the uncanny valley of production

18Aug08

Seth Godin wrote a blog today about the experience he had with some musicians over the weekend where he loved their live performance, but hated the CD. He stated:

I’ve thought a lot about what turned me off, and I think it’s the curve above.

Faced with the excitement of making a CD and all the knobs and dials, they overproduced the record. They went from being two real guys playing authentic music, live and for free, and became a multi-tracked quartet in search of a professional sound. And they ended up in the dead zone. Not enough gloss to be slick, too much to be real.

This reminds me of the uncanny valley concept where the more realistic or human-like something is the more we like it (think Wall-E, monkeys, etc.) until it gets to be almost human (think Polar Express, zombies, wax museums) which we generally see as creepy before returning to liking something that is really human.

The lesson for anyone who produces anything is that you should aim for either “real” or “slick”, but be aware that if shoot for slick and aren’t successful you’ll actually be perceived worse than if you would have been unpolished and real.

Filed under: Creativity   |  4 Comments

Debbie Dinkins Testimony

14Aug08

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Tags: Debbie Dinkins, testimony

an excuse to blog

06Aug08

I’ve had a few people give me a hard time about the fact that I’m not blogging all that often here (i.e. never). The fact is that with the time I have to write extended blog posts I’ve put most of my effort towards my band’s website. In the absence of longer blog posts I’ve been more faithful at posting short quips on Twitter and on Tumblr.

Today, however, I have a good excuse to write (and on company time no less). A few weeks ago I had the privilege to interview a Missionary my church supports named Lynn Peters. Lynn works in Burkina Faso, West Africa and recently started a school to provide an education to kids who (for the most part) wouldn’t have the opportunity at a good education. She really has a cool story that I though was worth sharing, so I’ve uploaded an mp3 of our conversation which you can hear below (please pardon my awkwardness, I was assuming no one would hear my end of the conversation).

** LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW **

For more info about Lynn Peters and the organization that she’s started in West Africa you can go to their website, bfoafrica.org.

Filed under: Faith, Inspiration   |  1 Comment
Tags: Africa, bfoafrica.org, Lynn Peters

vacation (aka work)

03Mar08

I’m on “vacation” this week. What that means is that I’m actually taking a week off from my day job to spend time in the studio working on our album. I’m journaling our progress at our band blog.

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Tags: fundamental elements, life, recording, vacation

In The Studio

24Jan08

So my wife is bugging me to start blogging again.  I guess it’s worth a try, but I doubt that nearly as many people will ever read this as those who read her blog.

In case you don’t know, I play guitar in a band with some incredibly talented boys who call themselves Fundamental Elements. Right now I’m sitting a studio in Nashville, TN listening to Dustin record keyboard parts for one of our new songs, “All I Need”. Today is day #2 of our second set of recording sessions for the new album that we’re working on (which I’m incredibly excited about).

Last weekend we got to play a show at the Pageant in St. Louis. It’s one of my favorite venues, and there were a ton of friends and family there, so it was a lot of fun. We’ve got another show in St. Louis coming up next weekend on Feb 2 at Cicero’s. If you’re looking for something fun to do on Saturday night you should come down and hang out with us. It’ll be a good time.

Filed under: Music   |  4 Comments
Tags: fundamental elements, Music, recording, studio