Hi! Hello! How Are You?
Welcome to the NEW newsletter!
Damn it feels good to write to you again! Transitions are always a challenge aren’t they? A good chunk of this year has come and gone already. Fall has descended on my midwestern home and I’m spending most of my work hours on an exciting new museum project that will launch this winter! More on that soon, but first:
Moldover, why does this newsletter look so different?
I’m glad you asked! The lovely Tinyletter was shut down by the mighty hand of Mailchump and so you’re hearing from me now via Substack (which I hope will be a safe home for this newsletter for years to come)! Besides being a conduit for these messages to you, Substack has an exclusive content subscription model, similar to what’s been happening for many years on my Patreon page. If you’re interested in supporting my work with a subscription and getting access to the behind-the-scenes content I publish, please let me know (or go ahead and subscribe here) and I will begin mirroring ALL of my past and future Patreon releases here on Substack.
Anyhow, let’s get on with more news from my creative world…
Like a Stone: music video
Earlier this year I released an acoustic cover version of Audio Slave's song Like a Stone. In the months leading up the release I found myself repeatedly astounded by certain images and videos I had seen produced with a new crop of generative AI tools. This seemed like a good opportunity to play with some of these tool while producing a new video for the single. Going in the opposite direction of more complex music videos I've collaborated on (like Cash), this video is a quick'n'dirty “throw it all at the wall and see what sticks” solo experiment. I learned a LOT (more on that below) and thoroughly enjoyed the creative process. It’s a mournful tune, but hopefully some of the fun I had making the video shines through :-)
New Installation at MoMM
The Museum of Making Music reopened earlier this year, and now features two installations I designed that have been brought to life by the museum’s amazing team! The new piece is called The Live Mixing Experience and it gives young people a simple and hands-on window into what it’s like to mix sound and lights for a show. It features loads of sound reactive lighting, special combination audio/lighting effects, and a modified controller that ties it all together. It’s a fun and easy, and kids seem to love playing these “behind the scenes” concert roles. Special thanks to SoundTrack Loops for providing the sound content.
My previous installation for the museum, The Collaborator, has been reformatted from it’s old home in the MIDI@40 exhibit to fit the museum’s new Center Stage exhibit. It continues to provide the same intuitive, multiplayer jamming experience familiar to anyone who has played one of my many jamboxes.
European tour
I spent a lot of time in Europe this summer, enjoying a low key journey across France, Germany, Spain, and the UK, filled with friends, family, and controllerism fun. Big highlights for me include the show at Freedonia in Barcelona (thanks to JP Carrascal from Spacebarman), and an advanced Ableton Live workshop in Freiburg (thanks to Tim Charlemagne from Soundmanufacture). I had a blast playing new tunes for new audiences, and can’t wait to return again next summer.
Sober music video
It turns out that what current AI video tools are best at is ingesting any video you like and redrawing it into continuously morphing, hallucinatory dreamscapes. After spending time bending these tools to my will to make the modestly cohesive Like a Stone music video, I decided to let the tools take over for a change and “do their thing”. Here is a a Tool cover song I recorded a while back of the song Sober, underpinning my AI-powered-remix of the original music video for the same song by Tool. If you’re confused, well, join the club! Perhaps it’s simpler to say that this music was written by Tool, recorded (from scratch) by me, and the video was also made by Tool, only it has been chewed up and spit out by robots. What a strange time to be an artist working with technology…
Behind the scenes video for Patreon & Substack subscribers
Making the Like a Stone music video was a great crash course in how to apply generative AI in making (at least) one particular kind of music video. I thought my Patreon and Substack supporters might enjoy understanding some of those lessons, so I made detailed explanation of the ideas and work that went into the project. Subscribe on either platform to get access:
And now…
I’m so eager to dig back into this new project and hopefully carve out time for new music making! Your eyes and ears on my work are a gift I am eternally grateful for. Thanks as always for supporting and I hope to write again soon!
All the best,
Moldover
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P.S. Please, please, PLEASE get out there and VOTE in November, and get your friends and family to vote, and if you have time do some phone banking to call voters in swing states, and then go outside and enjoy some fall leaves! <3