Recently I’ve been listening to a lot more acoustic and solo work from artists and it’s been really inspiring. My major influences are singer-songwriters like Jeff Buckley, Tim Buckley, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and other troubadour type musicians.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of Nina Simone, Chet Baker’s vocals recordings, Bill Evans and other jazz musicians.

I’ve also been researching into jazz chord progressions and scales to have a further understanding of jazz music. I started by learning the II-V-I (2-5-1) progression which is the most fundamental and common chord progression in jazz music. I then moved on to some more chord progressions and found that I really liked the Imaj7 – VIm7 – IIm7 – V7 and the II – V – I (minor) progressions. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Middle Eastern music from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and other Qawwali singers. I’ve also been looking into foreign scales to recreate a similar sound. The scales I’ve really liked are the Japanese, Indian and Arabian scales.

I try to incorporate as many influences, sounds, and styles into my music as it means I can create music that is more unique. I also try to learn more scales and chord progressions as I feel it gives me the ability to communicate what I want to communicate through my music. I believe that music theory is the language we use to speak through our instruments and that learning more scales and chord progressions is like expanding your vocabulary to be able to express more.

Outside of musicians I’ve been reading more poetry and literature to expand more upon my songwriting ability and vocabulary. Poetry-wise I’ve mainly been reading the works of Allen Ginsberg. One of my favourite poems he’s written is “America.” Written post-World War II it has major themes of nuclear warfare and communism. I love how blunt it is. I want to replicate a similar feeling and theme in one of my songs.

Literature-wise I’ve been reading some of the work from Stephen King and George Orwell. I especially really like George Orwell’s 1984. The feeling that I get when reading it is unlike anything I’ve felt before when reading a book. I get this huge sense of paranoia and anxiety that freaks me out, but I really like it. I want to write a song that induces that same kind of paranoia and anxiety that the book does.

References:

Baker, C. (2013). Chet Baker – 01 – The Thrill Is Gone – The Best Of Chet Baker Sings HD1080 320 kbps. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw1991aZ3us [Accessed 20 May 2019].

Simone, N. (2009). Nina Simone – Be My Husband. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn-j52pHtRQ [Accessed 20 May 2019].

Ramin, S. (2016). What’s a II-V-I Chord Progression – Guitar Lesson and Theory. [online] Jazz-guitar-licks.com. Available at: https://www.jazz-guitar-licks.com/blog/what-s-a-ii-v-i-progression.html [Accessed 28 May 2019].

Ramin, S. (2017). The 14 Most Popular Chord Progressions In Jazz. [online] Jazz-guitar-licks.com. Available at: https://www.jazz-guitar-licks.com/blog/lessons/the-most-important-chord-progressions-in-jazz-music.html [Accessed 28 May 2019].

YouTube. (2016). Ye Jo Halka Halka Saroor Hai – Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – OSA Official HD Video. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPXHsUXVH0 [Accessed 28 May 2019].

Laukens, D. (n.d.). 11 Exotic Guitar Scales To Instantly Spice Up Your Solos (Video + Tabs). [online] Jazz Guitar Online | Free Jazz Guitar Lessons, Licks, Tips & Tricks. Available at: https://www.jazzguitar.be/blog/exotic-guitar-scales [Accessed 28 May 2019].

Ginsberg, A. and Schumacher, M. (2015). The essential Ginsberg. 4th ed. Penguin Books.

Ginsberg, A. (n.d.). America – Poem by Allen Ginsberg. [online] Famouspoetsandpoems.com. Available at: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/allen_ginsberg/poems/8318 [Accessed 29 May 2019].

Ginsberg, A. (2010). Allen Ginsberg reads America. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orar-V3y5Sk [Accessed 29 May 2019].

Orwell, G. (1954). 1984. 26th ed. New York: Penguin Books in association with Martin Secker & Warburg.

I watched this video of Andy Wallace deconstructing his mix of Jeff Buckley’s Last Goodbye and was able to learn a lot about how he produces a song with acoustic and electric guitar, the proximity effect, and reverb. He describes how the two acoustic guitars are panned hard left and right and a 12-string electric guitar is right down the centre of the mix and how he blends them together. The reasoning behind why he produced and mixed the song this way was because he wanted the song to be orchestral and not in the way that there are strings in the song so now it’s orchestral, he wanted this wide range from the instruments and wanted it sound like there were multiple instruments doing their own thing and adding to overall sound to create this huge sonic image. Because of this, the guitars aren’t exactly played the same. They’re played quite freely in rhythm and create this idea of many musicians playing in an orchestra creating a huge sound. He also goes over using the proximity effect on the vocals and how he wanted the lead singer to sing quieter and closer to the microphone to be reminiscent of someone whispering in your ear and then in the bigger, louder moments of the song, he sings louder and farther away from the microphone to make the vocals bigger and in a way more operatic. He then discusses how he uses a small amount of a medium and a long reverb on the vocals because he didn’t want the reverb to be an obvious effect and just wanted it to open things up a bit. I also learnt something that I never would have thought to do which was when EQing things, to boost the frequencies to find exactly where you want to cut the frequencies. He demonstrates this when EQing the acoustic guitars. The guitars are quite “thumpy” and have a bit too much low end on them so he boosts the frequencies in the low end to find exactly where he needs to cut.

References:

Wallace, A. (2018). Deconstructing a Mix 33 – Part 9 | Mix With The Masters. [online] Mixwiththemasters.com. Available at: https://mixwiththemasters.com/video/deconstructing-mix-33-part-9 [Accessed 24 Apr. 2019].

I’ve been looking on YouTube and Lynda.com to learn more about recording techniques so I can record my EP with the best sound quality and efficiency. The main things I’ve been looking into are types of microphones to use and microphone placement. I wanted to find what is the best type of microphone to use for acoustic guitar, vocals and other acoustic instruments. One thing I found that was the most helpful was a Lynda.com course on audio recording techniques that ranged from microphone basics to recording guitar and even recording drums, piano, horns, and other instruments. This course was extremely helpful in learning about the things I need to know to record audio properly. I learnt that a large diaphragm condenser microphone would be best for recording my guitar as it has a larger frequency response and makes the guitar sound bigger and fuller. Because it has a larger diaphragm capsule than a small diaphragm condenser mic it picks up frequencies differently.

When comparing the polar patterns between a small and large diaphragm condenser, you can see there’s a difference in the way it picks up frequencies around the microphone. This is something I need to take into account when setting up mic placement.

I then researched more into polar patterns of microphones. I found that the best polar pattern for recording acoustic guitar was an omnidirectional as it can capture wider sound sources better than a cardioid microphone which means it can capture the guitar and the environment around.

However, I’ll be recording the EP in my bedroom which isn’t acoustically treated. Because of this, the room has a nasty echo which an omnidirectional would pick up so using a cardioid microphone would be a better choice for the environment I’m recording in.

I settled on using a Rode NT1-A which is a large diaphragm condenser microphone with a cardioid polar pattern as it’s available from the ERC. I also decided on using a Shure SM58 Dynamic microphone for the vocals as using the NT1-A for both vocals and guitar could mean the audio could sound quite bland throughout the EP. It’s also easier to use two mics than to use the same one for different purposes and have to keep rearranging the setup and mic placement. I also have a Behringer XM8500 Dynamic microphone that I’m going to use at some point to give the sound a bit of a different texture.

References:

Owsinski, B. (2012). Recording the acoustic guitar with one mic. [online] Lynda.com. Available at: https://www.lynda.com/Audio-Engineering-tutorials/Recording-acoustic-guitar-one-mic/95612/115177-4.html [Accessed 18 May 2019].

E-Home Recording Studio. (n.d.). Microphone Polar Patterns: Cardioid, Omnidirectional, Figure-8. [online] Available at: https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/microphone-polar-patterns/ [Accessed 28 May 2019].

Neumann.com. (n.d.). What Is the Difference Between Large and Small Diaphragm Microphones?. [online] Available at: https://www.neumann.com/homestudio/en/difference-between-large-and-small-diaphragm-microphones [Accessed 29 May 2019].

What I think makes a great album cover varies from album to album. Sometimes something as simple as a portrait of the artist is what’s right for the album, and sometimes a magnificent work of art doesn’t fit properly. An album cover like the one for Car Seat Headrest’s “Twin Fantasy” works perfectly for the album, but wouldn’t really work for many other albums apart from other lo-fi indie albums in the same vein.

The cover fits very well with the album which is a lo-fi indie rock album that was originally recorded by Will Toledo who not only drew the cover, he also played and recorded every instrument himself in his bedroom with a cheap laptop microphone. He later went on to re-record the album with a band in a proper studio and used a reversed version of the album cover. ” I kind of felt that these were demos I was recording when I was doing the original thing, I felt like I could re-record it better. So far, it’s worked out,” he said in a rolling stone article about why he re-recorded the album.

I think the simplicity of the cover for the album works really well with the sound and feel of the album. An album cover that’s on the complete opposite end of the spectrum is the cover by Jason Galea for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s album “Murder of the Universe.

The album is an epic psych-rock masterpiece that tells three stories in three separate distinct chapters of the album. One is the tale of a man who meets an “altered beast” and yearns to become altered too, the second is a tale of The Lord of Lightning in a battle with the Balrog, and the third is a tale of a robot named “Han-Tyumi” who wants nothing, but to be like a human and it believes the most human thing you can do is vomit so he builds a “Soy-Protein Munt Machine” to give him the ability to vomit, but he vomits so much it consumes everything and “murders” the universe. The stories are mainly told through narration and lyrics sparsed throughout. The album cover had to be something to reflect the albums intensity and chaos and Galea created an equal masterpiece to go along with the album. This album is also the third in a trilogy of albums by the band and has elements from the previous two albums in the trilogy.

He started making the cover by taking the two previous albums in the trilogy and running them through the dreamscope app and then sketching on top of them and then further and further developing his ideas. It also appears like he is using the dreamscope app a lot throughout the process and getting ideas from it. He eventually finished the sketch and took it to canvas and painted the finished piece.

I believe that both these album covers brilliant and fit the albums perfectly. They couldn’t further apart stylistically, but are both great works of art.

One of my favourite covers that Galea has made is something he made for a single for the same band. I really like the use of colours and how well it provides an image while being quite simple. I want to replicate something like this where it’s mainly colour and outlines to create a landscape image.

Other than album covers I’ve been really interested in traditional Japanese art such as Ukiyo-e. Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art consisting of woodblock prints and paintings of landscapes, flora, fauna and erotica. I’ve been really inspired by a lot of works. The works by Hokusai and Hiroshige are some of my favourite works of all time. Hokusai is known for creating the incredibly famous piece, “The Great Wave.” Hiroshige is known for his series “One Hundred Views of Edo,” and for Vincent Van Gogh recreating one of his works from that series. Here are my favourite works of theirs.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is Hokusai’s most well-known piece and Fine Wind, Clear Morning is my favourite of his and is one of my favourite pieces of all time. I completely adore Hiroshige’s pieces. There’s always something I love about all of his works. I think his use of colour is beautiful. All of his works always have something that draws you to a certain point of the image, but when you take a look at the whole piece, there’s an incredible amount of detail and intricacy. Because I can never get music out of my head I also want to again talk about another cover that I really like which very clearly references and is inspired by Fine Wind, Clear Morning. The cover for Kanye West’s and Kid Cudi’s Kids See Ghosts by Takashi Murakami.

I absolutely love this cover. The colours, the Mount Fuji in the background, the way the Mount Fuji frames the ghost on the right, the characters in the foreground, everything about this cover I love. This cover is one I’m really inspired by especially. I want to try to emulate something like this using watercolour. I also want to further research into woodblock printing and how it’s done and try to attempt it myself in the future, but I don’t think I’m going to attempt it for my cover as it seems like something I need to learn more about and I won’t have enough time to research for this project.

References:

Bandcamp.com. (2011). Twin Fantasy, by Car Seat Headrest. [online] Available at: https://carseatheadrest.bandcamp.com/album/twin-fantasy [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Reiff, C. (2018). Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo Talks ‘Twin Fantasy’ Remake – Rolling Stone. [online] Rollingstone.com. Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/inside-car-seat-headrests-new-old-fantasy-200496/ [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Galea, J. (2017). KGLW MOTU. [online] Jasongalea.com. Available at: https://www.jasongalea.com/kglw-motu.html [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Heavenly Emporium. (2017). King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard – Murder Of The Universe. [online] Available at: http://heavenlyemporium.com/buy/murder-of-the-universe-3/ [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Galea, J. (2014). KGLW – I’m In Your Mind Fuzz. [online] Jasongalea.com. Available at: https://www.jasongalea.com/kglw—i-m-in-your-mind-fuzz.html [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Galea, J. (2016). KGLW Nonagon Infinity. [online] Jasongalea.com. Available at: https://www.jasongalea.com/kglw-nonagon-infinity.html [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Galea, J. (2017). Jason Galea on Instagram: “Here’s the making of video for the MOTU cover. I used AI computers and projectors to help get me there. The next album cover will be hand…”. [online] Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BVjxzoUACH7/ [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Metmuseum.org. (n.d.). Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei). [online] Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/JP1847/ [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Hiroshige.org.uk. (n.d.). Great Tōkaidō. [online] Available at: https://www.hiroshige.org.uk/Tokaido_Series/Tokaido_Great.htm [Accessed 16 May 2019].

Estiler, K. (2018). The Artwork That Inspired Kid Cudi & Kanye West’s ‘Kids See Ghosts’ Album Cover. [online] HYPEBEAST. Available at: https://hypebeast.com/2018/6/kanye-west-kid-cudi-takashi-murakami-kids-see-ghosts-album-artwork [Accessed 18 May 2019].

YouTube. (2017). King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – The Last Oasis (Official Audio). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF_eiMLG9Ho [Accessed 3 Jun. 2019].

I personally think nowadays there isn’t really such a thing as originality anymore. There’s been so much art in the past century that having a truly original idea is almost impossible. I think to actually be somewhat original you need to have many influences and put your own creative mind into your projects and find your own style through experimenting and research. I think the idea of getting angry at people who use similar styles and have similar influences as you is pointless as everything you make is going to be inspired by other people. However there are times where people completely plagiarise other peoples ideas.

Even though I don’t think this counts as plagiarism, this is an example of someone claiming plagiarism.

Shynola vs Owen Trevor

Shynola released a music video made for the band Coldplay in 2011. The video was made using stop motion and features a superhero saving a damsel in distress while interacting with objects drawn using chalk.

After the video was released the musician Andy Gallagher accused Coldplay of plagiarising one of his video that was released over 2 years prior. It’s a video that features the musician in stop motion interacting with objects drawn with chalk.

Shynola then made response to the claim. In the response they claimed that they had never even seen Gallagher’s video before. They broke down their video and showed where they got influences for the video and also showed a video made prior to both the music videos and both creators were very clearly inspired by that particular video.

My Opinion

I personally believe that neither of the videos were original and one of them claiming that one ripped the other off is ridiculous. I feel that Shynola had a great response and was very fair and calm. Both creators used similar techniques and had similar influences so the fact that the videos are somewhat similar isn’t surprising. I think Shynola also shared a good point at the end of their response which was “if artists start accusing each other of plagiarism over music videos, where will it end? Bands suing each other for concert effects like pyro, lights and fog?”

In recent years there’s been many claims of plagiarism especially over music and music videos. An example I think of immediately is the Ed Sheeran vs the Marvin Gaye Estate where they claimed Sheeran had plagiarised a Marvin Gaye song for using the same chord progression even though the chord progression is a very simple one that is used very often.