Week 6 - Telling It Like It Is

Live sound is such a stark difference to the studio environment. When something isn't going quite right you can sort of slow things down and take your time to resolve a problem in the studio. Obviously not too much time but there's definitely opportunity to trouble without being too disruptive. It's also a lot easier to hide when that sort of thing is going on in front of a band too. For the most part bands have no clue whats happening in a studio so you can kind of play off any issue and pretend like you're completely in control. I don't know that you're afford such a safety net in live sound. If there's a mountain of feedback or things are just flat out going wrong the band work that sort of thing out pretty early on and you really only have moments to resolve these sorts of things otherwise the crowd begin to take notice of the situation as well.

The other issue here is that if they are playing for half an hour like a lot of normal local bands do, you have more or less ruined their vibe, which is such a big deal. I am not sure that anyone that has never played live would understand this but if one little thing goes wrong in the middle of your show it can so easily just destroy the vibe of the show for the band and they instantly play differently afterward. I have had tech issues and mid song you drop your guitar in a low light venue to try and work out what the hell is going on. It's pretty hard to come back from that. So to be responsible for such a thing happening to a band would be awful.

On stage sound plays such a big part too, you've not only got to make it all work but even then, you need to make sure the band can hear each other, otherwise you risk them playing like a high school band because they can't hear the cues from their band mates.

I think the biggest thing that I am waiting for is just the big day. How will it all shake out? Will we be prepared enough? Even if we're prepared how will we react when something doesn't go right? I am going to be so shocked if we aren't delivered some sort of curve ball on the night. I think the biggest way to combat that is to have a good talk about the areas our team feel most confident in and making sure we have the right people placed on the right jobs. That way we are actually using people's talents in the right way. There's a huge element of trust here too. If someone puts their hand up to tackle a particular job we need to be able to rely on each other to pull through and make sure they are on top of what ever it is they are in charge of. Once we get moving on the night there wont be enough time to chase each other 'round.

So far this intensive has been really fun though. It's always good to work with lecturers outside of the classroom and see them in their element.

So this is a record called Telling It Like It Is by a Danish guy called Elias Bender Rønnenfelt. He goes by Marching Church as the name for the project but it's essentially a solo thing that he does away from his band Iceage. I have no idea how to try place it on a shelf alongside other artists. I am really not sure what this sounds like. It's so different from song to song. It's really just instrumentation thrown together in a complementary manner and used to back a story. Narrative music.