Tidals & Embers

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FooN live @ Rust, Copenhagen. 01/12/2017 Photos: Ida Johanne Ahrenst

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Best and worst concert clichés

I go to a lot of shows. I’ve experienced over 400 concerts from super-mega-popstars at arenas to underground first-timers on the floor.  Of course I take inspiration on what to do and not to do from every show. I just want to run down a few of the best and worst clichés I’ve picked up. Clichés are not necessarily negative - just because it´’s overused and unoriginal doesn’t mean it’s not cool or bad to do (in my opinion.) While other things are should be stopped.

Let’s give it a shot:

WORST:

1. Changing guitar between every single song. Unless it’s for one with a different tuning or amount of strings or it’s between solid/hollow, electric/acoustic or normal/baritone then what’s the point? Showing off? Or really nailing that very specific sound that the audience won’t notice anyway? 

2. Not talking to the audience whatsoever. Alright - not a lot of bands to this. But I’ve seen a few. Sure you can let the music speak for itself - for a while. But saying nothing at all just seems really distant and uninteresting. I’m not saying everyone should be like Danko Jones or Steel Panther - but I’ve seen show where just a “thank you, we are [band name] we have one song left for you” before the encore made the whole difference. 

3. Long motivational speeches.  I’m not against speeches about freedom, love, identity, losing your parents to cancer or anything like that. I like when it gets personal. But if it’s dragged out for 5-10 min. and the speaker starts to loose track or get over-the-top-hammering-it-down then the impact is a bit lost. Maybe just break it out for between more songs - I’ve seen that work before.

4. Playing just one song for the encore. That is not enough. You got back on stage, after we thought you left, and now we’re happy you’re back! At least play two or three songs more before leaving. Unless of course it’s a shoegaze or doom metal band with 10+ min. long songs. Then one is fine.

5. Playing too many songs for the encore. You announced the show was about to end when you left the stage. The encore is extra songs (yes I know they are usually there anyway and not technically a gift to the audience) but playing 5-7+ songs for the encore seems more like an extra set of songs rather than the climax and “kaboom” an encore needs. Unless it’s a grindcore band with a lot of less-than-a-minute songs then 5+ is fine.

BEST

1. Dedicating a song to a (recently) deceased musician. Dio, Jeff Hanneman, Lemmy, Chris Cornell, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie. Etc. etc. Whether it’s doing a cover, a snippet or just saying “This goes out to...” I always think it’s awesome to do.

2. Telling the name of the song. Okay, maybe not before every single song. But it’s nice to know the title in case I really like the song and want to find the recording, or just to hear the title before it’s played usually gives the audience a boost in energy from the very start. 

3. Guest musicians on stage. Even if it’s not the right featuring artist. Hell, even if it’s not a song with a featuring artist. I love seeing bands bring guests on stage. Sometimes it’s to change up the song, sometimes because it needs that element the original featuring artist gave and sometimes just for fun. I love it.

4. Throwing out guitar picks/drum sticks/setlists. I’m a collector. I usually have my eye out for the picks on the guitarists mic stand. 

5. Band introductions. Even if it’s just a mention of people’s names. I like to hear it - I am curious to who is playing, and I want to give them a round of applause.

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ELECTRONIC MUSIC. 

I am a fan of some kinds of electronic music. Believe it or not. I am not talking about the pop-ish electronica artists such as, for example, Grimes, CHVRCHES or Disclosure. I am no expert - so I can’t say what is real electronic music and what is not. But for this post I’m talking about drum n’ bass, dubstep and DJ’s with the electronic elements in focus. Artists such as Chase and Status, Daft Punk, Skrillex, Pendulum, Deadmau5, DJ Fresh, Knife Party etc. Today I listened to Chase and Status’ album “No More Idols” from start to finish - and damn it is a great album. In my album collection you will also find Pendulum’s “Immersion” and Daft Punk’s “Discovery.” Especially when it comes to Chase and Status and Pendulum I love the way they mix real instruments with the computers, and have for example acoustic drums and distorted guitars - especially live. I thinks that’s one thing I can point out that draws me towards electronic music: When it’s done with more than just computers. Then again I also like some old school UK Garage and DJ static who uses vinyls and samples. I can also mention C2C with their scratching, sampling and their electro-swingy beats. In the other end of the spectrum, I can’t stand hardstyle or trap music and I’m really picky when it comes to trance. I guess I’m like those people who like a few metal bands/songs but isn’t into any other bands. 

But I guess metal and electronica do have some nice crossovers where the nerve and the “heaviness” of the music has the same feel to it. I mean Pendulum has teamed up with In Flames and Steven Wilson, Chase and Status played “Killing In The Name” when I saw them live and KoRn has released a whole metal/dubstep album.

But I really am no expert - I just like some electronic artists, others not so much. 

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Acoustic vs Metal

So - in september FooN will play the two most polarised gigs we’ve done so far, just a week apart. The first one is an acoustic, non-amplified chill-out gig at a garden-party. Awesome, and we’re getting paid, we can’t wait. The other one is “Metal Mayhem VI” with two hardcore fucking heavy death metal bands. 

So how do we fit in again? You ask. I’ve thought about it myself too.  I won’t go into the whole “genre neautral” thing Paramore has going on, or the “we don’t put ourselves in a box” thing just about every young band is saying. I think it just comes down to that we, FooN, adapt to the stage. If we’re asked to play acoustic then there won’t be any guitar battles, growl or Volbeat covers. If we’re asked to play at a metal event then we won’t play any acoustics or ballads, and we have put our old-school metal song “Unbroken” back on the setlist. Both shows are still going to be FooN - just two sides of us.

I’ve seen several bands and artists adapt to to their audience and the stage. Why not us? If D-A-D can play on the local morning news, and family-festivals and Copenhell. If Kris Herman can play full 9-piece band shows and solo shows with just himself, a keyboard and a guitar. If Eels can be known for having both a show where they just play quitely and shows where they smash their instrument and go berzerk. Why can’t we? Well technically no one has told os we can’t - so we’re just doing it. FooN acoustic, FooN rock n’ roll, FooN heavy fuckin’ metal. We are still FooN,

[tidalsandembers]

I was in the editing room yesterday - finishing up the lyric video for “Watercolours” - over 50 people have been in on the project contributing clips, idea and let me write on their bodies and film it. This has been one hell of a project, and I really hope the video will be well recieved. I did take a lot of time to get all the clips together. People were too good at saying “yes sure I want to do this line” and then never do it. But the people who did really had some crazy ideas - it ended up being just as much the fans’ video as FooN’s and that is better than I could have hoped. It really showed different levels of creativity and dedication on behalf of a song that they had not even hear - just read the lyrics. I could not be more grateful towards my fans and friends.

I was using After Effects because I thought it was a great and professional tool. It is great for creating a lot of effects and all that jazz - but when I rendered the lyric video I kept getting red frames that flashed up constantly, and when I set the colours to black n’ white it was just grey flashed. URGH. By the third attempt to render, the whole thing crashed. In frustration I tried to find another video editing software on the computer I was using - and found Windows Live Movie Maker. And it did the job. It was easy, had all the clips in the right order, didn’t flash red, didn’t fuck up - it was brilliant. Little cute and free Movie Maker was better than mighty huge and expensive After Effects! The video will be out June 3rd. I am excited, I am so proud of the song, and the video has been fun to do and looks great. 

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I have played with a lot people, singers and musicians through the years of FooN. Here are just 25 of them - and that is not even the whole lot. Some have been with me on stage loads of times, others just once for a single song. 

This often raises the question: Who are FooN? Some people tried to say “there is no band anymore” when we had members dropping out the first time. Some people says “So it’s not a band. You are FooN as a solo artist”. 

I tend to say that it doesn’t matter.  Through playing shows without what at the time were official members of the band I experienced an audience who didn’t give a damn about who the people on stage were. They were not there to see the people, they were there to hear the songs - esepcially “Salamanderen Niels”. The first time I really experienced this was when we played a show with Savannah Weaver and LG on vocals and Lukas Seidler on drums. Kasper Larsen and Simon Hald also joined in on bass and guitar for a song. It was a fantastic show - the audience went crazy and it was even shown on TV. Was it a FooN show? Absolutely! And so has most concerts been ever since. It is all about the songs and the show - regardless of who is playing. I have tried some even more desperate times of finding stand-in singers and musicians as late as 5 min. before soundcheck. -I will tell that story in a later post. Of course if I am not there would it be FooN? I doubt it. But on the other hand, would it really be FooN if I was the only one there? I don’t think so. FooN is a band, lead by me, who plays the original songs that are under the name. Think about it this way: No one calls Trent Reznor ‘Nine Inch Nails’ because Nine Inch Nails is the band. No one calls Brendon Urie ‘Panic! At The Disco’ because that is the band. 

When I play live I see the band I have with me as FooN. When we are on stage together we are FooN. Even when it is just guest singers or musicians for a single song, they are still part of the band for that amount of time. Some bands and musicians might see it differently, and I used to too, but when I am in the same situation as Anthony Gonzalez (M83) and Trent Reznor then I see my live band as THE band.

Right now I have three AMAZING people with me in the live lineup: Simon, Nicolai and Olivia. I cannot underline enough how awesome they are. They are fantastic on their instruments, and Olivia with her voice, and they like being a part of the team which is why they so far have said yes to every single gig we’ve been offered to play. 

Back to the many musicians in the picture: I am a sucker for having more people on stage. I love to bring guests to the stage, it gives new life and uniqueness to every show. I have also learned that having a big network of musicians who are happy to play with you is worth more than diamonds - but I will discuss that in more details in a later post.  As of right now I can count (grand total): 15 singers, 12 drummers, 1 pianist, 5 bassists, and 3 guitarists. -Maybe I counted wrong.  

[tidalsandembers]

Tidals & Embers

A blog from the mind of awardwinning musician and writer Mathias Schwartzbach Pedersen, the man behind Danish hard rock band FooN.