just a quick post: “be water, my friend” will be live on spotify (and other streaming platforms) on thursday, 13th! (and i believe i’ll release “ambience” on these platforms as well. just not sure about when.)
anyway, stay tuned! and if not during the weekend, maybe in the beginning of the next week i’ll post something related to an interesting discussion i had a week ago about piracy. in the meantime, i’d love to hear what you think about this subject.
recently a bloke i follow on twitter posed the following question:
it’s definitely an interesting topic. some said they tend to stick with a drum kit, because that would bring cohesion and/or coherence to the songs, especially if they belong to an EP or album. on the other hand, some said it’d be better to tweak the drum section from song to song, which can offer the listener some alleviation from the fatigue. (it does make some sense, even more if we’re talking about songs for video games, where the loop technique is still in use, and the audio variation is key to avoid the hearing fatigue.)
the piece of hardware responsible for the drum section in my setup is the roland tr-8. i think you will notice its presence (almost trademark) if you are an attentive listener. in live streams i tend to believe that rare are the occasions where the squarepusher in action tweaks the drums that much.
guess i’ll pay more attention to this detail, as i tend to stick with many of the patches i already have programmed on it. a friend of mine kinda complained a bit. hahah! but then i pose you a question: what to say about all these trap, EDM, drum ‘n bass, house, techno songs that use to have virtually the same drum section? don’t you think this is more a relevant aspect only if you’re a beatmaker/producer, as the listener (casual or fan) won’t make a real distinction about that matter?
“be water, my friend” is finally out! it’s a 2-track single – a #liquidfunk and an #abstract / #downtempo, even triphop-ish, version of the title track. the idea was capturing that moment of introspection we dive in when we start to analyze a determined situation and adapt to the changes this situation requires us to make in ourselves.
“be water, my friend”. phrase attributed to the martial arts master bruce lee, meaning exactly this: be malleable, mold yourself.
and if you like what you’re going to listen to, bear in mind that the independt artist doesn’t have the multi-million infrastructure supporting him/her. your help is key for him/her to continue bringing new and original stuff to you. 
besides that, #bandcamp uses to retain 10% to 15% of the artist’s revenue. given they will be waiving their share of the revenue tomorrow – the so called #bandcampfriday, – it’ll be another opportunity for you to show your appreciation for the work of mine.
so… “be water”, my friends!
at this time you shoud be aware that in D-4 i’ll be releasing “be water, my friend”. today i’ll talk briefly about a another “guy” who plays an important part in the song.
so… some days ago i posted a video with the transformation process. roland tr-8 is the man behind the drums. after a minor tweak here and there, voilà: habemus drum section ready to go! the initial snare was sort of dim, a bit “pale”, not in tune with the presence the snare has in the beat. then i chose a more snappy/clappy one.
there was a 3rd option, which would demand way more time: checking the oldest of my grooveboxes – my beloved dr-202. but i’ll save this for later, as it is already appearing in the bonus track: an abstract/downtempo version of “be water, my friend”. there you guys will see it in action.
<p value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80">by the way, there are two cinema/animation characters in the footage. will you be able to spot them? if yes, drop me a line. =)by the way, there are two cinema/animation characters in the footage. will you be able to spot them? if yes, drop me a line. =)sometimes we get stuck with song ideas, and the reasons may vary. in a split seconds the inspiration vanishes, or suddenly the melodic progression simply fits no longer, or goes to a place completely different from what we’ve first imagined. when this happens, we usually put these ideas in some sort of “dead storage”. however, it’s not uncommon to revive them after observing something around us – a tv commercial, a scene from the daily life, a video clip – and this makes us bring those ideas back to the living.
recently i was talking about artists and their “stealing” process (“steal like an artist” is a very good read, btw): they absorb things from many sources, tweak them so their origins won’t be perceived easily, and put their trademarks, their signatures. picasso said that “good artists copy, great artists steal”. why would i be different?
this is part of the story behind “be water, my friend” then. a song that flirts with the more melodic (and equally frantic heh) brother of the drum ‘n bass genre: liquid funk. bruce lee’s phrase brings us the fact that we have to be malleable, and that we have to learn to deal with the intricacies and details of any situation, molding us to them. so, “be water, my friend”.
here’s the pre-order link: http://bit.ly/water_bc
[pt-br]
às vezes algumas ideias acabam ficando na “geladeira” por algum tempo, por diversos motivos. às vezes você “pisca” e a inspiração se vai, ou de repente uma linha melódica não avança, ou toma um rumo totalmente diferente do imaginado. a consequência é que a ideia acaba indo para o “arquivo morto”. entretanto, não é incomum observamos alguma ao nosso redor – um comercial, uma cena do cotidiano, um clipe – e isso servir de combustível para se retirar aquela ideia do tal “arquivo morto”.
recentemente eu falava sobre o “roubo” que o artista faz (“steal like an artist” é uma boa leitura, diga-se): ele absorve coisas das mais variadas fontes, mascara as origens, colocando sua marca registrada, sua assinatura. picasso já dizia que “bons artistas copiam, grandes artistas roubam”. por que eu seria diferente?
essa é parte da história do surgimento de “be water, my friend”. música que flerta com o irmão mais melódico (e igualmente “frenético”, heh) do drum ‘n bass: liquid funk. a frase dita por bruce lee remete ao fato de que nós temos de ser maleáveis, e que devemos aprender a trabalhar com as particularidades e circunstâncias de cada ocasião, moldando-nos a elas. assim, “be water, my friend”.
aqui vai o link para compra antecipada: https://bit.ly/water_bc
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