Blog Report: Restarting an Old Car

Howdy,

OK, so the radio silence has been for a good reason. The building of Retroflux for one, the work on N0_HER0ES and the planning for a couple of side-projects have made this blog a silent place.

But that's over. Here's a little story about a project on my docket since 2010.

Ever since I planned this EP series out, I always intended for the last EP to be a stripped down, unplugged effort, taking me into really unfamiliar territory that I have merely hinted at previously.

So with that said, this idea has been off and on, mostly because a). Writing a conceptual trilogy is tough, b). This needs real instruments and people, and c). Bad luck.

The furthest I got on this was back in 2010, when I ran through about 5 rough songs with a friend, planning it all out (at the time, I had no confidence with actually directing a song's creation) and with a different idea of who would be a part of it.

3 years later, and the project still lives but the cast has changed. People have moved, or fallen out with me, or whathaveyou.... I did come up with 4 good ideas for songs recently. One of them has the working title "Winter" and if I can get it to be 6 minutes, or close, then it works.

The challenge is to capture emotions after the story arcs towards the ending. And also to not sound whiny. In a way, it's creating a rap hip-hop album, with the limitations of nothing plugged in, no computers, turntables, sampling, etc. Somehow there's a way to retain the DNA of hip-hop production (patterns, 4/4 drumming, chopped up keys, etc) and bring it over to the MTV Unplugged world.

Once the mixtape is out, the real fun begins. Hoping to get it out in the winter months...writing as many sequences for a full story as possible to hopefully start playing around with later on.

We'll see what happens, but it WILL happen.

-mc larny

The Collective Lives: Enter RETROFLUX

A while ago, I pondered this idea of a collective, back in the summer. After being involved in a flurry of projects in that year (4 different ones) and making a fair amount of connections, something clicked in my head.

What if you started a collective?

I rebuffed that initially, thinking "who would want to join up for something like this?" Then I thought it over, looked at other collectives and saw serious potential among the friends and experiences I had in the past year.

Also, I felt that it would be nice to have a creative umbrella for all the upcoming projects I have, and a way to keep an association to those I want to work with/those who want to work with me. It didn't make sense to have 5 different projects or more going without some unifying method, something that could house the different ideas and projects. Sort of like a museum, it has different artists, but all under one place. Sure, they reside in different halls, different wings, but it's all in one place.

So after debating it, I discussed with friends about the idea, and it took me awhile to nail down some details, no thanks to a severe set of distractions early in the year 2013.

But with my mind clear, and my vision clear, now is the time. I'm proud to announce the formation of...

More information, including social media accounts in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes to the skies.

The Clip Show Season 2 Episode 4: Sick of Running

This was the second try to make a song with that title, first time fell flat because I couldn't develop after the piano riff and the drums didn't help with matters either.

Second time though...oh it worked. It worked.

No Heroes Clip Show: Zero Status

Here's a little explaination. No Heroes is an idea I came up with last December.

At the time, there were a few things in my life that I was certain were going to happen. Those things didn't happen. Plans changed.

So here we are right now. No Heroes puts me in a new role, the role of musician experimenting with technology. I'll make no bones about it, in 2008, when I resumed making beats, I was pushing to make things more "real", avoiding software instruments that sounded too fake. Mostly because of Soulja Boy blowing up, and because everyone else with FL Studio was doing it too.

As my music has evolved, I've found synths to be interesting, a reminder of an era long gone. And a chance to craft a soundscape without a full ensemble of instruments. So with that noted, I took an idea...what if you had 4-5 synthesizers playing like an orchestra? A digital orchestration of synths making distorted noise.

This is a rough example of what No Heroes will sound like. Come back for more.

-mc larny

Blog Report: When Larny Wanted to Rock Out (for real this time)

Howdy friends,

I gave myself a few months to think this over. And I think now is the right time to say it.

I know full well that it's prime time to start a collective. But more specifically, I want to get a live backing band going. I've got my reasons for it too:

1. Almost every show has been with live instruments so far
2. I enjoy working with people in music
3. Just rapping over a beat is a cop-out
4. A live band gives more flexibility to arrangements. Songs can be expanded, truncated, re-imagined, etc.
5. The last show was a big reason to get the ball rolling. I was the only guy without an instrument. It was awkward. Good show, but it was off-setting.

However, reality is a bit of a downer in this situation. The problem is that right now, many of the people I want to play with are in a stage where no one's in a centralized location, making coordination of practice and other things, hard, if not impossible.

So in a simple way of saying it, the next generation of the live band (working title is Aces Down 2.0) will not have a static lineup, rather, it will be dynamic and changing. Instead of going through the process of losing someone then blowing it up, it will hopefully work in the fact that people come and go, and pieces will be added and subtracted as the moment calls for it. And before anyone asks, this is a bit different from the untitled project I was working on last year. Not the exact same, but unique enough to avoid confusion.

Another reason why I want to work with a band is because I have a plethora of songs written that quite frankly, would be wasted on the computerized beats method. Not saying beats are bad, but in these cases, live instrumentation gives better energy to the music that's trying to be made. There's a certain anger, a darkness to these songs that I don't think MIDI programming could totally make sense of.

Here's what I'm looking for:

• Guitar: Lead and Bass. 
• Vocalist: Hooks/Choruses and Harmonic Verses.
• Drummer: Able to play mid-tempo jams, can keep a steady beat

So yes, the next wave is going to happen. Hoping this summer or late spring but I have my doubts. Mum's the word.

-mc larny

Winter War Micro-Tour Recap (And More)

Coming off a week where everything happened, the Winter War Micro-Tour was perhaps the most physically exhausting yet rewarding set of shows I've been a part of.

I guess it was an experiment, if I could actually create a show that was reliant on one person, rather than a group of people, and do it over and over again. A sampler of a future life, I guess.

Show #1 at Patrick's in Malden was a warm up, a chance to tweak some things, soundwise and manipulation wise as well. Also, working on stage presence and just focus trying to incorporate the elements of my skill set was a focus. I would say the appreciation I received was great and encouraging. Mainly because I changed my approach.

I stopped trying to be the perfect guy, and instead just went out and existed.

Show #2 at the All Asia was rough to start with. Hoping that a chunk of my friends would be there as moral support kinda didn't happen...so I took the stage, a little nervous, a little afraid.

And what happened was magical. Just entering a zone that for so many nights, I had dreamed about, planned out and mentally prepared myself to step into.

I went for nearly 30 minutes, all rapping. Which scares me, because I think my max was probably 20 minutes, but 30, without a drink next to me, was wild. 

Getting props from the bartender was a huge boost in my confidence as well.

This was fun, very much so. Thanks to everyone who came out to see me, it was great.

The Evolution Of MC Larny: 2013

Well, who else could have imagined this?

366 days prior I was driving to Walpole to begin the new chapter of SWEETDICULOUS.

366 days later...I'm starting a new chapter again, this time, with another previously-declared-dead stage act.

That's right. Aces Down is coming back in 2013.

But before I delve into that, I need to get on the topic of some other things that have happened in 2012.

-CONFESSIONS AFTER DARK-
After a solid year of work, Confessions has arrived. 5 songs, available on Bandcamp right this moment. This is the start of the Imperfect Trilogy...uglyside is making headway right now. Should be done in Februrary, ilf all goes according to plan.

-MC LARNY GETS LIVE-
This was the dream coming true. Finally meeting collaborators who just get it, who can work with their own styles of music and merge into mine, to make something awesome happen.

I got lucky that I met Meghan and Tyler both this year, as well as Tom. The 3 of them have been a creative spark in my circuits that has got me yearning for the stage all over again. Playing new songs with them has been some of the most fun I've had in quite some time music wise.

-PROJECT NIGHTMARE DOES IT AGAIN-
5 feature installments, and a spinoff series can't describe how huge Nightmare has been to my creative process. It has been some of the best ways to express my creative sides and by doing that, I've been able to work bits and pieces into my live setup, giving old tracks new life, and new ideas a platform to jump off.

PN 36(5) was an accomplishment. 365 days, and using those as a diary of sorts. Capture emotions, triumphs, failures, all of that into instrumental expression and it becomes so much more than it looks.

Also, Project Nightroid gave me a chance to expand deeper into a more cinematic sound. One that evokes and shows different faces, but they all make sense in the big scheme of things.

OK, that's in the rearview. Let's bring out 2013!

-KEEP IT LIVE-

With the conclusion of college, it's time to go back to work with music and FINALLY get the wheels moving. Expect a lot more chances to see MC Larny live in 2013. January 9th and 13th, the dates of the Winter War Micro-Tour...an open mic and a performance at All Asia in Cambridge. Exciting times.


-THE NEXT WAVE-
Well, the trilogy will end in 2013. Somehow. And there WILL be a CD release at the same time EP #3  comes out. It will all tie in together so keep an eye out for that.

Also, hopefully backwards/forwards will formally begin tracking in 2013 as well. Once EP #3 is out, we're going in to start the next full length LP.

-THE RETURN OF ACES DOWN-

OK...let me explain.

Aces Down was dead. And it was going to stay that way. Until I came to a conclusion in the middle of last year...why not do it again?

It wasn't an easy choice. But I felt that the nature of Aces Down, the collision of musical styles, that was a good idea that ALMOST worked. So hence why it's coming back.

With all the pending instability with collaborators moving farther away from a central location, and being a first-hand victim of how distance affects musical relationships, a collective gives me a chance to work with more people, but also avoid having to shuffle lineups when something happens. It's a fluid nature.

And when you consider a collective that spans different genres, Aces Down makes sense. A lot of sense.

While I will always, and I mean this, ALWAYS have the memories of the first lineup of this band in my mind and heart, there's enough reasoning for me to make this change. Specifically, because of a lot of changes in my life, with the first lead singer and I haven't talked since 2010.

So with that noted, the first lineup is not getting back together. And it's time to reboot the Aces.

The lineup will be revealed soon. But a little word of advice...

It's always wild.

-mc larny