I’ve always been more of a New Order fan in the chain of things. But recently Joy Division has spoken to me more than ever. More in the production side of things with Martin Hannett than the dreadfully sad lyrics from Ian Curtis. Punk, in my eyes was pretty much dead by the time their debut LP, Unknown Pleasures was released. This allowed punk to die. They put it in the grave and but let it evolve and change in to something else.
Bernard Sumner’s gave us his trademark gentle yet angular leads. Stephen Morris gave us drum-machine-precise beats, while pushing the envelope with electronic triggers. Peter Hook revolutionized the way a bass should be played. And well Ian Curtis was just sadly misunderstood. It’s simply tragic, really.
Every day we get a bunch of phone calls. Emily usually takes down the messages for me as she is the Front Office (in the rear). Or when I am in alone I’ll just answer the calls, obviously. We tend to get people all over the place. All types of projects. Some more special than not. From an MC with beats who wants to lay down some vocals to a lady who wants to transfer some of her old music to another format. People see our ad in the City Paper, our listing in the yellow pages, word of mouth or from searching the interweb.
What boggles my mind is the abundance of calls that resemble something like so:
Me: Mobtown.
Said caller: Hi. So I have these songs and I want to record them. They are hot. Red hot.
Me: Great! Why don’t you come in for a tour and we can talk about your project and timeline?
Said caller: Ok. Sounds great. Did I mention I don’t have a job?
Me: Ok.
Said caller: Which means I have no income.
Me: Maybe you should work on your budget first before the timeline?
Said caller: But these songs are really good and can definitely be recorded in one take. We can do it very fast.
Me: Maybe you should come in so we can talk about your expectations.
Said caller: Did I tell you I can’t sing and I can’t play the music.
Me: No. But this is good information to know. Do you know any musicians?
Said caller: No. Can you find them for me? And did I mention I don’t have a job?
Said caller: Ok
This goes on for a bit. Painfully. It amazes me how many calls like this we get. Sometimes twice a week. These people totally debunk Darwin’s theory. What are people thinking?! Luckily these are the minority and we actually get calls from talented people. Some of which have paying jobs where money goes in a bank. Yay for jobs!
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