Came Back to HipForums looking for potential bandmates?

I was a long time member of the forums back in the 2000s. I started identifying myself as a hippy at about 13-14 years old. I'm 32 now and still feel like a kid / flower child at heart. One thing I have improved at a bit since that time is as a guitar player... I can actually, with effort, learn how to play some of the Pink Floyd solos (I managed to learn how to play the Snowy White bridge between Pt. 1 and 2 of Pigs on the Wing as an example of one I actually finally got down pretty good). I am still not great... but to my surprise I started realizing after just messing around singing really loudly when I was at my place alone is that I have a really strong, animated voice that many of the folks I've shared it to privately have been amazed in a way that has really renewed my interest and ambition for making my own music now that I feel like I have something people might like. I can sing many different styles... would love to share some examples. I can sort of sing with the loudness and grit of Bon Scott in a way (I love to sing Let There Be Rock) while also singing like Bob Dylan without turning him into too much of a caricature, with a lot of focus and discipline and practice really listening and trying to get it right with the proper technique -- David Gilmour of Pink Floyd is a style of singing I can do (at my best). A huge Pink Floyd fan, I've been told I do an eerily similar voice to that of Roger Waters esp. the singing style he used in The Wall.

I love the legendary 60s music of the hippies and folk counterculture... my parents brought me up on it and it stuck. I was named after Bob Dylan. I also have taken a liking to things like disco rock... I love Blondie in my collection. Like some new wave stuff as well... and a lot of the 90s rock that seemed sort of connected in spirit in various ways to the music of the 60s and early 70s.

I am naming my band after an unfinished book my father never got to publish and it means a lot to me as my father passed away in November after a battle with ALS. I had been isolated for awhile taking care of him but wouldn't trade it for anything, so glad I could be there for him as much as I could be. Now that I will have more time I plan to focus on some projects, seriously, like this.

The bands name is Pale Stars / The Pale Stars... (My father's book was called A Scattering of Pale Stars) and I also like how, as a big Syd Barrett fan, it sort of has a connection to his final attempt at a band when he wanted to make a comeback called Stars. Some people think his late history is too personally tragic for any kind of tribute but I think he was more so rejected by the record industry who didn't want to take Syd back and let him produce by what had then become seen as "quaint" little pieces generated by someone unstable no less during a time they wanted dependable performance from studio and arena rockers who were coming to dominate the commercial market.

I also like now the name Pale Stars sort of gives this idea of musicians offering their starring talents together without having much ego about it... just fine being the dim, pale stars in the sky.

I would like to work remotely over an extended period to get to know a group of musicians through a site like hipforums that would possibly have an interest in helping me... and not only as the conceptual leader of the band soaking everything up. Hell no I promise I don't want that. I want to work with someone more of a pure, true musician organized in technique and thought to help me make it possible in a way that brings them equal if not much greater respect by fans who pay attention to the note by note reaction of a |

Pale Stars will be mixed in what I call "easy home brew" old fashioned analog quadraphonic and then that will be ported through a program to 5.1 surround systems and better being able to reproduce the quad effect. I have a very nice collection of Reel to Reel tape players including a top of the line 1973 Teac that has quadraphonic recording and playback ability and sends output not as two encoded surround wires but as four seperate phono plugs. I have talked to some possible venues and a few seem interested in my idea of utilizng the 'true;

Since the early 2010s I have been active in liberal politics including one of the early Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of what happened to Trayvon Martin and I have also been a candidate for the state house in Georgia when I was barely of legal age to run, and even in a conservative district, I argued for compassion as well as efficiency in government that serves the working middle class and helps the poor in re-establishing them selves in a stable situation if need be and I campaigned on paying more to some of the most unthanked members of the working class like school bus drivers and janitors at our schools. I ran on a somewhat moderate message yet was also the only Democratic candidate that I knew of running for the GA assembly that wanted to decriminalize marijuana (and designed dozens of FB ads for it on photoshop lol).

I plan for the music I help produce to carry a political message that shames racism and points out how so many elements in our society are working to preserve hatred among the common people of this nation. At the same time I want it to be fun music... stoner music and whatnot... but I feel like new music desperately needs to do what some of the best hippy music of the original generation did by challenging the powers that be in the name of peace because of realizing how cruel war as and in the name of compassion for our fellow human beings suffering everything from poverty to the dehabitating effects of systemic racism which, hand in hand with racism, is creating an intolerable state of living for many of my black brothers and sisters.

I would really like to find a black American age 20-30s willing to help write some music with me to help me better understand his perspective at this point about so many things that are going wrong and to give an even stronger voice of artistic unity and representation in our movement and in the movement as a whole. And the same goes for extending the same invitation to a female as a potential lead collaborator in creating music as I would a male.

I kind of want to work remotely and use a program as simple as FB's messenger to send audio clips to work back and forth with an interest partner.

 

I play too, and am possibly majoring in music at a community college near here. I'm not great, and no good at reading; I barely know how. Good luck in your quest, and welcome back!

EDIT: Have you ever worked with recording software? (sorry if you already mentioned it in you post! I just skimmed the first few lines and felt like talking to you!)

 

I'm not too great at the instrument though I've been told I have flashes of potential and even some original "genius" on it I am very inconsistent. I much prefer singing... I will try to share some examples.

Attached is pictures of the band logo idea I am working with, and the second picture is a custom guitar finishing I remade in a really unique pattern that I came out happy with. I call it the "Pale Star Guitar" because I put it in the oven when it was curing on the nitrocellulose so as to put little craters in it I filled in with talcum powder, so now it looks like it has little stars across its texture at the same time every side has slightly different colors and patterns. It's a 1965 Kay Vanguard guitar body. Going to eventually make this one really special. I have some others I work on as well.

 

If you are interested in opera, I will be happy to help.

 

prob one of the only types of music that doesn't interest me. i'm sure it's good once you understand it, I'm just not that cultured lol

 

Where are you located?

I've been playing bass since I was 16 (I'm 44 now). I'm trying to teach myself Ableton. I played in Jam Bands for a few years and am trying to learn Trip Hop, Chill Hop etc. plus learning Jazz Composition.

C/S,
Rev J

 

That's no easy task

I took both Intro to Music Technology (Logic) and Electronic Music (Ableton) in community college (Moorpark College). I understand a little, but my understanding is nowhere near comprehensive.

it's tough!

 

Yeah. I've got a big book on Ableton Live 10. I'm working my way through it slowly, when I find time. I got the program for free when I got my audio interface. Even the Light Edition has a lot in it.

When I got the Launchkey Mini it came with 60 free lessons from Melodics so I've been learning a little keyboard and drum pads.

C/S,
Rev J

 

Yeah! I have Ableton 7 Light or something reasonably similar to that. It's the bottom rung production suite.

It's adequate! It really does a whole lot, but you run into barriers if you're trying to engineer techno for example. I don't really want to do that though. I don't have it on my laptop right now, but I can download it from their website. It's a really powerful software, Ableton. I know I'm lazy enough that I'll never really work with that very much. I guess I'm more suited to guitar. Even the prospect of keyboarding class rubs me the wrong way because I know I'll have to play a piano; at which I suck miserably... lol

 

Plus there's a lot of interesting things that have caught my attention regarding different feels within the whole Chill Hop subgenera like this:



C/S,
Rev J

 

Me too. For me it's just an input method. If my main bass wasn't a collectors item I might try putting a MIDI pickup on it.

C/S,
Rev J

 

Yes! There's lots and lots to do.. Lol. I don't have the patience for it if I'm honest. I like stuff like Illenium or Porter Robinson. Deadmau5 is cool too.

EDIT: Also, you might find this place useful. I don't use it anymore, but it's full of courses for learning Ableton 10.

Online STEAM Courses From Top Universities | Kadenze

 

I've been getting into stuff like Flying Lotus:



J Dilla:



Thundercat:



MF DOOM:



Also a lot of the stuff that they use for bumpers on Adult Swim (Granted a lot of that is Flying Lotus).

C/S,
Rev J

 

Thanks for posting this. Once I get home internet access I'm planning on doing the Ableton 10 courses and the "Entrepeneourship For Musicians" course.

C/S,
Rev J

 

I can play any instrument of the air variety including air DJ mixer and pretty solid at air vocals.