Wednesday, June 5, 2013

the genesis of FLUX: Music That Is Never The Same Twice.



may 28, 1978. marseille, france.
on tour as a member of david bowie's band.
the night before we had played a concert at palais des sport.
it's a day off. I have never been to marseille before
so in the afternoon I wander down to the famous port area.

I sat outside between two cafes.
beautiful day. the cafes both had their doors open
and both of them had different radio stations playing.
in fact, one of the radios seemed stuck between stations
and seemed to be jumping from one thing to another.
one second it would be an accordian song, then static,
then it would turn into a cello performance,
then it would return to the accordian song, and so on.

in front of me was the harbor, full of activity.
the sound of boats, motors, water, seagulls,
people walking by talking in french (of course),
cars driving past, children playing, a boat bell ringing,
and all of this interrupting the different types of music
playing on either side of me.

I remember closing my eyes and listening
to this beautiful cacophony; the sound of life.
and I thought "this is how I want my music to sound someday.
music being interrupted by life being interrupted by music."
from that moment on I began working out how
that could ever be possible.

over time I added in other ideas.
what if, just like life, the music never repeated itself?
what if it was always different, surprising?
how could you do that?

over the decades since may 28, 1978 I returned again
and again to this idea until it became a mild obsession.
I knew sooner or later it would be something I had to do.

above is the postcard I bought that day.

Monday, April 22, 2013

today: auditioning stomp boxes

from devi ever, earthquaker, eventide,
red witch, istomp, rainger, spontaneous audio,
empress, and dwarfcraft
with names like fuzzgod, pitchgrinder,
son of kong, godzilla, dr. freakenstein,
and hoof reaper.

soon to come more boxes from
zvex, electro harmonix, pigtronics,
and who knows who else.

we're having fun now!!




Sunday, March 24, 2013

I'm back from japan...

and I'll be going back to japan
at the end of july for our first n9in inch nails show,
which will be japan's largest festival, the fuji fest.
for what, 150,000 people?
first show.
no worries.

I want to thank everyone who made it
to our crimson projekct shows.
you made them very special.
all 3 tokyo shows were sold out!
we ate again at the restaurant where kill bill's
gigantic fight scene was filmed,*
rode the bullet train to and from osaka,
visited the amazing department store called tokyo hands,
spent our night off enjoying my favorite band,
the parrots at the abbey road club in roppongi,
and played 4 terrific show to a grateful audience.
not bad.

now I'm back to my daily regimen of learning/absorbing
3.5 hours of new music, auditioning tons of new gear,
and mixing parts of my new solo project.
I'll sleep when I'm dead.

*actually the kill bill scene was started there,
before mr. tarantino decided to build a set instead
which looked just like the restaurant.
or so the story goes.



Sunday, March 10, 2013

the new Crimson Projekct record























is called The Official Bootleg Live 2012.
it's now available at our online store.
select cuts from our 2012 tour with Dream Theatre include:
b'boom
thrak
dinosaur
elephant talk
red
frame by frame
thela hun ginjeet
indiscipline

great performances from a great tour.
and speaking of crimson projekct
we're leaving in the morning (march 11) 
to play 4 beautiful concerts in japan.
sayanora!








































Monday, March 4, 2013

New! Improved! Thinner! Bigger! Better! Fresher Than Ever!!!!

3 cheers for our favorite webhamster Rob Murphree!
year after year he does a magnificent job
keeping us informed and entertained.
I like what you've done this time around, rob.
thank you so much.

over the next few weeks the site will be tweaked
even more, for example this weekend we loaded
a pile of my paintings and photos into the media art section.
with more photos, videos, and cheap talk to come.

now the cat with the nine inch nails is out of the bag
I promise to endeavor to keep you interested.
this world tour is not something you should miss,
so I'll do my best to update, download, comment,
compose, document, photograph, and blogblogblog.
I want you to feel a part of this experience.

of course the real touring doesn't start until august
but there are plenty of things to talk about in the meantime.

for example, today is martha's birthday.
happy birthday sweetheart!




Monday, February 25, 2013

surprise # 2

today it is being announced at last.
something I've been wanting to tell you for a month now:
I've been asked to be the guitarist for Nine Inch Nails!
we're going on an extensive world tour,
reaching places even I have never been!

I'll be moving (temporarily) to LA in may
for 3 months of rehearsals after which the tour begins.
that's about as much as I know for sure for now.

daniel rowland will be assisting me on the tour
which should allow us some time to continue
our third year of making my new solo project.

here is what trent reznor released today:
Nine Inch Nails are touring this year.

I was working with Adrian Belew on some musical ideas, which led to some discussion on performing, which led to some beard-scratching, which (many steps later) led to the decision to re-think the idea of what Nine Inch Nails could be, and the idea of playing a show.  Calls were made to some friends, lots of new ideas were discussed, and a show was booked - which led to another, which somehow led to a lot of shows.

The band is reinventing itself from scratch and will be comprised of Eric Avery, Adrian Belew, Alessandro Cortini, Joshua Eustis, Ilan Rubin, and me.  The first shows will begin this summer, followed by a full-on arena tour of the US this fall, and lots of other dates worldwide to follow through 2014. 

Lots of details and dates to come.  See you soon.
TR


I hope to see you there.
keep checking for updates on the entire process.

love,
adrian


Thursday, January 24, 2013

the impossible pedal


 




























here is one of this year's surprises:
the impossible pedal!
what is the impossible pedal?
I'm glad I asked.

it's my first-ever signature effects pedal!
DigiTech and I have created a pedal
which allows you to do something no other pedal can:
play the impossible!
not only will you play things with this pedal
which you can't possibly play otherwise,
it will also make you seem to play faster
than you can actually play!

there will be a press conference debut
of the impossible pedal
this saturday morning, january 26
at the 2013 NAMM show
at 10:00 at the DigiTech booth
followed by a demo from yours truly.

the impossible pedal is the first artist signature pedal
from the award-winning Digitech series called iStomp.
you download the pedal as an app from your iPhone or iPad
how cool is that?

to learn more go to: digitech.com
and look for the stomp shop 

here is the official press release:

HARMAN’s DigiTech Teams Up With Adrian Belew to Bring You The Impossible Pedal for the iStomp

ANAHEIM, California – At NAMM 2013 DigiTech is proud to announce its first in a line of iStomp Signature Artist pedals, joining forces with guitarist extraordinaire Adrian Belew to debut The Impossible Pedal. The pedal lives up to its name, giving guitarists the ability to play pitch-shifting effects that are otherwise impossible to play on a guitar.

Adrian Belew needs little introduction as a beyond-cutting-edge musician who has smashed sonic boundaries with artists including David Bowie, King Crimson, Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, Nine Inch Nails and others, and over a diverse solo career spanning nearly 20 solo albums. The cries, grunts, squeals, industrial noises, twang-bar-king whammy effects and other otherworldly sounds he can coax out of his instrument make him one of the world’s most uncategorizable guitarists.

Available exclusively as an e-pedal for the iStomp, The Impossible Pedal uses two pitch shifters that can be turned on and off in sequence, and guitarists can abruptly “jump” between two intervals by stepping on the iStomp footswitch as they play. “I have been using the DigiTech HarmonyMan for years to create this unique effect,” said Belew. “With The Impossible Pedal in my iStomp I can now do things I never could before!”

Two knobs on The Impossible Pedal set the two different pitch intervals and two knobs select whether the pitches shift up or down over a two octave range. By stepping on the footswitch, the note played by the guitarist alternates between the standard (unaffected) pitch and the two pitch-shifted voices, to create melodic passages that extend beyond physical human ability. Even its iStomp icon is an impossible optical illusion that has to be seen to be disbelieved.

“Adrian Belew is a fearless innovator and his e-pedal ideas for the iStomp are a perfect match for our vision,” noted DigiTech Artist Relations Manager Tom Cram.

The DigiTech iStomp is a new concept in guitar stompboxes that allows musicians to turn the iStomp into any pedal available in the Stomp Shop online pedal store. Offering almost limitless sonic possibilities, the iStomp connects to an Apple® IOS device where musicians can use the free Stomp Shop app to load it with the e-pedal of their choice. The Stomp Shop app comes with ten of the most popular pedals and gives access to more than 40 additional e-pedals they can browse, try out and purchase. More e-pedals are added on a regular basis.

At NAMM, DigiTech will be giving away six special edition silver and blue iStomp pedals signed by Belew as part of a Facebook sweepstakes that is taking place during the show. Please visit DigiTech at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA Booth #211B.

The DigiTech The Impossible Pedal e-pedal will be made available at the beginning of NAMM at a suggested retail price of $19.99. The DigiTech iStomp is currently available at $229.95 suggested retail.


HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,400 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $4.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.