Journal Lucius Sour's Journal: Akai OK
Well here I am, now juggling more than my usual brace of balls. I have to finish mixing (read as putting notes in time/tune) a Christmas single, restoring some old archive tape reels, do the same to some old 78's and try to come up with some salsa (yes salsa) stuff. I only say this because:
1: Putting stuff in time/tune takes ages
2: I'm only doing the 78's as a favour to my mum's friend, he was quoted 200 quid an hour (pretty much the going rate) for restoration and it's taken quite a while so far.
3: Ditto old documentary reels. I took a pay cut for a credit. Mug.
4: What the bolox do I know about salsa? I've worked this long without being exposed as a fraud and now salsa? "Buy The Big Issue, mate?"
5: I'm now doing keyboards/sampler-wrestler/synthetic percussion hitter for The Axis Of Evil and we're supposed to be going to Prague in August and with luck we're playing with Rammstein in September and we only have 5 songs so far. Well, at least The Banshees had fewer songs at their first gig, they had to fill up time with The Lord's Prayer. Not much chance of that in a band called The Axis Of Evil. We must be evil, we're Europeans! I've heard that some Europeans are even German or French! How can the world be made safe for Democracy with these Europeans infesting it? Some of them even still have those, you know, "rights" thingies! Despite these unpatriotic horrors, I'm making funny noises for the Akais and trying to work some hardware hacks for SCSI drives to get them into a 19 inch sprung touring rack. My thinking- one hard drive, one SCSI-CDROM-drive mirror. But it'll probably alter as things progress. My sandbag/machine-gun nest live keyboard setup is more of a logistical challenge
6: There are 2 periods a year when you don't get many sessions in my line of work, January and June-July. Try getting 4-5 musos organised after Christmas or during summer holidays. It can be troublesome. There are many reasons.
"I only go on holiday when the moon's in conjunction with Uranus"
"My girlfriend doesn't want me to record because Mr Snookums is at the vet's"
"The guitarist has an ear infection" (a current one, and all the more irritating since I've never met a guitarist who pays any attention to what anyone else was playing anyway).
"I need to invent an excuse not to record because having a high quality record of my ability as a writer and performer will expose my lack of ability".
(I made that last one up - only good songwriters and players ever seem to say that sort of thing).
7: I remember that freelancing gets you more pay per hour at the expense of job security. Hi diddly dee freelancers work for me. But not in the summer. How lucky you all are.
Anyway, what it boils down to is... doing lots but not getting paid! Hooray!
Have a good holiday, but remember: Industrial Music wasn't built by having time off. Oh yes, and Akai have always made the best samplers. And now for a word from our sponsors...Akai! Now that's wishful thinking. In truth, only paper hanky manufacturers need apply