Some people work their whole lives at their craft. They dive deeply into it, and live and breathe it, but if they’re too anonymous, when they die, their name goes with them. Relegated to a tombstone in some small-town cemetery. Then there are people like Jack Foley, who was so influential that his name became …
Anyone who has lived near a drummer can tell you…drums are loud. When a drummer is practicing, everyone knows it. And drums are not exactly a low-maintenance instrument to travel with either. So why do we put up with it? Because when it comes down to it, the drum set is probably the most important …
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Making money from music. That’s one of the most popular, and vague, dream jobs I hear about. I’m not exactly sure why, but there’s just something so glamorous and compelling about the very idea. After all, the vast majority of musicians out there are just doing it as a hobby, or as an outlet. And …
Anyone who has ever been in a band knows that, for better or worse, the vocals are the star the music. Of course, there are bona fide rock star guitarists, bassists, and drummers but there’s a reason that John Fogerty has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the rest of Creedence doesn’t. …
I hear there are some artists who are content to slave away in obscurity. To create great art that precious few ever get a chance to experience. To chase their artistic vision, keep it pure, and never worry about whether anyone else understands it. But who wants that? If you’re here, reading this article, then …
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Metal is a genre of delightfully confusing self-contradictions. How can such aggressive and abrasive music simultaneously feature some of the most delicate and virtuoso musicianship? How can someone who goes by Corpsegrinder act so lovably domestic while shopping at Target? My theory is that metal musicians and fans alike, are proud of the fact that …
The envelope filter is one of my most recent and exciting musical discoveries. I’m a multi-instrumental producer, and every day I layer guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, percussion, and vocals while working on song arrangements. Gradually, my sonic palette started to feel stale, limited, and a little bland. Meanwhile, I had always been aware of the …
Is there a type of music with more debate over genre labels than EDM? I’d estimate there are ten thousand EDM genres at this point. As soon as a track invents a new genre, somebody gets on Twitter to complain that the second track in that genre is not truly of that genre. Maybe there …
Eddie Van Halen owes a bigger debt of gratitude to the humble archtop guitar than he probably realizes. The very idea of a guitar hero, of a guitar solo, of “shredding”, can be traced back to the jazz box, and to understand this lineage, some music history knowledge is useful. In the first decades of …
Glitch hop music is a relatively small niche genre, itself a subgenre of glitch music. But it is part of a larger movement that I personally find fascinating: turning mechanical distortion into beautiful art. All musicians should read this amazing Brian Eno quote (you know, the guy that pioneered ambient music) that really captures the …
