Expensive toys and exploration of noise

Hello everyone,

Today I thought I'd take you through my set up a bit and probably grab the opportunity to talk about my influences and writing as well.

A couple of months ago I purchased my first technical piece of equipment that I intend to use live. I've toyed about with electronic music before, mixing it with a kind of indie style, and actually have some songs of that genre that I'm really proud of. But this was just messing about with an old keyboard and some loops on my computer amongst other things, it was just for fun. My newest piece of gadgetry is the Vox VDL1 Dynamic Looper Pedal:

Behold it, in all its looping glory.

Basically it allows me to play a phrase on my guitar or sing a melody into my mic and the pedal repeats it. So I can play a rhythm guitar part and loop it and then play a melody over the top or build harmonious melodies on top of a beat. It opens up the harmonic and rhythmic possibilities of one person on stage and enables me to switch instruments mid-song. I have plans to include banjo and fiddle in the future as well as some percussion.

I'm still exploring the possibilities with the pedal and honestly I'm a little nervous about using it live. The hard bit is that if you play a bum note or screw up your phrase then that mistake will be repeated and would ruin EVERYTHING! Combining it with with a folk influenced style has been harder than first anticipated as well. I like to try and find new and interesting ways to mix melodies and chords in one guitar part, something that Jimi Hendrix pioneered on electric guitar, so instead of looping those parts I try to find more innovative things to loop through the pedal. The intro to one song on the EP, for example, begins with a surging cacophony of noise which descends into the first chord. It's really exciting when you find a whole other way of thinking about using the pedal and song-writing in general.

From my experience, song-writing, and any other creative process, progresses by making continual realisations that you actually can do more than you thought you could. When you sit down to write a song you think to yourself "wow, I can make any sound I want" or "I can write lyrics about anything" but for me thoughts like that tend to make me feel like a small dot on a huge white expanse of 'freedom' and it feels a little daunting. I find it easier to start with your comfort zone and explore the edges to see where it can be expanded and played with. If you always write songs with only four chords then try writing one with a twenty. That kind of thing. And through the years, and it does take years, your artistic blinkers will slowly widen until you can imagine things that no one's ever thought of before. This is my favourite place.

Obviously everyone is influenced by the music they've grown up around but I think the trick is to take the best bits and mix them with your own ideas. Copying is illegal but recycling is completely natural. You can (or at least I can) definitely hear the Laura Marling in some of my songs or the Gillian Wesch/Jez Hellard authentic folk feel in others.

Alright enough music talk because, seriously, I could go on for pages. For those who don't quite get the loop pedal thing or just want to see it in action I'll be posting a video soon with a little jam on the pedal and maybe play some bits of the EP as well so look out for that.

Once again thanks so much for reading, I hope it wasn't completely incomprehensible but I do tend to go off on one when it comes to music. Until next time, friends.

NJ