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As mentioned before, Ron had a lot to say about the current state of music, creatively and business wise.  Ron and I shared the same wavelength in seeing that popular music has changed, and not really for the better. Read the rest of this entry →

This interview here is comin deep out the archives.

A while back I interviewed Ron Trent through my homegirl/cameragirl Eve. Admittedly, I’m not the most versed on House music and the scene, even though I was familiar with his name. How deep his roots run in music though, was way deeper than one could really imagine.

During this time Ron had just come from the New Music Seminar. This was during the point where there was a clear shift in the music sales and how music was being purchased. Spotify hadn’t come out yet and YouTube wasn’t quite the place to listen to full albums. It was clear from Ron’s perspective that there were going to be some necessary changes inside and out in order for the music industry to really flourish.  But that conversation will be in part 2….

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You know how you can tell when you’re dealing with a true, ambitious artist?

When they’re working on their craft even on their down time.

It took me a good while to get around to Elle’s interview. Life happens. When I got to catch up with her to get an update to keep her interview more current, she was doing a play in North Hollywood called Down Around Brown Town, a show based on James Brown hits. As she put it, she was off tour, didn’t like being idle, so decided to do a little musical stage play for fun. Who sings, dances, and attend rehearsals for something that most consider “work”?  When was the last time you did your craft just for the hell of it and for the practice, not just to be seen or for money?

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Some time ago when I started this site, I got an email from a friend. She suggested I interview her friend named Lauren. “Lauren is a great singer.”, my friend told me. She emailed me a link to her music, and I liked it!  And as it turned out, I was already following her on twitter!  As I read her twitter feed, I saw that she seemed to be in a new country almost every week. She wasn’t on a major label. I didn’t quite know how she was getting these gigs in all these stellar places for extensive periods of time. But as I caught on that she was touring, it became apparent that she was part of a LARGE tour. And boy was it large. She was part of Katy Perry’s tour!

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“Perfection is overrated.” -@MarisaShelby

That quote is so short and simple. Only three words. But to me, it speaks volumes of the society we live in today.

It reminds me of my interview with Ndugu Chancler, a drummer who played with many well known perfectionists like Miles Davis. Miles was known for cutting into people’s souls before he might fire them from his band. Ndugu also worked with Michael Jackson, one of the best known perfectionists in the world. And as he talked about today’s music production culture, where we use computers to make facsimiles of sounds and tempo, he said those computerized rhythms create a “pacemaker pulse”. It’s always right on time. No movement. And as he said “Everyone’s heart skips a beat at some point.” Read the rest of this entry →