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Sunday, February 22, 2004
Ravel String Quartet, First MovementRavel String Quartet has been hailed as an irresistable quartet exploiting all the colours and nuances of the four stringed instruments. I decided it might be safe to say we attained some of the colours and nuances. The first movement has what I believe to be gusts of sound, like sudden breezes rustling the trees on a summer night. A funny thing about the first movement would be its melodies following very pentatonic scales, an obvious nod to the Oriental inspiration that invaded Europe in Ravel's day. The violist, Peter Ing, who is Chinese, insisted on singing the tune whenever we weren't rehearsing this past summer in the Southern Ontario Chamber Music Institute The quartet was formed for the purposes of the Institute, coming together for only two weeks prior to the recording. This is the first movement. Ravel String Quartet First Movement Mary-Beth Brown, violin Suhashini Arulandam, violin Peter Ing, viola Adrian Fung, cello Recorded from live performance in Oakville's Calvary Baptist Church August 23, 2003 Sunday, February 15, 2004
Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations are fiendishly difficult and you'll be happy to know that I have generously allowed you only to stream a tamer excerpt of the work. Some would say this is for your benefit and not mine. And, maybe, rightly so, seeing that this recording caught me at an awkward time with the piece, as I had just started learning it. College applications needed demo CDs, however, so I went to the beautiful Pollack Hall in Montreal to record the first few movements of Tchaikovsky's 'concerto'.Also, during that time, the recording was talked about at some length in Irrefragable. Pieter Illyich Tchaikovsky, Variations on a Rococo Theme Adrian Fung, cello Brigitte Poulin, piano 2002 Saturday, February 07, 2004
Hollow, lyricsWanted the chicks, wanted the fame, I wanted the car.. I wanted the glitz, wanted the name, I wanted to star.. It's common and all, but often I'd fall to problems I saw Honest to God, all I wanted was the whole entourage There has to be some'm different, puffin spliffs and clubs and drinking plus the chicks as sustenance, it just don't fit with what I'm thinking.. Such a sicknin hunch I'm given, lust for bling, distrust for Him and clutchin things like substances a drug addiction comes to visit God's - love has given e-nough provisions -I just don't listen I- just don't live it -I just don't understand how other cats can get so far maybe I should just quit cuz none of my raps can set it off Hook: Used to rhyme for myself, getting people on my side Truly time proved itself, I was peaking at my pride. X2 I wanted to please the crowds, wanted them screamin loud I had the content, the beat and style, rapping songs to see them wild Now I wanted them to scream out Eighth- in the rear my name- would appear and wave- in the air stomping the stage to the stairs til the whole stadium hears But that's when Satan is there with the bait and the snare I knew that God had given me the talent I had but I started rapping to add and rack my own stack up of daps.. Cats would prop me actually stop me where the battles were at But my pride and skill was riding on a dangerous balancing act Challenged the fact that what I actually had just happened to last and that at any time God could take it back and laugh at the past Hook Ego over-inflated, so to be basic, flow couldn't save it Not chosen the greatest, tho holding the basis to focus and say it. It's bogus (p) it's plain it's (p) it's closely related. It's just plain bogus i got here by my own reinstatement. was hollow to begin with, it's so easy to forget But I followed in the image to be keeping their respect Morals demolished when I finished in believing I was blessed. Started believing that I earned it chasing dreams where I was best. This rooster of clean beginnings produces in me a rhythm to strive to be acutely in tune; to be a Christian It's choosing a theme of giving.. in future scenes of living we selfish or faking it, I want the truth between these systems Outro: This rooster of clean beginnings, produces in me a rhythm.. To strive to be acutely in tune, to be a Christian.. Friday, February 06, 2004
A clip of the song, "Will We Continue" is up. It doesn't work for me, though. Many people have already streamed this song and it seems to work for them. I figure if other people can hear it, and it's just me that can't, then that's fine -- seeing that I have the song on several hundreds of CDs anyway.But if the file doesn't work for you as well, the only thing I can suggest is to pick up your computer and bang it several times against the wall. This may or may not help the situation. But let me know how it turns out -- the temptation is just killing me. This is a cut version of the song, a popular favourite among many of my friends. It's listed as track three on the Lightning Strikes Twice CD. Epidemic raps two verses before I come in. You don't hear Ep's verse, because, frankly, it has come to my attention that my solo version of the song was somehow already in circulation through Kazaa. So you will be able to hear Ep's take, which is among one of his best flows, when you buy a CD and pop it into your players. Here is your chance to nab a clip of my verse in Will We Continue. Behind the Scenes The Producer The beat itself was made by my net-boy Tayols. Tay was part of my rap cliq, DYNaSTY, before Jay-Z decided to so doggedly steal the name and plaster it on his widespread CD. Anyway, he and I used to write verses and engage in text battles on the internet -- namely on such sites as the Homegrown Hip Hop Zone and Sethro's, both of which, to the best of my knowledge, no longer exist. Tayols was also there when Epidemic and I met for the first time. We made MoRocka's studio, a talented but decidedly unreliable producer in Mississauga, our meeting point for a session of cyph, rhyme, and recording. Ep went to go pick up Tay first and met me in front of MoRocka's upscale neighbourhood. This was like a Internet Rap Convention, man. Epidemic stepped out of his Acura and said, "Hi, I'm Gerald." Tay came out the other side and was all like, "Yo, the ride was smooth, brotha! And you must be the 8Dubbizzle himself," while his dreads swung to and fro like swingsets on a windy day. Without the kufi and dreadlocks, Tay looked like a bespectacled, miniature version of Levar Burton. But cooler, I mean. This is also the first time Ep ever freestyled in his life -- which is a story ripe for its own post. In any case, Tay was the one that, a year later after our meeting, sent Ep and I a bunch of beats and samples he had made. Tay's production work shows on the CD through other tracks such as "Pay Attention" and "Pitiful Wonderland"; he also takes part in a romping posse cut "The Frontline". The Making of the Lyrics In Epidemic's version of the story, Ep played Tay's beat over the phone for me and I walked away having not thought much of making a song out of it. Maybe that's true, but I'm still convinced he was trying to run away with the beat by playing me Tetris. In my version of the story, Epidemic played me the beat and I thought it was dope, but I also thought that he should get some solos under his belt for the upcoming CD. (Upcoming meaning two and half years from then.) So I thought it was cool if he did a solo to it, but then, he, being the gentleman that he is, insisted that I take part in it. He had already lyrics written and an idea, which was whether or not he and his girlfriend would stay together. The song, then, was aptly named "Will We Continue". Coming into the song halfway through, my verse looked at the situation with a different view. It worked out nicely, as Epidemic and I showed together two levels of perspective: A guy wondering desperately if he will lose his girl; the other, purposely loosing the ties within a skeptical relationship to see if it was really his to begin with. "I remember telling you how I was no longer independent How my heart offered to God was now a simple remnant I told you we have to change, with that: Broken it off I'm so sorry for not knowing my role from the start" The Writing of the Last Lines Because I was travelling and wasn't around for much of the summer, I had to get the verse recorded quick. So I went to Raah Knaalege's studio in my city, and I laid the verse down before taking off. Ep's verse would be recorded several months after, which is why the solo version of "Will We Continue", upon its pre-circulation, was met with several comments like, "This song should definitely be longer." In any case, Big Jon Adobo, the producer of "Paternity" on the CD, can attest to the fact that the writing of the lyrics was an adventurous one. Adobo was staying over at my house for a few days, in between his own schedule of jet-setting, and accompanied me to Raah's studio. I had written the first half of the lyrics while vacationing in New York's Finger Lakes area, but now, I found myself frantically writing the rest of the song on my steering wheel while driving 100 on the highway. Adobo kept insisting, "Um, why don't you, like, uh.. let me write it for you?" But I was too busy wondering out loud, "What rhymes with 'monumental beauty'? 'Watermelon smoothie'?" Adobo muttered, in the calmest way possible, "Maybe you should just drive, man." In my defense, I have to say that usually my lyric-writing is more inspired. Final Note I'd like to also point out that Will We Continue was also the first song that I started to decidedly infuse subtle Christian perspective into my songs. I thank God for this moment, since I have always been weary of, as my sister calls it, Bible-bopping. I don't enjoy myself the strain some Gospel rappers have. In my experience, condescending, anguished rapping about hell does little convincing for my friends. I received several lines of positive feedback for this song from my boys, many of them having told me that, at first, they liked the song for its flow, and didn't really listen to the words. But when they finally decided to listen to the words, they understood what I meant. I believe that their own decision to listen to the words, to make out my words, is an act of opening up their hearts -- since they weren't being fed the information, but were actively looking for it. I think that there's a unique parallel here to why Jesus spoke in parables. In effect, all I can say is that the Lord is a powerfully creative and loving God. Wednesday, February 04, 2004
The Making of Hollow: Part 2The Making of the Beat Before I go into too much detail about the making of the beat, I feel it right to thank Jon, aka Adobo, for his generosity. Without all his equipment and encouragement, there'd really be nothing for me to write about. Anyway, as I've already mentioned, this is the first song that I produced myself. Many hip hop enthusiasts would note that the beat itself is sparse and the instrumental somewhat repetitive. I really do have an answer for this. This is mainly because I wanted to capture a character of truthful simplicity; I found that the straight-foward outlining of C-minor would be a neat effect. I wanted the instrumental behind the lyrics to be solemn and and free from too many frills. In essence, while rapping about the hollow chase for money and fame, I wanted to have behind me a background of simple, driving honesty. Admittedly, though, it's convenient of me to have my artistic intention align itself perfectly to my meager ability and limitations as a music-writer. If my critics still aren't convinced, a later song, yet to be recorded, but performed live in Toronto this past August, will be more of a ear-catcher. I think. If not, then I'll have another excuse which I'll think up later. All joking aside, it was very nice to receive an email from a certain Carol Lin, from Vancouver, who commented on this balance. Being a music-writer herself, her understanding of my intentions was very uplifting. But, to be honest, in a way, it's like praising a horse for the important role it played in having its tail planted firmly to its rear. At the time of composition, my lyrics were generally complicated, and it would be natural for my first instrumental to be bare. The song works, though, not so much as a product of genius, but more as a matter of grace. The following illustrates further this 'grace' I speak of. The Whirling Vinyl As you all know, the beginning of the song begins with a classical-like introduction; the camera pans in slowly. And, at the end of the introduction, you hear a full vinyl-spin, much like how a DJ might whirl his disc a few revolutions to change the pace or song. In the meantime, the camera spins around me, a little bit Matrix-like, and the rap begins. I thought this was neat: Adobo, had just gotten, what I'd call, his new toy of the month. It was a Korg Triton synthesizer with several soundbanks, bells, and whistles. In any case, while making Hollow's beat, which I chose to do with a simple bass drum and snare, I inadvertently pushed a button which switched the soundbank. I didn't know this, but I was no longer in "Hip Hop Kit", but now in "House Music". I remember standing up to fix a microphone and sitting back down. As I sat back down, my elbow bumped the last key on the keyboard, and suddenly the whirling vinyl came out of nowhere. I was so excited, I couldn't believe it. I had delegated the unenviable task of searching the net for vinyl scratches to Amos already, and the whole time it was right under my nose. I don't know if Amos still harbours a grudge for all the work he did to find those samples. As some of my homies say back at home: Props to God. The Bass and Snare I thought this was neat too: The beat track was actually done by hand, and not by the more conventional 16-step pattern-based program. When I say it was done by hand, I mean that I pushed a key on the keyboard to get, say, a snare hit. This is infinitely less cool than actually playing the drums and saying I did that by hand. I suppose it's even less cool to confess that I wasn't very good at it. You'd think that a practising musician would have rhythmical hands of some sort. But when the quarter notes need to align themselves perfectly within nano-seconds of a metered click (the cello recording was always finished), you realize something: I must not let anyone know how long this is taking. And here I'd like to warmly thank my best friend Linda for her help and patience. Linda came by the apartment to see how the song was going. I told her, over the phone, to not bother coming because there was not going to be any song to speak of. Linda knows my explosive habit of giving up easily, so she asked me what was wrong. I told her that I could not play eighth-notes steadily enough. "Of course you can," Linda said. "You do it all the time when you play." "No, I can't." So Linda came over, and she watched me as I tried. I was right. Somehow I kept missing it by one nano-second. I admit that it was an awkward and funny scene. Picture me. I'm angry and sullen with tiny beads of sweat forming on my furrowed brow -- all my concentration focused on a seemingly small, trivial task void of excess difficulty: My two index fingers pushing down two keys on a keyboard, in attempts to execute the simplest of rhythmical patterns. I threw up my hands. "I can't do it! I'm going to just die." So Linda, much to my embarassment, did the simple drum rhythm in only three tries and got it perfect. So to rephrase: "When the quarter notes need to align themselves perfectly within nano-seconds of a metered click you realize something: I must not let anyone know that I had to get Linda to do it because I, frankly, suck." But thank God for seeing me through the things I just mentioned, and several other obstacles involving computer crashes, complex programs, and my stupidity. One of the main things I learned from this entire project is that apart from God, I could do nothing. The Making of Hollow: Part 1 The Making of the Lyrics As I mentioned earlier, Hollow was one of the songs that, for me, needed to be made. A famous writer once said, “I never know what I think about a certain subject until I’ve read what I written about it.” Though not quite the same, the lyrics to Hollow definitely helped me to consolidate what I thought. When I’m mulling over how to stretch out a rhyme scheme and I’m wrestling with the issue of which words work and which don’t, I start to commit myself to what I’m saying. Anyway, I first started writing the lyrics without even a beat in mind. It’s been a habit of mine to write lyrics only to a beat – I think it makes for a cleaner creative process and a more sincere relationship between word and music. Though certain tracks on Lightning Strikes Twice CD were written months before finding its beat, it’s a fidgety process fitting them with rhythmic integrity in the studio. The reason I didn’t write to a beat, however, was because I had only intended on writing poetry at the time. I was in my room in Toronto, entertaining a moment where I was convinced that God wouldn’t do anything through me until I gave up everything for Him. One of the dozens of things that stood as obstacles was hip hop. I had set myself aside and decided not to cuss when I rap, but I didn’t really take a direct stand for my faith; I merely told myself not to swear and I went on rapping decent lyrics. Inwardly, however, I hadn’t given Him back the talent of rap for ministry. So I realized how I needed to change my ways in rap and start anew. To move on from the list of songs I had done that were steeped in lyrical braggadocio (which is so common in rap it’s like a jazz standard: any musician in that genre knows and does it), I started writing a poem. Its opening: “rooster of clean beginnings.” I liked that. It had a lot of potential, I thought. I decided that I was going to try putting rhymes to it, to make a few inner rhythms. Up until now, I had only in mind to write another piece of prosody (a concept I talk at length about in The Irrepressible 8W). It was when I came up with several rhymes that I noticed that I had developed a seven-syllable scheme. Seven syllables, boiled down, means that the accented parts of a series of words all rhyme with the accented parts of another series of words. So instead of ‘sod’ and ‘God’, you might have ‘under-the-sod’ and ‘wonder-of-God’. I feel that it’s something modern day poets could benefit from. Anyway, I’m sure that some other rappers have thought that ‘rooster of clean beginnings’ was somewhat of a filler to rhyme with the rest of the scheme. It wasn’t. It was the other way around; the other rhymes came from this line. On a side note, I wrote the rest of the third verse (since the order of composition was actually Verse 3, Verse 1, and then Verse 2) using the beat of a metronome set to 80. Usually people write in silence, or to another song. But this works well since the bare-boned beat is so naked that one will naturally start playing with spoken rhythms. If you can make something rhythmically interesting while rapping to a measured click, you know you’ll have something to offer aurally when you come up with actual music backing you up. Without boring you with all the boring details (this is honestly the third revision of what I had initially wrote), I’d just like to say that the very ease of the writing and the technical complexities came together so tightly that I have much reason to believe that something was different. And I think it was the moment I started praying that I use hip hop for the Lord’s glory. The Video Is Done This video is something of a dream to me. Afterall, on the normal spectrum, people don't usually have music videos. For me to think of putting together a music video would have taken several years of planning, procrastination, and frustration. And it wouldn't have looked like this. The Thank Yous I thank Michelle Lee for her hard work. She found the location, drew up storyboards, directed -- to make it short, she pretty much did everything. She was so organized and on top of things, it was incredible. I remember how the topic came up of even doing a music video; I had jokingly said, "You work at CTV? Could you make me a music video?" She said, "Yeah. I could!" In normal stories, this is where it stops. This is where you look back and go, "Well, that was a great idea. Nice talking. Very convincing. You get an award for the altruist in a power-suit." But only in a few days, she called me and told me that she had drawn a storyboard. Usually, in the world of underground amateur hip hop, we all would just smile outwardly, and inwardly, we'd know that the whole project was just verbal posturing. All of us struggling artists know how it is when someone comes backstage after a concert and tells you they want to sign you, or that they want to book you for a six-city tour. Even when people tell you they want you to rap at their club, you know it's just something they provide for themselves: a moment to feel important and powerful. Not so with Michelle. I knew that she was honest, reliable, and that something was special. You'll be watching a video. Not a scanned storyboard. Not a taped phone dialogue of the plans and locations. This is the real thing. Michelle is not only a genius, a professional film editor, and a great Christian sister, but she is also a philantropist, patient, and a lot of fun to be around. I also want to thank David Johns, who took time off to shoot the video in his professional way. He was such an integral part to this video and he did it so well that I'm still amazed at how he made such nice shots with such ordinary equipment. I've talked of his skills as a cinematographer on my site already, I hope that you will also visit his site to see what I'm talking about. He's someone to look out for; someone I'd love to work with again. Now that I know what he can do, I'm sure that Michelle and I could work on another project we had talked about. The Actual Story Behind And I also want to tell you how God answered my prayers and how humble I feel to have this project finished. There came a time when I felt that I needed to use hip hop to glorify Him more. It couldn't just be my not swearing in my songs. There needed to be an active voice which sought to look for God's perspective. I realized how proud I still was. How I had hoarded for myself so many things in my life and in the rap scene to further my own glory, and not God's, who is the giver of anything good in my life. That's when I wrote the song Hollow. It's basically a song that gives up. Not quitting. But a handing over of the reins to Someone infinitely more capable. Hollow is not only about what the rap game is, but about what I was, about how I mustn't ever forget that I was hollow to begin with. Hollow is a reminder that none of what I have is really mine, but mine to use for God. I had given up rapping in clubs because it was affecting some of the people I loved and people I influenced. I also started to see how getting back real late from a performance was starting to affect my lifestyle and study in negative ways. I'm not saying rapping in clubs is wrong; I'm just saying that, personally, in what I had experienced in my devotional periods, I was convinced of a certain rhythm in my life, which entailed my not sleeping at 4 in the morning, and that my intentions for wanting to rap at the clubs were tainted by my pride. After I had written Hollow, I had several performances opportunities which saw me rapping with the cello to audiences larger than I had experienced before. Since that moment, a dual-effort CD with epideMIC is out for sale, I have performed at the Markham Performing Arts Centre, Toronto Congress Centre, Mississauga Living Arts Centre at the RBC Theatre, the Toronto Performing Arts Centre twice, as well as other venues, and, I have come across a God-given opportunity to make this music video. So, really, I mean this, I thank God. I thank Him for always having my best intentions in mind, I thank Him for Michelle, and I thank Him for David Johns. The concluding lyrics go like this: "I used to rhyme for myself, getting people on my side.. Truly time proved itself, I was peaking at my pride.. I was hollow to begin with, it's so easy to forget.. But I followed in the image to be keeping their respect.. Morals demolished when I finished in believe I was blessed And started believing that I earned it, chasing dreams where I was best.." And, to those that read all the words above, I thank you as well. This is the moment some of you have been waiting for. 
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