Writing Music for Specific Venues

In a new TED talk, David Byrne talks about writing music for specific venues or rooms. This is an extremely interesting topic for me, and one that has been on my mind a great deal for the past year. When I began writing the music for Zubatto Syndicate, I went about it with a very specific sort of room - the medium-to-large rock club - in mind. Having a particular setting in mind absolutely influenced every choice I made in the music. For one, I wrote and arranged the instruments with microphones, amplification and sound reinforcement in mind. I tried to do things that would be totally unadvisable in a completely or even mostly acoustic setting - especially with the woodwinds. Musically, I wanted the group to be at home in a club setting as well, with driving rhythms, big sounds and hopefully memorable hooks and melodies.

As beautiful as it was to play in Town Hall for our first performance, it wasn't until our gig at The Crocodile in April that I was actually able to present (and hear) the music in the manner that it was intended. On of the continuing challenges of getting Zubatto off the ground has been convincing clubs and audiences to believe that this music belongs in these settings, as opposed to a dinner club or small jazz club.

As I begin planning to record Zubatto later this year, I'm thinking about where I want the recorded music to be played. Will it be in coffee shops, clubs, on college and "alternative" radio? Should it be recorded to be played out loud or mainly in headphones? These questions will determine how we go about recording the music and producing the final CD and vinyl. More on all of that soon!

David Byrne's talk is awesome and worth the 16 minutes. I'm a huge fan of his work, especially with Talking Heads and his record "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" with Brian Eno, both of which are huge influences for the music of Zubatto Syndicate. Here's David Byrne.