I don’t have time for anything anymore because I’m doing everything. Every second of the day is spent either learning how to program Swift, writing music for multiple projects, curating thousands of brands around the world, trying to wrap my head around the ever-changing global financial crisis or deepening my relationship with creativity and self-expression. I’ve become fascinated with being a beginner again and working my way from ignorance to knowledge. We overlook that concept, but if you think back to your youth, the world was a magical place because everything was new, everything was a learning process and a challenge. Why do we get older and suddenly settle into roles? The answer my friend is too long for this casual blog post but the lesson to take from it is to keep learning and challenging yourself, take on the hardest thing you can find and forever be a beginner.
That brings me to the subject of today’s post – a public service announcement brought to you in part by the good folks of EMPT regarding an awesome thing called Converse Rubber Tracks.
With music, it’s hard to be a beginner these days because the art is so heavily disrespected. Just look at what Apple, the company whose culture is based on a respect for creativity, just tried to pull (RIP Steve Jobs, that damn board of directors is ruining your name). But it’s not just royalties. That extends into everything in music, especially sound quality and the recording process. Back in the days sound engineers wore lab coats because the shit was dead serious. Those Beatles albums sound like that because fools at Abby Road who were recording them knew what they were doing, artists weren’t even allowed in the control room. Do you have any idea how hard it is to take the art of music serious these days?
That’s why I love this Converse Rubber Tracks thing, they go around taking high quality music and sound, dead serious. If you’re an artist on the come up they offer the opportunity to record for free.99 at one of their permanent studios (Brooklyn, NY, Sao Paulo, Brazil…), yes they still have those, or pop-up things all over the world .
Sure, you can record your album in your bedroom on a $100 mic through your Duets stock preamp, all MIDI, with the sound of your mom yelling in the background and that’s exactly how it’s going to sound. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about content, a good song doesn’t need to sound good to be good, but it should because that’s the full realization of the art.
Again, that’s why I love the Converse Rubber Tracks, because they bring people to legendary studios where their ideas can be realized at the highest level because tools matter. For the record, I get nothing for talking about this, but all this marketing about how “great” project-studios are in order to sell you gear has been on my mind lately, and ‘it ain’t right’. Morning Phase, Random Access Memory, and Modern Vampires of the City won the Best Album Grammy’s sounding like that because they took the sound serious. You got a vintage U67 or 1176 in your bedroom broseph? I don’t think so. You gotta respect the game, work hard and earn your way to recording your music the right way. That or take advantage of this opportunity and register for a chance to record at a legendary studio this September… last chance to register is tomorrow, June 24th so don’t sleep.
Global registration begins today, Tuesday, May 26 and runs through Wednesday, June 24, featuring an online submission process that requires applicants to rank their top three studio preferences, and encourages all to enter a brief artist biography or description via a video or written application. If selected, chosen artists will be notified in early July. Following a thorough planning session with studio producers, artists chosen will be taken to one of their studios of choice in September this year, with most travel accommodations arranged and select expenses covered by Converse.
As any long time Space Age kid will tell you, this site is for music lovers by music lovers. The people behind EMPT aren’t bloggers, we literally live and die by music. Music is how we make our money, how we discover life, how we make memories, how we find romance and how we make our mark on the world. We don’t get behind anything really, but Rubber Track is the type of shit we will support, because it respects music and it’s dope. Get with it and register here – http://www.converse-music.com/rubbertracks/
Thank us later.