We're not dead....

well we booked gig in September...so we aren't hanging it all up yet...still on summer break...stop by our homepage and grab our recent tunes

Hannah and The Fray

So Hannah and her buddy Joey got to meet The Fray at Summerfest. Hannah gave them a gift bag with bubbles and one of her CD's "Lets All Get An F in Chemistry"

Hannah is in the studio now laying down tracks for her next demo and EP...

So I have been helping her to learn the ins and outs of MOTU AudioDesk...like any modern techno kid she is picking it up rather fast.

I saw The Fray with Hannah at the Rave and I was quite impressed by them. One of the best shows I have seen in a long time. So many great songs.

Hannah in obvious teen idol heaven.

Here she hands them the gift bag...they said "Wow...no one has ever given us a gift bag before!"

Hannah's music

Be sure to check out Hannah's music on her myspace page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=30545986

Quite the chip off the old block... so to speak... or is that "blockhead"? =)

Seriously, Hannah's got some great music... be sure to take a listen.

You can get more free music of the soul amp variety by going here: Free MP3 Index for Soul Amp

Sweet 16

My daughter, Hannah had her 16th birthday party last week. I set up a stage out of some pallettes and some left over panels from a old trade show booth. Ones we used in the Cat Box studio.



With the little Peavy PA, a digital delay and some good mics it was a nice sound get up.

Hannah had her music friends and special guests, Hayward Williams and a portion of Soul Amp - M2 and I. We kicked off the show with a 30 minute set of improvised jams and a few punky Soul Amp tunes. M2 had his Gretsch kit in the garage behind the stage and I set a condensor mic up for to send it to the PA...sweet sound with the guitar amp miced and vocal coming through. (Hannah put us first to get us out of the way...lol)

Hannah had sk8tr Lance Keotah, James and Jason (123 Jimmie) and herself in the show, each played 30 minute sets as did the keynote act, Hayward Williams to finish. Hannah and her buds had fun and the adults stayed out of the way....for the most part.

All in all a good time. Happy B-Day H - <3 Dad

A few words from M2....

Fisk came out to the Love Shack sunday afternoon. I sold him the Tama drumset with a bunch of hardware and cymbals. He'll have a nice setup for the studio. I've got my eye on a Gretsch bebop jazz kit..nice and compact. I'll have to replace most of my hardware too..and cases..to get it to fit in the new Focus..yikes. I've been talking about downsizing for quite some time. Junking the '85 Cutlass, and the lull in my musical life, have allowed me to follow through. I played a Church gig sunday morning in Waukesha with the remnants of my old "praise band" Joyfull Noise. They recently lost their drummer to the pits of alcohol. It was kinda fun and kinda dullsville..not at all like a gig at the H.O.G.. As time away from Soul Amp marches on, I see more clearly the issues that led to our breakdown, and more clearly the need for us to mend our pain. The morphing of the "modern rock trio" into whatever Soul Amp was becoming was the first trigger in my separation. That coupled with my "id" driven desire to gig, and my increasing aversion to studio work to increase my mind funk. Then Fisk bowed out..at least temporarily. That was the nail in the coffin. Brad and I had discussed the possibility of slugging on, doing a different style of music. It sounded good at the time. What a tag team that would have been. Then I kinda freaked. I made some comments about hating studio work, and that alt rock was for gorgeous 20 somethings 'cause nobody gives a rip about us 40 somethings..regardless of talent. Those comments weren't taken well. I don't know where the remainder of my musical career will be spent, but I hope with all my psychotic being that Soul Amp, whatever it is, will someday be healed...M2

Soul Amp is pushing up a field of tulips...that's not negative.
Pushing Tulips 5.5 mb mp3

Negativity killed the band....

The creativity was killed by the negativity.

Soul Amp became Soul Crusher (good name for another band, eh?).

To jam and hang out was an attempt to start the healing. It wasn't taken that way.

The love of the members should've been much greater than the product being produced.

Success should have been defined as the joy of making music together. Making music that made us feel alive and part of something.

Success in monetary terms or reviews or number of discs produced can kill creativity and love.

Success can be monetary as a side effect of great music produced from love and hard work and respect for each others gifts.

Goals are part of the process and we had those and were working on achieving them. But goals that we have no control over are crushers when they are not met.

Soul Amp was not a band of session musicians.

I do not know where the future of Soul Amp lies. But I do know that negativity will not resuscitate it, because that is exactly the thing that killed it.

Soul Amp was eating me up and shouldn't have. It used to make me very happy. But the last 6 months have been painful.

It was something very special. Allow it to sleep for a while and rest.

Brad be pissed off for now... but I hope you let it go someday. I know that both M2 and I still care about you.

Soul Amp's Epitaph

Yeah...I was wrong again...Soul Amp IS dead. Quivering slightly but terminal....I don't think there is going to be any glorious resurrection...

M2 quit. M1 was thinking about quitting and wants to write alone for a while. I was tossing around getting another singer on board and to start work on the next disk...we got a nice space to work in now...and a methodology that seems productive...and high quality but water under the bridge now...

As we were sitting at "bean scene" the other day. M1 asked..."So should we get together and jam next week." There was also talk of jamming at some parties, or other impromptu affairs...all of which had no real appeal to me at the time.

So when the question came up....I just sat silent. We had a nice time socializing up until that point.

Right at that point I had zero desire to play. And all the recent whining from us all about singing, "just rocking" and just "just letting the music happen" all rolled off my back like a big gob of spit and splatted on the floor. I felt no desire to clean it up.

No goal, no purpose = no desire. I'd rather invest my musical capital on something that has a goal and a purpose. I might be "scattered Brad" but I am not "pointless" Brad.

I'm listening to Strip Mall Heaven right now and frankly you don't make something like that "just rocking". "Just rocking" is an illusion pushed on fans by musicians. They purposely make it look easy through a lot of hard work. Even if that work is fun...we made our last show "just rock" and we rehearsed it so....we practiced it and we fucking rocked it.

Another point is that even the most creative musical genius worked at making the music sound to what they envisioned...even the most obnoxious crass punk band worked at making their disk or show sound just as they wanted...they argued and negotiated about that sound.

Effort, soul and desire, that is a lot to ask.....but remove any one and it falls apart.

That is why Soul Amp is where it is now....in the dust bin. I'm pissed off...and ready to move on...to the next musical whatever. Start over and do it again...

I need to remember the emotional investments required in getting from musical "point A" to musical "point B" and beyond are costly.

I can't make people cross those lines too many times....No point in it if they aren't putting in all three requirements.

Thanks to those who enjoyed our music. I know there are a few out there.

Peace

Brad O.

"...news of my death is premature..."

So it seems....

An emotional unstable bunch musicians are.

Toasted Another Drummer

Appears Soul Amp is down to two. As it began.

M2 after much soul searching has opted to look into a realm of music that is more in keeping with his background. We bid farewell to him and will still harp on him from time to time for some conga work. But for right now it looks like Mike Netteshiem, drummer for Soul Amp for the past two years has left the building. I thank him for his time behind the kit. We asked a lot of him and he delivered as evident on our disk. YOu gotta do what you gotta do in music and for M2 Soul Amp looked like it was heading somewhere he didn't really want to go.

So looks like Soul Amp is on the skids for a while. Right now M1 and I are slated to get together and just hang out and play some acoustic and Hammond M3 at my house and rebuild some ideas looking to the future. We'll be writing a lot and gathing a list of songs to work on later. Possibly do a few coffee house gigs here an there this summer. We'll let you know on that. Need to do some healing now.

So we might be a simple duo for a bit. Or simply toast for a while. It takes a long time to find the right person to put up with me and Mike when we ramp up into production for the next release. So we'll see how that goes. I can't predict the future but I think there will be something.

So any drummers who happen to read this drop us a line. It's a pretty good gig.

Hogolodian

Thanks to friends, fans, family and random college urchins and mushrooms that showed up at House of Guinness last night. We had an exceptional time. The beats were smoking and the fire belching from keys was inspiring.

If you missed it...well....you missed it.

We made up s four jams on the fly and played the new tune "Technology" yet to be recorded.

Right now we are taking a break for at least a few weeks for some much needed R&R and to take in the spring. Where Soul Amp is headed is pretty much up in the air for now. Where it goes I am sure it will good there.

Hang in there. We love you.

Brad

New Comments from CDBaby

Here is a quick review from our CDBaby album page.

"Excellent album. Soul Amp has been a favorite listen for a couple of weeks now. The lyrics are pretty interesting. Many of the songs tell a story. My favorite track is Shove, a funky tune with vintage sounding keys like from the 70s. I think that song's about conquering addiction... at least that's what I got out of it. Most of the other songs are good as well. They are kind of an eclectic mix of genres that's hard to pin down, but there's some classic rock, punkpop, and altcountry in there. Check it out. I looking forward to what they put out post-Strip Mall Heaven." - Jim Kiln

I don't know if this is random or someone we know. Either way. Thanks.

What the heck is going on?

Yeah I am sure you are wondering....all four of you....

Well here is the deal. I'm (Brad) not really wanting to carry all the singing chores for Soul Amp anymore. It is that simple. I'll sing backups and maybe a few songs. And continue to sing our old stuff, but I'm stepping aside because of several factors...incuding the comments posted earlier.

At some point the stuff adds up. And with the aid some interesting technology I came to a decision to start the process of stepping away from lead singing duties. As much as I love to sing that it simply is not enough to love to sing. I think after a point you also need something back...and after some thought and careful analysis I have concluded that my voice does not have the "right stuff" to carry this band forward.

I base that some very thorough analysis with sonogram visualization technology. Being the computer geek that I am I have analyzed my singing and compared the sonogram of my voice and SOul Amp's songs with a variety of other bands whose singers have voices that I find most pleasing to listen to.

I asked myself the question...what is it about the voices of singers that endears them with the listener. I realized that there is a certain characteristic that is common to all vocalists that you find are moderately successful...i.e. they make music for a living.

When looking at the sonograms of pleasent sounding voices they look very instrument like. In other words there are a series of semitones that make up the pitch that is being expressed. The pitch is made up of a range of individual frequencies all spread across a sprectrum of frequencies. This produces a very rich sound when sounding vowels like Ahhhh, OOoos etc...

I looked and lots of people including male and female voice, Josh ROuse, Ryan Adams, Kathleen Edwards to name a few also singers form bands like The National, Calexico, The New Ponographers even Buck Ownens and Neil Young. Basically just about every godamn song in my iTunes library.

The results were all similar, the voices all had a rather rich series of semitones spread across 200hrz to 1k depending on the key of the song and the gender of the voice. Ussually there were 8 to 10 or more semitones that made up the vowel sound. (Vowels are the long notes, obviously you don't hold T's or P,s S, etc.)

Then I looked at mine. I watched the sonograms in realtime as the song played via a iTunes plugin. The sonogram spills across the screen producing a picture that clearly shows the frequency, dynamic range and left, center and right channels. You can easily pick out the hunman voice, drums, guitar, synths...quite facinating to watch.

Well any way, my voice rarely produces the rich range of semitones. I have basically two bands. ONe around 300 Hrz that is a resonante boominess from my chest. And a narrow bright band around that hovers around 800Hrz to 1k That is the meat of my voice. Tt is basically a slighly nasal brightness with a boomy lowend. With not much in the way of tone from the neck, throat or my head. Sometimes I am able to achieve a good spread of semitones on more breathy, folky type songs in a very narrow key range. But the spread of tones is not consistent or regular.

I've been doing the analysis by the way for about three months now. And I have been trying to find those tones and have realized that they simply aren't going to happen.

Harmonic exciters might be able to aid this issue but I am unfamiliar with these devices and it seems to be more of a crutch that a solution. My solution was to simply accept the fact that thoguh I can sing on pitch, with dynamics and add emotional changes and have reasonably good sence of phrasing and melody..(maybe) it is all rendered moot by a voice that simply does not stand out as being instrument like.

Think of it terms of a Hammnond organ. I would be one only two of the drawbars pulled out compared to another singer who has 5 or 6. pulled out. THose of you familiar with Hammond will understand. The Hammond produces a pure sin wave for a particular frequency when the key is depressed. Drawbars control the semitones produced for that note and can adjust the volume as you pull the draw bar further out. The result is a mixture of tones to produce a more complex tonal structure. A brilliant invention really.

I'll put some of these studies and comparisons when I am able to do some screen shots and annotate them. It is really quite facinating stuff. To see the pure sin wave of a full organ or the absolute beauty of Kathleen Edwards Pink Emerson Radio...her voice layered over a slide guitar.

So based on some technology, and the fact that our debut disk was more or less ignored by everyone. And the fact that I don't get people telling me they really like my voice over the past year and a half...I've decided to shift away from singing lead.

Interesting enough I have theory as to why people in the past have commented on my backup singing and harmonies when I played bluegrass. I add this low and midrange comonent to the harmony that doesn't compete with the the main vocalists spread of tones and by matching the phrasing and backing off the consonants the harmony becomes very clean.

That is it. If you were interested. I suppose the title of this blog will probably change to Chronicles of a Modern Rock band....at some point. At least I hope it does.

Sounds like fun...I like the idea of adding another voice to the band.

So nothing is really going to change all the much for a while. I'll still be singing. But we'll be looking for a fourth. Someone with that voice.

Brad

Last Chance to see the Modern Rock Trio

Well Soul Amp is going to go through another change. Not sure what that change will be and even if the band Soul Amp will remain in the end (name could change... different singer.... additional musicians... who knows what'll happen).

Just wanted to let you all know that in case you want to see us one last time in this format of three members with Brad on vocals and guitar, me (M1) on keys and Mike (M2) on percussion.

We will be at the House of Guinness in Waukesha on April 13th. So please check us out for our last Modern Rock Trio performance!!!

(There will almost certainly be free stuff to be had... posters and the last of the scratch CDs... and who knows we might even give a way a few Strip Mall Heavens!)

So best of wishes to our fans and Rock On!

A Grilling for Soul Amp

"I don't like your band because the vocals are shite and the music sounds like something urban middle-managers in their mid-50s who spend their weekends dressed in khaki shorts, topsiders, and short-sleeved button-down shirts (top two buttons open - I like to think I'm relaxed) like to 'chill out' to while they grill steaks because they think it's hip"?


AND

"I don't like bands who sound like Soul Coughing on 'ludes and record their music on outdated cheap equipment that unintentionally emphasizes the weakness of the vocal melodies, plus my toenail is off."

I guess that pretty much sums it up then...

Cool New Friends - the J.B.s

I cracked open myspace last week and posted Setting Traps there and lo and behold we had a new friend request from James Brown's former backing band..The J.B.s. Check out the classic funk jams on their MySpace page



I posted somewhere sometime ago that being early 60's kids, late boomers so to speak, we were pretty young through most of the formative years of rock, R&B and funk. And for some reason even though we didn't listen to a lot of funk back when we mulletheaded AC/DC fans....the funk seems to always been around and in our heads.

So check out The J.B.s, it takes a while to load myspace tunes....as you probably know. But it is worth the wait...

Or perhaps...

he's a Landru wannabee....

Could be that...

Brad is Landru.

Are you here for the festival?

M2 wants to ROCK!

Joy to you, Friends,

Just received word from M2. He's sleep deprived and listening to Joan Jett, Ramones, The Donnas, Stray Cats, Toadies, and Sex Pistols. He's imprisoned by work (he's not getting a day off until April 1st). I'm exhausted myself from a couple of 16 hour days and it's time to let loose... so expect some noise from the next post... a deviation from the more mellow stuff we've been pumping out. Tonight... I do suspect, depending on Scat's proclivities... to cut loose and blow out some windows... So enjoy... all 5 of you.. our devoted audience!!

CRAP! I accidentally edited this last part out...---Brad

Man, mucking up my post... Dude, you are messing with my freedom of expression.... too bad I can't recall what I wrote... I do recall it being both witty and insightful and now it's lost... - M1