The Genre Benders: News

Thanks to everyone who came down to our double-header debut over the weekend. It was great to see so many friends old and new and to meet so many people.

To celebrate, we have built this store for inclusive merchandise. Join us and be a part of something great with these items. Plenty to choose from to suit your preferences:

http://www.cafepress.com/genrebenders

I've had this acoustic guitar-runny lick bit in my head for quite some time and was having a nap one afternoon after playing with it, wondering where it might lead, when this idea popped into my head, which I immediately bounced up and started to write down. It kind of started with an image and then grew into a tirade for the release of humanity from the tyranny of the 9-5 prison.

We're playing it tonight at The Alley in our live debut, but I haven't recorded it yet. I'll post an MP3 as soon as I've got one. As always, this version is entirely provisional - feel free to suggest fixes.

Be Free

Got surf and sand, sun and sea
Walk the beach just you and me
That's all we need
We'll find the time and find the space
Live at our own pace.
Got a soul to feed

You bust your gut each day but your pay ain't no guarantee
This soul tattoo makes me want to break free

So oooohhh, come away with me Be Free
Yeeeeeah, see what we might see Be Free

Got open plains and trails to ride
Mountains high and rivers wide. That's all we need
We'll take off down the highway
Like every day's a Friday. Got a soul to feed

For stress and sweat all you get ain't no guarantee
This soul tattoo makes me want to break free

So oooohhh, come away with me Be Free
Yeeeeeah, see what we might see Be Free

Break down on the verse pattern

Got friends with time to spare for me. Sharing creativity
That's all we need.
We'll find the time and find the space
Leave the fuckin' rat race
Got a soul to feed

With room to move, feel the groove. There's your guarantee
Your soul feels new. That makes me want to run free

Chorus x 2

*****************************************

Please note: This song is APRA registered: Work ID GW36114616; ISWC TBA. You can copy, reproduce and distribute any part of these lyrics and chords for any non-commercial purpose as long as you acknowledge its source. I'm interested in your feedback, comments, suggestions. If you make something good out of it, let me know and I'll consider adding it to this site.

If you perform it or broadcast it for any purpose, please let APRA know.

Just found out that an interview I did with Crazy John Kerecz's Old School House Radio about The Genre Benders project has been published in his Ragazine! It can be downloaded here.

Since it's buried on page 14 and the pdf is kinda large, I thought I'd repost it here:

A short conversation with Huge of The Genre Benders

Preface: The Genre Benders is a community music project based in Brisbane, Australia. Led by Huge, it aims to get the best songs and the best performances from local musicians, produce and market them – returning the proceeds to their creators, not to the record label. The project released one CD in 2007, “I am leaving! I am leaving!”, with plans for many more into the future.

Crazy John: So, how did the Genre benders come about?

Huge: The Genre Benders basically grew out of years of me attending live shows for bands that I respected that never got anywhere. I used to hang in the pubs and clubs and listen to lots of acts that were pretty mediocre in all but I’d usually walk out of there with one or two songs or performances stuck in my head and it would really bug me that this great material was just lost to the wider public. So when I realized the potential of the Internet and new technologies to break down the barriers to publishing this stuff, I figured I’d get as much of it as I could and put it out there. There’s no shortage of great material to choose from.

Crazy John: So how did you go about picking the material for the debut release? Where did you find your people?

Huge: For the first release I ended up using a lot of stuff I wrote or co-wrote myself, mostly – but only because it’s kinda hard to get people to give you stuff if you have no track record or demos or … anything to offer, really (laughs). I had a couple of my favourite songs I’d been involved in with the guys who wrote them over the years, so I asked if I could use those and the guys were happy to let me. Sadly, Mark, who wrote “Dancing with the Stones”, died of bowel cancer before the album was recorded, so he never got to hear it, but his wife gets his royalties and is using them to build on his legacy of involvement in their local music community.

The players were just people I’d either played with over the years or respected for their chops. I played as much of it as I felt comfortable doing myself – more, actually - for the same reason but … well … I’m not a lead guitarist and I don’t want to be. Matt’s brilliant, why would I try, you know? Similarly, I’m not the world’s greatest bass player and Willy’s awesome, so I got him to play more interesting stuff on tracks that I thought could use it. Kathy and Pete just added something that I couldn’t, and Focksy … well, Focksy’s just a freak of musical nature, so I’d have been mad to not use him somehow. Again, it’s hard to get people to play for nothing for you on a promise, so kudos and love to those guys for backing my vision when I had nothing to offer besides a jam and a beer.

For the next album I hope to use more varied contributors of all kinds, but that’s a way off yet.

Crazy John: If you had no money to pay people, how did you record the album?

Huge: It’s a problem. The whole thing was recorded in my lounge room or garage on a laptop with Pro Tools and a Digi002. Except the lead guitars. I managed to persuade the local primary (sorry, elementary) school to let me use their music room in exchange for me running sound at their end-of-year concert, so that helped. Wish I’d done the drums in that room but there you go … it was cheap.

I also persuaded a couple of sound engineer mates to help out on the same basis as the performers. That made life easier … credit to them, too.

Crazy John: How does such a variety of material come together as an identity?

Huge: Well, the identity is pretty much mine. A friend recently called me the “king of quirk” and most of the stuff fits that personality. I’m not real good at sappy love songs or R&B attitude. But the other driving force behind the title was my despair at the way bands are marketed as one thing or the other – as though they’re like that all the time, you know? Life’s not like that, I’m not like that. I like a huge variety of music, depending on my mood and my attitude at the time and I wanted to make an album that reflects that. You know, when I found out that AC/DC’s Brian Johnson writes love songs for Celine Dion, and that one of Britney Spears’ biggest hits was written by a 40-odd-year-old man, I just lost any faith in that sort of artistic expression. I mean, it’s all marketing at that point, and I’m not interested in being “J-Lo real”, you know?

To me, life’s about ups and downs, and it’s about sex, drugs and the results of both of those in hangovers and kids (laughs), so I wanted to take people on a journey through all of life, not just the marketable bits. And life comes in many genres, you know? One day you’re rocking and the next you’re scoobin’ out in reggae land. Sometimes my life is literally like a country song. Hence the name of the project.

Of course, not all of it will appeal to everybody. Some of it is waaay out there, sonically. But in this day and age of one-track-at-a-time downloads, I figure people can take the bits they relate to and ignore the rest. I guess to some extent this was an album designed to work one-track-at-a-time. Sort of an anti-concept album (laughs).

Crazy John: And are there more genres to try out?

Huge: Sure. I’m really bad at rapping, but at IMC Philly I met some really cool guys, Tah Phrum Duh Bush and Coole High from Brooklyn, who are only too happy to help me out with that. Sometimes hip-hop is the only way to effectively express what you’re about and while all I got down here was 50 Cent and Eminem I always wondered what the fuss was about with “hip hop”. The Brooklyn guys opened my eyes and made me see what it’s really about, so I want to express some things that way and they’re happy to help out. I can’t wait for that.

I also want to get a bit more rocky in some places. I come from a love of ZZ Top, Whitesnake and Van Halen, so that whole rock thing is closer to my heart than the first album would indicate. That said, I’m working on a tribute to Prince, too, ‘cause that guy is something special.

Look, I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I don’t want to have all the answers – it’s too much work. I’m not Dylan or Springsteen. This project is open to suggestions from anywhere – if I like the idea it gets a Guernsey. Hit me with it!

[ends]

How cool is that!

There's also something in "The Local Bulletin" for my local area, but I have yet to read that because it's not delivered to me ...  [sniff]

We're going live with a splash at The Alley Bar, 2 Frew St, Milton!

We're on Friday night at 7pm with Yield, Triplickit, A Date with Apathy and Lord Byron. Doors open 5.30.

Then we're on Sunday night at 5pm with Fasttrak to Eurphoria and The Room! Doors open 4.30.

The GBs lineup will be a duo: Huge on acoustic guitars and stompbox and Gumby on Bass and percussion. We're playing most of the material on the first album plus a few newbies. Huge has made up some special shirts to commemorate the gig.

Much celebration, boogying and giveaways will ensue. Make sure you're at The Alley Bar, 2 Frew St, Milton at least once this weekend!

Got the review of our debut CD and Huge's solo shows at IMC. See the reviews section for the full text, but my personal highlight:

"He's such an amazing performer he can even get stones to dance!"

Thanks, Rachel from Pennsylvania Musician, Magazine!

Huge will be playing a couple of acoustic spots at the Independent Music Conference in Philadelphia on August 30 and 31. If you're nearby, get on down and see the show - he's closing the night, so get in and enjoy the night secure in the knowledge that it will end with a flash ...

I am leaving! I am leaving is now available on iTunes here:





Enjoy!

Well, the opening track has, anyway. It's now available for sale from CDBaby and I've uploaded it to Last.fm and Amie Street. That's where it was recommended - how cool is that!

I'm working on getting it to Garageband.com, but that seems to take a lot longer - one track at a time and lots of conditions on the uploads ...

OK, it's being replicated, so if you want to pre-order the CD, please do so here using the PayPal shopping facility. If you'd like to hear it before you buy, click on "Music" above.

For people ordering the CD who want it posted to an Australian address:

For people who are ordering and want it posted to an overseas address (sorry, the postage is more expensive):

To see what you've ordered in your Paypal shopping cart:

With a bit of luck the CD will be available from CDBaby very soon and from iTunes, etc soon thereafter. I understand if you want to wait, but this is a chance to get in early and get one of the first copies ....

This site is now up and running, and the debut CD has been mastered. Thanks to Hostbaby and Matthew Gray Mastering for their superb efforts over the past few days.

The next challenges are to reproduce and distribute the CDs - that's happening in Hughie's garage - and to rehearse up a live set and get out there gigging!

More info on ordering, etc in the next little while.