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My blog
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My instruments - the Guzheng painted by Floaty Keith
Friday, Oct 23, 2009 1:50AM / Standard Entry
My beautiful guzheng pixie
Everyone always asks me how I make my music, so this week each day I'm going to upload a photo of my favorite music instruments.
Today it's my guzheng 古筝!
I found this guzheng on the street. Its true, I actually found it on the ground, lying in the garbage in Hong Kong.
Believe it or not, I found this beautiful guzheng lying in the gutter.
At the time, I was living in Taiwan and on a weekend trip to Hong Kong. I couldn't believe someone would throw it out!
Picked it up, wiped it down clean and took it to the airport to catch my flight. Wow, now that I think about it, that was the old Hong Kong airport. I didn't have a case or anything to carry it in, so the airline told me just carry it on to the airplane. Many heads were turned.
Actually, that was even before it was painted the way it is now. I've carried my guzheng all around the world since then.
Guzheng pegs that hold up the strings, beautiful shadows.
Well, a few years ago I had a cool side project with a great guitarist named Floaty Keith, who is now resident DJ at the Underworld in Taipei every Friday night. We used to jam out, me playing on guzheng, scratching and dropping beats. Floaty Keith would play some great guitar progressions.
Well, in his spare time, Floaty Keith just happens to be one of the most incredible artists I've ever met. If you've ever been to the Underworld, you might recognize his painting style. Floaty Keith spent like three years painting the whole bar - THE ENTIRE BAR! until it was completely finished. Here's a link to Floaty Keith's Myspace.
This crazy looking guy is chillin with long arms.
I think back then, that time around the guzheng rubbed off on him. And the first piece he finished painting the Underworld just happened to be my guzheng!
Floaty Keith painted a bunch of robotic-looking monster-ish characters that kind of reflect the Dirt Star world of space-like out-of-this-world ambiance. Yet at the same time, full of color and emotion. I love the devilish star pig, the chill out long-armed guy, the robotic shopping cart pusher, and the cute blue pixie. Once the strings are on the guzheng, there's a beautiful line of shadows across the body.
As you can imagine, I couldn't play the guzheng at first. But I've spent a lot of time trying to hone my guzheng skills, and today I must say I've found a lot of inspiration from this gift of a musical instrument.
Its definitely got a lot of soul. I love jamming out new sounds and rifs on the guzheng - I find I come up with a lot of new musical ideas using it instead of a guitar, or a piano. I like dropping it into a Kaoss Pad or Ableton effects chain, and playing around.
I've recorded a lot of guzheng music, but haven't released most of it. I have a few tracks on my upcoming album with guzheng. And on my last album I had one song. Click here to download an instrumental track I released on my last album called "The things you do"
Here's a close-up of the robotic man with a shopping cart, stuck in the shopping mall he can never escape from.
This guzheng is definitely one of my most prized possessions. Why didn't that person that threw it away in the first place at least think to recycle it? Bet it didn't occur to them that someone would find their garbage, and record an album's worth of songs with it.
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My instruments: the DIY midi controller + classical guitar
Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009 8:08PM / Standard Entry
Everyone always asks me how I make my music, so this week each day I'm going to upload a photo of my favorite music instruments.Today it's my modified classical guitar again, some extra shots - with midi controller for rocking beats in sync with Ableton Live, and a guitar tuner, all attached. The tuner is transparent, so you can see all the wiring inside too. Everything is attached to the body with good old tape.
A late night session in a Hong Kong alley
The controller is attached on the guitar below the strings, so its kind of like having a whammy bar for electronica guitarists. Do you make your own instruments? Have you ever changed the pickups on your guitar?
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How Depeche Mode rocks sweet beats on stage
Saturday, Sep 26, 2009 6:51PM / Standard Entry
Wow, Depeche Mode is still rocking stages after all these years. Hear the kings of new wave rocked at Lollapalooza this time around.
Great video over at Ableton about how Depeche Mode's drum sound is created on a stage in front of 30,000 screaming fans. Here's the video link here
I've been using Ableton Live on stages for the last few years too. Its a really fun musical instrument for me.
Seeing this video I found it interesting to see how Depeche Mode to split up and apply effects to their drums. Is anyone else out there on Alive not dead using Ableton Live on stage or in the studio? How do you use it?
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Dirt Star music reviewed in Junk Magazine
Friday, Sep 18, 2009 9:25PM / News / Dirt Star
Junk Magazine recently did a little feature review on my music. It's really neat to see what everyone reads into when listening to my tracks.
Enjoyed what Junk has to say, especially the references (Edwyn Collins, Babylon Zoo, and Ryan Adams - Jordan would dig that one.) and the Youtube clips they dug up (Funny Man live @ Triple J)
Check out the article for yourself here
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Live Dirt Star VJ Footage- Let's Collaborate!
Friday, Jul 17, 2009 5:29PM / Standard Entry
Dirt Star's Music
Stats
- Dirt Star's sound has been described as a mix of Electro-fied Beetlemania in silver martian space suits, a mix of infectious pop music mixed up in with a taste of street culture. ...
- Occupation: Musician , Director , Music Producer
- Gender: Male
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