Jaden | Music

With this great sadness comes my realization of the joy that was shared to the world by an extraordinary man, a man who will never be replaced as not only the ‘King of Pop’ but the ‘King of Entertainment’ period.

So why is it that millions of us who have never even met the man feel such ‘closeness’, a sense of family, a sense of understanding?

MIchael Jackson’s music has something for everyone, It has something we can all relate to. No matter what emotion one may be going through there is a soundtrack to match. His music is so powerful and delicately pieced together, his lyrics simply genius and stage performance so brilliant that it set a standard never to be matched.

History was the 1st album that i bought with my own money and am extremely fortunate i was able to witness the MJ ‘History’ concert in Sydney ’96 thanks to my mum! Throughout high school i returned home most days to an MJ dvd and would copy every dance move (as best i could!) until i knew the choreography for whole concert. This is the impact MJ had on me.

His accomplishments are nothing short of astonishing and have left a permanent mark on the world’s music industry. Unlike my other personal musical favorites such as The Beatles, Stevie, Bob Marley, and Prince, Michael Jackson’s music crossed through many different genres, captivating a vast number of dedicated followers from around the globe. Not to take anything away from these other amazing/influential artists, but Michael Jackson was an individual in a league of his own.

No one will ever be able to relate Michael Jackson, an entertainer who lived the life of a celebrity since he was aged 5. We may be able to understand his pain and loneliness but no one will ever be able to know exactly what this person experienced. One thing we can be sure of is that this is simply a sad end to a story that touched many of our lives and will continue to be told from generation to generation just as his legacy will live though the many entertainers here today and in the years to come.

Spending extended periods of time in any room/office/studio/house starts to play tricks on one’s mind. Everyone has different methods of blowing off steam. Some hit  the party scene every weekend, others yell at the TV screen in hope that this will improve the performance of their favorite team. Musicians and Producers, while prone to the aforementioned, have a tendency use this ‘relaxation period’ to explore new creative destinations.

Today Charmaine walked into the studio and proclaimed; ‘I wanna rap!’

2 hours later we woke up to this.

Enjoy.

Note: No top-40 performers, Hollywood darlings, Antares plug-ins or Australian territories were harmed during the production of Drip Dry.

The time is 1.30am… After spending 12 hours in the studio today working on a new track “You’re with me tonight” (amongst other things), I have finally pried myself away from Pro Tools only to realise I am completely lost – inside and out. After being so deeply absorbed for so many hours, the only language that makes any sense to me is the language of the soul. My mind is going a million miles a minute, yet I feel like I’m incapable of expressing a single one of my thoughts. With little or no chance of sleeping any time soon, I have resigned myself to the only forms of mindless recreation that I can handle right now – eating, and vegetating in front of the box (not the one with the dots…).

The time is 1.48… It is time to return to reality- the external variety. The one with the dots.

whenever i feel down about all the things in life i want to do but may never get the time or the opportunity to do, i just stop myself and and take a minute to consider… there are so many people in the world that are born into lives of poverty, suffering or ignorance; destined to follow an unjust or unfulfilling path in life – who am i to complain about having too many options.

life is too short to continue rambling in this blog any further, im off to watch re-runs of late-night jamster mobile ads from 2005

(subject quote was courtesy of the infinitely and brilliantly confounding miss Erykah Badu)

I understand the need for information.
I crave to find out more about everything that inspires me.
Whenever I hear an interesting sound, see a pretty face or hear a fact requiring verification i have the assurance that a six letter monster will answer the immediate questions composing in my head.
Some say we are killing the process of learning and natural discovery but i think we are enhancing it as well as just being efficient.
Things move so fast that i don’t have the time to go a library and check out a couple of books in order to learn more about Quincy Jones. Wikipedia and YouTube give me a 15 minute crash course and the option do to further research at my own leisure.
In a way it helps us digest information in order to stay in the game.
You’re probably thinking, oh the irony.
But blogging my thoughts while i should be sleeping serves greater purpose. We now have the opportunity to get closer to our idols/inspirations by staying connected through their various sites/blogs/videos.
There are days when i feel so far away from where i want to be and reading the writings of people i admire and respect often gives me the necessary drive to get up the next morning and keep working towards my goals.
Blogging my thoughts, emotions and ideas for anyone interested to read is just another instrument i can use to express myself.

Hi, I am Daniel.
I have thousands of ideas, over a hundred nicknames, several lives, 3 tattoos, 2 passions, 1 MIDI keyboard and countless dreams i am yet to achieve.
This inspires me.

I came across this picture after one of the multi-talented producer/photographer Daniel’s recent late night sessions. It got me thinking… 

Something about this scene strikes me as quite extraordinary – it speaks as a voice announcing itself as music’s autobiographical commentary on its resistance to the futuristic synthetic robot carnage ‘melodies’ that dominate our stereos and iTunes libraries in this, the age of the 20-hundreds – exuding the sort of bittersweet disappointment I would imagine to transpire when a master teacher is surpassed by his student -who becomes superior in all ways – ultimately stepping forward to take the master’s place in what could perhaps be called the cruelest of all ironies (no, I’m not talking about Star Wars…).  

Is it possible that the once vibrant and youthful face of music could be so quickly reduced to little more than a film of dust, just a garnish sprinkled over the buffet of modern day monster-mash? A spitefully venomous yet futile revenge waged upon a techno-tronic world, one that has pillaged and stripped the very soul from music… A now meagre existence unequivocally ended as it is so intentfully smudged out by the fingers of change.

Could it be that this estranged dust still has its place in the recording studio of today – coating the green and red flashing LEDs of a state of the art mixer, filling the gaps between the keys of an infinitely customizable synth keyboard, intercepting the bluetooth signals projecting from a wireless mouse, or confiding in the sleek black pads of an electronic drum kit…?

My promise to you is this – before I go to sleep tonight, I know that i’ll be praying for dust.

My house backs onto a vast stretch of what we Aussies call bush. This morning while taking a trek down through my backyard with Jazz (my dog/model), we came perilously close to crossing paths with a 3 meter black snake (black being the colour, not necessarily the type of snake – as I am no snake expert myself). Luckily the old phrase “they are probably more scared of you than you are of them” rang true today – it slithered its slippery self off damn quickly. I have to say, it kinda freaked me out – seeing as 5 minutes before this I had been down in the praying mantis pose trying to photograph Jazz as he frolicked amongst the daisies (in saying this, I also doubt they were actually daisies- but I wouldn’t know… I am no more of a gardener than I am a snake handler (mind out of the gutter people).

See below for a graphical summary of my near death experience, and the highly questionable patch of daisies.

-Nic-