Personal:
    What’s your favorite kind of music?
    Do you like [insert name of musical genre]?
    Who’s your favorite musician?
    What are some of your favorite recordings?
    What kind of music do you play/compose?
    What instruments do you play?
    What’s your home recording set up?
    Will we ever hear any of your stuff?
    Isn’t providing answers to these “personal” questions an exercise in vanity?

Q: What’s your favorite kind of music?
A: I like almost every kind of music. I have to admit, though, that Broadway musicals (and the singing style that goes with them) would be at the bottom of any list I made. And certain “power ballads” have been known to make me physically ill. Ditto for anything sung by Bette Midler or Barbra Streisand.

Q: Do you like [insert name of musical genre]?
A: See the answers to the previous question.

Q: Who’s your favorite musician?
A: I don’t have a single favorite, and if I had a list, it would constantly be changing. Some of the people whose work I return to over and over are mentioned in the answers to the next question. For more information on some of them, click the Links button above, and then on the Featured Artist/Band Sites link that shows up in this window.

Q: What are some of your favorite recordings?
A: There are three ways to answer that question. One is to give you the answer to that ridiculous desert island question (“you’re stranded on a desert island…”). For the time being, the ten desert island discs would be (in no particular order):

    Another way to answer the question is to list the records that, according to the rules for a contest I entered in the summer of 1999, “changed my life.” The answer is, of course, slightly different from a desert island list (though I’d take all of these not already on the other list along if I could):

    A final way for me to answer the question is to direct you to my occasional Musings on new and old records on the Java Crossknit Music site. But go there only if you have time to kill.

Q: What kind of music do you play/compose?
A: I never have been able to come up with a satisfactory answer for that question. My music draws on almost everything I’ve heard in some way or another. Although most of what I write/record doesn’t sound like jazz, that’s the most obvious source for my approach to harmony (lots of Maj7#11 and m7b5 chords) and some of the ride cymbal-heavy drum programming. And because anything I write that rhymes generally sounds ridiculous, I avoid rhyming lyrics, reaching instead for words that sound conversational. Beyond there, I take a lot of cues from some of my favorite recordings:

      The guitar sounds that fascinate me most can be found on records by the Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, the Afghan Whigs, Soundgarden, the Smiths, Ben Harper, Jeff Buckley and Radiohead.
      For left-field harmonic progressions, I gravitate to work by Wayne Shorter, David Sylvian, Radiohead, Mark Hollis/Talk Talk and Prince.
      For songwriting and arranging, I listen to Ron Sexsmith, Burt Bacharach, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon, Willie Nelson, Mark Kozelek, Neil Finn, Chrissie Hynde, Smokey Robinson, Karl Wallinger, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and Thom Creed & Linda Bell.
      To improve my voice, I sing along with Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Smokey Robinson, Jeff Buckley, David Sylvian, Bob Marley, Thom Yorke, Chris Cornell, Cassandra Wilson, Ray Charles, George Jones and Tony Williams (of the Platters).
      For textures and soundscapes, I go to records produced by (or featuring) Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, Robin Guthrie, Marvin Gaye, Walter Becker, Nigel Godrich, Jon Brion, Dave Fridmann, Phil Spector, Pete Rock, DJ Premiere, Large Professor, Talk Talk, Red House Painters, Massive Attack, Björk, Wilco, the Cardigans, The Sea and Cake, Stereolab, and the team of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. In the straight-ahead jazz realm, their counterparts are Jim Anderson, James Nichols, or Michael and Joseph Marciano (the owners and engineers at Systems Two in Brooklyn).

If you can imagine something that puts those different influences together, you’re pretty close to an answer.

Q: What instruments do you play?
A: I play one well (guitar) and another only competently (electric bass). I dabble enough with programming and repeated takes to get everything else done.

Q: What’s your home recording set up?
A: I have few guitars, a bass, two keyboards, a drum machine and a voice. I route them all through various microphones, emulators (Line6’s Pod is essential) and effects through direct boxes or a preamp into a patchbay or a Mackie mixer and then to an analog to digital converter (sometimes my Korg 1212 card, sometimes my Alesis AI3) before they get recorded by my Power Macintosh G4. Right now, my recording program of choice is Nuendo. With sound blaring from a pair of nearfield monitors, I edit, mix, and further treat the tracks with various plug-ins, a couple of outboard units, and a Tascam US-428 control surface.

Q: Will we ever hear any of your stuff?
A: As a couple of the recent and archived News items indicate, I started working on an album called Honey Flavored Soap a couple of years ago. Some demos, live tracks, lyrics, and other things are available on the Java Crossknit Music page in the Songs and A2NC sections. If all goes well, I’ll finish the recording, editing and mixing sometime in 2004. I have yet to determine how and whether the recording will be distributed.

Q: Isn’t providing answers to these “personal” questions an exercise in vanity?
A: Hmmmm. . . .
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