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A one-man looping show? You bet!
My musical style quite fairly mirrors my personality where there are many sides that don’t come across obvious at first glance or hearing. I grew up listening to the vinyl and cassette collection of my parents. Along the way I discovered about pitching, scales and harmony from singing along to “Sound of Music” daily. I like to think that what I create within the spectrum of sound with the guitar is music eventually. I started out with Rock on guitar and quickly discovered Blues which led to Prog Rock and Fusion and then the inevitable rite of passage for every aspiring guitarists growing up in the 80’s “Shred”. Those were probably my formative years. My perceptions in music and the guitar specifically were heightened upon the discovery of the following; Jimi Hendrix “Concerts”, Friday Night in San Francisco feat. Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny Group’s Offramp, King Crimson’s Discipline, David Sylvian’s Gone to Earth, Brian Eno’s Apollo and Michael Hedges’ Aerial Boundaries.
2. What are your influences?
Almost everything I’ve heard has had some influence on me over the years. This is hard to answer in a concise way but if I can offer a desert island pick I’ll say, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Allan Holdsworth, Ryuichi Sakamoto, King Crimson, Ozric Tentacles, Robert Fripp, David Torn, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Meredith Monk, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Per Boysen, Andre Lafosse, Derek Bailey, Pat Metheny, Uli Jon Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Queen, Big Bill Broonzy, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Massive Attack…among many many others of course.
3. Tell us a bit of your history as a musician in Singapore?
From my earliest of memories I’ve always loved music. Apparently I was singing to "Hey Jude" in pitch way back when I was 3 yrs old. I was never formally musically trained but I understood musical scales from learning to sing "Doh Re Mi" from "Sound of Music" by heart. Whilst everybody in the classroom wanted to be pilots doctors and scientists I pretty much figured by age 10 that I wanted to make music! In my early teens I was the air guitar playing singer who won if not did pretty well in a couple of school talentime contests. Initially I had to rely on others to play guitar accompaniment and the good ones would always impose on me their preferred songs which sometimes was excruciatingly interesting like Deep Purple's "Child In Time!" Hah!
4. What are you doing nowadays?
Besides the weekly shows I do with Harry's, I also tweak mods and repairs for guitar, pedals, amps and various electronic audio equipment for both myself and others. I also teach privately a select few but very diligent and promising young guitarists. What I've been especially busy with this year are music and album productions. Along the way I've resumed my own creative works which for years now I've been planning to come round to officially release them. I think 2010 looks like the year where I’ll do just that!
5. Could you list the guitar gear that you use live for your performance?
I have different setups for different performing situations. For my solo voice and gutar live looping. For my current weekly gigs at Harry’s Dempsey Hill I use; Godin Multiac Steel Duet/Nylon Duet, Modded Boss CS3, Yamaha Magicstomp, Modded Boss DD20, Modded DL4, Modded Boss RC50 LoopStation, Roland GR20 Guitar Synthesizer, TC Helicon Voice Create, Shure SM58, Awe in One picks, Dunlop and Martin picks. The output of my RC50 goes straight into a Mackie board. I have the ability to loop either or with both my mic and instrument. This current setup allows me to be more interative with the mood of the house which changes from hour to hour and day to day. I play almost anything in a solo format from renditions to improves of covers to originals of whisper quiet Ambient into Bossa Nova to Funk, Rock, Jazz and Dance.
6. Your favourite guitar/pedal/other gear?
Ah! Where do I begin? Hah! My favourite guitar is an old beat up Congress steel strung acoustic which I’ve had since I was 14. The Godin Multiacs (I have 3 of them) are my current favourite “anytime around the house” work horse acoustic/electric guitars for what I do at home and also for my weekly solo acoustic live looping gigs. I am very fond of my old 1969 Goldtop Les Paul and a ‘54 configured Fender Customshop Stratocaster from 1992. However, my favourite Electric guitar is the “Klein”. I can’t say enough about it! It’s equipped with the Steinberger Trans Trem and also has a Roland GK3 MIDI pickup which I use very often to connect to Guitar Synthesizers and the Roland VG99 that can connect to anything that has either a MIDI, USB or Firewire to access racks or keyboards and computers for tone modules, samplers and virtual instruments. The possibilities are endless especially when you experience the combination of guitars controlling Omnisphere and Trilian both from Spectrasonics. For the stomps, I grew up with a slew of Boss and Ibanez pedals which I grew up with and along the way experimented and formulated my own mods to personalize them for my intended purposes. The old favourites among these in modern modded form are; Ibanez TS9, Boss CS3, SD1, DS1, BD2, MT2, DD2, DD3, DD5, DD6. I own and love the Yamaha Magicstomp so much I own 4 of them as they’ve got such incredible processing power. My own modded Line6 DL4 is one of my favourite live looping pedals. My favourite tube amp (2 of them actly) are the Hughes and Kettner Triamp both the mid 90’s MKI and the latest MKII Alex Lifeson signature model which btw lights up in purple! Hah! I’m excited and looking forward to using new devices called Looperlative LP1 and the LP2 which are on the way. I have quite a few home brew sonic weapons but can’t reveal more about them except to mention that they’ll be on the albums to be released soon. The other significant instrument which I’m very fond of and intend to focus on in the coming years is the 10 string Chapman Stick.
7. Advice for budding musicians in Singapore?
Music is not just a sound, a trend, or an attitude. Music in it's many forms all encompass the vast range of beauty and ugliness human expression Joy from self expression and communication is the ultimate gift in music so enjoy the music that you learn, practice, play. Be it that you'r an amatuer, a hobbyist, a professional or artist if music is your choice of self expression do it with unrelentless passion.
8. Is it possible to make a comfortable living out of being a musician in Singapore?
For me yes it is possible to make a living as a musician here in Singapore. How comfortable really depends on each individual’s wants and needs in life really. I've been a professional musician since the late 80's and have been a fulltime musician since 1991.
9. How is the compositional process like for you? Do you start with the guitar when you write a song?
Compositional ideas for me usually come in a few forms; noodling on the guitar, random humming or rhythmic pulse or simply mood and state of mind. On the guitar it's simply aimless playing until you feel some kind of musical emotional connection. Be it with a single line melody or phrase, a riff, a chord voicing or progression or simply the mood evoked by the sound of any or all of the above mentioned. And when I'm in the mood to challenge my preconceived methods I just form and land random claw shape chords on the guitar and see what happens.
10. Do you compose with any other instrument besides the guitar?
Other than the guitar as my primary composing instrument, I use the voice alot in composing. The other instruments are hand percussion based performed either on my guitar or trigger pads. The keyboard controller is also another tool. For quite awhile now I've found an effective method combining the use of guitar, voice and hand percussion together with live looping to capture and fine tune musical ideas.
11. Do you think that the internet is a good or bad thing for music? Your view on illegal music downloading?
I think the internet is great for music! In the not so distant past the only way to give your music a chance to be heard and discovered was to be represented and obligated to a label who in turn dictate how your music should be made. With the internet it's an open road for any creative individual to freely create and make available their unique music to the rest of the world. It used to be an issue that downloading and sharing of mp3s was considered illegal. Making music readily and freely available and allowing others to download and share is a bold new way for artists to get their music heard and considered. In the past musicians having to tour in support of their new album served largely to the benefit of the labels. The current attitude is now kind of reversed where making and selling cds is more of a promotional tool, a calling card for the live shows.
12.Where do you usually gig and when?
I'v been performing weekly as a solo voice/guitar/live looper with Harry's for 5 years now and am currently performing 3 nights a week Thrs to Sats at Harry's Dempsey Hill where I’ve been the resident musician for 2 years now.
Randolf Arriola
Play Guitar Singapore User ID : embryo69
Website: http://www.embryosongs.com/ , http://randolfarriola.com/
Email:
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Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/the_embryo
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=551811603&v=app_2309869772&ref=profile#/profile.php?id=551811603&ref=profile
Performing : Thurs to Sat Evenings - Harry's Bar at Dempsey Hill
Ed. Note : Catch Randolf at Harry's Bar at Dempsey Hill, I did! He will blow you away with his smooth looping techniques and his guitar playing. |
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