#popsters | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yesterdaysanswers · 2 years

Text

Pagani saraceno (Popster, 1978)

Mauro Pagani has just finished the new LP. Our conversation focuses on the field of work, but also on things more personal.

Popster: This LP comes after a long stagnation period following your activity with PFM. How did you come to this album?

Mauro Pagani: There are different ways to experience being a musician. In my opinion, with PFM, I was doing one percent of the things I could have done. So I spent two years doing all the things I had been missing in this period. In my opinion when you play you tell the life you lead, the speed of the rhythms you choose, the type of neurotic or relaxed approach towards the technique, the lyrics you use, etc., everything tells the type of life you lead.

P: I heard that in Milan you were doing school courses for children.

MP: I was very interested in the problem of teaching music, but not so much from an abstract political point of view, nor…

P: I would like you to tell me, for example, what music is for you…

MP: Music is a way of expressing what you have inside. For many people, it is the richest means of expression. Even richer than normal dialogue.

P: Probably to truly hear the music there is a need for abandonment…

MP: Certainly. You have to make yourself available to the stimuli that arrive, then you live them personally. In this way, you make these stimuli your own. You live them with your life, with your emotions, with your stories. This thing here is clearly something that hardly happens, because people attribute a neurotic role to music, culturally wrong…misdirected.

P: Once, music was experienced in a normal way. There was a direct relationship between man and music, as popular music teaches us. There was what was playing and people were dancing around. I've seen around that this kind of relationship doesn't work anymore.

MP: But the whole music distribution structure tends to give it the role of consumer object. So people no longer consider music as a thing that belongs to them because it springs from their normal rhythm of life, but as a matter of fact, a product.

P: In my opinion, the simple, linear relationship that should exist with music is missing. The fact that you stand in front of a record and feel it. It involves you or it does not involve you. Or there is even the lack of openness necessary to get involved...

MP: With the public that understands, that doesn't understand, that doesn't react, I don't get pissed off. If I see Frank Zappa coming, he does something amazing, and his records sell 10,000 copies and the Bee Gees records sell 300,000, I don't get mad at people, ever. I get pissed off with the musician. I have no respect for the musician who makes shitty music. I do not forgive the reporter who hurts his work. He doesn't know shit about music.

P: But let's get back to your record…

MP: I tried to make a group record, despite being a solo musician. Being a great composer is not in my nature. I have this anomalous role as a group musician…which is not a group…but I believe in teamwork. Because teamwork has given me things; it made me do things that working alone I wouldn't have…

P: In fact, your record boasts the participation of a lot of people, including…

MP: And among other things there is a lot of space. There is someone, even from my record company, who said that in reality...I play little. But I don't give a damn about playing...I didn't take the record as a training ground for Mauro Pagani, violinist, who will show you how good he is. I wanted to try the paper of a type of material written by me, but lived together with musicians who were able to put on this material. And Demetrius - for example - who came to sing, it must be Demetrius who sings, it must not be I who uses Demetrio's voice.

P: In fact, with the presence of Area, Canzoniere del Lazio and PFM, to what extent is this Mauro Pagani’s record...is it by Mauro Pagani?

MP: Of course I didn’t go out on the street saying: whoever wants to participate on my record come on over…

P: You have chosen.

MP: Exactly.

P: Now I would like you to summarize, as briefly as possible, the contents of this record.

MP: Mmmmmmhhhh… (long hesitation)

P: If I had to give it four or five adverbs or adjectives…I don’t know, sex, drugs and R&R. Namely what is this record for you in a nutshell.

MP: It is strangely difficult for me because…for example, giving it a title was a drama. I’ve changed the title three or four times. It had started even before the realization as “Longobardi e Saraceni [Lombards and Saracens]” and then, after the realization, it turned out that there was very little of Lombards, while there were a lot of Saracens…and then in my opinion it did not fit the image. In the end, “Mauro Pagani” remained. In reality, perhaps it should have been “Mauro Pagani, born in Chiarili, province of Brescia, on 5 February 1946, who did this, this and this…32 years old, violinist by profession, with his history and who works with tizio, caio e sempronio [Tom, Dick and Harry]…”

P: What did you mean by Lombards and Saracens?

MP: Well, by Saracen, I mean an attitude of carnality, a certain type of intensity. You know what I mean: everything that is not Lombard. In fact, when I spoke of Lombards and Saracens I was talking about reason and emotionality…about all these things here. In my opinion, what came out in the record is that there is reason, yes, but to a strange extent. How much is left of Lombard? I can't tell you. I am a Lombard, after all. Part of the musicians, too…however…

P: I heard a piece of the record where there is a very beautiful female voice. Who is she?

MP: It is Teresa De Sio, the singer of Musica Nova by Eugenio Bennato. I had heard Teresa sing and I was struck by the incredible role she gave to her voice as an instrument. It was all a relationship between her and me. In this relationship she has put her voice, this enormous charge of hers, this creativity of hers.

P: In the whole LP what are the things you love the most?

MP: I really like the first piece, the piece with Teresa, and the violin solo. The first piece was made with three musicians from Area, and two from Canzoniere del Lazio. I like it because there is a bit of everything inside. And the same theme done in two ways. First there is a more urban development, then it acquires a Turkish market atmosphere. Then there is Teresa's piece, which she sings in Neapolitan but she is accompanied by two bouzoukis, which is a Greek instrument, with a much more Balkan than Neapolitan type of cadence. When the oboist improvises, he enters with an almost 600-strong Italian attitude.

P: And for the next album will you use the same procedure?

MP: The next one will be based on the same kind of basic language, because that's what interests me and what I have inside. What I will try to do is use the instruments in a different way. Maybe there will be more decisive arranged parts, and the creativity of the individuals will be structured in a different way. The type of relationship I want to achieve with the instrument and with the musicians is a type of intensity in which every measure (dimensional, structural, etc…) becomes relative.

P: So your record should be very serious, since you have placed yourself in front of humanity in a serious way. Is it a happy record…or sad?

MP: I find it's an intended record. A record that laughs little, perhaps. I think being able to laugh in music is really nice. That's why I absolutely love Frank Zappa who does his thing and laughs. But this record was not intended to be either a summation, a thesis or a proposition. And the record that I made, with what I had inside in 1978...I looked around and reflected. There are flights within...that express themselves in that language, in that way. It must be said that the life around it is what it is. And then what we have within us of thirty years…almost thirty-three…there is what we have done inside. We look around every day, in short…

Michael Pergolani

#mauro pagani #pfm #premiata forneria marconi #michael pergolani #popster #article #interview #translation #my translation #traduzione #i'm so happy to have the rest of this article now 😍

6 notes · View notes

hunkydorkling · 1 year

Text

Why yes I specifically have a very good reason to hate you today, Spotify, thanks for recommending Best of Indie 2010

#as an avid indiehead #fuck you haha #another thought: plastic beach was the last great go ri llaz album #got a good amount of arcade fire. danger mouse. VAMPIRE WEEKEND? HELLO?#and others that might have been 2015 and up idk #quite the experience tbh #should've said former* popster indiehead

0 notes

asurasleeping · 1 year

Photo

Lineless Commission Bundle for mysteriouslikeness on TH (2020)

#art #lineless #chibi #ych #commission #closed species #popster

0 notes

toastedkiwi · 2 months

Note

Why did popster!reader disappear from the limelight?

I’m glad you asked! She was first betrayed by her manager and publicist. They were stealing her money and also leaking her music. She got kidnapped. People thought she orchestrated it— it was her publicist to keep her quiet/scare her. They blackmailed her. The whole world was believing them and hating her. Luckily, law enforcement was on her side. She eventually gets proved innocent but she was done with it all.

#riley green x ex popstar!reader

55 notes · View notes

meat-wentz · 1 year

Text

FOB LORE POST Pt. 1

okay so tumblr ate the original ask i was responding to and now refuses to save/post all the edits i’ve made, so this post has to come out in two parts. i’d rate it surface level-knee deep lore (maybe some waist deep, maybe some neck deep idk we'll see)! i'll be focusing on pre-hiatus just cause post-hiatus is generally easier to find (but there will also be post-hiatus because i can't help myself). also curated to my tastes these are things that *i* always think about, so big disclaimer this is not everything. this part basically covers the fob extended universe (terms/people to know, blog links, and important texts here and there), links to unrealeased tracks/rares/covers, and a rundown on the origin story.

so here's some basic things to know:

FBR- Fueled by Ramen. baby's first record label. also host to a bunch of other notable acts from the scene.

FOBR- easy to mix up. literally just falloutboyrock.com, their website. hosted journal entries, updates, the webstore, and more.

Decaydance- record label owned by Patrick and Pete under FBR, founded in 2005 when Pete wanted to sign P!ATD and realized he didn't have label to do so. AWESOME ORAL HISTORY FEATURING PETE, TRAVIE, GABE, AND SPENCER. intro to Decaydance (included in article). relaunched as DCD2 in 2014.

FOE- friendsorenemies.com, let's do a quote about this one: "If you’re one of those types that have uttered the words, “I’m their biggest fan” in reference to post-punk popsters Fall Out Boy, then you’re in luck because there is a site where like-minded people can hang out. Honda Civic Tours has joined forces with Friendsorenemies.com, to create a user-generated worldwide fan community for the Chicago-based band. The site includes dozens of up-close and oh-so-personal videos of the band, along with exclusive, unscripted content that gives an extensive behind-the-scenes look at the Fall Out Boy’s latest tour… because pop stars shouldn’t have any privacy or down time." they have a youtube with SO MANY videos here (check out their playlists, they have a bunch of fob specific ones.

OCK- Overcast Kids, fob's official fan club, usually got exclusive content, merch, pre-orders, and more. you'll see some blog posts where pete makes references to overcast kids referring to the fans.

Fuck City- essentially Andy Hurley frat house/collective/brand. he has Fuck City tatted on his knuckles. there's primers out there i'd search for "Matt Mixon primer" and you'll probably find some livejournal links.

Clandestine Industries- Pete's clothing brand. there's a whole dvd about his collab with nordstrom and in it he states he wanted to aim for "unisex," if i ever found a rip of this i'll link it here. meanwhile here's a video about their landmark store. video that was on the site. 2010 fashion show.

Pete’s blog entries (best viewed in browser). there's also this masterpost (hint, if some links don't work in this, especially for fobomatic, try amending the url to "fobomatic-blog," and it should pop up). and this tumblr: @disloyalorderofpete

Joe’s blog entries

Patrick’s blog entries

important text: “We Liked You Better Fat: Confessions of a Pariah” written by Patrick post-Soul Punk, and kicked off talks of coming off hiatus between Pete and Patrick.

important text: “Fall Out Boy Forever” by Hanif Abdurraqib

important text: “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” by Pete (his first book), you can read here, just scroll to the bottom to start: @clandestineindustriespresen-blog

important text: to you (unfinished, off the top of my head) arguably one of the most important Pete blog entries (to the fans and to ME at least)

you'll see some names around, so here's a few touring friends and crew you'll want to make note of: Charlie (security), Dirty (personal court jester and whipping boy, he seems to like it, i want to do a study on him, he has Pete's initials branded in his ass- Pete did it himself with a hanger), HeyChris (i'll probably give him is own section), Nick Scimeca (i've never really clear on him, i think he acted as web designer/bestie, but i know for sure he lived in the dirty ass tttyg apartment), Hemingway (Pete's dog), Matt Mixon (Andy's bestie/fuck city roommate). primary ones to know are bolded.

HeyChris: okay Chris is important because he was in Arma Angelus and was fob's first supporter, caught the name HeyChris through grenade jumper (which they wrote for him!). he tours with them for awhile, i *think* doing crew duties, running the merch stand, being one helluva hypeman. QUITE A DYNAMIC with pete. part of the World's Most Hated Crew which were crew members primarily shared between mcr and fob, who had bad reputations for 1) their proximity to the bands 2) being scene kings/queens 3) gossip and drama. 2006, he and Pete have a massive falling out over their blogs. since then they've made up, still talk every once in awhile. he runs the catcade in chicago and emerges out of the woodwork to stir shit up every now and then. here's his livejournal. and another one. he also has a tumblr. so go hunting if you want. most of his updates are through instagram, he loves to troll.

list of movie references in songs

because it's referenced so much i have to include the drunk history, but be warned it's Brendon, and a whole lot of him.

here’s some of my personal fave unreleased/covers/features:

hand of god (some very uhm breathy whiny patrick vocals in this that i can’t believe are legal)

austin we have a problem (also horny vocals and for what)

star 67

we don’t take hits we write them (listen the amount of blood i would spill to get a clear recording of this song)

save your generation (jawbreaker cover)

basket case (green day cover live)

under pressure (queen and david bowie cover, patrick does both vocal parts and and it’s so cunt)

what’s this? (nightmare revisited: nightmare before christmas cover album and US SPOTIFY REFUSES TO COUGH UP THE ONE FOB TRACK, however i still recommend korn’s version of kidnap the sandy claws and rise against’s version of making christmas)

lullabye (hidden track on folie a deux written pete’s son)

catch me if you can

mr. brightside (killers cover which they did live a few times, which is extremely funny because pete and brandon flowers were feuding after brandon said fob and emo were ‘dangerous’ and ‘poisoning the minds of the youth’ and that he wanted to ‘beat all those emo bands to death’)

i write sins not tragedies

tiffany blews bridge ft. patrick vocals

patrick covering i can make you a man from rocky horror

patrick feature on one day i’ll stay home by misery signals

patrick features on cupid’s chokehold and clothes off! by gym class heroes (these may be obvious to some but i’m including just in case and also because they slap)

patrick feature on one of THOSE nights by the cab, brendon jumpscare warning, but patrick’s vocals literally made me fucking insane here, also the amount that pete is featured in this video is so funny to me

fob feature on the hand crushed by a mallet remix by 100 gecs (the way i fucking lost my mind when this dropped)

these are on spotify but often get looked over/missed/are hard to find:

roxanne (police cover): spotify, youtube

start today (gorilla biscuits cover): spotify, youtube

snitches and talkers get stitches and walkers: spotify, youtube

the music or the misery: spotify, youtube

my heart is the worst kind of weapon: spotify, youtube

my heart will always be the b-side to my tongue

pax am days

lake effect kid

yule shoot your eye out: spotify, youtube

i wanna dance with somebody (whitney houston cover): spotify, youtube

the world's not waiting (for five tired boys in a broken down van)- literally my personal favorite off of EOWYG it makes me insane: spotify, youtube

some fun extras:

there’s also this fun little behind the scenes video for cobra starship where patrick is singing city at war

this uncomfortable video of patrick and pete singing womanizer with ellen degenres

this video of fob at the inaugural dinner for obama where they have light up instruments and patrick starts off i don’t care with a little snippet of womanizer (very cunt) which also has a part 2 where pete climbs a tree and they meet the president ajbdjdksndnd.

fall out boy on teen titans go: part 1, part 2, song

deep blue love (patrick wrote this for a movie! and it makes me need to lay down) "behind the scenes" here

patrick song in star vs. the forces of evil

patrick theme for spidey and his amazing friends

patrick musical episode of dead end paranormal park (most of the patrick demos are uploaded as well)

patrick features on robot chicken, also here's the uncensored version of blue rabbits fucking

you can also look up their rare/unreleased songs and get a whole lot more than provided here, and also patrick has done so many covers it’s wild there’s a playlist on youtube that’s 130 videos long and includes bangers such as this is how we do it, let’s dance, in the air tonight, kiss my sass, fob covers of we are the champions, don’t stop believin’ and more.

NOW. as far as origin stories go. let’s start with pete who was a notable figure in the chicago hardcore scene, having been in bands on bands on bands, and very notably RACETRAITOR. pete, joe, patrick (i still haven’t found the source for patrick but it’s on wikipedia so i’ll include him) and andy have all at varying points played in racetraitor, and andy still plays with racetraitor when they get together. joe and pete become friends, joe driving him around because his license is suspended, and right around that time pete starts ARMA ANGELUS and when heychris can’t make it on tour, pete convinces joe’s parents to let him fill in on bass and they all go out on the road. when they come back, arma’s kinda its last leg and this is when pete and joe start talks for a pop-punk project. joe will play guitar, pete will play bass, now they just need a drummer and a singer.

so very important lore here, joe’s hanging out in borders when he’s interrupted by none other than one patrick stump who starts a lecture on music to which joe starts lecturing back, THIS IS HOW THEY MEET. i’ll let joe tell it (click for full view):

this continues into another important bit of lore, which is that joe dragged pete to patrick’s house so he could audition and patrick answered the door wearing a sweater, shorts, and socks. this is important, it comes up time and time again, patrick answered the door in an sweater, shorts and socks. it’s important. to both me and pete. he proceeds to show them all his talents, but when he sings, that’s when it clicks and everyone in the room says you’ve got a massive set of pipes there, you’re our singer. now, patrick didn’t care about singing, in other bands he had primarily focused on drums. but he wanted to be in a band that would let him write music and he also had admired pete from afar on the scene and so he agreed to sing.

they finally pull andy when they start recording seriously and their drummer can’t make it so they ask andy to fill in. andy at this point is a notable drummer in the scene, like he plays in so many bands and is referred to as “the metal drummer.” pete and andy have known each other for a long while and they've had their eye on him since the beginning, it's just that he's in various other bands and going to school so he hasn't had the time. but they ask him to fill in and everything just falls into place. i’ll let patrick tell it:

and they've been the same lineup for two decades now (outside of fill-ins every now and again for emergencies etc). as legend goes, they had switched out names quite a few times, fall out boy being one of them, referencing the character from the simpsons. one night they came out, said "we are [insert long drawn out complicated name here]" and a fan yelled "fuck that! you're fall out boy!" and they have been ever since.

#fall out boy #fob lore post #fob #fall out boy history #fall out boy lore #fob lore #fob history #patrick stump #andy hurley #joe trohman #pete wentz #patrick #andy #joe #pete

492 notes · View notes

dms-a-jem · 3 months

Text

Depeche Mode - Interview with Alan and Martin

International Musician and Recording World - Nov. 1984

Leaving their beginnings as wide-eyed Popsters behind them, Depeche Mode have become masters of the art of noise and the science of the studio. Adrian Deevoy had a rewarding chat with the Basildon-to-Berlin boys, Les Drennan took some great pictures.

Somewhere, off one of the corporate corridors in the labyrinthine complex we affectionately term Broadcasting House, a woman sits alone. Her job is to create emotion, tension and atmosphere. Her key to this process is a PPG system. Although this is heartbreakingly unromantic it is the ultimate argument for machines in the Machine vs Human debate. It’s also quite a nice little story.

Depeche Mode like this story.

“All the sounds for Life Of Earth,” declares Alan Wilder.

“All those little animals,” beams Martin Gore.

After four years Depeche Mode are pretty bogged off with being told that they make inhuman music. They quite rightly believe this accusation to be untrue. They might accept that their first two albums weren’t cataclysmic – catchy, melody blip-bops if you like your lager warm but nothing to telex home about – but they remain adamant that last year’s LP, Construction Time Again, this years singles People Are People and Master And Servant, and their latest album Some Great Reward are anything less than stirring. For in the last 18 months Depeche Mode have discovered, embraced and subsequently immersed themselves in sound. With the aid of producer Daniel Miller’s matchmaking Synclavier a strange love affair has developed between the band and sampled noise.

Alan Wilder and Martin Gore, the songwriters, seemed most smitten to a meeting between themselves, and a micro-Walkman was promptly arranged in a horrendously loud video wine bar where they both bawled unashamedly of their love for sound.

“I’ll take you through all the sounds on People Are People,” says Martin, eyes glazed, sparing the machine no blushes. “The bass drum at the beginning was just an acoustic bass drum sampled into a Synclavier then we added a piece of metal to that – just a sampled anvil type sound – to give it a slight click and make it sound a bit different. That’s the beauty of the Synclavier, you can edit sounds together to make what we call combination sounds. The main synth sound is the actual ‘synth’ sound on the Synclavier, that’s the one that plays the bass riff. But the bass sound is a combination sound too with part of it being an acoustic guitar plucked with a coin, which sounds very interesting when the two sounds are sequenced together.”

“There’s very little playing going on in People,” adds Alan, “virtually everything is sampled into the Synclavier. With the guitar sounds we altered them slightly once they were in the Synclavier because you sample in one note and then you can alter the length and dynamic of every note in the sequence for the guitar part so it will give expression, but it will still be completely in time. You can justify all the rhythms, you see, so that you can have articulation but it’s all in time.”

Getting back to the People Are People breakdown Martin unveils a short sampling anecdote: Love on a plane.

“I took a stereo Walkman when I was going on a plane from England to somewhere,” he begins. “I originally brought it along to take the takeoff but while the air hostess was doing her safety speech at the start of the flight I decided I’d tape that as well. But as she was telling everyone to ‘Check the instruction cards under your seat,’ the door flew open and all this air rushed in which made a real loud noise and everyone laughed. Anyway I looped the end of what she was saying and the laughter so it goes, ‘…tion cards ha ha ha ha …tion cards ha ha ha ha,’ which sounds funny but I used it in conjunction with a choir sound and it added a really nice texture to the bridge on People.”

“There’s a Synclavier harp sound in the verses,” contributes Alan, “and an ARP sequencer playing very fast in the chorus and there’s some Emulator sounds that we used for adding a few frills here and there.”

The three throaty clunks at the end of each chorus is in fact Martin’s throat.

“That was a combination sound,” says Alan. “First of all we sampled Martin going, ‘Unk Unk Unk,’ with his throat then we added a bell sound and a timpani to give it depth.”

“I felt a bit of a berk doing that,” admits Martin. But love’s a bit like that.

The vocal line, “It’s a lot… like life,” at the beginning of Master and Servant was yet more fodder for the Synclavier. As Alan explains.

“Firstly we got a lot of people singing the high, ‘It’s a lot,’ and then a low, ‘Like life.’ You don’t have to play one slower or faster than the other to get the octave either because you make a patch on the Synclavier keyboard for each part and then you play the parts in their natural pitches and both at the same speed which is very handy.”

The lead vocals on People Are People and Master and Servant (or M&S as us Depechies call it) on the 7” mixes at least, were pretty well the only sounds that weren’t sampled.

“The vocals,” explains Alan, “were recorded in a big room. That is the vocals were sent down through a PA into a big, live room so we could not only get a great big sound but so we could put effects on the vocal while it was being recorded and afterwards on the disk.

“Although we sample all the snare sounds,” he adds as an afterthought on live rooms, “we always record the initial sound in an ambient space. We like to vary the snare sounds a lot so we record all different acoustic snares in various rooms and we close mike them or mike them from a distance depending on the width of the sound that we require. Simmons pads? No, I don’t like them. After you’ve done all that fiddling around to get away from that factory preset sound you might as well have got a really good sound on the Synclavier. Simmons pads just remind me too much of that Howard Jones factory preset and Drumulator syndrome. Really boring ‘synth’ sounds. They’re just not interesting, they sort of scream ‘DX7!’ and ‘JP8!’ at you.”

The latest Depeche album boasts a myriad of sounds, less overtly metallic than the socialist sentiments that they reflected on Construction Time Again but just as fascinating. Love is all about contrasts.

“We don’t think that we overdid the metal-beating idea on Construction Time,” says Martin, “but we wanted to make this one less obviously metal sounds. We wanted a little more subtlety…”

So instead of belting skips they belted concrete.

“Yeah, on one of the tracks on the album, Blasphemous Rumours,” elaborates Alan, “we sampled some concrete being hit for what turned out to be the snare sound. All that entailed was us hitting a big lump of concrete with a sampling hammer…”

“…I’m sure they’re not actually called sampling hammers,” interjects Martin giggling.

“Anyway,” continues Alan, “the engineer / producer we use, Gareth Jones, has got this brilliant little recorder called a Stellavox which we use with two stereo mikes and it’s as good as any standard 30ips reel-to-real but this is very small and therefore very portable. So we just took the Stellavox out into the middle of this big, ambient space and miked up the ground and hit it with a big metal hammer. The sound was… like concrete being hit. I can’t really put it any other way.”

“Professional Walkmans are good for sampling too,” claims Martin. “Gareth has always got his out. On trains… at home. They’re good because they get a very impure sound that can often be really interesting. But if we want a very pure sound then we’ll take the thing, say a bit of scaffolding, into the studio and mike it up in the proper conditions and get a clean sound.”

If an equipment list had been included in the mentions on Some Great Reward, apart from pavements, buildings, bottles and old people being stapled together it would have incorporated a long list of toy instruments which Martin divulged as he became more intoxicated; by love of course.

“One morning me and Andy (Fletcher) went down to Hamleys, the toy shop in London, and bought as many toy instruments as we could find. Pianos, saxophones, xylophones and we took them all back to the studio and sampled them. One we used a lot was a Marina (?), a toy one, very strange, but after we’d sampled it, it was great. It sounded pretty terrible as a toy but when we took it down a couple of octaves it sounded really good.”

“People tend to think that if you’re using toy instruments then they have to sound whacky,” complains Alan, “but we put some to very good use because as soon as you sample them they take on a whole new quality and when you transpose them it puts them in a completely new context. Like the noises Martin was making with his throat, we only took those down a tone and it was unrecognisable as someone going, ‘Unk’, with their throat.”

But sampling, like love, isn’t all happiness and although Depeche have learnt to take the rough with the smooth, they found out the hard way. Alan breaks off in the middle of another ‘good combination sound’ story to tell how they were stitched up by a sussed, sampling percussionist.

“We were doing this combination with Martin doing his Indian voice combined with a bassoon type sound.”

“It was pretty ethnic,” says Martin launching into his Indian voice.

Alan ignores him. He has something on his mind that he’s not sure if he should tell us.

“I’m not sure I should tell you this,” he tells us, “but we got this percussionist in for the afternoon to sample his drums and the different techniques of playing them. We didn’t try to hide the fact that we were sampling him. We said, ‘We hope you don’t feel r*ped,’ and he agreed to be sampled literally just hitting one drum, once at a time. Anyway we sampled all his drums once, maybe twice. Now, the Musicians Union haven’t really caught up with sampling and this bloke had obviously contacted them when he got home because he gave us this bill for about 50 different sessions, plus sampling time plus a consultation fee. It was enormous and the stupid thing was that most of the sounds weren’t even as good as that (bangs two pint glasses together) and we only used about two for maybe two seconds each on a couple of songs.”

Another problem came when the band had to divide their recording time between Music Works in England and the 56-track, Solid State luxury of Hansa Mischraum in Berlin.

“There were all these builders in next door at Music Works,” moans Martin, “and we’d have the track running with us hitting skips and concrete and they’d be next door tearing a wall down and we couldn’t tell which was which. It was very confusing at times.”

Like love and marriage, sampling and timing tend to go together like the proverbial horse and jockey.

“Although it makes the whole process even longer, when you get into one you can’t really help but get into the other,” says Alan. “You can’t help, after you’ve been involved with sequencing for a while, noticing three millisecond or five millisecond discrepancies. So you end up time-shifting every sequence until it’s perfect. Then we got into consciously putting things slightly out of time. Like, for example, the choir sound on People again we used a combination sound of different choir sounds on different synths and then put them slightly out of time with each other. Like we took one sound from the Synclavier, one from the PPG and one was on the Emulator. Are you familiar with the Friendchip? It’s a time code reading clock that can monitor every single click output from all your drum machines and all your synths so when everything is going via the Friendchip you can adjust the feel by pulling something, say five or six milliseconds in one direction.

“The thing is so many things can’t play in perfect time anyway,” reveals Alan, “the Linn isn’t in time when it’s meant to be playing ‘drum machine’ perfect time without human error programmed in. It can go out by 20 milliseconds. We set an oscilloscope on several things to see how well they kept time. The one that came out best was the TR808 which only as a two millisecond shift. That’s better than the Synclavier. Rotten sounds though. But we actually ended up triggering stuff from the 808 just because it’s so tight within itself.”

“We always thought the 808 had a good feel,” chips in Martin before adding a bitchy, “even though Alan has a grade eight piano his playing is still incredibly out of time compared to the Synclavier sequencer… and even that’s out!”

All this and the Emulator II?

“Yeah,” admits Martin realising that his love has almost turned him into a technocrat, “the sampling time is about 17 seconds now, I think, and you can get more sampling across the keyboard, it gives better quality than the Fairlight and it only costs about seven grand which is a lot but it will be a big help to us live.”

And there’s a pianillow ballad, Somebody, to be sung love. Martin promises some. Kinda wonderful.

“We’re going to go for a completely human feel on that one. Just a piano played by Alan and Dave singing and Andy playing tapes on the Fostex X15. It’ll be very different.”

So the love for sound can take you backwards but what of the future?

“I don’t know,” confesses Martin, “the Synclavier can already go further than your imagination and they’re thinking of getting new software for that. Then there’s re-synthesis which might happen in a couple of years where you can take a sampled sound and change just tiny parts of it. It’s really impossible to say. Maybe we’ll just get the guitars out and make a Rock ’n’ Roll album. Who knows?”

…and somewhere, within the folds of Auntie Beeb’s ageing skin, a woman sits alone wrestling with a similar emotional predicament. Is she really in love with her PPG system is has it been David Attenborough all along?

Adrian Deevoy, November 1984 (some of the text is hard to read so transcribed to the best of my ability. Apologies for any typos)

#depeche mode #alan wilder #martin gore #my passionate little synth nerds🤓

52 notes · View notes

fandoms-in-law · 4 months

Text

Around Their Lake

Summary: When Steve broke up with Eddie he split a lake property he'd brought for them so Eddie could own half of it. Now they run competing camps and have to deal with a camper mix-up

Authors Note: I had this idea near the start of the month, and decided today and tomorrow I'm rewriting Rock 'n' Royals for Steddie, first as the camp owners and tomorrow as Erika / Courtney. I deny wholeheartedly this being an excuse to rewatch the film multiple times.

/\/\

This wasn't what Steve wanted for his life, was never what he'd dreamed of and part of him just wanted to stop enforcing the entire argument. Eddie was constantly saying he wanted the entire lake, wanted to extend Camp Rock and Steve, well, he didn't care.

The only reason he argued was that it was easier, far far easier than admitting that he didn't want to lose this connection with Eddie but if asked he'd probably all too willingly give up his camp for Eddie to share his passions with more kids. Robin sometimes called him out on it but often just agreed they wouldn't have worked out back when the lake property was brought.

She'd been the one to help him split the property deed before his parents ever learnt he'd brought it, and ensured that Eddie knew he had it, ownership of half the lake they'd dreamt of running away to and living peacefully with their family and kids coming to visit. Robin had been the one he'd questioned his parents re-entry to his life and doting after Hawkins was rebuilt and the one who helped him figure out.

The break up had been to protect both of them from what his parents could do and Steve hated it. He hated it even more when Eddie decided he was reverting back to his King Steve days and thought he was above him when all Steve was thinking about was how easily his parents could block Eddie and all of Corroded Coffin from ever achieving anything with their music.

/\/\

“Either you're in the wrong camp or I needed parents like yours twenty years ago.” Steve stated, seeing Erika Juno enter his office. He recognised her, easily recognised her as one of the popsters Max, El and Erica Sinclair were raving about being amazing currently, and knew that she wasn't meant for his camp, jokingly called camp royalty since Steve had focused on his favourite things when setting it up.

“Nope. I'm meant to be at Camp Rock. I was running late and went where I could hear my name being called.” Erika agreed, leaning back and putting her feet on the desk.

Steve smirked at her, doing nothing to discourage it. “Then you get two choices; I can call Camp Rock and try to sort out the mix-up while you stay here for a few days until your transfer is sorted, or you can stay here for the entire time and see whether you like horse riding, baking and ballroom dancing compared to the dance styles you're more used to.”

“As fascinating as that sounds, I'd prefer to go through the transfer. Nothing against you though. This place is flashy.” Erika decided, glancing around as she complimented his camp.

“Robin will direct you to where your room is and I'll try to catch up with you about how the transfer will work tomorrow.” Steve stood, holding his hand out to shake and gesturing to Robin.

/\/\

Camp Rock needed the space.

That was basically the entirety of Eddie's claims that he'd buy out Camp Royalty. He was sure both of them knew there was plenty of space to grow their camps closer together and both of them were avoiding doing so for all their arguments and claims of expansion, but his camp was growing more each year and he needed to extend sooner rather than later.

Except he couldn't subject his students to noise limitations here when all of them faced that at home too and Harrington's had been a family as likely to log a noise complaint as they were to get one when Steve's parents were out of town. It seemed unavoidable that after years in their pockets Steve would be just the same now.

/\/\

“And this is Miss Courtney.” Eddie said, looking at the computer screen rather than looking up at the camper now sat in his office. “Gareth, why is Miss Courtney here? I could swear it usually takes at least a day before anyone is asking for help.”

Gareth scratched his neck, before deciding to just redirect Eddie's gaze. “Well, there's been a mix-up, with Camp Royalty I think.”

“Daughter of a wealthy businessman wanting you to follow in his steps or fulfil traditional gender roles?” Eddie summarised his views of the campers across the lake.

“Something like that, but this was meant to be a fun week away from that.” She offered.

Eddie raised an eyebrow. “Not sure how that camp is getting away from it, but fine. Do you want me to call and sort out a transfer or to rebel a little, stick around here and find out how much fun you can really have?”

Courtney paused, watching him. “I don't think I'd really be much good here, so if it isn't a hassle, please can you arrange for me to transfer to the camp they meant to send me to?” She uncertainly requested.

“Your choice. Gareth will point you to the right note your staying in while I sort that out.” Eddie agreed easily with a wave.

/\/\

Steve was already pinching his nose by the time the phone was answered. “You're through to Camp Rock, if this is family news for the students please only call if it's urgent they know. How can I help?”

“Hey Gareth, it's Steve from Camp Royalty. I need to speak to Eddie. We've got one of your campers here.” He explained, already aware that Eddie rarely was the first to answer the phone.

“And we've got one of yours. I'll find him, but are we really not just letting them swap and skipping the paperwork?” Gareth asked, the sound of a door opening and closing audible through the phone.

Steve groaned, “I wish. It's the insurance paperwork though. We're already paying extra because there's no fence or separation between the borders of our camps. If we swapped campers between them without paperwork to say who is staying where the premiums would inflate exponentially.”

“Oh Stevie, you sure know how to solve a problem.” Eddie replied, chipper and confusing him before he realised the phone had been handed over without him being told. “But seriously? Are they actually charging us extra for that? Because that is idiotic.”

“The joys of things my parents forced me to learn, right? Insurance companies like to be precise over what they protect us from and things that make them more at risk.” Steve muttered, “Anyway, I've got a camper called Erika who should be over at your camp.”

Eddie laughed, “You're not sending the Sinclairs over to me just because baby Sinclair can walk rings around you.”

“Erika Juno.”

“Point to Steve.” Eddie stated, “Okay, well we do have a Miss Courtney who should be over with the snobs too. What forms do we need to processing to transfer them to each other?”

He sighed again, chuckling a little. “Just because I was forced to use computers before you found the need to doesn't mean I'm in charge of telling you how they work.” He said before explaining what the forms should be for, as well as what information would need to be included and agreeing to send copies of them over.

Robin was stood leaning against the door when he got off the phone. “You are still so gone on Eddie, it's almost sickening.”

“Not my fault that I'm a romantic.” He countered, leaning back in his seat.

“This isn't being a romantic, this is pining hopelessly without daring to ask for more than your half confrontational, half weirdly dependant neighbours thing you two have.” She stated, deadpan, “And that's coming from your entirely co-dependant, no borders allowed platonic soulmate.”

/\/\

“Robin, this is how I manage it.” Steve stated the moment he heard Erika Juno actually sing. “This is how we get Eddie to take the rest of the lake without trying to push money on me.”

Robin frowned at him, glancing around in confusion. “By walking through our camp listening to the singing classes masquerading as an acapella choir?”

“No, by making a bet on a singing competition between our camps, making Eddie think we're that confident in the Camp Rock kid we've got being able to win it for us. Winner gets the full lake.” Steve explained, grinning, “She's amazing but with the Camp Royalty campers making cliques just as much as Hawkins High did, she'll be fighting a losing battle to make the song win the contest.”

“Steve Harrington wants to set up a competition to deliberately lose? Did I die in the upside down and this is a very long hallucination.” Robin exclaimed playfully, after a quick glance around to confirm none of their campers was close enough to hear.

Steve shook his head, laughing too. “You know I've not been that focused on winning for years, practically since before we ever worked together.”

/\/\

Gareth and Eddie both stared at the phone in confusion. “That was on loudspeaker. I didn't just imagine that entire conversation, right?” Eddie mumbled after a while.

“Nope. Steve Harrington just suggested a song contest between our camps. Either he's going to fix the judges, or he's literally trying to give the rest of the lake to you for some reason.” Gareth agreed.

“Now come up with something believable for a suggestion.” He glared.

Holding up his hands and stepping back he repeated a comment the entire band had directed to Eddie a million times over the years, “Both are believable and quite possibly he'd fix it in order for us to win. Harrington has been gone on you for-literally-ever at this point. Why else would he have given you this property in your break up as if it was a divorce instead? That and I'm 100% certain his parents never knew that he'd brought the entire thing and then given half of it away.”

“It was the easiest way to get my name off the deed without getting me to agree to him buying it out.” Eddie mumbled back. “Besides he's definitely not now since he wants to get away from me and the lake.”

Gareth rolled his eyes. “Remind me how long you've been asking how much to buy him out? This could easily be just trying to fulfil what you want for the hundredth time. Someone wanting to get away from you would not, I repeat Would Not spend ages teaching you what paperwork or computer filing needs doing to run your camp effectively.”

“So he's still a good guy. He still dumped me so he could play happy families with mum and dad Harrington.” Eddie pouted.

/\/\

With the bet confirmed, Steve had wanted to just let the campers enjoy preparing for it, decide who forms the acapella group and which songs they do. The issue was that the campers didn't seem all that willing to just enjoy the process themselves.

“Is everything alright?” He asked, stepping between Olivia and Erika calmly.

“Just an artistic difference of opinion.” Olivia said, sounding stressed and overly polite compared to the ferocity that had been in her voice moments before.

Erika held out the pages he'd thought they were arguing over. “I was just asking if we could try a song I've been playing around with for the contest.”

“Friendship is a more relatable subject to sing about than being royalty, which, I might add, none of us should claim to be. Being rich because of parents successful in business does not guarantee our own success without putting the work in and learning to get along with those around us.” Steve reasoned, repeating some advice he knew Robin must have told him at some point early on in the career his parents pulled and pushed him into. She'd followed along, of course, but neither of them had enjoyed their work until they decided to build and open this camp.

“We've already chosen our performance piece.” Olivia attempted to argue but was clearly now uncertain on how important that was.

Steve nodded, “But you still have a few days left to practice. Plenty of time to learn a new song should the rest of the group want to do so. This shouldn't be a decision made by just the two of you.”

The girls glared at each other for a moment more before turning back to the group. “Okay guys, let's try practising both for today and voting on which we like more at the start of tomorrow session.” Olivia called out, clearly unhappy but accepting his point.

/\/\

He just wanted to rock out with the band, perhaps give a few hints and tips to the future chart toppers.

He did not want to walk into the studio to Sloane screaming corrections at the rest of the group and Marcus claiming no-one was feeling the song they were using for the competition.

“What if we played one of Courtney's songs?” Zia suggested.

Sloane was immediately scoffing, none of them noticing Eddie there still. “A princess can't write songs.”

“A good song can come from anywhere and anyone.” He interrupted. “Looks like you found your skills for Camp Rock. Let's hear whichever song Zia thinks would fit the competition.”

Eddie beamed as he listened to the song and got to rock out to it a bit. This was what music was meant to be about, sharing a story and having some fun together. He couldn't help but declare it able to win the competition, even if he thought he should have tried getting his campers to find a compromise themselves.

/\/\

Steve had headed back to his office, already drafting up the paperwork to sign everything over to Eddie and thought he'd heard something. If it was one of the party surprising him during a camp week he knew he'd have to wait until they decided to jump out, given both Dustin and Mike had kicked up a fuss the times he didn't. Except if it was a camper then he should probably check on them in case there's an issue he needs to help resolve.

Or he could monologue about the bet and see whether the campers react to learning about it at all. “Eddie better have the paperwork ready for when I win that bet. Camp Royalty has this in the bag and Camp Rock should be preparing to close its doors.” He tried to make his words believable while meaning none of them. He never wanted to make his campers doubt themselves or their abilities even when he was hoping they'd lose the competition.

A gasp and the sound of his table scraping slightly along the floor showed whoever was there heard and was trying to hide even more than before. “I better start getting the expansion plans finalised.” He decided, turning around to head out of the room.

Whatever was going to happen could come now, and hopefully that wouldn't backfire on him.

/\/\

The stage and binding lights had never been Steve's place. He'd never wanted the spotlight and had barely dated Eddie long enough to dream about helping them on tour, doing something backstage so he could just watch Eddie perform every night.

It had always been a 'what if' daydream since then, but now he had to co-host, at Eddie's insistence, this entire event.

“Can you believe he's single? I hear opposites attract, maybe you should find someone funny.” The words felt foreign to him, and he begged in his mind that Robin wouldn't be quoting that at him later. She already was mouthing opposites attract at his back, he was sure of it, even more so when Eddie's expression momentarily twisted.

“Let's introduce the judges.” Eddie announced, thankfully ending the stilted commentary they'd attempted making to begin the show.

/\/\

Robin and Steve were jumping around and cheering like mad.

On the other side of the audience Eddie was screaming and whistling, leaping around while Gareth hollered and encourage the rest of their campers to applaud louder.

“Never in my life did I expect this to be the outcome of this competition! I want to commend whichever campers managed to orchestrate this amalgamation, this blending, this meeting of worlds, if only for how much they must have been racing around the lake constantly to organise it.” Steve ran out onto the stage, realising that the applause was slowing down and as hosts he and Eddie were meant to be there. A glance back to the Camp Royalty section of the audience showed Robin laughing at his praise.

Eddie was soon to follow, clearly prepared to argue but pausing just as he was beside Steve, “I entirely agree, but also entirely expected you to be arguing with this. Whatever happened to competition is healthy for our campers?” He asked, clearly attempting to question whether the bet they'd made still stood.

Steve laughed, gesturing behind them, “I think it's pretty clear that even our campers don't agree with that. They've decided that rock and royalty can work together and I long since learnt better than to argue with a large group of teens. Perhaps we should even merge our camps together to see what else they'll create.”

“Hey Steve? You wanted to congratulate us for storming away from camp and befriending each other instead?” Erika called, arm around Courtney and pulling her forward from the rest of the performers.

Eddie burst out laughing then, “Oh I am so glad not to have gotten involved in whatever camp drama caused that reaction. Let me guess, you both struggled to get along with everyone in the camps you ended up in and stood out enough to have confrontations.”

“Just a few.” Courtney admitted.

/\/\

Both camps were saved, and the band had somehow launched into a completely different song Eddie was sure couldn't have been rehearsed half as much as should've been necessary to perform it so well. Except instead of being allowed to just enjoy it, he found himself being pushed away, and lowered into the backstage area by Gareth, with Robin doing the same thing to Steve, on the same lowering platform.

“I get the feeling they want us to talk.” Steve muttered, glancing around to see where the platform control was instead of heading for the way out into the audience.

“Gareth is probably expecting me to ask if this was your attempt to give me the rest of the lake or if we could date again.” Eddie sighed, hoping if he just brought up those talking points they could get back to their celebrating scheming campers quickly. “But I want to know why the campers would have made themselves a supergroup at all.”

For a moment he was just blinked at. “To Gareth's questions, the answer is yes. And to yours, I was pretty sure one was hiding in my office a few days back so spoke aloud about the bet. Not sure who or why they were hiding, but you said it yourself, I'm happy not to get involved in the camper's drama.”

“When the hell did you start wanting this again? You told me we couldn't be together and you had to spend time with your parents if they were going to so much effort for you.” Eddie ranted.

That was the thing that made Steve snap, that brought out the fierce glare Eddie had seen a few times when Hawkins was still treating him like a murderer after the Upside Down was dealt with. “I Never Stopped! I'm still utterly insulted you believed half of the nonsense I said when breaking up with you and infitely hurt you just immediately decided I was reverting back to being King Steve. The Harrington's could have destroyed any chance you had to get this far! Those albums on your walls could have been gone before you dreamt them up if my parents found out we dated! Who cares that I'd have been immediately either disowned with everything they could take from me taken, or trapped in the lowest role of their business with no chance to progress until they decided I was straight and following their orders, you would have lost your dreams! Business owners don't let their kids have room in rockstars worlds.”

“There was always room for you in my life, Stevie. You never asked for it back.” Eddie's voice had softened, sounded comforting now in the face of anger now being thrown at him.

“You immediately called me King Steve when first opening your camp beside mine. Even when Gareth was pretty chill to talk with, you left the wall there. How was I meant to know I could ask for anything?” The energy was gone from his words and his head came to rest on Eddie's shoulder. “So I just took what I could helping and arguing as you wanted.”

Eddie nudged him back from his hiding place in his neck, one hand coming up to tilt Steve's face to his own. “Well what I want now is to date and run one big camp with you. Is that something you think you could stand?”

Steve smiled, nodding, “On 2 conditions. 1. I'm in charge of the filing and paperwork with Gareth's help for the numbers side of it all.”

“And the other?”

“You kiss me already.”

#stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #steddie #gareth stranger things #barbie rock 'n' royals #erika juno #princess courtney

21 notes · View notes