I Made A Monkey

This is an animation of the making of a monkey. He's a birthday present I made, it took a few hours but it was very rewarding to see him come to life.

If you want to own a monkey just like him then click here.

The Stylophone Repair

Today I received a broken Stylophone which I bought off ebay.

I bought it cheap knowing it was faulty and I'm happy to say it's now in full working order.

The speaker needed replacing and a lot of soldering was needed to fix a few components with broken connections, but now it plays perfectly.

The Stylophone is a hand held electronic instrument which creates an oscillating square wave with vibrato if needed. It's played using a stylus connected to a wire completing the circuit when pressed on the key pad.

It was invented by Brian Jarvis in 1967 and distributed in the early 1970s by a company called Dubreq. Sir Rolf Harris played and promoted the instrument. David Bowie used it on the original recording of 'Space Oddity' and Kraftwerk used it on the album 'Computer World'.

Now I am the proud owner of one I will record some music to publish on this blog to show you what is possible with this primitive electronic instrument and some effects units.

The Time Has Come

Well today is the day I'm going to tidy my studio and then I can finally start jamming new ideas for the album. It's not going to be easy there is so many wires tangled between my mixer and sampler.

I do have a few ideas for songs but I prefer to record improvised riffs on to Minidisc then listen back and see if anything useful came out of it. Having looping effects pedals like the Digitech Jamman and the Line6 Delay Modeler I can quickly layer sounds and riffs on the fly. This is fantastic technology and a few years ago I never dreamt it was possible.

Back soon, hopefully with a demo for you to listen to.
Thanks for your time.

The Secret of Creativity...

I did learn to read music but I found sight reading difficult, I found my playing was not as good and preferred to play by ear. This had a good effect as I would interpret songs differently and found I understood the structure better. I could improvise much more creatively as I recalled the song in my head rather than thinking about the actual notes.

After a while I found it easier to remember patterns and could change them and make them my own scales. There is a quote by Albert Einstein: 'The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources'. It is very hard to be totally original and there are so many styles of playing to choose from.

I find it best to listen to a wide range of music and when I find a part that interests me I ask myself 'why does it sound good?'. If I understand what I like about a song I can then incorporate the idea into my own songs. I think it's better to mix styles and have an open mind to music.

My Studio Mess

This is how my studio looks at the moment, it's a complete mess. But to me it is organized chaos. You can see above my favourite instruments including my 1970 Fender Strat, 3/4 sitar, violin bass and Microkorg synthesizer. Also my most prized effects including Fuzzface, Univibe and Octavia, these are the effects used by Jimi Hendrix.

Most of my equipment was bought off Ebay or been donated broken equipment I've fixed. I do recommend searching on Ebay because you can pick up amazing bargains. I got a graphic equalizer pedal for an unbelievable 6 pounds.

The Real Spider Dream

This is a small loop animation that has the real spider that inspired the caught in a web video. It was found in my sitting room and I caught it and put it in the garden.
That same night I had a dream about it and decided to do the animation for my demo track.

It's strange how inspiration comes from the least expected places.

Here is the link to the video in the archives.
http://doctorphonic.blogspot.com/2006/09/caught-in-web-video.html

The best-laid plans of mice...

Just a little animated collage. I always end up doing pointless things when I should be writing music. I'm still looking for inspiration but I really need to tidy my studio.

I think I'll record a sitar piece next. That will certainly relax me a bit.

Catch you soon.

I've noticed today that my host for mp3s is down. Sorry for any inconvenience, I hope they will be up and running soon. I can't afford to pay for a faster host, if any one out there knows of a more reliable way to host files for free please let me know.

Dr. Bob Moog MP3

Moog Improvisation (found in mp3 list at top of page)

This track is the Moog instrumental that I produced for a talking newspaper article about the late great Dr. Robert Moog, the synthesizer pioneer who sadly passed away in August 2005.

All the sounds on this track are created on the 'MiniMoog' using no other instruments or samples.

Sea Sponge Music

This is the cover I created for my 2004 demo album. Its full name is 'Sea Sponge Music - Soundscape of a Modern Myth' and it was created under the alias 'The Electric Mystical Soul Vibration' which is a bit long.

I never sent this demo to anyone, I gave a few CDs to close friends and that was it. The few tracks I have posted and the animation is the first time I have publicised any of my work except for an instrumental piece I created on Moog synthesizer for a talking newspaper which I will post soon.

The Brain Spider MP3

The Brain Spider (found in mp3 list at top of page)
This is the 3rd track on a demo album I recorded in 2004 called 'Soundscape of a Modern Myth'.
It started out as a piano piece and I layered all the sounds on a fostex MR8. It includes some good mellotron sounds and improvised synth.

Coping with Depression

I've suffered from depression for a while now. It's frustrating how I have trouble talking and meeting people. Sometimes I find it hard to leave the house, yet I have no trouble playing music on stage. People find this strange but I think it shows the manic side of my illness.

If I think back I was painfully shy as a child, but used to seek attention and I would do this through music and magic tricks. People liked me for what I could do not for my social skills.

I have other ways to communicate and it's great I can do it through music and this blog. I will soon be posting another track. If anyone has trouble playing them let me know either from the comment function below or contact me at tonefish76@yahoo.co.uk

Also if anyone has similar trouble or experiences with depression feel free to contact me at the above email.

Cheers
Tony

Finding A Style

Finding a style for the album I'm creating is very difficult to decide on. The previous recordings I've produced tended to be more electronic than acoustic, but some days I will listen to Ozric Tentacles and Tangerine Dream, other days The Grateful Dead and Donovan.

What I would like to do for this album is mix both the styles. I think I would like to be more acoustic with the songs and use guitar or piano to create the foundations. But I do like effects, and now with the looping capabilities and midi guitar I should be able to create many sounds live rather than rely on overdubs and sampling.

One thing's for sure, there are no rules.

Stereo Fish & The Mantra Ray MP3

Stereo Fish & The Mantra Ray (found in mp3 list at top of page)
This is the 7th track on a demo album I recorded in 2004 called 'Soundscape of a Modern Myth'.
This was recorded before I learned the sitar, the sitar sound was created using the 'Danelectro Sitar Swami' effects pedal for guitar.

Music Changed My Life

I'm a self-taught musician who started quite young. I used to listen to records a lot and found it very easy to copy the tunes on my old Bontempi organ. I listened to Johnny Cash, The Monkees and The Beatles. My early memories of pop music include New Order, Blondie and Madness.

Around the mid 80's I discovered Electro and Hip Hop/Rap music. I loved the synth riffs and effects and heavy drums and bass. I got a keyboard upgrade to a Casio and DD-10 Yamaha drum machine. I also discovered on my parents' record player I could pause a tape while recording a drum part, then wind the record back and repeat the process. After a tremendous amount of patience I could achieve backing tracks to play over.

I remember watching 'Top of the Pops' and 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' reruns. My musical tastes seemed to mature a bit; I loved Bob Marley and the Wailers and also Jimi Hendrix. The 70's rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Free led me to Prog and Space rock e.g. Hawkwind. Bands like The Doors, Daevid Allen's GONG, Can and Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd became very influential. They also led me to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart and the one and only Frank Zappa.

That was it - I had to make music. Finally I got an old electric bass for 10 pounds and started learning reggae basslines and funk. I found it very easy and natural to play and learn. Luckily I was given a broken electric guitar which I fixed up and I bought a second hand Schaller Wha Wha pedal. I never looked back.

Using two tape decks I found a way to over-dub my riffs like a multi-track. I started many a band and loved playing Hendrix and Zappa-style improvisations. That kept me occupied till the early 90's, which is when I got an Amiga 600 computer. I got 'Octamed' free on a magazine (which is a sample based sequencer) and I couldn't believe how creative you could be with it. I quickly bought a midi port and 8bit sampler for the Amiga. This changed my perspective of music completely: now I could do professional sounding songs in my bedroom. Joy!

I now play guitar, bass, mandolin, synth, violin, clarinet, drums and sitar. I have a load of effects, some homemade and others are repairs. I can spend hours experimenting. Now my musical inspirations are varied artists like Beck, Kraftwerk and Air and also Herbie Hancock, Sun Ra and the Funkadelic. I love to mix styles and try new things. Music is like a canvas for me to paint my feelings, it's such a powerful medium.

Cheers for taking time out to check this blog, feel free to leave comments.

Tony