Jem makes a statement

Publication: Some email list
Date Printed: Between September 9, 1995 and September 15, 1995

[A little background on this. Jem asked a fairly innocent question to get some help with a drum sequencing system. A person responded snottily, and below is the rest. The main reason I'm making this available is that Jem seems to have given very few interviews, so this is one of the few times we get to see his opinions voiced (outside of his lyrics). - DzM]

>From:	MX%"Jem Finer" 9-SEP-1995 12:01:26.97 
>I've been trying to program Jungle style drums without a great deal of success ! 
>Has anyone any tips either of a programming nature or of other places to look ? 
> 
Yeah, use your ears, learn to play, or buy some midi-files. 

-- Physicist Programmer, Bristol Uni Particle Physics


[Some amorphous conversation takes place after this, including Mr. Physicist Guy slaggin on the quality (or lack there-of) of Punk. Jem joins in again.]

From: (Jem Finer) 
Subject: techno v couscous

Just to stick my oar in this subject for a moment and say YES to all those people who have stuck up for the idea that great music can be created on/by/with anything as long as some imagination,originality and feeling are involved. There's a hell of a lot of ace sight reading grade 50 classical or whatever muso's who can't play a note unless someone puts a score under their nose, there's untrained kids who can beat out awesome Art Blakey-esque drum solos on an old dustbin. And of course there is a lot of crap composed on computers but no more than is composed on guitars,pianos etc. Dear physicist in your lab, souskous is great but don't tell me that there have never been any shite souscous musicians/composers or tunes. By the way, why are you using Logic if you seem so averse to the use of technology in music, surely the beauty of the computer is not only that it makes the ability to make music more open to more people and helps break down the elitism and myth of the musician in the way punk did nearly 20 years ago, but that it opens up so many more possibilities for composition,sound and performance. Ligeti,Hungarian composer, recently heard some of his"notoriously difficult" piano works performed the "way he intended" for the first time. Not by a highly trained musician but by a computer MIDI-ed up to the Royal Academy of Musics concert grand.(see WIRED 1.04 page 93) So come on, music either turns us on or it doesn't and that's the listeners perogative and what the hell does it matter how it was created. By the way thanks to the few kind people who posted some tips, as opposed to snidey clever dick sideswipes, re Jungle drum breaks - any more always of intrest ! Lastly someone said, "What about banjoes ?" - Well my friend I think they're dead cool !! bye for now, Jem Finer


[Mr. Physicist Guy responds with...]

>From:	"Jem Finer" 14-SEP-1995 12:38:23.55 
>Subj:	techno v couscous 
> 
> 
>Dear physicist in your lab, souskous is great but don't tell me that there 
>have never been any shite souscous musicians/composers or tunes. By the 

No, there is crap music from everywhere.

>way, why are you using Logic if you seem so averse to the use of technology >in music, surely the beauty of the computer is not only that it makes the

Because there ain't enough good musicians around to play with :-). Well, I do have a band but I like writing and jamming with the sequencer. Helps develop my playing, too. And i'd use it more if it worked properly but of course I have a dead platform (ST) with virtually non-existant support and I'd far rather buy a coupla new guitars than a mac to be honest.

>ability to make music more open to more people and helps break down the >elitism and myth of the musician in the way punk did nearly 20 years ago,

Yeah, and there was a heap of crap punk too. Punk (apart from a few rare exceptions) pushed to "so bad its good" ethic to its limits. I can't handle music made with that attitude.

>but that it opens up so many more possibilities for composition,sound and >performance.

>By the way thanks to the few kind people who posted some tips, as opposed >to snidey clever dick sideswipes, re Jungle drum breaks - any more always

Hey, my first response was probably the best tip you could get, either use your ears and brain to analyze and then try to recreate the sound you want to emulate, or hire someone who knows how to do it.

>of intrest ! >Lastly someone said, "What about banjoes ?" - Well my friend I think >they're dead cool !!

I hate country and western :-).

>bye for now, >Jem Finer

Hope you have a nice big jungle hit !

-- Physicist Programmer, Bristol Uni Particle Physics.


[Jem's final response was...]

>From: "Physicist Dude Guy" 

>Yeah, and there was a heap of crap punk too. Punk (apart from a few rare >exceptions) pushed to "so bad its good" ethic to its limits. I can't handle >music made with that attitude.

We had, I thought, already agreed that good and bad were a matter of personal taste. The thing about punk and its relevance here is, I think, that both punk and computers gave people who would otherwise have been alienated from becoming musicians (or making music) the idea that such pursuits were not only the domain of some mythical beast - THE MUSICIAN - but something that anyone could have a go at. O.K., so this results in some "bad music" but many people who started out on one three chord trick or one sampled loop have gone on to make fine and imaginative MUSICIANS making what most people would agree is exciting music.

>>Lastly someone said, "What about banjoes ?" - Well my friend I think >>they're dead cool !! > >I hate country and western :-).

1. Does the world really care whether you like country and western or not ? 2. The banjo is an instrument not a genre of music and as such has been used in myriads of diverse musical incarnations.

>>By the way thanks to the few kind people who posted some tips, as opposed >>to snidey clever dick sideswipes, re Jungle drum breaks - any more always > >Hey, my first response was probably the best tip you could get, either use >your ears and brain to analyze and then try to recreate the sound you want >to emulate, or hire someone who knows how to do it.

I have ears, I have a brain, I am able to analyse things but like most people I sometimes arrive at the point where I could do with a bit of assistance. I was, perhaps mistakenly, under the impression that this logic users "forum" was a place where people using logic could support each other when they hit obstacles not carp at each others diverse musical tastes.

cheerio, Jem Finer


[Interesting reading, if nothing else. -DzM]

Copyright 1995 The People That Wrote This (Including, but not limited to, Jem Finer) All rights reserved

Your intrepid maintainer is DzM.