Musical Heroes with Kal – Oasis

June 24th, 2010 | By Kal

So, Rob and I are officially back, and what better way to return than to bring back the series of blogs I enjoy writing the most - Musical Heroes.

I’ve always said that I’m not looking to write a wikipedia entry, but instead, let you know how a particular artist has impacted on me and that’s where I’ll start with today’s ‘episode’.

My first memory of Oasis was at the height of “the battle of Britpop”. For those of you who don’t know what that was, it was a series of chart battles between Oasis and Blur that overspilled into a bitter rivalry which marked Blur’s peak and arguably Oasis’s too. Both bands were popular across the country, but the battle had everything, a north/south element, middle class vs. working class and of course two different styles of britpop. This must’ve all culminated around 1995, so you’ll realise that at 8 or 9 years old, I was part of the scene or going to gigs. I was however, watching TV and listening to the radio and by that point both bands and their music were all over the media.

Being so young, I have a better recollection of the songs from their second album – What’s The Story Morning Glory – in particular Don’t Look Back in Anger. I still remember a vivid dream I had about a girl I thought was nice looking called Sally – how did Oasis know?! These could be pointless ramblings, and perhaps they are, but I wanted to point out just how big Oasis were in popular culture and personally how strongly they permiated my childhood. I won’t go into the time a few years later when I sung All Around The World continuously, much to the annoyance of everyone I knew!

But as a songwriter, how have they influenced me? Well, maybe it is just for our generation, but as far as I’m concerned Oasis are the definition of “Song Writing 101″. The way they write seems quite simple, almost formulaic, but as an up and coming songwriter they were the biggest influence on how I wrote – when you’re learning the guitar, and want to write your own songs, you can do a LOT worse than learning oasis hits. Rob and I will on occasion refer to our fabled “first gig”, held the same night as Live 8. Today’s reference – Don’t Look Back in Anger was one of the songs we played that night.

But do you know what really fascinates me about Oasis? The story of how they formed. Liam and the original members of the Oasis (minus Noel) were known as The Rain, but were more like a shower. Noel comes along in 1991 (allegedly with Definitely Maybe already written), joins the band, and within three or four years they are the biggest band in the UK. Wow. By that schedule, Rob and I are due to get there by 2012 – perfectly in time for the Olympics coming to London. We’ll get working on that theme song now then, shall we?!

MUSICAL HEROES WITH KAL – Kanye West

January 17th, 2010 | By Kal

The first time I heard of Kanye West was in 2004, during a Skype call to a friend who lived in America. When It All Falls Down from West’s debut album as ‘the star’, was playing in the background. “Who is this, I inquired?”, to be told it was West and did I want to hear the rest of the album because he would be big my side of the pond soon enough. College Dropout debuted in the UK a few months later and the rest as they say is history – but that would ignore what had led up to that point.

As a confessed fan of Hip Hop, I’d heard Kanye West’s work long before I knew his name or had heard his voice. He was Jay Z’s ‘go to guy’ for the best beats from 2001 onwards and his album The Blueprint, that West dominated, sampling the Jackson 5′s I Want You Back on Izzo (H.O.V.A), as well as contributing another four tracks, is generally regarded as one of Jay’s best records.

It wasn’t until 2004 that we heard his first Single from College Dropout, Through The Wire, but up to that point alone, West had worked with some of the best in the business at the time. He had always expressed a desire to rap, only to be knocked back because executives felt his middle class background was unmarketable. Ironically, the main reason I am writing about Kanye West is because of his crossover appeal. Most of my friends would tell you they don’t like Hip Hop, and all that is associated with it, but they “don’t mind a bit of Kanye West”, which is about as close to a compliment as Kanye’s going to get from people who went to school in Hertfordshire!

He has brought Hip Hop, and what is essentially repackaged Mo Town to people who wouldn’t hear of it if you even insinuated that they enjoyed either genre. Not a bad achievement for someone who spent years ‘quietly’ producing for what are now his contemporaries.

People will tell you that Kanye West is arrogant, and that his headline grabbing outburst on stage last year during Taylor Swift’s MTV award acceptance speech was prime example. And maybe he is, I don’t know him personally so I won’t be able to argue with you. To me however, everything he does seems calculated. I for one didn’t know who Taylor Swift was prior to this incident, and I’m sure Kanye West, having not dropped a Hip Hop album since 2007 may have been disappearing from the radar of those more familiar with Taylor.

Say what you will, this may be the unacceptable side of his genius, but Kanye West pays serious attention to every aspect of his art. I’ve been to see him live twice, the second time I was treated to what Kanye wanted to be the best live show ever – rather than what critics were already dubbing the best live tour in Hip Hop history.

Hip Hop, despite being the largest selling genre in the US, may not be seen as the mainstream, but Kanye West’s achievements in his field are unrivaled – there is no other person on this planet who Raps and Produces, with both speaking for themselves. For those of you unaware of the merit of this, it would be like being the best singer and dancer out there, and who’s done that?

Besides a certain Michael Jackson, I mean!

MUSICAL HEROES WITH KAL – Jerry Wonder

December 5th, 2009 | By Kal

In the same way that Eric Clapton had an influence on my guitar solos, Jerry “Jerry Wonder” Duplessis has had a massive influence on the way I play the bass.

You may or may not know that I only really picked up a bass for the first time about two years ago.  Before then, like most people, I’d overlooked the importance of that part of a band, and deemed players of the instrument as “people who weren’t cool enough to play guitar”!  How wrong was I? (rhetorical)

Born in Haiti, in fairly modest surroundings, Jerry Wonder has gone on to work with the biggest names in the music industry.  Any list that includes Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger, is an impressive one.  However, his first break came with his cousin’s band.  His cousin, if you didn’t know, is Wyclef Jean and the band was the Fugees.  Like them or hate them, my opinion is that the Fugees were everything that was right about hip hop, and never needed to play into the hand of those who say hip hop is based on constant violent and misogynistic references.

The Fugees’ biggest album, and one of the best in their genre, came in 1996.  The Score shot them to international consciousness and launched the musical careers of both Wyclef and Lauryn Hill as multi-million record selling solo artists.  Even if you haven’t really heard of the Fugees, you should at least know two or three of the singles from that album.  Ready or Not and Killing Me Softly were the most famous, and you might also recognize the near acoustic rendition of No Woman No Cry, led by Wyclef Jean – all classics tunes in my eyes.

Some will level a particular criticism at all  three  of the songs that I have named.  They are either covers or in the case of Ready or Not, which samples Enya’s Boadicea.  Again, these echo criticism levelled at hip hop in general, and  some people say, that this is why the genre cannot be taken seriously.  I’d agree with you if the whole thing was just a DJ playing an old record, but this is where Jerry Wonder comes in.

For me, his two main strengths are exactly the attributes that a top bassist should have.  He creates a rhythm with the bass that often changes the whole feel of a song (or cover version), and he is also able to intertwine his bass part with lead guitar or keys, in a way that means that he is using the bass to its fullest extent – as a rhythm instrument and almost as a lead instrument at the same time.

Most of the time, as I said before, we take the bass part of a song for granted.  And maybe this is the bassist in me speaking, but a lot of the time, if you took their part away, you’d feel something vital was missing.  Perhaps one of the reasons I really enjoy live performances from bands is because you can hear the bass line against what you are accustomed to.  It gives the song an added sharpness.

I don’t usually link away from robandkal.com, so feel privileged.  Check out this video, Jerry is coming in and out of the shot on the right hand side, but even if he’s not always visable, he’s definitely audible and he’s doing all of the things that I mention!

Maybe the new bassline in Can’t Help Me Now isn’t a coincidence, eh?

Musical Heroes with Kal – Eric Clapton

November 13th, 2009 | By Kal

The long awaited fifth episode in the series of Kal’s Music Heroes.  So far, I’ve counted Scott Joplin, John Legend, Bill Withers and Chas ‘n’ Dave among my musical heroes – who next in this somewhat random list?  Yep, you guessed it, Eric Clapton

You may not know, but I didn’t pick up a guitar properly until I was 17,  but before then, I was very much into downloading music and at some stage I stumbled upon a site that let you download midi* versions of songs.  Somehow among the popular TV themes and poor quality hip hop samples, I managed to accidentally download ‘Eric Clapton – Layla Unplugged’.  Don’t ask me why I spent so much time on that site, to the extent where I was accidentally downloading tracks, but I’ve always felt that midi versions of songs have a jovial feel to them - they always make me laugh.  On a slight tangent, listen to a decent midi of Rocking All Over The World and tell me you don’t at least smile when you hear the first note.

With “Layla Unplugged” firmly planted at the back of  my mind, once I’d mastered the basics of playing chords terribly on a cheap school acoustic guitar, I happened to stumble upon a video of “Slow Hand” (clapton’s nickname) himself playing a picked version of the song on Windows Media Player.  I feel like a Grandad explaining this, but this all happened during the dark ages, BS**, after the original version of Napster had been halted, but before a one stop shop for downloadable music or even Youtube existed.  Windows Media Player let you search for an artist or song you liked and play audio/video for free without downloading them to keep, and this is how I rediscovered the song.

I set about learning this version of Layla, by which point I had found a decent audio of Eric performing it, before which he would say “See if you can spot this one” to rapturous applause.  For me, the things that stood out about the song, and still do, were his solos and after hours of practice, I could play something that sounded a bit like Clapton’s MTV performance.  This was the first ever solo I learnt, and I think the the lessons I learnt from that solo taught me more than any other piece of music I’ve ever played.

I’ve never had any formal training on any musical instrument.  Mr Norris used to come in once a week when we were seven and teach us the recorder, but apart from that, it’s been more about what I’ve learnt along the way.  Eric Clapton and “Layla Unplugged” taught me more about soloing, scales and rhythm than any book that I could have looked at, and have influenced how I play Guitar, Bass and even Piano.

When Rob and I had our first gig just before we left school for uni, in the legendary one night only band Next Edition, this was the first song that I chose for us to play.  And having played rhythm guitar most of the night, I got to play the lead!

I also went through a long phase, (from which I am only just starting to recover?), of songs centred around the chord D minor – the same key as Layla unplugged.  In fact, have a listen to I Wanna Know, as this is a song that I came up with the initial idea for during this obsession!  It doesn’t sound too bad.

Such has been the competitive nature of our friendship, when I heard Rob playing “Change The World”, another of Clapton’s classics, I made sure I learnt it, and could play it quicker than he could (even if that took away from the song itself)!  I also recall pre-empting Rob and learning Tears in Heaven in one night, a song I still enjoy hearing Clapton sing.

On the subject of Eric Clapton himself, his personal life is well documented, and if you’d like an in depth account of this, then just google his name and you’ll find more information than you can read.  To me however, the reason I like Eric Clapton (enough to write a blog about him) and the reason I like most musicians is simply for their music, and I think Eric might just feel the same judging by his founding of the legendary Crossroads guitar festival.

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* midi, as far as any one really cares, is a way of storing/composing music electronically.  A lot of synthesisers, keyboards, old computer games and so on, use it. In fact, if you’ve ever sung to a backing track at t’Karaoke, the chances are, it was a Midi file.  If you’re interested, check this out.

**Before Spotify

Musical Heroes with Kal – Chas ‘n’ Dave

September 25th, 2009 | By Kal

What do you think about when you hear of a two name musical act? Well, I thought of Chas & Dave when Rob and I first came up with the “Rob and Kal”. They’re from not far from where we live – just within greater London, and support my team, Spurs.  In fact, (and I know you won’t care about this Rob!) they released singles for all four of Tottenham Hotspur’s visits to Wembley for the FA Cup final between 1981 and 1991.

That’s why I was so sad to hear this week that Dave was taking a break and that Chas ‘n’ Dave were effectively over. It’s forgotten that before they made it big, they were well regarded session musicians. They could play!

Almost following on from my last blog (neatly), I remember hearing Chas in a radio interview a few years ago. He spoke of being inspired by the great Jerry Lee Lewis and how he watched and learnt a lot from him when he played with him on tour. In a way, that inspired me – as does any time a good musician talks about how they learnt and what really got them going.

As I started to say before I rudely interrupted myself, Chas ‘n’ Dave are (were) the epitome of a double act. Talented multi-instrumentalists in the true sense of the word, they also spoke about things that people could and still can identify with.

They gained popularity the right way by getting something – rock and roll -and putting their own stamp on it by singing in their own North London accents.  To do that is  perhaps the dream of most serious songwriter-performers.  How many dodgy female pop acts singing to a chorus of synths before one steps up and does something different?

And last but not least, they wrote a song about something really important (well I like it!) – snooker!  If you can manage that, and make it a good song, you can do anything. Here’s to Chas ‘n’ Dave, and Chas & his band who will be continuing to pack out and entertain pubs across the country.

Musical Heroes with Kal – Bill Withers

September 20th, 2009 | By Kal

Following on from my last post…what does everyone think about Hip Hop?

I think it’s one of those genres that truly polarizes opinion – some love it for its rhythm, its ability to give a voice to a certain section of society (particularly in the US), and the way it can bring together several genre of music into one. Others dislike the profanity, it’s undeniable association to misogyny and some artist’s glorification of crime. That’s totally understandable.

One thing that people dislike in particular, when talking about the music itself is some producers heavy reliance on sampling.  The man in the news for interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs, Kanye West, may be known to everyone as a recording artist, but for many years before he got his break, he was a producer, and is perhaps the most notable  of these sample-based producers.

Where am I going with this? OK, be patient. Let me explain. You see, I’m on the fence when it comes to sampling to create “new” music. OK, maybe some people got it wrong in the late nineties and basically re-sold old music with a supposed gangster “spitting bars” on top of it. However, I think there are times when sampling, done cleverly, brings artists to a new generation – almost giving them the credit they deserve.

What do Will Smith and Twista have in common?  In fact, what about Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Morrissey, Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Lenny /kravitz and Kenny Rogers? They have all sampled and covered one man. That’s right, you guessed it.  Bill Withers.

You may have heard of him (I think you should have), but then again, you may not.  One thing is for sure however – you will know at least 4 of his songs. How can it be that the man who wrote Lean on me, Lovely day, Ain’t no sunshine and Just the two of us, to name a mere fraction of his works has so little recognition?

Part of it is personal choice – he stepped away from the music business to concentrate on his personal life and family and is obviously doing well enough from others’ need to use his music. He had it all – clearly a talented songwriter, he was a distinguished multi-instrumentalist and had a very distinctive voice.  For me, he is what many singer-songwriters should look at and aim for.

Check out this video.  It’s totally live, none of your modern miming and he’s really showing off all of his talents. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo.

Look out for the uber-cool drummer with afro!

Musical Heroes with Kal – John Legend

August 11th, 2009 | By Kal

I know the word Legend gets thrown around too much these days, but with this man, it’s for good cause as it’s his name – sort of.

While I don’t claim to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all of his material, I had his 2004 album Let’s Get Lifted on repeat for the whole year.

In the era of Lady Gaga, where the lip-synching model is queen/king depending on what you’ve read, I like the idea of one man and his piano.

My favourite tracks of his are Ordinary People and She Don’t Have To Know, but he’s also proven he can live with rappers such as Jay Z in Encore, Kanye West in Never Let You Down and more recently Rick Ross, for whom he sung the hook on Magnificent.

If you needed further proof of his talents, he’s rated highly by one of the greatest “pianomen” ever – Stevie Wonder.

Why is he one of my Heroes? A producer once said I sounded like him – no pressure there then!

Musical Heroes with Kal – Scott Joplin

August 9th, 2009 | By Kal

I’m spending the evening relaxing to some Scott Joplin.

There will be three songs that you’ll have heard of. His most famous is The Entertainer.

Then there’s a song called Maple Leaf Rag. If you check this out on Youtube, played by chocotiger, you’ll know the tune.

Then there’s the third, which you will know if you’ve watched the Curious Case of Benjamin Button which is slower, but reminds me of how sad the film is.

It’s amazing how this guy was able to record and perform freely despite being black and dying 50 years before the Civil Rights movement in America.