Memories of Miss Memory

Finally I got to visit my wonderful friends Kirsten and Nick over at their farm Milkwood, not far from Mudgee, and only a few hours by public transport from Sydney. Kirsten picked me up in a pretty town called Rylstone, where we did a spot of op-shopping before dropping in by accident on a workshop on useful australian weeds hosted by Pat Collins. On the way to Milkwood, we stopped on the side of the road to take some cuttings from a HUGE old apple tree she had spotted on the way. Getting a cutting was trickier than usual because a large black bull was keeping watch over it. We negotiated our way around it to pilfer a couple of twigs and one large apple for tasting.

We also stopped by the Cudgegong River for a photo opp.

Since their last Milkwood blog post, Kirsten has been busy doing a residency at First Draft Gallery in Sydney, and Nick and Kirsten have been running permaculture courses in Sydney and at Milkwood. They have been running their courses in the the wool shed, which is so homely and comfortable, and reminds me somewhat of their old warehouse in Melbourne. Kirsten has been cooking up feasts of beautiful organic food made fresh every day. Because they have had an influx of people at the farm, they have built a shower and toilet block and washing up area.

They now have twelve chookies for eggs as well as creating a rich bed of compost for the food forest floor that resides on the hill above the planned studio/home. The dams and swales have created a fascinating landscape that will create beautiful surrounds for their abode.

Over the weekend i got to help plant the vegie garden, where little silverbeets, chicory, parsley and carrots heads are starting to rear their heads through the mulch.

Kirsten and I also sowed onions, leeks, kale, parsley and lettuce into seed trays, using river sand and home made compost. We also created some new beds, and laid out the rest of the beds for mulching and planting.

I got as dirty as possible and had a brilliant time exhausting myself doing manual labour, which is a rarity for me being a city dweller.

At the end of a day in the sun, Nick watered and turned the compost heap,

Then we chilled out and watched the sun go down drinking a glass of red and basking in the glow of accomplishment. For me this was a great inspiration, as a budding permaculture convert who dwells in the city, I am excited to get back to my home and into my own tiny garden to clear the excess scurvy weed from my garden beds and mulch the soil ready for a winter crop.

We arrived in Cologne on Sunday 15th August, a motley crew of worldly individuals hailing from Australia, America, Russia, Spain, New Zealand and England. Each person a producer in their own right, a writer, and a pretty decent individual. Some of us are by comparison, just beginning in the world of music production, the youngsters, others well on their way down the musical path, and then there are the seasoned professionals. Unlike the “college of laid back knowledge” Academy style, the “Class of its Own” aims to bring together like minded individuals with a focus on the music making and practical learning, without the formality of lectures. Our learning was to be had in the recording booth, around the console, in the pre-production rooms, and over the billiard table.

A couple of insights

Its true they say that the more you learn the more you realise there is lots you don’t know. It is possible that we can achieve so much in our lives yet still have much to learn. I like to think that as I grow, so do my questions. So to be able to watch the way others work in the studio, put together tracks and collaborate with others has been an invaluable lesson. The lovely RBMA staff pretty much gave us free reign to do whatever we wanted, very trusting of them, but as there were no rules, the entire experience was also an experiment in self-governance.

The ley of the land

The studio lay out was mouthwatering for any gear head (like myself). There are two live rooms, housing a top of the line drum kit, Rhodes, and microphones, acoustic and electric guitars. A control room housing what I believe to be a Neve console, and a fabulous array of old and new outboard processing. But even so, my favourite room had to be Achtung, or Ghetto room, as named by Theo Parrish. This room had a jaw dropping array of analogue toys, drum machines and synthesisers, all brought together into a 24 channel console. The room even housed a harmonium!

Theo’s mad rush

On the first day, Theo Parrish realised he had to leave by Thursday. He wasted no time in getting started and got together a group of people to start producing a track in the main studio. Even Theo - a seasoned producer, had his eyes open in the studio, asking questions and scratching his head. By the following night he had worked on other five tracks, some of which he invited everybody to collaborate on. One track, dubbed, “the chemistry is meant to be”, turned into a 7 minute epic with almost everybody adding a little touch to it. I helped with the strings and melodies, and added some electronic percussion. When Theo left on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, he had resolved to buy Logic.

Om’Mas

I must make a special mention about Om’Mas and his writing technique. First he has an idea for a song. Then he secures some studio time. From there it was like this, step one, drums, step two, bass, step three guitar, step four vocals. When asked how he writes his vocals, he says he writes them on the spot. Everything is an organic process, all mapped out in his head.

Steve and Mark on the late night shift

After 3am was the Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek shift. They would turn the Achtung room into their own domain, making music using Commodore 64 emulators and the Moog Voyager, which single handedly became the most used and adored synthesiser during the 10 days.

Roman and Sofie

Roman and I quickly realised the pre production studio was free from 10am till 1pm every day and made this our own quiet time to write some music together and learn about each others style. We both had an understanding regarding each other, being two ambient music producers, and lucky for us Roman had a good grounding in Logic, and I had a great understanding of how to work the studio. Each morning we would connect different drum machines and synthesisers and listen to them, record them, and massage the sounds into soft pieces of music.

The Mizells

Open, caring, modest, the most seasoned and knowledgeable of the group were the most gracious, always considerate of others, offering their abilities to anyone who needed them. They were the epitomy of this idea i mentioned earlier about knowing more means you realise you have more to learn, that learning is a neverending experience that only stops when you close yourself off to it. Working with the Mizells was truly an honour, and each one taught me something and were also open to my ideas. One day, Fonce asked me if I would like to work on some lyrics with him, and together we worked on an idea he had for a song, in Motown shuffle style. We taught the lyrics and melody to Steve Spacek, whom Fonce decided was the perfect singer for the job. It was a moment when we put our musical genres aside to collaborate on a timely tune with a master tunesmith. Fonce writes lyrics from ideas. First he writes down what he wants to get across, then he picks the phrases that will work in a song and forms them into shape, and no rhyming. He’s not a rhyming man.

part 2 coming soon….

written for redbullmusicacademy.com

I am sitting in the booking office at Amsterdam Centraal to book my train ticket to Cologne, and so far, everything this morning has been tinted with inspiration, and anticipation. In the cafe near Dam Square, I heard a gorgeous track playing whilst I ordered my coffee. I asked the girl behind the espresso machine what it was. She told me in broken english it was Belle and something, “Jazzanova”, she added. I smiled, of course! Sensing she had found a kindred spirit, she asked me to wait while she ran off to play me her favourite track on the album. It was a slow piano and voice number about a girl missing a guy. We both nodded to each other knowingly. We were feeling it. Mental note was made to track this “belle and something” album down. The singer reminded me of Andreya, an Academy participant I met in Melbourne last year. It seems my extended RBMA family gets bigger every year, and being Australian means I am 15,000 km from most of them which makes it even more special to be able to see some of them again. I wonder if the rest of the 15 people arriving this Sunday to the Mothership in Cologne are as mystified as I am about what the ensuing 10 days will be like.

Back to reality, the guy sitting next to me also asked for a ticket to Cologne, He was stylishly dressed, musty smelling and was listening to a Cassette Walkman. I secretly wondered if he was one of my compatriots, or at least, by the very act of listening to a cassette made me feel some kind of kinship that I couldn’t possibly explain to a stranger. Am I able to make the rest of my life as memorable as a Music Academy experience? This morning it felt almost possible!