LETTER OF THE MONTH
Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM
BREAK ON THROUGH
Before I progressed my music ambitions toward production, I was an MC with a one-track mind of how my simple vocals would change music. The problem was that I was young and didn't even know what I was doing. Then I learned the business. I discovered through trial and error that music is a job and must be taken seriously. Along the way, I became fascinated with production and was finding that the people who were producing my instrumentals weren't doing it how I wanted it done. So, like many others, I turned myself into a producer, learning off the people around me, relying on the past lessons I learned and asking many questions. But I discovered something: I didn't need to pay thousands of dollars for a school I couldn't afford; I just had to listen, practice and learn.
Still learning and continuing to grow as a producer, I knew I would at some point need to learn the keyboard. With lessons from a friend and a smart piano teacher, I was learning more each day. I found myself advancing toward my production dreams but with one problem. When it came time to write my vocals, I had nothing left; I was stuck. Some call this writer's block, and it is indeed a block. My head hurt, I had no sentences to produce, and I was really getting frustrated. So I went to my local book store and started getting rhyming dictionaries, reading them and listening to a lot of music. Guess what happened? Nothing! Not a single line, not one sentence, not one damn rhyme. I started thinking, “Maybe this writing thing isn't for me, and I should just produce.” So for the next month or so, that's what I did. I didn't think about writing, and then all of a sudden, blam! My grandfather died. I didn't know what to think, but then music came in my head. I drove at least 10 hours to get to the morgue where he was. That whole time I heard words in my head. No beats, just vocals. I kept to myself when I returned from the trip; I didn't talk to any outside people, and then it all came back to me. First there were the words, and then came the beats. It's strange; every time I think this music thing isn't for me, somehow, someway I'm pushed back.
Dennis Thornton II
Escondido, Calif.
For sending in this month's winning letter, Dennis Thornton II wins his own M-Audio MidAir 25 (MSRP $249.95) wireless MIDI controller. If you send in the most inspired correspondence next month — or simply the letter we like best — you will win the M-Audio MidAir 25. All you have to do is send an e-mail to remixeditorial@remixmag.com. Please include your full mailing address.
WE LIKE 'EM YOUNG
My name is Joel Corpening, and I'm 9 years old. (My older brother Charles helped me with this letter). I have been reading Remix for about a year.
After being turned on to music by my family (my grandfather to be exact), I decided what I wanted to be when I grow up — I want to be a DJ. The reason is because I read the article on Beck (“Wax On, Wax Off”) in your December 2006 issue. I read the section within the article featuring DJ Z-Trip. After I looked up DJ Z-Trip, I listened to his song “Uneasy Listening” and felt the most amazing euphoria. I decided that I'm going to make music just like that. Thank you, Remix, for having articles that inspire me. Thank you so much.
Joel Corpening
Yardley, Pa.
SCREW YOU, BUDDY
Hey, I like Beck, but what's up with Nigel Godrich not wanting to disclose his production tools and methods? Who does Godrich think he is? To borrow an expression from the Brits, “What a ponce!”
However, keep up the great work — interesting artists and gear porn — for us geeks and music freaks.
Adam Cote
Santa Barbara, Calif.
WHAT YOU NEED
I just want to thank you for Remix. I read recording/music mags on a nonstop basis, and Remix by far tops the league in terms of the info presented. Everything in your pages is more than relevant to the hip-hop and underground community. I've pretty much stopped subscribing to some of the other publications because you folks present exactly the artists I'm interested in and exactly the stuff I care about as a producer.
I am the musician that you target; I relate to every single story you present in one way or another. (My music infuses vibes from a number of genres — it's original, ambient and experimental, but it is still street.) You got an avid reader for life right here.
Ash
Philadelphia, Pa.
THE POLITICS OF SELLING
As owner of a high-end Allen & Heath console, I want to make a point regarding a full-page ad printed in the Remix January 2007 issue, on page 31.
The advertisement was designed not to lay out Allen & Heath's phat bass, distinctive filters or crossfader that can take 200 million passes strong. In fact, the product was not even pictured at a full quarter of its length. Rather, we are being directed to “Join Christopher Lawrence and the select group of world-class DJs that just won't settle for second best.”
Enter the “PROfile” list. The list starts out stating he is an American from L.A. The rest of the list is questionable in the amount it has to do with being anything professional. The list continues humorlessly to include George Clooney as best actor and “water, no ice” as Lawrence's drink. After proclaiming his mixer brand, the last question is, “What's next?” He replied, “George W. Bush will be impeached.”
Need I say any more? It doesn't matter if the approval rating for the president drops into negative margins, this B-grade advertisement about a C-grade entertainer is not the place to level a political attack on President Bush.
Lawrence didn't mention Darfur, gas prices or global warming, safe to say other things we can agree on. But I wouldn't take home another Allen & Heath product if they were giving them away with my next coffee purchase.
Scotty Webb
Washington, D.C.
WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE…
Every time you turn around, there is a new product better than the last. The thing I loved about outboard gear was that you actually had to create with it. You honestly can't keep up with all the damn companies and their never-ending upgrades and better software and more options. Then we have the great and wonderful Macs and PCs, new OS, new chips…. This one will run your programs and wipe your butt at the same time. Did anyone ever stop and think maybe we should be teaching the next generation about music and not just tech crap? If you listen to music from the '60s to the '90s, you will find that its only getting worse. Take a look at what we are subject to listen to: Britney Spears, Paris Hilton. Yuck. It's about time that music went back to the musicians and vocalists, not this fake-ass younger and younger generation produced by a major label. While I'm on my soapbox, the color of your skin does not make you a good musician. I'm up to my ass in hip-hop, and every ass from here to NY thinks that they can produce. You may think I'm bitter, but I already have all the success I could ask for (including six Grammy nominations). I guess as long as the white man is making money off your dumb ass, you will keep producing. How about some real music again?
Anonymous
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