Where I Am Now, And Where I Plan To Go.

What am I Doing?
Right now I'm on this belly dance music kick. There is form of belly dance originating in the United States I believe, called Tribal Fusion Belly Dance, and their music is amazing. It's usually made with electronic sounds, with a slow heavy base and creepy layering sounds. It's amazing. I wrote three songs in an attempt to create music that could be used for this dance style. And because I have a rather odd sense of humor I thought it would be funny to name them all after phobias. Some good arts to check out if you are unfamiliar with the music are, Pentaphobe and Maduro.

Where am I Heading?
I don't have a real defined goal in mind. I've never actually written my own music before. Right now I'm just thrilled to find that I can do it with some manner of success. But ideally I would like to keep on this track that I'm on, I really enjoy this music and I think it would be awesome to make more of it. Music around phobias is kinda my plan right now. I found this amazing list of phobias online, http://phobialist.com/#A-
So maybe I'll just work my way through that.

What Do I Want My Audience To Experience?
I want them to experience the music for what it is, an experiment, hopefully a successful one. I want them to hear the sounds and how they make the song, and hopefully understand how the music could be put into movement...also, I hope they get my humor with the phobia names. I also think it would be cool to play the music for some of the belly dancers I know and see if they think they could dance to it, or if I'm way off track and if so how to bring it back. Maybe I'll send the songs as files to my friend in Orono. See what her take on them is.

What Do I Want To Achieve?
I want to make music that people can dance to, specifically belly dance. I also want to be successful in creating music around a word that make sense. I love the idea of being able to write a piece of music around a word, making that word into a piece of music. I just really like that idea...so I would love to achieve a small collection of music centered around words...or more specifically the music representation of words.

Next Steps.
Obviously make more music. But to go into more detail.
1) send the music to my friend in Orono and see if she thinks she could dance to it and get any input/advice I can from her.
2) figure out Garageband more fully, so I don't have to spend as much time feeling my way through as I do now. I'm getting better each time I use it though.
3) Write more music, lots of it, even if half of it is garbage or super short.
4) Think about my final project for this class...and if I want to continue making music after this class ends.

Blogging About Blogs....

I read two blogs, one written by Chantal and one written by Vincent. And while I feel pretty ridiculous blogging about blogs. I did find their blogs to be interesting. Particularly Chantal's because it was interesting reading about Angels and Airwaves a band I do not really like through the lens of someone who enjoys them.
Vincent's was interesting as well, I enjoyed the part about the The Blow, a band that basically has a live performance similar to a Karaoke party. With this woman singing to her music being played through loud speakers. This image is just amazing to me.

Second Artist Blog

The artist I choice for my second blog entry is Jeffree Star. Here is a man who despite his many interviews never really gets asked anything substantial. All the questions where about make-up where he lived while he was growing up, why does he love make-up. The interviewers completely ignore any question on music style, or artist statement. They are completely and totally distracted by his pink hair. However, I was able to put together a little something about him from what measly information I could squeeze out of interviews and my knowledge of his music.
Jeffree Star grew up in Orange County California, moved to LA when he was 17, and has been sneaking into clubs with a fake ID since around 16 which is where he met many people and starting doing make-up for money. His first passion appears to be make-up, and it is clear in his many photographs on myspace that he loves to do himself up. However, that is not to say that his music should be brushed off as a "side project".
Star tends to gravitate towards songs that sound like the belong in a club setting, with heavy use of machine generated sound in accordance with his vocals. Which despite his "feminine" appearance are quite varied, as I found out in the last few minutes of a three piece youtube interview that was other wise useless; where he screams hard-core style, it's really quite a sight to see. http//www.youtube.com/watch?=vIK4TsmhLQQ&feature=related
Star is also entirely self produced, showing the classic DIY punk attitude with a few twists when it comes to labels, "I'm not even trying to get signed. I mean, I am sure I will eventually. but for now there is need to" http://laist.com/2008/03/10/jeffree_star_interview.php
Which, is the closest thing to an artist statement I was able to find.
I think the reason I had such a hard time finding anything helpful to me about Mr.Star is two fold. One side being that he is an Internet sensation and is just now really breaking into the main stream, where he has been rather "underground" for so long. The second side being no one can seem to get passed his unusual image and ability to walk in heels most women shudder at to ask him any sort of deep question, past his fashion sense.
Which makes it really hard to write anything of meaning about him that reflects his view on what he does. But, I can still write about why I picked him. And, actually, the reasons why I picked him are identical to the reasons I picked the Dresden Dolls for my first blog.
I picked him for his gender bending qualities, is totally in your face look and yes, even his bright pink hair (which is now orange by the way, don't believe me check out is myspace, http://www.myspace.com/jeffreestar). Just like with the Dresden Dolls I am fascinated by people who break their gender roll, and even more fascinated by people's response to it. I also picked, just like the Dresden Dolls before him, for his in your face lyrics about topics that generally would be seen as to blatantly about sex and/or just uncomfortable. And with song titles like "We Want Cunt", "Straight Boys" and "Ice Cream" I'm sure you get the idea.
Also, as an added interest piece for me, Mr. Star has recently started his own label called Popsicle Records, which other than the myspace dedicated to it http://www.myspace.com/popsiclerecords also has little info out about it.
I'm not sure that Jeffree Star will have much of an impact on the work I do in this class, but I certainly admire his ambition and unapologetic fuck-you attitude.