Alone

Alone, my eyes drift
Across barren fields
Snow filled
A cold harsh wind
Trees creaking
As I imagine my bones

This is the winter I remember
As a child,
A desolate and vast playground
Ever changing
Ever calling
Whispering answers
First a sweet gentle kiss
Later as a hammer to trembling toes
Remember, remember
Remember my name

And now,
Lifetimes later,
By the fire,
A glimmer
And I almost do.

Alone,
my eyes close.

I Binged on Led Zeppelin and survived to tell the Tale

I’ve just come off of a 10 day Led Zeppelin fast, or, as a fan at one of my gigs mentioned, more of a binge. 162 songs over 12 records. A number of the tunes repeated themselves on the live recordings and the remastered “Mothership”. My first impression after I started my little experiment was that these guys had the freedom to make the music they wanted to make. Over the days of listening I became absolutely convinced of this. I suspect that it was the band alone that decided what was good and what was not. Another aspect that had not occurred to me before was the growth one could hear throughout their career. Every record seemed to be a progression of what came before with an evolution of sounds and ideas. Did everything work equally well? Not necessarily if you were listening for only “hits”. Listening for artistic musical works I do believe they all work equally well on their own merits.

Another thing that become clear to me was the importance of all of the band members. Firstly, they are clearly all fantastic musicians in their own right. They each had something to express musically and emotionally. Secondly, the synergy between them far exceeded what each might have done on their own. Each brought their own strengths to the group which was utilized to the fullest by all the other members.

I came to the band as a young teenager. Bonham had already passed and the first vinyl record of theirs I purchased from my hard earned paper route money was Coda. I couldn’t understand at the time why this incredible sounding band would call it quits. Couldn’t they have mourned for a time and then found a new drummer to carry on?? I hadn’t considered this in years, but listening to the recordings anew brought up the old question. Why didn’t they go on? It seems obvious to me now. What made them the band they were was each and every member. You could get someone to play all the drum parts musically and technically perfectly but you would never again have the chemistry, no make that alchemy, of the original four. This is a wonderful legacy to remember in this age of interchangeable pop stars and so called singers on the TV.

I was going to pose the question: what happened to popular music in the years following Zeppelin’s demise? I realize now that the question isn’t as important in the Internet era. We are all free to create, post and find an audience for our work. There are no restrictions other than imagination and the artistic restraints one puts on oneself.

Listening through all these great songs and productions has been truly inspirational, creatively and musically. It is making me consider and view the production of the new Mystic Fools record in an even more open and hopefully bright, light.

MF Geoff

Why a new Mystic Fools record-part 2

As anyone who is even vaguely interested in music and the music business knows, the industry of music has irrevocably changed in the last decade or so. The iron-fisted hold the big conglomerates held over the distribution of music is no more. When we were first putting the band together virtually ever serious band’s goal was to get a record deal. The hope was that people would hear and like your music and therefore buy your CD.

We knew even then that to make a real living at it one would have to sell an insane number of records due to the mostly disgusting business practices of the record companies. I heard many stories from “successful” bands selling platinum or more in Canada over several releases that band members would have to take day jobs between tours and records just to make ends meet. Of course there were exceptions but the public perception of the wealthy rock star was, by and large, false.

Musically speaking another issue was fitting into an extremely narrow vision of what the music could be. With rare exceptions, you needed to try to sound like whatever market demographic you were going after. The exceptions, who became household names, we’re the visionaries.

For better or for worse, we didn’t want to fit into one sound or narrow classification. We all liked many different styles and genres of music and figured that by and large the public did as well. At least if you gave them a chance to experience it. We knew from playing live that people liked the material and the different sounds we managed to create. Sure, it was, and still is, rock music but with pop, blues, funk and whatever other sounds I thought I could get away with! Sometimes over different tracks and sometimes within one track. The glue that held it all together were the songs and the performance of the people playing them.

This brings me back to the now. Today I feel there is absolutely no limitation as to what is possible musically. Whether or not the listening public enjoys it is, of course, a different story. Creative freedom does exist and therefore the music can live or die by it’s own merit.

Now the goal is to strive to create great work that will resonate and move the people who want to listen.

GH

Why a new Mystic Fools record-part 1

Well, here we are in 2012. I have been giving a lot of thought lately as to why now is a good time to record and release a new Mystic Fools record. First and foremost for me is the music. For years I’ve had songs kicking around in various states of disrepair. Every so often a new one, or, more often than not, the seeds of a new one, would find their way onto and out of my guitar and voice. I’d play them for a time on my own and occasionally do some quick demo recordings of them. Usually what happened next was I’d put them on the shelf and get busy with other projects.

Over the years I have been fortunate to be able to play guitar (and other assorted instruments) on many recordings by other artists and producers. Usually I’d finish a session and briefly think: “I’ve really got to get down to working on some of my own tunes”. At least a couple times a year for the past many years I’d speak with James and Mark about the possibility of getting together and working on original music again. They both were always very supportive of the idea but somehow we never quite got around to it. The exception being the almost complete version of the song “Falling Off The Edge of the World”. A song which for me has been a labour of love and more than likely an obsession.

The song started it’s life as a late addition to our live set but didn’t manage to make it onto the first MFs CD. We did however decide to name the CD after the song. This is somehow perfectly appropriate for the band! The current recording of “Falling Of The Edge…” has gone though severals computers over the course of a decade or so. I probably recorded electric guitars at least ten different times. 7 or 8 years ago, with promises of coffee and likely beer, James came by my basement studio (also known as my basement apartment) in Old Chinatown (Toronto) and over the course of several hours laid down some killer vocal takes for the tracks. A couple of summers back I managed to nail down Mark over a couple of sessions to complete the bass parts. The last piece of the puzzle will be to finally replace my programmed drums with live ones. Man, it makes me tired just thinking about the process!

to be continued…