|
|
Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Back in July during a UK tour me & Cheevers had a 16-year old "acoustic punk" open for us on a couple of Scottish dates. I was so impressed with him I invited him down to my studio. He just sent me this link to one of the songs we recorded...
http://stage.vitaminic.co.uk/matt_johnston
Apart from the fact that I think it's a killer song, you guys might be interested to hear the guitars, on this one he used my SMT & '78 Adamas which were double-tracked. Note; The Mp3 version sounds a lot better than the Realplayer version. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 105
Location: San Francisco, CA | Awesome !! Lots of great guitarists/singers come out of UK. He could be a famous star in a few years.
Make sure he knows your guitars are Adamas, not Applause :-) |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 888
Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Fantastic guitar playing!
Jim |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Very good, good pickin'and good singing, guitars sound great, young man has a future.
Bailey |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | I agree the young man has promise. However (I'll probably get kicked out of the OFC for this) all I heard was a lot of strumming, albeit well done. I honestly could not tell that he was playing an Ovation or a $100 knock-off..
I'm not denegrating his playing! Some areas reminded me of vintage "Who"...very good strumming... My question is this: Whatever happened to melody lines? Whatever happened to tonality? I know Paul's guitars are wonderful have great voicing capabilities, but I just couldn't hear it...
I know, style as well as beauty is in the ear of the listener...
I guess I'm just an old poop, but I miss the days when the guitars "spoke and sang" instead of yelled...
ok, now... let it fly!
tim |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I'm having some problems and can't download the file(s), but Temp had sent me an advance "rough mix" mp3 when he had the kid in the studio. I burned it to CD and gave it to my 18-year-old daughter who LOVED it! She's a big Dashboard Confessional fan and this guy's VERY much along the same vein (lotsa heavy strumming while crying into your illegally-gotten beer about the 16-year-old nubile strumpet that took your virginity and then cast you aside like a used tampon). We've all been there. I just wish that when it happened to me recording equipment was as affordable/attainable as it is today. :D
I actually like Matt's stuff (and some of the Dashboard stuff). The problem I have is that I play in an acoustic-rock "cover" band. Rick and I prdominantly play bars. How many guys here are in a bar at 1 a.m. on a Friday night? We usually get the "older" crowd (my age) early in the night "after dinner hour". At Midnight until 2 a.m. it's mostly college kids. Surprisingly, SOME "older" stuff goes over well (in fact the the sheer VARIETY of obscure older songs some kids ask for AMAZES me), but for the most part they wanna hear contemporary stuff.
It's a strange paradox in that it oftentimes REALLY makes me feel "old", but when we pull the songs off well and the crowd is really appreciative, you feel kinda like ". . well, maybe I ain't so OLD afterall . . ."
Hey Temp!, like I told you . . . if this kid "makes it" really BIG, my daughter said she's got "dibs" on 'im! :D
. . . . of course, he'll have to contend with "Dad" first. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Tim, The guitar part is appropriate for the genre, it's supposed to be aggressive and thrashy. As for melody, I think the vocal line he's written is very strong & memorable. As a piece of songwriting, especially from a 16 year-old I think it shows incredible promise. I'm perfectly happy with the sound of the guitars within the context of the track, but then I'm listening on reference monitors. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | Paul,
I guess my own frustrations are showing... I'm currently playing in a Church group and the "other" guitarist shows promise, but is only interested in heavey-handed strumming... while (for this genre) the songs should have a "pretty/medatative" quality about them.
It doesn't really work... just as my playing would not fit with Matt's song.
I agree that for a 16 year old, Matt shows considerable talent... I would like to hear him "caress" his/your guitars and see what happens..
I applaud Mentors like you Paul for encouraging the younger generation to "find their voice".... how boring the world would be if everyone played just like me!
tim |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | I played it for my 16 year old son as well and I quote: "Not bad for Emo". Ok, I said, What's Emo and he preceeded to sing out a a few lines that really inpressed me. I didn't even know he could sing like that. I asked him why he didn't sound like that all the time and he said it was too much like whining and he was happy with the voice he was already using for his songs. My son leans more toward punk when he's playing with his band but his solo stuff is pretty good. (I guess what I mean here is his punk stuff isn't) He did want to know if there was any more of Matt's stuff avaialble.
Cliff..I gave up on the MP3 download and it just appeared after awhile. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Kids like this are the ones responsible for the resurgence of the acoustic guitar in a Pop setting. Very popular now. I remember when punk was new. We had a band playing punk and this is far more musical. I remember one of our friends told us, "from a distance you don't sound too good, but up close you're so loud I can't tell." We took that as a compliment, but ouch! Think 1978 and outerborough/suburbs NYC. In terms of melody it's what they're doing, and as for the strumming I'm reminded of some of Jason Mraz' stuff. Really this is the "in-thing". I like it and based just on this clip, very talented. Interesting to see how punk has evolved. Who knew?! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Bill, shoot me your address & I'll put a copy of the rest of the session in the post. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | Temp (being British) will know what I'm talking about, but I don't know about everybody else. This kid plays modern skiffle music (if my memory serves right as well as my spelling). Back in the late 50's and early 60's, the music was raw and strummed hard. Lots of rythym, not much melody. But a lot of famous players who emerged in the 60's started with this kind of music.
Subtlty and refinement come with age. Trust me. This kid's going to be huge someday. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Long Live Lonnie Donegan!! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | I remember seeing a very early clip of little Jimmie Page strumming in his skifle band.... they then cut to Led Zepplin performing Dazed 'n Confused...
yep... the growth will come
tim |
|
| |
Teenage angst
