Heading home on my bike from Matt's the other night, I heard what I thought was the sound of distant drums with thin, cheap cymbals crashing. Part of me got excited. Turns out it was a shopping cart filled with overstuffed garbage bags being pushed down a Long Beach alley with its chunky asphalt. Is it accidental perfection.. the way those gaps and holes are spaced so that a shopping cart with approx. 14 lbs. being pushed at approx. 4.23 mph would create a standard 4/4 rock beat played by the frame rattling and shaking? Was this a serendipitous moment of music in the world meant for me, now made delegitimate by that dancing paper bag in 'American Beauty' which was really being swirled up by two giant shop fans by a couple pa's on set? I'm beginning to get deep.. really deep in this record. I've been cooking these songs over the hot stove for so long that I don't even know what they smell or taste like, but soon its time to serve them up.
We're due to begin recording at the beginning of feb. My 'Rocky' music has started in the background that I can hear faintly all day long, as all of us in the band begin to go through our own mental and physical routine for preparation of this recording. I think there's still a healthy amount of stress there for us, it reassures me that we aren't becoming complacent about the process, that we still have a lot to prove to ourselves as well as anyone who will listen, and that we still revere the creative building project that is making a record. We are by no means laying in a bed of our laurels. Any praise we have received, or not received to date, are being thrown out the window. Our conscious minds are focused on our music.. and we've left our subconscious to roam freely.. maybe they've meandered over to you. Our creative conscious is now made open and vulnerable to influences brought back by our wandering subconscious.. possibly a stick, a dead bird, or a piece of rope once used to tie down a drum being taken to a b-day party to be played.
I ask all of you to throw some thoughts our way, consciously or subconsciously. Feed our energy and let us never know how it changes or doesn't change things..I can see beauty in that. Then we can all wonder where you will be, and what you will be doing while we're in the studio, gripping our picks and sticks with sweaty hands nervously waiting to run through our next take..
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12 comments:
Hi Steve! Here's my conscious on the new album:
Whatever you guys do, however delicious or disgusting the songs are, no matter how much work, turmoil, or slothfulness you put into the new album, it will be perfection. You never cease to amaze me, and every time I listen to the albums, I hear a new experience. All I want from the new album, is that it can provide many, many more experiences. I'm sure you guys won't let me down. :)
my dear rx bandits, you are, by far, the most creative and most natural band I've heard so far. one minute of any of your songs has got more substance than 99% of that bullshit I hear on the radio / see on tv (ok I haven't watched tv for a while, but the radio thing, you get forced to listen when you're at your friends/bar/streets/movies)
so just do what you do and what you like and it is gonna be the most excited day of the year for me, I already know, the moment I hold the new cd in my hands. =)
and again I am certain that this new piece of music is gonna keep me up for months and months, listening and admiring my favorite band
I can't wait for that day!
This message is for the RX Bandits in their entirety.
Your flame burns strong within the people I have grown up with and have known for so many years. You bring us together, from all over Florida, every time you've come to Orlando since the resignation came out. Whatever we thought was important in the busy weeks before becomes trivial and we remember to feel the moment and each other.
The work you put into your music is what makes me be able to listen to ATBB and the resignation so many thousands of times without ever detecting signs of "played out". The emotion in that room is impossible to ignore. If there's one thing that the RX Bandits have never been to me, it's passive. I listen to so much "study music" (Steve Reich, Brian Eno, etc) that I feel like I'm being blown by a tornado every time I hear you guys. It's a feeling that I can't find anywhere else. It makes me want to ride faster on my bicycle, much much faster, which then makes me feel more elated and healthier, which then makes me feel very alive and confident, to the nth degree.
Keep telling it like it is, without any buffer. Don't buy in; we're definately not going to.
Thank you for being such a potent catalyst.
Much love from Baltimore, Steve et. al.
Your music is organic -- an extension of positive energy for so many, such that even the subconscious energies of your fans is incredibly strong.
Feed us. We need you like you need us.
Well all these comments are far more than I expected or could have asked for. Thanks dudes and dudettes. We will not let you down!
i can't wait. it'll be good. you all wouldn't make it any other way. when i sit struggling to keep my eyes open in class - ill doodle a couple pretty happy things in your honor.
As a guitarist, your guys honest musical expression doesnt lead me to write or want to write music that sounds just like you guys do. This seemed strange to me at first seeing I spend countless hours listening to, figuring out and playing your songs- but the energy I get from your music inspires me to make my own kind of music. Your music has made me want to discover what my musical voice sounds like and find out what music I am capable of creating.
There is a sense that your songs are more than just the tracks you recorded. There’s that something else there- that emotion that went into writing it or something of the sort that makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
After listening to your music, I usually have the urge to crank my amp to get that sweet warm marshall tone and just jam.
The stuff I’ve been writing recently is the stuff I like the most out of what I’ve written, which is usually the case. It’s much more open and allows me to make up about half of what I’m doing while I’m playing. I feel like its telling of my personality of late. I’m really enjoying playing it too- yesterday I absent-mindedly spent about two hours in my local guitar store sitting on the carpet of a large room playing this bluesy harmony h82 and just jamming with myself. It was incredible. I wrote some quality material in those two hours.
I feel like my want to just jam instead of scripting everything came from you guys and your jams. Thanks for those, because I’m really loving it.
Even though my music may not sound like rx bandits, you guys have influenced me and my music profoundly, and I’m so thankful for that.
ps- I want to give some respect for the fact you guys record live, it must be hard, but it makes the sound so much more real and organic. I just wish I had whatever setup you guys have for recording, because mine is very limiting, but that’s a whole nother issue…
I love RxBandits music because it inspires me. You know, the type of songs that you hear and you think "Why didn't I come up with that?" or if you go see some musicians play you just want to run home and grab your guitar.
Incidentally, I hear that you fellows are not recording at the Elizabethan and what's more, you aren't doing the full production yourself but are reverting to a producer from The Resignation and Progress era. I am curious as to how/why you guys made this decision, as "And The Battle Begun" is so high above the past records and so free and wonderful. If you could comment on this stuff that would be really cool.
Choi,
I'm sure all you guys are crazy nervous about this new album, because admittedly you have a lot to live up to. But honestly...relax.
You guys are some of the most talented musicians that I have heard, who by some great aligning of the planets, seem to have found your way into one amazing band. Just going back and listening to RX's progression...all the way back from the Pharmaceutical Bandits days...right up until ATBB...and each album is leaps and bounds ahead of the last. Both in a sense of musicality and spirit.
Long Story Short:
No sweat dude..if "operation" is any kind of indicator, the new cd is gonna be some sick shit.
p.s.
Im the crazy asshole who got the "Im not buying, Im not giving in" tattoo with the girl from the ATBB cover on my back...so you know I mean it, when I say I love you guys, and your music has changed my life.
To kate:
Here's the thing that's crucial that everyone knows; we by no means give up any creative control working with a producer. In the case of a band like us, its about having the 3rd party who's ears we trust to keep performances in check and make sure everything sounds amazing.. an unspoken member of the band if you will.. in the studio with us, who understands our music and our personalities to help mold and capture our music in the best way possible. I appreciate your props for 'Battle'. Just like that album, we cannot do what we have done before, and returning to the studio with an old friend like Chris Fudurich recording our CURRENT music nearly 7 years after we last worked with him, with our grown and matured musical minds, in addition to his changes in style and skills is a unique and very different thing indeed. For us, collaborative chemistry doesn't become worn out so there's no reverting being done. Even 'Battle' was engineered by another person who played the same role for us that Chris Fudurich had done before, and will be doing again. As far as recording at The Elizabethen.. we've never done a record there. Only parts of the later tracking and over-dubbing for 'Battle' were done at the garage, the rest was done in a studio, just like the one we will enter in a couple weeks.. Although great sounds are obviously achievable there, RX has primarily used it for rehearsing and demo-ing songs. In short, there really isn't much that is different about the process for making this record. Who and where and how can influence certain aspects, but that's about it.. the music will be what it is regardless.
I can't say it any better than Tyler, so I'll let those words be mine as well.
This is just a crazy thought that I've had for a long time, but I think it would be very interesting to hear the Bandits collaborate with Buckethead someday. He puts an amazing amount of emotion into his guitar playing (be it classical, or speed metal) than most singers. It would be interesting to hear how mind blowing that collaboration would sound be.
Holy crap Steve Choi actually comments on his blog this is so amazing. How much for an autographed poster from all of you guys.
I love your guys techical functions but mostly i like the way you guys have grown up and not ever sticking to one genre or style of music.
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