Sound Torque with Kavus Torabi - 'Now Rock n' Roll Has Stopped'
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- Our guest on this episode is Kavus Torabi. Kavus is a musician whose history in the UK's left-field music scene is long and illustrious. He's been a member of a long list of bands including Knifeworld, Guapo, Gong, The Utopia Strong and Cardiacs, as well as being an in-demand DJ. Hosted by The Stephens.®
Kavus' Bandcamp: kavustorabi.bandcamp.com
Stephen Kerrison runs Tall Trees Audio Mastering: talltreesaudiomastering.com
Stephen Cole runs What Studio: www.whatstudio.info
Awesome interview!
hearing him talk about Tim with so much joy was absolutely beautiful
I love Kavus even more, now I know he uses Cubase. Legend!
Just on the matter of hating your own voice: I suppose as far as the issue of what you should learn to feel about this, you could take Tim as a guide? I don't remember the story very well, but recall something about a singer who had just been given all sorts of critical "guidance" by someone from a record company, and Tim pulling that singer aside and saying something like, "Don't listen to Them! You're beautiful just the way you are!" If I've got that half-right, you're probably all in a position to correct me, and express the point made more exactly just-right.
So that's what you *should* feel. And we all probably have a reasonably good idea of what we should feel about most things. It's harder to convert that into practical steps that walk a real life path from knowledge to living it out, hey?
There's another thing to consider, when it comes to Tim's singing: He didn't sing for Cardiacs at first? So then to some extent maybe he once "hated his own voice" (just a crude way of putting this, since who knows). That's also something to think about.
And then when it comes to all music, you can put the singing and the guitar bits that you "get just right, the wrong way", too? Produce some high-polish "product" you're craftsman-proud of, and you're right to be proud; but is it Art (with a capital A, just to exaggerate a little bit)? We all intuitively know that music has moments of Art in some quite rough, and uncouth places. And much that is couth is too much like every other couth thing to express anything fresh and unique, and maybe even edgy - whatever that means. "Getting your singing right" is often work done on turning your voice into "product" - into something familiar enough for you to measure it against. But to Freddy your song, maybe it needs to break up at the right places (completely peculiar to You), rather than roll smoothly over the greener fields of euphoniousness. (Spellcheck don't like that last word. Fukkit.)
I could tell you my personal history of experiencing Tim's singing, if you like (which, seeing as it's from Me, is Universal, and full of the very best kind of Truth, that's why). I found Cardiacs on RUclips. A "weird music" website with some interesting recommendations on it sent me to Tarred and Feathered. "That's fun!" was the first thought. Next thought was something like, "I think I'll listen to that again." And hear more. And again again and again ... and then the rest of the story I'd better stop telling before TL;DR hits.
Now the guy who recommended Cardiacs to me apologized for Tim's "reedy vocals", whilst overall commending the group. He was just saying, "Don't let this put you off. Give it time." So I was conditioned to hear "reedy vocals" to begin with. (Sorry, I do as the Shepherd telleth me.) As you know, Tim Smith's music has all sorts of all sorts in it that make one come back to listen to it again. So the vocals went from being just "reedy" to something that "goes quite well with the music". (I didn't just instantly take to it; I just kept getting drawn back to it more and more.) And then Tarred and Feathered moved from being just fun to being "oddly beautiful" (and now it's just plain beautiful - but still oddly so? - and still fun - just fun - what else can you ask of a world in which music is seldom really fun?)
And someone in the comments to a Cardiacs song at some stage pointed out how in-tune Tim was. I was well beyond the stage of making excuses to myself for enjoying "reedy vocals" by then, but that made me tune my ears in. He isn't always in tune (but that's sometimes exactly what it takes to give you "that take"), but he had a pretty amazing vocal range.
Now the point is that it's right to just think of Tim as a great singer; and it's right to think of him as having some kind of quirky voice (since he doesn't sound like anyone else). And to bring it back to the story I half-told earlier on: He was beautiful enough just the way he was. (And would've ruined everything by being any different - especially by being certifiable "Product" according to the dead middle of the "current canonical recorded voice".)
So when you hate your voice, maybe also love it at least a little bit for not being "Product"? And remember that if your music is lovely and sincere, the people whose ears it's meant for will ultimately end up loving your voice - in a way that is almost a love for your own dear self. Because the "imperfections" become an essential part of the music.
I should shut up now, because I've somehow managed to succeed in somehow write a conclusive conclusion (where normally I ramble - like this), but there's one more thing. I think maybe this is also a reason Cardiacs also have the best covers? Just in case you missed it, try this authentic-voice added-loving-care production by a certain mr Brown, for instance (and make of it what you will) ruclips.net/video/MjV0J0C-gsQ/видео.html
Thanks for this! Thought for food!
@@soundtorque2632 Thanks for taking the time to read it. It's a busy world, and I have a quite severe case of some kind of TL;DR disease. :-)