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Gunter and Music | |
On the following sections, you will find my story about how I discovered
music and how I developed into music production.
There will also be soon large and growing sections with my favourite
songs,
records,
bands and whatever
because
I
am always interested in what other people are listening
to. And since my records and my homepage have been made mainly for people
with similar tastes, I simply put onto my site, what I want to see/hear
on a homepage. There are two reason, why I like to browse through a list
of somebodie´s musical preferences:
Since the beginning of the world, among critics there have been two
points of view concerning art. One is, to judge the pure art independently
from the artist´s life and origin. The other is to judge the art
in relation to the artist, the artist´s life, history and the environment.
I believe, that both approaches have their rights. My motto is ´judge
artists by their art and the environment, but judge the art only
for itself´. I don´t believe, that a picture gains anything,
if it has been painted by a blind artist - on the other hand I would admire
a blind artist much more than one with undisturbed eye-sight, if they produce
equal results. So if you want to judge a song, simply listen to it, but
if you want to judge it´s producer, you need to know the person and
what he/she intended to do. Every artist has heroes and influences, but
especially musicians generally have a lot of them. Their musical
expression gets constantly formed by other musicians. So if you want to
understand the artist, you have to know his/her musical taste. Now some
people try to explain exactly, what kind of music they like - maybe to
some success, but I think, that a simple list of a person´s favourite
records tells you more about his/her taste, than any explanation can do.
The second - much easier - reason, why I like long lists of favourite
songs and bands: I want to use them as a source. I know a lot of bands
and songs, but definitely not all of them. A list of someone´s prefered
bands may contain some names, I never heard of, or at least never listened
to. If this person´s list mainly contains bands, that I like too,
there is a good chance, that I will also like the rest. I cannot listen
to all records on the market, but to someone elses favourites, if I think
it is worthwhile, judged by his/her musical taste.
Passive Enjoyment of Music:
When I ponder over my musical preferences, I am sure, that late 60s
music must have formed me as a child. Actually - according to my mother
- when I was a baby, the radio played the whole day in our house, so it
must be true. I began to get interested in music on a conscious level around
1974. My parents bought a new stereo and gave me their old record player
and 50 singles (player and vinyl had been second-hand purchased for DM
50 all together around the year 1970). The singles covered some soft pop
tearjerker, but also Rock ´n´ Roll (Bill Haley & his Comets)
and Beat (Beatles, Paul Revere & the Raiders). The top ten hitparade
was my favourite radio broadcast. My first favourite song I remember, was
´Seasons in The Sun´ from Terry Jacks. But soon music changed
- and not to the better. The dull monotonous Disco Sound conquered the
world - and I was disgusted (I still am). I found asylum in 50´s
Rock ´n´ Roll music with Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and
Elvis Presley. My favourite radio program became ´Aus meiner Rocktasche´
(out of my rock bag - a German pun with the double meaning of rock as rock
music and skirt or coat), which mainly played traditional Rock ´n´
roll.
The step from Rock ´n´ Roll to the early 60s instrumental groups (Champs, Ventures, Shadows) is small. Even smaller is the step to mid 60s Beat with the Beatles, the Who and the Byrds, which basicly is the same music with vocals. Modern music did not find my interest at that time, not even Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, which tended to get monotonous at that time as well. The British punk invasion passed me rather unnoticed, but wave (Siouxsie & the Banshees, Cure) and especially the German wave of around 1980 made me aware of present-day music for the first time after 6 years. Since that time I am looking for inspiring, mind-expanding or just ear-blowing music in new releases as well as in the ´archives´ of the Rock vaults. 80´s Independent Music, Trash Rock and finally Grunge Rock on one side and late 60´s Beat and Flower-Power music on the other (previously I had prefered the Red Beatles Album, now it was the Blue Album) rewarded me for my neverending quest for music, that is worth-while listening to. Relevant pushes into the right direction had been given to me by Erlangen´s legendary radio station ´Radio Downtown´ (long gone) and by MTV´s 120 minutes.
But the most important development of my musical taste was my turn back
to my late 60´s roots - to roots, so old, that I did no longer remember
them on a conscious level. However, they have always been there and when
I rediscovered them, they hit me like a De-ja-vu experience. Late 60´s
music was not only well known Rolling Stones and Beatles songs, but there
were also a lot of nowadays rather unknown bands, who performed Psychedelic
Rock and Garage Punk music, which was way ahead of it´s time. A few
of them got famous and their songs are still available on every ´Golden
Oldies´ sampler (like ´Wild One´ from the Troggs). These
songs are now so commonly known, that we tend to forget, that they are
only the small top of a whole movement - in most cases only top in success,
not in quality.
My first contact with this kind of music was rather undramatic in the
late 80s. It was a vinyl sampler called ´Illusions From The Crackling
Void´ from British BAM Caruso Records. I found it in the Oldies corner
of a Mueller market, the Cover was extremely unusual and I had never heard
of any of the bands on the sampler before. The music was even more unusual
and it thrilled me. However, with exception of one or two LPs from the
Pretty Things (which I bought), there was nothing else from these bands
available at that time. So I had this LP, like a gem from another planet.
I had no idea, where this music came from, whether there is more of that
kind or how to get it.
2 or 3 years later around 1990 I was browsing through CDs (I had switched from vinyl to CDs in the meantime) in Nurnberg´s MOT (deceased), when I heard a song, that immediately found my attention. It was a song called ´Lay Down And Die, Goodbye´ from the Nazz (the CD was Garagelands from Revolver Records). I listened to 2 or 3 more songs, all of them interesting, but absolutely unknown to me. I immediately drew the connection to the BAM Caruso sampler and I asked the shop-assistant about this CD. He told me, this was Garage Rock from the 60´s. He picked 4 more (all he had) CDs of similar music from the record shelf (one CD was actually BAM Caruso production) and gave me an address, where to get more (and I did - you bet). The following years 60´s unknown Garage Rock and Psychedelic bands boomed. So I easily came to a total of currently about 120 samplers and a number of CDs with a collection of one artist´s work or re-released originals - a number, which lies somewhere between 30 and 100, depending on, whether Bands like Jefferson Aeroplane, Kaleidoscope or the Pretty Things can be counted as ´unknown´.
Active Production of Music:
In the last couple of years, music became my favourite hobby. I started
writing songs, recording them first onto tape, later using 4-track and
harddisk equipment. Finally I produced my first CD with 17 songs in January
1998. After that, I was searching for a suitable platform to present my
work to public. I don´t have the time or the ability to do live performances
or promotion tours. And my music is nothing for the common taste. So I
finally decided the World Wide Web should be my platform - I
have found a lot of interesting music with the help of a net browser.
I hope, that it was the right decision. Currently I am working on
my second CD.
The funny thing is, that I never had any lessons in playing an instrument
and that I was the worst singer of the class in school. So why does a guy,
who has no apparent talent for playing an instrument or singing, produce
a CD with 16 self-written songs (plus one cover version), plays almost
all instruments (except for some guitar works from Eckehard Bluecher -
thanks again, Ecki - on two of the tracks) and sings - sometimes even several
voices?
The answer is probably 'just because' I always had problems, singing
tunes correctly! Failing to stay in tune, I began creating my own songs
as a child. The advantages are obvious: If you create your own songs, you
can make them easy enough to be sung correctly. Your own tunes will also
be easier to be remembered, because they come from your own mind - they
are
you.
Finally, if you still fail despite of all these advantages, you can always
claim, that you have just re-written the song. Nobody can object -after
all it is your song!
In the following years, I generated tunes - preferedly during showering - and forgot them again. However, slowly I began to realize, that I might have a talent there. So I began to record my singing with an old tape recorder, to preserve the tunes. As soon as I started recording, I got into experimenting. I used a second - even older and more worn out - tape recorder for overdubbing. The experiments involved every sounding device in the household, including wooden boxes, spoons, pots, an old electric organ (no Hammond sound unfortunately), my little sister and also a 20 year old guitar, which has previously been used as a carneval requisite by my father. The 20 year old strings stood the challange of my first steps on a guitar. Don't forget, that all this happened, when active music was far from being my favourite hobby. I spent only time on it, when the weather did not allow sports, the T.V offered nothing interesting and I ran out of unread books - a rare coincidence. So I was already arround my 20th birthday, when I started guitar picking more seriously and it seemed to be too late to get experienced enough to think about joining a band. And to set it right, playing music never was my motivation - writing songs and produce them was always my intention.
It was about the same time, another experience became 'instrumental'
in my later musical career: I bought my first computer, a Commodore C64.
With a music program, I was able to generate a background for my songs.
And the best thing was, it never made a mistake in playing -once it was
programmed correctly. But programming never was a problem for me. Poor
C64! Before music programming really got startet, a friend showed me his
Commodore Amiga. It had 4 digital sound processors with 8 bit resolution
and up to 18000 Hz frequency. Together with a good music program, it generated
superior natural sound. It lasted years, before the digital 16 bit sound
cards got available at a price, one could afford. In that period, the Amiga
sounded better than all that analog wave sound cards of PCs and even most
of the keyboards of that time. 8 bit resolution and a frequency arround
12000 Hz is not much, but while the Amiga sounded like a bad recording
of a real instrument, all analog wave processors generated synth sounds
like a good recording of an old video game - you have the choice. For me
there was no choice!
So I recorded my first songs on tape, playing a western guitar and
being accompanied by my Amiga. It was at this time, when I first started
actually writing my songs down on paper. Previously I had trusted my memory
for keeping the tune and the lyrics - if there were any - in mind. Up to
the present day, I don´t write down notes, I only write down the
chords and the lyrics and always preserve the tune sung onto tape and/or
nowadays onto harddisk.
Of course 4 simultaneous voices from the Amiga and one-shot recordings with vocals and guitar was far from being satisfying for my ever experimenting soul. Soon I began to search for an inexpensive multi-track solution (including ideas like purchasing 2 more used Amigas). Finally in February 1991, I purchased a TASCAM Porta 03 4-track recorder. I had to write my own software for synchronizing the tape with the music program - but have I already mentioned, that programming never were a problem to me? In late summer 1989 I had moved into the basement of my parents´ house and equipped it with stereo components. The TASCAM simply got connected to the mixer. For the next 4 1/2 years, this was an acceptable solution for me. After a mammoth production right at the start, with the full 4 Amiga voices on 3 tracks, 3 times vocals and 2 times guitar, I found out, that less can often be more. From then on, I used two Computer tracks only and one track for guitar and one for vocals. Only if a second guitar or voice was required, I had to record both vocals and guitar on one track. Some of the songs resulting from that time still make me proud. Some of them even got digitized later and found a place on my first CD. Maybe two or three more will be partially re-used with new recorded vocals (my old weakness) and make their way onto my next CD - we will see.
At the end of 1991 I already had a new nylon string accoustic guitar
and it happed, when buying new nylon strings (it seemed, to my surprise,
that the more experienced I got in guitar picking, the faster the strings
broke). It was at my standard music shop, Musik Oechsner in Nuernberg.
A Fender Stratocaster was advertised. The shop-assistent encouraged
me to some testing and for the first time I did some careful picks on an
Electric Guitar - and I bought it (togather with a cheap amplifier). Later
I added 2 more guitars, a better amplifier, 2 guitar effect devices and
recently a bass to my collection of instruments.
In May 1992 - on my birthday exactly - I got a very special present
from a friend (hi Stefan, havn´t heard from you for a long time):
Yamaha DD-11 digi drums. My music got more punky immediately. One year
later a Roland keyboard completed my instrumentation (driving me into more
orchestrated music).
However, my own personal demands on quality had increased in the meantime. Soon I had enough of the psychological pressure when recording vocals or guitar on the last of the 4 tracks. Since the first two tracks were generally used for the computer generated backgrounds, which needed to be recorded first, either vocals or the guitar work had to be done on the last remaining track. Generally these recordings were far from being perfect. As long as I had two tracks left, I always recorded the second try on a new track and kept the better attempt, repeating this procedure until the result was satisfying enough for me. With the last track, I always had the inner conflict of deleting the only existing recording, not knowing, whether the next attempt will even reach this quality. In summer 1996 I switched to hard disk recording. I purchased Sampling/Effects Software (Samplitude), Sequencer (Mignon) and a 4 GByte hard disk. The finacial expence and the period of adapting to the new technique (again writing my own software, this time for mixing the tracks) was worth-wile. I was paid by an unlimited number of tracks and available tries for each track. In addition, I had the option of editing mishaps and afterwards adding effects to a copy free from losses and keeping the unchanged original for aternate experiments at a later time. Since then, only software updates have contributed small changes to my ´recording studio´.
Favourite Artists:
You can find a detailed list of my musical preferences (favourite bands,
records and songs) here.
Or you can browse through the complete list of all
my CDs, if you have nothing better to do. Get envious!
Be sure, this page will be continuously updated
and expanded , as will be the rest of my web site .