The stage is set...
For me, music embodies my philosophy of mankind.
Many voices coming together, under one unified ideal, to create harmony.
Music for me relates to so much of my life, it stirs memories that are both welcome, and memories that are unwelcome. I continue to listen to it all, whether good or bad, because it reminds me of the journey that is my life. Good or bad, it's my life.
My uncle Richard, gave me my first taste of "cultured" music, when he proffered Peter & the Wolf for one of my childhood birthdays. That fascination continued with a growing repertoire of music from Bach, Handel, Mozart, Brahms and Tchaikovsky.
In sixth grade I was introduced to the violin, an instrument of unique abilities and intonations. I shared this instrument with my grandfather, Benjamin Moury Goodman. His passion for music was undying. He played violin, organ, and was the choir director for the First Baptist Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, a church of which he was a founding member.
My true appreciation for the finer aspects of musical composition and technique did not start until I was given a Yamaha PSS-460 portable mini keyboard for my eleventh birthday. I explored harmonies, dissonance, interactive sounds, waveforms and wore that keyboard out. From then on I interested in all aspects of music from the technical to performing.
In seventh and eighth grade I was in our school choir, at Christ Lutheran School, Phoenix, Arizona. There I began my love for vocal music and the intricate nature of the human voice when utilized as an instrument in an ensemble.
Throughout the latter part of the 1980's I began to enter the world of synthesis and sound design. Soundtracks from Miami Vice, Tron, Star Wars, Star Trek, and the like exposed me to sounds that I had never heard before, and I was fascinated by them.
As a result I purchased my first "professional" level synthesizer. A Yamaha DS-55.
A robbery in 1990 forced me to go looking for a new keyboard, however in the interim 6 months from purchase to theft, Yamaha had stopped making the DS-55, instead Yamaha was offering a new form of synthesizer the DX7. While looking for a replacement I was also introduced to the Roland D50. While making the decision which to purchase I demoed both through all the factory patches and ultimately decided on the Roland D50 as it had a much warmer sound.
For the next few years I delved into MIDI, and began a wonderful relationship with computers and synthesis that continues on to this day.
In high school, at Valley Lutheran High School, I continued my vocal studies, by joining the concert choir, under Dr. William John Hooper III. Under his tutelage, our choir became one of the largest per capita (student body total was 93 students, and 75% was in the choir). We preformed for the various Lutheran churches throughout the state as well as state ensemble and solo competitions. During my sophomore year Dr. Hooper asked me to perform my state solo piece "Greensleeves" for Church services. This is an extraordinarily difficult piece for a bass to perform and I was quite nervous to perform it in front of an audience. I was so nervous in fact; I went to my youth pastor, Peter Mueller, for consolation and direction
In 1991 we began to consider a smaller group, for acapella performances, and in 1992 an elite octet called "The Notables" was formed. As a founding member it was quite an experience, one that I am not likely to ever forget. Our repertoire was both sacred and secular, the group consisted of:
| Soprano: | Michelle Wynia |
| Soprano: | Rachel Frank |
| Alto: | Jennifer Barickman |
| Alto: | Robyn Renuad |
| Tenor: | Chandler Block |
| Tenor: | Andrew Voeltz |
| Bass: | Allen Goodman |
| Bass: | Casey Fox |
Shortly after high school, I began to stray away from music, other than collecting CDs from artists that I enjoyed. I had sold my original Roland D50 to help a friend pay for their rent. I had sold my guitar to pay for some expenses, so I was without instruments, with the exception of my computer.
AOL was just coming into its hey day, and I found another source of music. This music was completely digital, and was created on "Tracking" software, such as FastTracker II, ScreamTracker etc. These were programs that allowed you to utilize WAV files as samples, and create songs in a linear, but very expressional way by entering hexadecimal numerals to manipulate the various samples.
This had a very profound affect on me, as I realized, music, good music, could be created completely in the digital realm.
As the years passed I once again began collecting my favorite tools as I could afford them, a Roland D50 or two here, a D110 or two there, mixers, EQs, external effects, multi effects, and more complex audio software. "My" music started sounding really good, there was just one small problem.
It wasn't mine.
I was doing nothing more than loading a familiar tune via MIDI and then assigning instruments to it. I hadn't actually written anything yet.
So here I am with all this expensive gear, and I'm not even writing my own songs. Now that's a problem. In addition to that small detail there were a few others. I hadn't had any formal lessons with the exception of choir back in high school, that I had actually stuck with in detail.
I had considered taking a class or two at the local community college, but I realized (once again) that I learn best from just doing it. So I started to write my own songs, and the result is hundreds of little chunks of songs, nothing really ever came to fruition.
Sometime in 2004 I joined a Yahoo! Groups mailing list called SynthSights. I joined this list because its description read "It's not about the gear." The basic premise was an ongoing discussion about the creative process. GREAT! That's exactly what I am looking for, ideas about musical creativity.
One of the group members. Mike Metlay (Dr that is) kept mentioning this thing called Different Skies and its associated Yahoo! Groups list. I joined that list and found out about the Different Skies 2006 concert located at Arcosanti, AZ.
I had decided I would attend as an audience member, and then promptly forgot about it, until the actual night of the concert, but low and behold, it was being broadcast live over the internet.
That in turn introduced me to streaming. I had heard about it, and done a little bit myself, but that was for my own personal stream of my collected music while at work. I used a VNC client/server application to remotely control Winamp and Shoutcast strictly for my own use. It had not occurred to me at the time, that you
could have a internet radio station.
That epiphany didn't occur until I had tuned into Darrell Burgan's net station Stillstream.com
Darrell was also a member of the Different Skies mailing list, and advertised his Saturday night show Blue Water Drift Dive (BWDD for short). I had been meaning to tune in on several occasions, but kept missing it.
One Saturday in November or December of 2006 I managed to tune in and liked what I heard and witnessed something truly amazing. Darrell played a free-form ambient improvisation for roughly an hour. I was amazed that this could be done at all, let along for an hour!
I continued to listen to BWDD and the other shows he was doing (3 at the time) and he was lamenting that he didn't have more live hosts. Purely on a whim and not knowing what I was getting into, I piped up in the chat room and said, "I'll do a show." Great, now all I need is a show concept, a show name, and music to play.
I had several ideas for a show name and a concept, but it was after hearing several tracks from Har that I decided on a concept.
Ambient music featuring guitar.
Thus Ambitar, a combination of ambient and guitar was born. A great idea at the time, but ultimately failed by no fault of my own. See right around the time the start date for the show was decided, the Copyright Regulatory Board (CRB) decided to start charging exorbanent fees for airplay. So being a man of action and wisdom, Darrell completely changed the licensing format of the station.
We were no longer able to play commercial music. Instead it was decided we would tap into the sub-world of Creative Commons licensing. A definite change for the better. There was a immensely large selection of music to choose from, but very little ambient guitar. Because of that, Ambitar had to change too.
No longer able to support a weekly 2-3-4 hour show of just ambient guitar, I decided to include all stringed instruments into the mix. Having done that I was able to continue my show, for a few weeks at least. But I then had to change the concept again, to include any and all ambient music and that's where Ambitar is today.
StillStream as a whole, is better because of the CRB, we unknowingly were forced to delve into an area that was previously unexplored, and vast quantities of great music was found.
The Wreckage...
As I mentioned earlier Darrell always performed an ambient improvisation during his shows. He called these improvisations "Train Wrecks" or "Wrecks."
It was a unique dynamic in that there was immediate feedback from the listening audience via the StillStream chat room. Artist and listener could connect, directly. No stage, no security, just a connection, a musical connection. Darrell had suggested (read: pestered me relentlessly until I caved) that I begin performing improvs during my show time.
This was a HUGE milestone in my music, as the last time I had performed live, in front of an audience (real or virtual) was back in high school!
So I began doing improvisations, boy did they suck (in my mind) but the audience loved it (or so they said). But what to call my improvisations? "Wreck" was taken, aha! the "Shamble" was born. I shambled on and on for several months, then suddenly and quite violently the name changed.
During a shamble, my relatively new 61 key MIDI controller broke it's USB port and completely locked up my DAW software. However for an unapparent reason, my voice over microphone was still live in the mix and the listening audience heard me utter (as Spock would put it) "A more colorful metaphor" and then heard the now malfunctioning controller hit the wall, with a surprising
"Kerchunk" sound. From that point on, my improvisations have been known as "Kerchunkage."
Several other of the hosts also improvise during their shows
| Darrell Burgan | Wreck |
| Allen Goodman | Kerchunkage |
| Gordon Macmillan | Noodle |
| Mike Metlay | Rant |
| David (DK) Herpich | Feuilleton Impromptu |
| Mark Stolk | Noodles about |
These Skies are Different...
With several of the Different Skies Alumni being regulars in the Stillstream chat room, I was sucked into the excitement of the preparation for Different Skies 2007
Mike Metlay and Doug Wellington two of the co-founders, were seemingly always in the chat during my, or Darrell's shows so of course discussions about Different Skies took place. I casually lamented that I was considering attending DS08, in part because I would not meet some of the requirements of attending the 2007 edition. The main thing being I didn't have an album to send to Mike.
We discussed my seriousness, and willingness, in a private message and subsequently I was approved for DS07 on August 5th 2007, based off of my live improvs during my show
Cue dramatic music
As the time for DS07 approached, I rapidly began to have "newbie syndrome." My symptoms were a combination of excitement, nervousness, and sheer panic.
Will I have enough gear?
Will it survive the trip?
Will my car survive the trip?
Will it all work when I arrive?
Will I have remembered all the cables?
Will it a nothing but a 60Hz hum fest?
Of course the result was bringing far too much gear, 3 keyboards, 2 8U racks, 2 stands, a huge computer, 3 monitors, and guitar stuff.
But too much gear aside, the root of my anxiety was being on stage and performing with seasoned musicians. Not just a bunch of amateurs, but professional, critically acclaimed artists, with years if not decades of experience.
After meeting everyone, and getting to know everyone, I really do consider the Different Skies ensemble as my extended "musical" family.
The Music...
Now that I have a couple of years of performance experience under my belt again, I am feeling far more comfortable with my music. Shortly after Different Skies 2008 I began composing and releasing tracks under the nom de plume Desert Mystic. My hobby has developed into more of a passion,
and I continue to explore the technology available and my musical voices which certainly vary from day to day.
I am lucky to have the ability to have real-life, as well as virtual performance venues such as the online world Second Life, Stillstream, and the like where I am free to express my musical self. I am definately one of those individuals who through
software and technology finally have the ability to let the music out.
The tools to create the music I want to make, and is inside me, have arrived.
The Curtain Comes Down...
There are far too many people that I would like to thank for inspiring me throughout my life, but here are some specific people I'd like to mention
- Ben M Goodman
- B. Richard Goodman
- Dr. John Hooper
- Dr. Mike Metlay
- David Herpich
- Darrell Burgan
- Doug Wellington
- Mom & Dad
Thank you