Congratulations to them, and all the best with the project!

I’m not sure how I feel about the whole thing. I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t put more work in. Bad timing, but that’s the sort of thing you need to push through. Listening back to my submissions, I’m mildly cringing at how rough and underdeveloped they are. I’m convinced everyone else’s were vastly superior!

It was fun to meet with Roddy and talk about his work. I’ll look forward to seeing the finished pieces, with the benefit of his impressive insight.

I think I’ll take 2 things from this experience:

Firstly:

My working preference used to very much be: talk-about-it-together, execute-it-apart. I think that’s changed somewhat over the last couple of years. As much as I enjoyed talking with Roddy, I failed to establish a connection with the project for myself. That’s maybe down to not meeting up with anyone else involved. The ability to maintain a distance-working relationship is obviously very important today but I don’t feel like I got into the spirit of that. Will need to look out for that next time, but I guess it’s also made me appreciate the intimate musical relationships I’m fortunate enough to have with people at the moment.

And secondly:

Blog, shmog.

Big Ta to Central Station, Roddy & Giles!

Comment by Gaia Meccuci [project producer]:

Very interesting points you raise Jonnie. The ever increasing distance-working relationship on collaborative projects is indeed very important these days but at the same time establishing a real, close connection with a project and the people behind it is still crucial for an artist to be able to use their talent and creativity in the most satisfying way.

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Let me just say that both your submissions were far from being rough and underdeveloped! They were in fact very interesting approaches and the idea of the unsynced flute loops seemed to reveal a new layer and something surprising with each listening. The decision was hard, all of you demonstrated very personal insights into the ideas behind each piece.

It would be great to keep having your input in the project as we go along, so I hope there is scope to reconsider your blog shmog stance!

I didn’t get a lot of time for them in the end. This month I am the proverbial busy bee.

Buzz.

So, it wasn’t until last night that I sat down with a couple a fancy biscuits and tried to put into effect some of the ideas I’d been having since my meeting with Roddy.

For the film about the Parkhead Flute band, I had been hoping to make up some real tape loops but, with time against me, I had to settle for digital loops of random lengths. I made some sketchy beats with a windup marching toy which I thought apt, given a flute band’s tendancy to march. I guess, if you wanted to, you could liken the rasping mechanism to that of a tattoo needle motor. IF YOU WANTED TO.

Speaking of marching, I was driving to Dennistoun on Sunday and I got stuck behind a march. I thought “that must be THE band!” and recorded the procession with my phone. After mentioning it to a coule people, I was roundly informed that such marches are a ‘protestant thing’ and that ‘you better make sure you don’t offend anyone’. I know FA about sectarian issues and care about them even less. I had hoped to warp the recording into an unrecognisable drone anyway but it didn’t suit. So, let it be known that my choice was down to my ear rather than the common sense to avoid a kicking.

This morning I tackled the other film. This was a little trickier as it contained dialogue etc. I don’t know how much I’m s’posed to give away about the films, so I’ll be really specific: I had hoped to create a feeling of space and reduce it to a more claustrophobic sound while exploring oscillating rhythms designed to mimic the relationship between people & vehicles over the course of the film.

As, it happened, I hadn’t had my weetabix and I don’t think i got that across brilliantly. But I think I could, and it’s something I think I’ll explore beyond the thunderdome, I mean the project, regardless of the outcome.

The project was brought to my attention by Glasgow Podcart.

I watched Roddy’s film ‘Traffic’ and loved it. I could practically hear notes dripping past as the pens tilted and with 2 hours to go til the midnight deadline for demo submissions, I decided to give it a go.

A couple weeks later I got a blank email entitled ‘Savalas Project’.

This happens to me quite often. It’s as if the powers that be are trying to make things more exciting for me.

I’ve since met up with Roddy at Central Station to hear about the 2 films in progress.

I enjoyed hearing him voice his visions and he seemed interested to hear me talk about the aural ideas I had. We kindof confessed to not knowing a huge amount about each others adopted domain but I think the mutual intrigue was very genuine.

I left feeling positive, with the exception of having not had time for Roddy’s kindly offered donut.

My loss was no doubt the arriving voice actor’s gain.