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| From | "Michael Carpenter" <Stagefright@msn.com.au> |
| Subject | Re: What IS influence, anyway? |
| Date | Thu, 1 Mar 2007 08:32:46 +1100 |
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Sam wrote:
>
> We always loved hearing Mitch Easter talk about what a big influence Led
> Zeppelin was, because you listen to Let's Active and you really don't
> hear it. At least nobody I know does. I have another buddy - Mike Smith
> of Fiction 8 - and he talks about The Church like Sister Mary Margaret
> talks about Jesus, but hit their MySpace page and tell me how much Marty
> Willson-Piper YOU hear. Skinny Puppy? Sure. Joy Division? Yup - in
> spades. But Church?
>
> The truth is that all musicians seem to have all these other musicians
> whose work they love, but whose influence you'd never be able to detect
> from listening, no matter how good your ears are.
>
> So I guess I wonder - there being a good number of musicians here, and
> plenty more informed listeners - is there a standard that says if I can't
> hear it, it's not really an influence? Or can influences be more or less
> invisible to the listener of the finished product?
This is a really good point. Producing records, i get this all the time. I
ask a new client who they're inspired by, or who they'd love their records
to sound like, they tell me, i listen to their demos and the dots don't
join. Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to make sense of it all.
Maybe the main writer in a band is influenced by the Eagles, but the rhythm
section love Led Zeppelin and the guitar player who just joined is going to
be doing the harmonies on the new record, where there was no harmonies
before.
In my case, i've always found it interesting that i get to the end of making
a record and i can hear the obvious Beatles/Tom Petty jangly things. Yet one
of the biggest musical influences i have are The Band. I keep waiting to
hear that come through, and it never seems to happen, and i never really
know why. Maybe because there were 5 of them, and only one of me and i can't
sing like Levon, Richard or Rick. Maybe my own mental compromise is that if
i can sound like Steve Earle or Buddy Miller i'm covering all the bases...
Maybe it's more to do with what you directly grew up with and learned by. I
guess as i learned to play my instruments i was listening to and emulating
the Beatles, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Springsteen. I loved the
Band back then, but never tried to emulate them because musically they
seemed way beyond me. When i felt i had the skills to try to emulate them,
the pop thing was possibly too engrained for me to break.
MC
www.myspace.com/michaelcarpenter
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