Anthony Flack wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2024 6:36 pm Jimi Hendrix's studio is still operating.

Great, long, rememberance from Robbie Fulks on Fbook:

https://www.facebook.com/share/Ea9GHj4c ... tid=WC7FNe

That's a lovely recollection.

It is as frustrating as ever for me to read quotes from respected recording engineers unwittingly blundering into a field of mathematics they are clearly ignorant of (information theory) but which nevertheless TOTALLY EXISTS, and making voodoo claims about analogue vs digital signals. It bothers me to this day that I had a big argument with Steve about this that was never resolved to anyone's satisfaction. I knew that the mathematicians were right, but I was still trying to get it clear in my own head and not always explaining it particularly well, and Steve had his dander up, not to mention he was sober and I probably wasn't. So it didn't go well at all. But he came so damn close. There was a moment where he said something and I think if I could just draw a diagram, you will see exactly what I am getting at here...

It's such a fascinating area of mathematics that I'm sure as a mathematically-minded person he would have understood completely and found it all quite interesting if he wasn't so prickly due to time spent justifying his preference for analogue tape (which needs no justification, although he had prepared a long list). And although information theory is somewhat adjacent to audio engineering, it IS mathematics, and touches on so many other things besides. The more I learned about it, the more insightful I found it, and it bothers me that I was never able to put this to Steve in a way that he was receptive to, on account of how it stemmed from a disagreement. About Neil Young's Ponyo player or something like that, I think it was?

Anyway I do feel like this was a missed opportunity for a shared discussion about something cool due to my failure to communicate better, and that sucks. But he sure did love to argue. We had more fun arguing about less sensitive topics like donuts. I liked how Steve would argue any point, no matter how small, all the way to its conclusion without ever trying to duck out and say oh, who cares. If you make a statement then be prepared to defend it.

tallchris wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2024 4:59 pm Great, long, rememberance from Robbie Fulks on Fbook:

https://www.facebook.com/share/Ea9GHj4c ... tid=WC7FNe

Oh gawd, great read...

Almost forgot about this:

The main thing I got from Steve I think, which is also a core part of what to me has been most valuable and enduring in punk/indie/alternative music scenes, is the idea that what you do matters just as it is and just the way you do it, and you don't need to compare yourself to some other thing or worry about how you measure up to it.

Because usually it's all about comparison and measuring up. This is what you should be doing, this is where you need to be, this is where things are happening, these are the people whose opinion matters... A rejection of this idea, on a practical level as well as in expressed intent, is what I have most closely associated with him.

Over extended periods in my post-adolescence, I have wanted to distance myself from the subcultural spheres I was brought up in, because of a gradual recognition of the snobbery and narrowness they were sometimes inclined to, and their sometimes unwarranted hostility to outsiders (and the recognition that I myself was behaving a lot like that). I have learned many things from this too, but this mentioned insight is one that I feel to be as vital as ever, one for which the battle is not over, one whose call remains waiting to be received and answered by whomever needs to hear it (and there are many).

That, and a notion of "work-ethic" that didn't make me want to self-murder. Not something I have applied as fully to myself, but just knowing that it's possible means something.

I just couldn't be here for a little while.

The day before the news of Steve's death I was recording a song that I wrote 15 years ago that I never actually got down on tape. I found a scrap of paper in the pocket of a shirt that I hadn't worn in more than a decade and it had the names of 13 songs written down on it. I had recorded/demoed all but three. I started a new job in late April and I now have a schedule with 2 days off during the week and on my first Monday off I decided to take an hour and put this song down on the 4 track. It was fun and felt good to "finish it". Have it be something that exists, however imperfectly, in the world rather than just an old thought in my head. I decided to do the other unrecorded songs on that list, plus a few more that I remembered from the same time period. My plan being to try recording one a day on my days off over the coming weeks. The next day I heard the news about Steve. Every time I'm recording, for the past 25 years, I think of some bit of advice or best practice or recommendation that I soaked up from Steve. But more than that it's the attitude. The permission to feel valid in what I am doing, even if it's silly or bad or whatever. The mentality to keep going, see something through, catch the idea while it's vibrant and to know enough to know when to leave it alone. When something isn't going to get better. That mistakes are one of the most interesting an important parts of the process. That making something as good as you can has nothing to do with precision or perfection. Over the last 6 or 7 weeks I recorded 10 songs. Mostly from 10-15 years ago that had never been put down, a couple new ones that came to me while working. All 4 track cassette, didn't spend more than an hour on each one. Now I'm working on something else and I'm just going to put these away for a while. I'm not some self righteous maniac that thinks the world is starving for my creative output, but Steve's death was a stark reminder that our time here is very limited, however long it may feel. And if there is something to say, something to do, something to express, we have to do it in that time. So many things will ultimately end as thoughts in our heads, without having been communicated, but the work itself is important. To try. He pointed the way and gave us so many tools.

I feel deeply for this community. Keep working, everybody. I've got my new Electrical Audio pencils.

Tom Wanderer wrote: Thu Jun 20, 2024 11:04 am ..but Steve's death was a stark reminder that our time here is very limited, however long it may feel. And if there is something to say, something to do, something to express, we have to do it in that time. So many things will ultimately end as thoughts in our heads, without having been communicated, but the work itself is important. To try. He pointed the way and gave us so many tools.

Part of me has thought about this for sure. Steve didn't coin the phrase "Don't Quit" but I've heard him use it before like many around here.

The other half has just felt extremely unmotivated: to quote a friend, "feels like the end of an era". It's not just Steve either. Seeing so many labels and studios fold over the last 15-20 years, other heroes dying, music increasingly being treated like disposable 'content' on par with dog lip synching videos on TikTok, etc. It's been great seeing tributes come out of the woodworks over the last month, but that's starting to fade too. Steve was kind of the last thread into the world that made me want to do it in the first place, and somehow managed to stay active, modern, and relevant (and often more optimistic about the state of things than I have been). There are others still around of course, doing their reunion/reissue tours and whatnot, but it's not quite the same.

I hope to end up back in that first place but am not quite there yet.