ClusterFolk'd

Inspiration and Energy

2011-03-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

In the world of faith healing/energy work, there are some practitioners who claim that working on someone drains them of energy, while some feeling energized after giving a healing. Creative pursuits are no different. For me, songwriting can leave me either buzzing or exhausted, or both, depending on the situation.

The past few months, call it the winter blahs, but I have been struggling to find inspiration. I've sat down to write and found my mind and soul blank - and not in the good "Zen" sense. In times like this, while I don't try to force it, it can be helpful to write something, even if it's crap. Yesterday, I started writing on an idea I had during the Ron Sexsmith show I attended last week. I wrote a couple verses and a chorus, and reading it back I decided that it wasn't particularly inspired.

Then later, I started playing guitar around what I had written and realized that there was something to be salvaged from it. The music and chords came really easily - it was one of those moments where stuff "falls from the sky" and the creative process comes effortlessly. I was in a trance. It lasted about 20 minutes, and when I came out of it, I was totally bagged. I had to go to bed.

It amazed me how 20 minutes of work could leave me completely exhausted. But with creative work, you have to think that you're working with forces that are somewhat beyond your control.

100-Mile Musical Diet

2011-01-13T11:50:00.000-08:00

Are you tired of big factory music that is too processed and nutritionally bankrupt? Do you worry about how far your music travels before it reaches your CD player or iPod? Are you concerned about how non-organic production methods and the heavy use of auto-tuners are affecting your listening health?

There are other options! Local farmers' markets and coffeeshops are great places to hear locally-produced, organic music. You can actually talk to the songwriter who lovingly grew the music. And their CDs are often the same price or cheaper than the big factory brands!

The 100-mile musical diet encourages you to get the majority of your music within 100 miles of your home. It's good for your health, your community and the planet!

OK, so I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek, but lots of people are discovering that "buying local" with music as well as food is good for communities. Check out some more thoughts on this issue in Exclaim! magazine here: http://exclaim.ca/MusicSchool/NeedToKnow/slow_music_now

Music and Selling

2010-09-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

Lots of creative people have internal conflicts over selling the art they create. And in today's music industry, emerging artists need to prove their business acumen as much as they need to show their musicality.

A small but critical part of this equation is deciding what price to put on your CDs. I've struggled with this for a while. You want to honour the work that went into producing it, but you also have to realize that not everyone is willing to throw down $20 for a CD, even if they enjoyed your live show.

Lately, I've been experimenting with a "pay what you feel" approach. My rationale is two-fold: 1) It is more important to me, at this stage in my career, that my music is spread far and wide than it is to make a certain amount from CD sales, and 2) I think people come away from the transaction with a good feeling - they have gotten what they wanted at a price that made sense to them.

The surprise that came from the first few shows in this experiment is that my sales income was amazing. It was difficult to track it precisely, but I brought in about triple what I would usually expect.

Hmmm...I think there might be something to this...

This Guitar Kills Fascists

2010-08-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

Is music important? Lots of people would say yes without being able to articulate why. It is important to them personally because of the way music cultivates emotion. But as Woody Guthrie's guitar boldly implies, there are societal functions as well. These are a little harder to pin down but there is no doubt that politics and history can be influenced by music (e.g. would anyone under the age of 50 know about the Kent State shootings if it weren't for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Ohio"?).

As an independent musician struggling to be heard, sometimes it's hard to feel as if what I'm doing is worthwhile. As I scour the job listings, I see how much society values a millwright or a nurse by how much they earn and the service they perform. My value to society is less tangible. But part of my job is to be confident and unwavering in my belief that music has value. It might not always be immediately apparent, but it's there, just under the surface.

Convenience vs. environment

2010-07-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of thinking about humanity's place on the planet. It's an obsession I can't get away from. I guess the big question is "Why are we so different?" Practically every other animal does little more than "eat, shit and fuck", and of course, raise their offspring. Sure, we can say that some animals use "tools" but the tools are taken directly from the environment with little modification. Hell, we've learned to modify molecules!

And sure, you can trace back through the evidence to see how we've evolved big frontal cortices (look at that! my frontal cortex is big enough to Google the plural of cortex!!), but it's still seems strange to me that people are such freaks! It's beautiful, bizarre and frightening at the same time.

Frightening because of our potential for destruction. And frightening because part of us is wired to use any advantage we can - to be greedy and lazy. Our biology kinda wants us to take the easy way out - find a place where the food is plentiful and the predators are few, then enjoy eating, shitting and fucking. We are wired for convenience.

But it is our desire for convenience that is killing us - on an individual and planetary level. Oil is a convenient source of energy, but look what oil is doing to us. "Convenience foods" are convenient, but look at what convenience foods are doing to us. Cable TV is convenient, but look at what cable TV is doing to us.

Yet, in the crisis lies the opportunity. Our big brains are what is going to pull us out of this. Not everyone lives so mindlessly. There are lots of people out there who are living by their principles rather than coasting through life by the most convenient route. It's not always easy, but I think that in living by what we believe, there is hope for a future that is not only sustainable, but harmonious.

Tour Prepping

2010-04-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Less than month to go.

I'm embarking on my first real tour (i.e. outside the Maritimes and longer than a weekend) with Halifax singer-songwriter Mushkat (a.k.a. Bill Travis). When I started considering a tour, I was daunted by the planning required. You might guess from my songwriting style that I'm a bit of a scatter-brain. (When I worked in academia, I was the kind of prof who was surrounded by mountains of helter-skelter files and books on his desk).

But having another person along to take on the booking and arrangements not only lightened the load, but inspired me to get organized enough to pull it together. So we're down to the nitty-gritty, and have most of our schedule nailed down.

(See http://www.mikeaube.com/tour.htm for details)

Now, it's to the point where I can't wait to just get out and do it! Lots of work still to be done, but all I want to do is get on the road. Wish me luck!

New Website

2010-03-17T10:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the new website! If you haven't already noticed, the biggest change is that both my albums are available in their entirety for streaming. For those of you who haven't bought the CDs yet, this will give you a full try-before-you-buy experience. Downloading is still available at typical rates at CDBaby, iTunes, etc., and physical CD from CDBaby. See the "Store" section for details.

Volunteering

2010-03-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

Being fairly new in town, I decided I would do some volunteering to give me another avenue to get to know people. I figured the hospital would be the best place for me, since my past life was in kinesiology. So I sent in my application with all my academic qualifications listed. Due to busy lives and the H1N1 virus, it was several months before I got to meet the volunteer coordinator, but I finally got an e-mail asking if I was interested in playing music at the nursing home/long-term care area of the hospital once a month.

It wasn't what I expected to be doing as volunteer work, but the scheduling was right, so I said yes.

I just had my first performance and it was a great experience! I play a lot of gigs where I leave feeling worse than when I came in, and some where I feel energized. This was definitely an energizing one. Even though a few people fell asleep in their wheelchairs, I knew that most people really appreciated it, and I felt great afterward, knowing that I was giving something back to my community.

Another Day at the Office

2009-04-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

On this holiday weekend, Rocket (bass player and engineer extraordinaire) and I have been drivin' hard to get some tracks in the bag, and we're making some decent progress. We've been tracking percussion and drums the past few days, with Terry Murphy and Alex Porter laying down some awesome beats. And we've also had the Hupman brothers and Caleb Miles do their contributions on a variety of guitars - acoustic, electric and steel. Things are starting to sound niii-ice.

We have four complete tracks in the bag, including the tentative title track and summer pop anthem, Out of Reach. I say tentative, because I've been throwing this term "Cluster Folk" around to describe the sound, and damn if I don't like that so much that I'm considering using it as the album title.

Anyhoo, I've come home the last two night totally bagged, but still excited about how things are coming together. So stay tuned...

Studio Fun

2009-03-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend we'll have the Hupman brothers in the studio to add some guitar tracks to the upcoming album. The studio work has been coming along well - weekend afternoons spent sipping beer and playing and listening and playing and listening.

Some musicians don't like the studio - it lacks the spontaneity of live performance. I don't mind it, really. It's just another aspect of making music. There's a bit more of a delayed gratification thing happening, but I'm pretty patient that way. It will be worth it when I have that finished product in hand, ready to spread it all over the countryside! CD release time is still slated for June, though it's going to be a smash-up getting 'er all recorded and mixed and mastered in time. Yikes!

Out of Reach Tour 2009!

2009-03-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting down today to begin planning my tour supporting my upcoming album. Booking venues is one of the toughest parts of this job for me (I have a little phone phobia).

I'm looking to cover the territory from Cape Breton to Ottawa. So if anyone has any suggestions for cool little venues (especially coffee shops and house concerts) that welcome acoustic music, please let me know!

My weekend with Dave Gunning

2009-02-06T12:51:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of opening for two Dave Gunning shows at the Union Street Cafe. He is, in my mind, a great example of professionalism in music. His songs are polished, his guitar work is solid, his voice seems effortless (even when he is suffering from a cold) and his stage patter, though well planned, does not seem rehearsed.

Some artists don't want to hear it, but the competitiveness of the music business makes professionalism a must. And you have to work at your weaknesses as well as your strengths. Many of us contemporary singer-songwriter types took our inspirations from the Bob Dylans and Neil Youngs of the the world. And we think, if Neil could get away with singing flat and pitchy, we can too.

Well, maybe if you can write like Dylan, you might have a chance to have audiences overlook your weaknesses in other areas. But I'd be willing to bet that the young Bob Dylan would have had a harder time of it today than he did in the early 60s.

For every gifted poet that plays guitar sloppier than Kurt Cobain, there is another gifted poet out there who practises their butt off on guitar. And in today's climate, the spoils are going to the artist with professionalism, whether we agree with that ethic or not.

So besides having a great time playing and hanging out and sharing stories with Gunning this weekend, I came away even more determined to hone my craft. OK...I have to go practise now.

In the Studio

2009-01-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog, y'all!

The big news at the moment is that I'm in the studio recording my second full-length album, tentatively named "Out of Reach". I'm almost finished my guitar and vocal bed tracks, which means I'll soon be bringing in my All-Star Cast of musicians, which so far includes:

Rob D'Eon
Terry Murphy
Ryan Hupman
Scott Hupman
Andy Flinn
Ariana Nasr
Caleb Hamilton
Kev Corbett
Heather Cameron
Caleb Miles
Heather Kelday
(and hopefully Fleur Mainville, just haven't gotten in touch with her yet!)

It's really a who's who of musicians in the Valley-Hali corridor, plus a dash of Pictou County!

So, keep your ears to the ground for a release in late spring.