New Patterns Prom Dresses

Three seemingly different artists came together upon Saturday night to talk about just what it means to have a career within music in 2011. But they convey more in common than most people consider –so much so that Raphael Saadiq, Moby and Dork Sitek (TV on the Radio/Maximum Balloon) ended up exchanging contact info following the event! It would be incredible in case KCRW’s keynote at the Pop Conference motivated some collaborations but I’d be happy with just what we heard tonight – insightful knowledge and a wonderful sense of humor about the music business. (particularly from Sitek, who KCRW’s social media guru Betsy has dubbed any “comic genius”).

They all agreed on two things — aspiring artists should focus on producing better music and that flexibility is key.

Some of my favorite instances came when they talked about audio they loved. Saadiq said he got a lot of inspiration via New York City hip hop when R&B obtained “cheesy.” Moby talked about why TV about the Radio’s “Staring at the Sun” was produced perfectly, albeit unconventionally. He even called it courageous because by deciding to ignore the norm, the band didn’t skimp the emotional integrity in the song. (He also titles his heroes of the Last century: John Lee Hooker, Marcel Duchamp and George Gershwin)

TVOTR’s Sitek offered a shout out to any KCRW favorite, Das Racist’s “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”, declaring its always stuck in their head despite there not being a “single moment of inflammation in the whole song.”Sitek affirms as far as making music nowadays there are no boundaries anymore –“no a lot more exclamation points, just one big question mark.”Jason Bentley moderated the panel as well as mentioned that they are all “multi-hyphenates” – suppliers, remixers, and DJs along with being solitary artists and/or band members.

Moby described it simply by saying he or she can’t sing very well, can’capital t dance and is not very interesting so he learned to “do all the things musicians do besides those things.”  He also said they all supplement his creative side being an artist. For example, being a Disk jockey shows him how audio exists in a practical means by people’s lives and what they answer. 

Saadiq agreed, saying that producing another artist is good practice. “For us producing is the best thing…you gotta be capable of shoot from anyplace on the court”Jason asked about pivotal moments within their careers. Saadiq talks about deciding to do it yourself as a solo artist soon after Lucy Pearl. Sitek and Moby returned for their love of punk, both stating that hardcore convinced them that will anyone could be in a band.

Sitek says they didn’t start TVOTR to start out a band. Tunde Adebimpe was his / her roommate and he wanted to learn how to use Pro Tools so they really just started making tracks and made it all up as these people went along.

“To this day, the five of us as a band have got practiced 20 times throughout 10 years,” said Sitek. “I think each member of TVOTR is in denial to be able to varying degrees about finding myself a band”

They all had a thing to say about record labels:

Moby declared “for 99% of musicians, signing to be able to labels is a teible thing to do.”“Music counts but labels aren’t precious.” (after he said pirated music is a great thing, because it means somebody has made an effort to hear exactly what you’ve done.)

But Sitek took it a step further, saying labels are run by investors and people looking to sell the following ringtone, instead of people who in fact care about music.

Saadiq added that major labels should go to following the Chess Records model and be smaller and more controllable.

Jason’s first question was how can they measure success along with it’s a great way to end:

Saadiq said it hasn’t transformed since he played the skill show in 7th quality. It’s all about playing in public along with hearing people scream. He admits that even playing with Mick Jagger at the Grammys can’t overcome the first time he experienced in which feeling.

For Sitek, it’s “keeping the landlord off your back…doing what you love whilst still being having electricity.” He says this individual looks at the people he extends to work with and is still within awe.

Moby said his concept of success is when you’ve made some thing you love and someone else has an emotional reaction to it. Introducing later that “the world wants and benefits from beautiful tunes.”