I've been thinking about the work I do here at SUNY Purchase, and how it compares to the recordings I used to make. When i was first discovering the magic of capturing sound, it was within the stone walls of my basement, in the company of friends, and in the safety of my parents home. We were creating to fulfill childish curiosities, and recording music to later be examined, questioned, and often laughed at.
It seems that the days of recording in my basement are gone. I am now a student in the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, surrounded by students who take their craft seriously enough to move away from home, move into a state-school dorm, and dedicate the next four years of their lives to their selected musical niche. This environment is powerful and dangerous. While I feel that a conservatory environment provides countless opportunities and benefits, I feel that it brings with it the constant temptation, or constant trap, of competition.
But the urge to compete...it's not our fault! How can we not compete when our work is constantly being submitted to professors to judge and critique--when the toils of each semester are represented by nothing more than a silly little GPA?
If we're not going to compete, we have two choices: disregard each others' existence, or collaborate. My hopes in writing this blog are to make it as natural and as easy as possible for those working alone in a recording studio at 3:00am to know that they're really not alone at all.
Below, I've uploaded the first music recording I ever made, and the most recent recording I've made. The former was recorded by me and my friend Tamas Szalay in 10th grade under the name Groundhog Revolution, after he had a compositional and lyrical epiphany in the shower. If you don't find this funny, I really can't blame you, but we sure got a kick out of it. I should mention, though, that my dad sung the vocals.
The latter is a klezmer band from Baltimore, Maryland, appropriately titled Klezzazz. I imagine that I'll always have a special place in my heart for klezmer music after this project. When done well, it encapsulates a culture so rich that it makes you want to cry and dance at the same time.* I hope you enjoy.
Cheers!
Cheers!
*I'd like to invite any and all readers of this blog to submit a video of them crying while dancing. Were I famous, my selecting a winner might be enough initiative for you to upload such a video, but in this case, I'm relying on your desire to create something beautiful and eternal.
