by stinson on March 14, 2011
So it’s been more than quite a while since anyone has posted on the Radical Notion blog. And how appropriate that I break the silence with a post on this topic (keep reading).
When I was a sophomore in high school I started a band called Borrowed Talent. Ninety-nine percent of the time we were a Smashing Pumpkins cover band. But one time we covered a song by K’s Choice. We played four times total.
Then, when I was a senior in high school, I started a band called Seventeen Seconds-a reference to The Cure and The Smashing Pumpkins. We played original songs, but we never finished writing any of the songs we started. We never played any shows, and we never even rehearsed. In fact, there was no “we” at all because I never even asked anyone to join the band. It was just me!
Introducing Austin
One of my dearest friends has just self published his first book titled Melting Chocolate Kettles. For literally my entire life, I’ve watched Austin develop as a writer and person of extremely excellent intellect and integrity. Austin has an extremely unique and inspiring view of the world. It’s beautiful. You need to pay attention to him. [continue reading…]
by stinson on June 7, 2010
If you’re spending all your time developing your skill set, and thinking about all the technicals involved with that, you’re not getting your creations out there.
I’ve fallen quarry to this for more than half my life. The first two years I spent at Belmont University, I attended as a music major. My thought process was that I would become “overqualified” to play the type of music I wanted to make. I would be a musician who could practically play and do anything on the guitar. And I spent so much time trying to perfect my performance of other people’s music, learn my way around the neck of the guitar, and being consumed with picking and rhythm techniques.
In parallel I had become obsessed with how certain records sounded. In particular how certain guitarists got the tones they got (The Smashing Pumpkins Siameese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness blew my mind). So I started trying to learn everything I could about recording-taking many extra studio classes in school that really didn’t apply to my major (until I bailed and switched majors later). By the time I graduated from college, I found myself working at a recording studio… recording other people’s projects… [continue reading…]
