Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and his Grammy award acceptance speech.

[refocusedmedia]

https://www.facebook.com/foofighters/posts/10151306962865545

Oh, what a night we had last Sunday at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. The glitz! The Glamour! SEACREST! Where do I begin?? Chillin' with Lil' Wayne...meeting Cyndi Lauper's adorable mother...the complimentary blinking Coldplay bracelet.....much too much to recap. It's really is still a bit of a blur. But, if there's one thing that I remember VERY clearly, it was accepting the Grammy for Best Rock Performance...and then saying this:

"To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what's important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do... It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head]."

Not the Gettysburg Address, but hey......I'm a drummer, remember?

Well, me and my big mouth. Never has a 33 second acceptance rant evoked such caps-lock postboard rage as my lil' ode to analog recording has. OK....maybe Kanye has me on this one, but....Imma let you finish....just wanted to clarify something...

I love music. I love ALL kinds of music. From Kyuss to Kraftwerk, Pinetop Perkins to Prodigy, Dead Kennedys to Deadmau5.....I love music. Electronic or acoustic, it doesn't matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician's personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and.....human.

That's exactly what I was referring to. The "human element". That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became "bad" things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily "fixed". The end result? I my humble opinion.....a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.

And, unfortunately, some of these great advances have taken the focus off of the actual craft of performance. Look, I am not Yngwie Malmsteen. I am not John Bonham. Hell...I'm not even Josh Groban, for that matter. But I try really ****ing hard so that I don't have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song. I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that's what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real.

I don't know how to do what Skrillex does (though I ****ing love it) but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that's badass. We have a different process and a different set of tools, but the "craft" is equally as important, I'm sure. I mean.....if it were that easy, anyone could do it, right? (See what I did there?)

So, don't give me two Crown Royals and then ask me to make a speech at your wedding, because I might just bust into the advantages of recording to 2 inch tape.

Now, I think I have to go scream at some kids to get off my lawn.

I think his comments are more relevant than he might be aware of. I think they resonate in the world of film as well. While they can certainly be incredible and exciting, it isn't so much about the advancements and the tools and the mechanics... it is about the "realness" of a personal voice. What do you guys think?

 

[Searcher]

Yup. Absolutely.

I'm aiming for the technical quality of my work to be about a 7/10. I know that the energy needed to get PERFECT sound and image should go into the creative side of things, into the writing and development of original and engaging ideas.

Most Hollywood films are polished turds.

edit: Don't get me wrong though. I love the craft of many Hollywood films. If I had big budgets to work with I would do my best to get the film looking as good as possible. The sort of quality that appeals to me is that seen films like Drive and Blue Velvet.

I just think that in Hollywood in most instances the story is far less quality than the production.

Yes I know it's not a news flash!

 

[tmnt]

I think the only backlash would be from fellow artists who can't hold a note without being produced.

I heard Jay-Z said something like he may not be the best singer but it's all him, no auto-tune like half the other guys.

 

[groveChuck]

Grohl speaks the truth and is a man of integrity, and possesses the true (not contrived) rock-n-roll spirit, so it's a shame to see him backpedaling (though humorously) from his statements and blaming it a bit on the booze.
There are probably relationships and deals worth protecting, but I agree with his speechifying in support of analog! :beer:

 

[Scott F]

Grohl is a great man. I'm a huge fan of everything he's done.

Ironic, I just heard a remix of "rope" by deadmaus which wasn't half bad.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[bill totolo]

I concur, however nothing wrong with a little Dream Theater now and then, and yes, I am bummed they lost to the FF's.

"The cool thing is that "On The Backs Of Angels" was the first song we wrote for the A Dramatic Turn Of Events album and has only been released in its almost 9-minute original form. Knowing that a song that originated as an acoustic guitar idea written in front of my fireplace at home is now among those songs nominated this year just blows me away. " John Petrucci.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

It's really covered in this great doc:

Nick Sanano says around the 50min mark:

"Younger musicians and some older ones I've seen are guilty of this too, rely to heavily too much on the technology. They give a sub-par substandard performance and they expect the technology to compensate for it. 'oh you can fix that I know, you have a tool that does that. You can tune that, you can edit this to death. You can adjust this, you can edit this to death. You can adjust this, you can adjust that.'

They know, unfortunately, the tools that are available to us. And yes we can. It's time consuming. But we can. We can fix just about anything. After you finish fixing it, there's not performance anymore. There's nothing there."

Then a music producer or someone I can't find a name card for says:

"...now if a drummer can't articulate a part with precision or musicality, I'm expected to edit it until it has those qualities, you know. I mean, if you listen to a motown record, for example, those records are all played by amazing musicians, and now, much of what you hear, i shouldn't say for all records, but for pop records, the records I make, the records I'm hired to make, those records are generally mechanically edited, to.... some people might consider a sterile precision. You know, a computerized precision. "

Then Moby says:

"I personally find perfection in art and music off-putting. I like listening to billy holiday because there is vulnerability. I love listening to nick drake because of that vulnerability and imperfection. I get really almost intimidated and bored by perfect digital art. I think some engineers and some producers and some people who work on the production side of making digital art or music just focus on creating perfection without vulnerability and beauty and humanity. "

 

[MattinSTL]

I think his comments are more relevant than he might be aware of. I think they resonate in the world of film as well. While they can certainly be incredible and exciting, it isn't so much about the advancements and the tools and the mechanics... it is about the "realness" of a personal voice. What do you guys think?

I'm a big FF fan... because of how their music makes me feel... sometimes depressed, but there's a tangible substance to it... which isn't unique to FF alone, but it's really rare these days. Everything seems like McMusic to me... all auto-tune, pure vanilla, McMusic.

15 years ago I thought I'd be completely sick of music from the 70's... and now more than ever I'm blown away by the real depth of it. How in the hell could the world have such ginormous problems going on... (long wars for example) and nothing that can hold a candle to Baba O'Riley?

For a while there I wondered if I aged into nostalgia and fell into "in MY day" thinking... but I don't think so. When's the last time you listened to a really good recording of one of these classics on a good system? The music was freaking amazing.

There's some good stuff these days... but man... we had no idea how lucky we were to have the glut of raw talent back then... in such a diverse array of music (each band, for the most part, was a completely unique flavor apart from the others)... and time is proving how great that music really was (is).

To each his own... but yeah... FF... Nirvana... Pearl Jam... White Stripes(?)... a few others... thanks for making me feel something when I listen to your music... instead of striving for techno-distilled perfection.

 

[Alex H.]

I'm a big FF fan... because of how their music makes me feel... sometimes depressed, but there's a tangible substance to it... which isn't unique to FF alone, but it's really rare these days. Everything seems like McMusic to me... all auto-tune, pure vanilla, McMusic.

15 years ago I thought I'd be completely sick of music from the 70's... and now more than ever I'm blown away by the real depth of it. How in the hell could the world have such ginormous problems going on... (long wars for example) and nothing that can hold a candle to Baba O'Riley?

Cat Stevens' box set gets tons of play on my iPod, and much for those same reasons. No Autotune, no manufacturing. Just pure music. And it takes my on a journey that covers several emotions, but even the melancholy or slightly depressing stuff feels really good in the end. Hard to find that these days.

 

[vincent6805]

It was said from the heart...That's where music comes from. It's also freedom of speech...People seem to forget that little ditty, huh? Foo Fighters all the ****ing way. Let it rock!

 

[Cosimo Bullo]

@MattinSTL - I also hate to admit this, but I'm wirh you 100%. Play any of the great bands you mentioned at the end "FF... Nirvana... Pearl Jam... " and then put on any of Led Zeplin's first 6 albums. Play Pearl Jam and then put on Van Halen 1, 2, or 3. There literally aren't singers like that anymore, let along truly creative guitar geniuses like the aformentioned bands... no, I too had chalked up the music of my youth as being better because I was young then, but in fact it may have just been better.