May 31st, 2024 § Comments Off on The George Floyd Protests Aftermath. Los Angeles. May 31, 2020. § permalink
“Meet you at 3rd and Fairfax”!
I heard the protest coming along 3rd street. I jumped on my bicycle and headed towards them only to find people with bats and knives and police with bats and guns committing some serious violence against each other which frightened me to death and I raced home! All night the pops and bangs and helicopters and sirens rang on and on like in a war zone! Crazy scary!
The photos in the video were taken the next morning.
I awoke to complete silence and empty streets. I grabbed my bike and rode around and took snaps. Later the California National Guard and the cleanup crews arrived to clean everything up and erase any memory of the night!
The song “Dear John” was written as a letter to John Lennon in December 1999. I was working with Mick Fleetwood on a project where I had his drum stem and it inspired me to write the music. The words are a letter to John.
The Aftermath of the George Floyd Protests at 3rd & Fairfax, Los Angeles, May 2020.
May 18th, 2024 § Comments Off on Have we been wasting our lives on Social Media? § permalink
@Facebook has been around longer than the most inventive years in Popular Music History, which might have been between “A Hard Day’s Night” by the Beatles in 1964 and “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes in 1984! Have we been wasting our lives on Social Media?
June 4th, 2023 § Comments Off on The Road to Meddazaland – Duran Duran § permalink
The Barbarella Pictures interviews with many of the musicians, producers, and engineers who worked in the studio with Duran Duran. @DuranDuran
The documentary was written, produced, filmed and edited by Carsten Windhorst and Gerard Hynes!
I’ll admit, this interview was my first foray out in public in nearly a year.
If I hadn’t found a parking meter on Sunset Boulevard I might have been a no-show.
Carsten and Gerard were brilliant and supportive! We are overdue a pint!
Enjoy!
Part 2 of the Barbarella Pictures interviews with some of the people who worked in the studio with Duran Duran. The documentary was written, produced, filmed and edited by Carsten Windhorst and Gerard Hynes.
Part 3 – An awesome album! Not my story. Good music!
November 13th, 2022 § Comments Off on Rock Hall 2022 for Duran Duran § permalink
After massive support from fans around the world, Duran Duran were inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame by Robert Downey Jr., on November 5 (Guy Fawkes night), 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
We went to the show, and were truly blown away by everyone on stage, and the audience! Although it as a very long show there wasn’t a moment wasted between segments. An incredible stage set, and light show, with no need for a host.
Neither Andy Taylor or Warren Cuccurullo from Duran Duran were there, and sadly, Andy wrote his thank you’s in a letter, and told us he had terminal cancer. A bittersweet night.
My highlights were everything, but of course hearing Ordinary World was very special. Otherwise,
I can’t get those Eurythmic songs out of my head! Annie and Dave were awesome! Eminem, Judas Priest… They all were! Seriously one of the best concerts ever!
For many years I have been a fan and a student of the Beatles and all who sailed their ship. But, there was one person on the team I knew little about – Norman Smith, the musician, engineer, producer, recording artist and the 6th Beatle!
Norman Smith
Norman recorded the Beatles from the very beginning through the Rubber Soul album. At the end of 1965 George Martin founded A.I.R. with his EMI producing partners and Norman was promoted to producer and took over the Parlophone label from George.
Norman signed Pink Floyd in 1967 and produced and engineered three of their first four albums, including Ummagumma, and then in 1971 went on to have a #1 hit in America as recording artist Hurricane Smith!
When I was in London a few years ago recording Joey Niceforo and the Steve Sidwell orchestra in Studio One at Abbey Road with Steve Price, I met Richard Hale, longtime engineer at E.M.I. Studios. I’ll save Richard’s story for another day, but suffice to say that he regaled me with tales of Norman Smith, and lent me a copy of Norman’s “auto biography” – John Lennon Called Me Normal.
Norman was in the glider division of the Royal Air Force in the last year of World War II. Fortunately for him he was never deployed and ended up spending a couple of years in a jazz band playing on the roof top of a hotel in Venice, Italy.
But, the best part for me is finally seeing the man himself, and he is fantastic, and definitely the missing link in all the stories of the greatest band of the 1960’s!
An interview with Beatles engineer and Pink Floyd producer/engineer Norman Smith
August 26th, 2019 § Comments Off on An Especial Pint With jj frazz II § permalink
A few weeks back I decided to put together a 15 minute “podcast” of various demo recordings that I have produced over the years. I have had the luxury of recording everyday since my parents bought me a Sony Sound-On-Sound real-to-reel tape recorder in the 1970’s, so I have recorded hundreds of songs in my life. Quantity over quality!
This week’s A Pint With jjfrazz II is a flock of covers, special to me, but not ready for prime time. Here are they in all their one take demo goodness.
March 11th, 2019 § Comments Off on Remembering 3.11 (Tohoku) § permalink
Eight years after the Tohoku Earthquake tragedy in Japan, “the fourth largest earthquake in history”. Our thoughts are still with the victims, who are still facing the gigantic task of rebuilding their homes. The situation in and around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is still critical.
January 27th, 2019 § Comments Off on January 3, 2000 – My Times § permalink
Panasonic DVD-A7
My Times
The biggest y2k glitch that no one is talking about is coping with writing 2000 or 00 on letters and cheques. I remember when 1984 seemed a long long way away.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have become interested in the new DVD Audio format. This is a file standard for music along with video and slide shows and text that allows us to work in the very high quality of 24 bits and 96k sample rate and higher and stores it on a DVD disc. The door is now open to record and mix in 5.1 surround sound. The disc has room for a regular stereo mix as well.
It may seem like an exaggeration but I have never heard anything sound so real before. The dynamics are almost better than real life. In future we will be able to experience a closeness to sound that will make listening to recordings of the sea rolling onto the rocks just like being there. The capabilities are astounding. Long live DVD Audio!
Once the problems with copying are solved the market will be flooded with re-mixes of everything from Orchestras to the Beatles. Even though most people are heralding the age of the mp3, DVD Audio will make an mp3 sound like a very outdated mono AM radio. Of course at the rate things are developing the internet might figure out a way to stream these massive files anyway!
In our continuing quest to answer the age old question: What is a Record Producer… this article – The Record Producer as Architect – is worth a read…
The last few weeks there has been a lot of hot air spilled about the homeless situation in New York City. As usual we are never told the whole story… This article; Why are People Homeless? is worth reading if you would like to know a little bit more about the problem.
One of the greatest new products about to hit the streets is the Eye Track from Olympus. At the moment you have to see it in Japanese but before long it’ll be at your corner store. Full screen high definition sunglasses with surround sound! Yikes!
