Due to Wales moving into lockdown, this session took place on Microsoft teams. Although I find it harder to focus & engage with the online sessions it was great to discuss this topic and hear a large variety of perspectives & opinions.
We discussed what the relevance of local music was in the largely connected modern world is; if it is or isn’t relevant at all. After reading through an article covering this, we shared our thoughts on an online padlet. There was many interesting things to take away from this, such as the potential existence of ‘virtual local scenes’ and entire genres being created online. Where it could be argued that local music is no longer bound to a specific area of the world but a specific group of people, works & ideas. On the other hand though, a large aspect of local music is the performance, legacy, folklore & either economical, social, political or general response to the real world location of these musicians & artists. Those who adapt that sound are merely using it for its sonic aesthetic & are culturally appropriating that which is not authentic to them. For example that of the Seattle Grunge scene of the 90s, or Late 70s Post Punk being a response to life in Post Industrial Britain. I personally think local music can only exist outside of virtual spaces in the real world, however in todays climate with the pandemic forcing music to be performed & reside primarily online it either suggests the idea of local music is evolving into a more broad ideology or is dying out. I have very mixed opinions about this as I love supporting my local music scene, however it is very limited & I do find most of my music worldwide. For myself as a musician though, its a lot easier to connect with people worldwide than it is to do so solely within the confinements of my local area as my tastes in music don’t always necessarily align with what is popular amongst other bands, artists & fans here.
The second half of this session consisted of talking about and working with an online collaborative DAW called BandLab. I have used the phone app to record some demos, song ideas & riffs but wasn’t aware of its browser based interface. We were tasked with working in groups from home on this software to try and conjure up a song, as well as give feedback on this method of collaboration.
Myself, Duncan & Emrys teamed up to try to do so but struggled coming up with anything substantial. As it was a DAW none of us had used before it took us a little while to get to grips with it and navigate around it. Once that was sussed out we then had the trouble of it lagging & the response being slow. I also think that having all hands on deck in one project made things difficult & complicated on top of communication being more difficult virtually. I personally think this is an ineffective way of collaborating, although it might have been more efficient if we each took turns to edit or add stuff then save it for the next person to do the same, it doesn’t hold up against being in the same room sharing ideas. For working by yourself it is perfect but as a collaborative effort I would not take to this again or at least dedicate more time to realising a more efficient to doing so.
HAYDN ALIM - PROGRESSFOLIO 