7 posts tagged “music”

For my son John's birthday I ordered a Minimum Theremin kit from Harrison Instruments. I was inspired by seeing Bre Pettis make one in the Make Weekend Project Podcast. I came and over a  few days we soldered and assembled it.
It is pretty neat to get a printed circuit board and a bunch of parts and solder them together to create a unique musical instrument. In order to complete the project I bought a soldering iron and I was able to get a piece of sheet metal from my dad, who also made a wooden stand for it.
The kit has all of the parts nicely sorted into plastic baggies and is clearly labelled which made it quite easy to assemble. It's not a beginners kit, but I was patient and John and it only took a few hours to assemble since we took our time.
The Theremin is an odd instrument. You've probably heard one on the soundtrack of vintage sci-fi films or in the Beach Boys song, "Good Vibrations". The Minimum Theremin doesn't have the pitch and volume controls of a full, traditional Theremin, but only has the antenna for controlling the pitch. You stand in front of it and move your hand close to the antenna. The closer you get, the higher the pitch. I need to practise with it to get better and John is a bit better than me. At the end of this post is a 47 second recording of me playing (I just plugged the Theremin into my MacBook Pro and recorded it). I want to build some more stuff now!

Tracing the series of events that lead to things can be interesting.
A few years ago someone studied Screen Arts and I found out that they had kids and that her partner was a musician. I was able to listen to his music and Catherine made a cool music video for one of the songs as well.

She stayed in touch with me and let me know about the launch of the new CD with the new combo which is Fresia and the Offsprings with Eric Fresia and two of their kids, Charlotte and Samuel.
The timing was perfect as it was happening just as my summer vacation was starting, so my son John and I would have our first summer adventure at the CD launch. There were camping facilities available, so I packed up the tent and our sleeping bags so we could set them up if we decided to stay. The weather was calling for rain, so I wasn't sure if we'd camp or not.
We started out after lunch and got a coffee and ginger beer for the trip up. We stopped for gas in Truro and I thought that I'd refill the windshield washer fluid. The gas wasn't a problem, but the hood wouldn't open. I became quite focussed on opening the hood, and it eventually opened. After the fluid was filled, I dropped the hood down and it didn't latch. Hmm. I hadn't thought through the whole process, so now the hood wouldn't stay down. It looked like the wire that releases the latch was broken, so I cleaned around the latch (it was covered with some dirt) and eventually managed to get it to stay and we were back on the road again.
It rained on and off for the rest of the journey, so I figured that we wouldn't set up the tent. The Bussiere - Fresia homestead is in the community of Beckwith, which is just outside of the blueberry capital of Canada, Oxford, Nova Scotia. We sailed through Oxford and drove down the very muddy driveway to find a beautiful house, studio, greenhouse, outdoor stage, sauna, pond and outhouses. While it was too rainy and damp for the outdoor stage to be used, the instruments and speakers were set up in the studio, which was very cozy.
The band started to play as everyone gathered in the studio and they went through the songs on the CD mostly in order. It was great and most people were smiling the whole time. It rained very hard outside, but as the first set ended, the rain did as well. Then after a break where people chatted, kids played, swam, and warmed up in the sauna, the fire was started to make sure that there would be a bed of coals after the second set for cooking hot dogs and marshmallows.
The second set was shorter and had some covers and then the kids got bored and Charlotte slipped out to play. Sam then left to kick the soccer ball around and Eric did a few more songs with some assistance from the audience. Then John got up and performed a few magic tricks. It was his first time in front of a microphone and he took to it like a duck to water. His patter had the audience laughing and paying attention to his skillful prestidigitation. I was very proud and I think that he got a kick out of it too.
Now it was time to roast marshmallows and have great conversations into the night. Eventually it was time to hit the road for the trip home and with a bit of light rain falling we popped the CD in and made the journey home. John was very tired and was asleep before the CD hit the halfway point.
The trip home was uneventful except for a raccoon that crossed the road, but I saw it soon enough to slow down and avoid it. We pulled in with everyone else in the house asleep and I tucked John into bed and then slid into bed myself and fell asleep right away. All in all it was the perfect way to start the summer.

I like the symmetry of posting 12 hours later after I left my room in the Mount Allison University residence to head back over for the final stretch of Sappyfest. I talked with a few people tonight who were 'festivaled out' and were exhausted. But just when you would feel tired you would hear some great music or meet some neat people and your energy would come back. Walking back from George's Roadhouse where the marathon show was held tonight all sorts of music and memories washed over me as I listened to the wind rustle through the leaves. I felt guilty at times because it seemed that everyone was giving so much, from the organizers, to the artists to the volunteers who put in many long hours. The whole weekend was great with a remarkable combination of generosity, talent, and relaxation that I think is the sap that runs through Sappy Records, which consists of Julie, Jon and Paul. They've captured something wonderful and they shared it with the world and I'm so happy that I was able to be a part of it and I can't wait to see what's next for them.

The slogan for Sappy Records is "Win or Lose with Sappy Records, Again & Again" and this weekend is definitely a winning one. It's been a bit overwhelming at times with the talent spilling out onto the streets of Sackville with a diverse range of music and art and wonderful people. I switched yesterday from 'transmit' to 'receive' to soak up all the amazing sun and talent, which is what I'm doing today as well. I'll have to share more of my experiences later since I don't want to miss anything.

Sitting in the Vogue Theatre before the show with the reunion of Eric's Trip at the end. It's a great, small old theatre which is a good place to end day one of my adventure here.

Night is falling and the final performance before the night show is about to start. Great shows and much more to come.

I'm in Sackville, New Brunswick at the Sappy Records festival. Things started with a great small set by Julie Doiron with some of her songs from her 'broken girl' albums. Then Al Tuck played a set. While I was buying a cd and t.shirt Julie said, 'buy that one too, it won a Juno.' Of course I bought it. It's a tiny bit wet outside, but lots of fun is only beginning.