Bear Hope

3. “Like” that picture

4. “Share” that picture on your page (make sure you share the original picture so I can count you!)

5. The winner will be announced in the next interview! (The contest is considered ongoing until the winner is announced)

GOOD LUCK! And make sure you check out my video interview with Kelsey, too!

-Dave

God Must Be Crying...

naal — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 12:02:37 -0600

It’s pretty dark out right now. I’ve been just laying in bed, listening to the raindrops fall off of my roof and onto our neighbor’s truck that sits right next to my bedroom window. Every once in a while the wind picks up for a moment and rattles the wind chimes out there, too. I never got wind chimes until I moved to this house. I can’t tell you how many nights those things have lulled me to sleep with their sporadic, clinking chord.

It took me a while to realize that it was rain that I was hearing. Christmas is just 10 days away and, in my experience, you don’t really get rain this far north at this time of year. Nevertheless, I peeked out my blinds to see a steady drizzle coming down, melting the snow left over from last week’s fall, dark rainclouds hanging heavy and thick in the air. All in all a mix of melancholy, but also beauty since, like I said, this doesn’t really happen this time of year.

I remember as a child when I would ask the hard questions a child tends to ask, usually starting with a “Why” and ending in some deep, unquantifiable scientific or moral dilema put in only the way a child can. I imagine I was lied to a lot. Not lied to, I guess, but explained away. You know what I’m talking about: “Why is the sky blue?” “Because God made it that way.” “Why does that man walk that way?” “I don’t know, honey.” “Why is that girl crying on tv?” “Because she’s sad.” “Why does it rain?” “Because God is crying.”

As an adult now, I can understand the reason adults give those answers. Sometimes there is so much backstory to answer a question like, “Why is that girl crying?” you simply don’t care to or cannot answer a small child with those details. “Why is the sky blue?” Perhaps you don’t even know the answer yourself! But are you going to let a child know that? Absolutely not.

Once I realized it was raining this morning, I continued to lay sleepily in my bed, lazily contemplating the significance of this abnormal weather pattern. “Why does it rain?” I turned on my favorite drone album as I began to contemplate- slowly gaining awareness, but still not really leaving my bed except for when I checked out the window to verify whether it was actually raining. It was.

‘God must be crying.’ I thought to myself.

I know I had been. Memories of the past 24 hours came flooding back in an instant. The Twitter feeds, the tearstained drive home from work, the hours spent flipping between CNN and MSNBC and ABC, alone in my basement. More tears. More social media feeds. People lashing out due to what I perceived as confusion and fear. Images of mothers in hysterics as they found out that they would not be able to hold their child tight and tell them they loved them one last time. Hearing the stories of the teachers, those brave teachers, huddling their kids in corners and closets and telling them that they were loved, thinking it would be the last thing they ever heard. Then seeing the President take to the podium, unsuccessfully fighting tears, working hard to keep his voice from wavering, expressing the sorrow of a nation. My heart was in pieces.

‘God must be crying.’

Someone said yesterday, “I think the whole country needs grief counseling.” I watched as newscasters lost their cool, breaking down on live television. Anderson Cooper, a white light in all of this, boldly stated at the start of his show last night, “We do not want history to remember this shooter. We want history to remember the victims.”

It was sad to start to see the shift in people’s comments on that fickle mistress that is social media. As the hours went on, the tide turned from “prayers” to criticism of everyone and everything. “Now is not the time for talking about gun control!” some said. “You’re right! That day was yesterday!” others quipped. “Guns don’t kill people.” “Guns aren’t the problem.” “Guns are absolutely the problem!” “We already have strict gun laws in our country!” “It’s my God given right!” “Should we outlaw cars too?” “Jesus said I’ve come to bring a sword, not peace!” It all made me very nauseous.

‘God must be crying.’

There was a part of me that just wished that Jesus would come down and take care of the issue Himself. You know, set the record straight. “OK, Lord, when You said you came not to bring peace but a sword, but then later you said that those who live by the sword die by the sword, which one of those did you actually mean? Because we’re a little confused down here.”

But God was silent.

And so we went on arguing. Arguing over everything. “Should Wal-Mart be selling uranium?” “Guns are awesome!” “Shouldn’t we be praying instead of talking politics?” “The president should man up.” “If you argued for guns today, you are one of history’s losers.” “The issue is sinful man, not guns.” On and on and on.

And as we fight I fear the picture of what we are fighting for gets more clouded until it’s finally lost, just like all the others. Sandy Hook Elementary School. A Sikh temple in Oak Creek. A theatre in Aurora. Hundreds more. Dead now. Not to mention the corner boys and gang bangers in our cities that use gun violence as a way of life. Somehow, I guess, we deem those losses acceptable; just part of the American dream, I guess.

God must be crying.

Now is the time for mourning. Now is the time for sadness. But mourning and sadness are not enough. As leaders, as the radicals, as the revolutionaries, it’s our job to be not only the heart, but also the voice of our people. And so I want my voice to be counted. I don’t want to argue. I don’t want to fight. I want to lift up the broken and demand that this is the last time.

I believe that this is a deep rooted issue in the human condition, left to fester in the leniency of American culture for generations. We are a country founded on bloodshed and violence, and that runs deep in our veins. I do not believe that America will ever see a prohibition on guns. I don’t think that it’s constitutional, nor is it practical. I also do not think that stiffer gun control laws alone are going to solve very much. This is a multifold issue, like any major political struggle, but for the lives of our children and our children’s children, for our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers, we should be taking up the fight to end these kinds of tragedies once and for all in this nation.

I believe there need to be stricter gun regulations on households. We know that in many of these recent cases of violence in our country the shooters did not even own the guns they used. When we have 88 guns to every 100 people in this country, we are asking for problems like this. There is no reason for someone to gain access to automatic or semi-automatic weapons and kevlar vests that don’t even belong to them. That kind of stuff is on the people who are careless with their guns in the first place. If you are careless or thoughtless with the guns you own, you shouldn’t be allowed to have them. The USA has the most lax gun regulation in the developed world by far, and we have an exponentially high homicide rate to show for it. Things need to change.

I believe another integral part of the puzzle is affordable and accessible mental health care and counseling. There should be no chance of someone dealing with mental issues feeling like their only option is to take a gun and solve their problems by acting out in violence. They should have professionals that they can talk to that are trained in this and that can spot signs of distress before it comes to innocents being harmed or killed.

Along with that, awareness of mental health is another important step. If you don’t know you or your loved one needs help, you’re not going to get it. And it can end violently. We see this all the time.

There need to be stricter laws on the illegal sale and possession of weapons in our county. 1 in 6 people in our prison system is there for reasons to do with marijuana. When nearly 1/3 of gun sales in the US are happening illegally, our city underbellies are thriving on a culture of violence, often utilizing children, and mass murders taking place at such a rapid pace, why on earth wouldn’t we be cracking down on illegal sale and possession of weapons as opposed to people smoking weed? We need to seriously reevaluate our priorates.

We need to keep in mind why this is important to talk about. This isn’t about ‘getting my way’ or ‘my civil liberties under fire’ any more. This is about our families. Our children, for God’s sake. This is about taking a stand and saying, “I know what the cost is, and I’m not willing to pay it any more.”

I remember sitting in a Sikh temple a few months ago and listening to the pastor of the Unitarian Universalist church say to the family of those that had been murdered in Oak Creek, “We are here to support you because, in our hearts, we all know it could have been us. It could have been our house of worship. It could have been our family. It could have been us.”

Now is the time for mourning. Now is the time for sadness. But mourning and sadness are not enough. I want to lift up the broken and demand that this is the last time. I’m not willing to wait for another Aurora or Sandy Hook. I’m not willing to wait until it’s my family and friends. This is the last time.

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look..."

naal — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 21:12:05 -0600

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”

- Fred Rogers