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Music Village® Tuesdays : Hear About The New Platform ft.Special Guest
Recorded: May 20, 2025 Duration: 1:06:12Space Recording
Short Summary
The Music Village initiative aims to transform the music industry by launching a new audio platform that fosters live conversations and addresses industry challenges, while also exploring innovative revenue streams for artists through technology and AI.
Full Transcription
Thank you. Hello everyone, welcome to the space of Music Village.
And this is going to be a networking space and we're going to try and be here every week
at the same time.
So stick it on the calendar and the goal is to create a networking space and we've got
some very special guests coming.
We're going to give information about the new platform, Music Village, what the goals are, what we're doing, why are we here, why are we talking about it.
And look, the people are coming in.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Music Village.
Going to let people, if anyone would like to come up, this is an open space.
We've got Ken coming up and we've got special
guest Esther coming up as well but welcome to the stage M&A IBIS
hello Edward it's great to be here hey Esther welcome welcome to the first
music filled space thanks for coming thanks for setting this up as well.
Well, I'm really excited to see what you have in store for us today.
Yeah, me too.
I'm excited and a little nervous to see how it goes as well.
So I'm sure the proof is in the pudding and all that.
So, yeah, a little bit of information.
This is all designed to lead to the launch of a new music platform, which is my project. And the goal is to replace the music industry. It's a lofty goal. And I don't expect it to be easy or quick. But you plant the seeds, you build to it.
to it and Music Village is going to be an audio replacement for Twitter spaces. That is our
competition and it's to then move towards the music industry. So that's a brief summary. I'm
Edward. I'm the guy behind it I guess you could say. Esther who is wonderful. She introduced me
to the fantastic Ken who is coming up I think. Everyone welcome we've got Suzanne Niles welcome to the stage
good to see you Suzanne
Suzanne is great to have
I think you're live.
I think.
We've got Michael coming up as well.
That's great.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think so.
Hello.
Hey, Michael.
It's Ken Capabianco.
Edward, it's Ken.
Ken!
I'm trying to connect here, so I am doing it the back route here.
Got you. That's perfect. Yeah, well, you're upstage here, Ken. So thanks
for coming up. Yeah. Ken, it is. Go ahead. I'm sorry. It's just, I'm doing it the back
room because I could not get into this through my account. So I do it through Michael Durant.
So this is me. That's great. We're figuring it out as we go along. So yeah, Ken, thanks so much for coming.
Ken is the special guest of the first week. Ken is an industry, a music veteran.
And really, so if you see Michael, that's Ken. He's obviously had a problem, so he's using a different account.
So yeah, Ken, would you like to introduce yourself?
Sure.
You know, yeah, please do.
I'm Ken Capabianco. I have been a music critic for the Boston Globe billboard.
I've written for the New York Times. I've written for many, many newspapers, magazines. I've been a
music critic veteran, and right now I'm writing a lot about jazz and other artists. And I have
been in the industry for many years, over three decades. And I have I'm basically at this point, I interview a lot of musicians.
I'm still very tuned into a lot of new music and I just cover, I cover the spectrum from
hip hop, soul, R&B, rock and roll. And I just am someone who has spent a lot of time
in the music industry and seen thousands of shows
and interviewed thousands of artists.
So basically I've been someone who's been tuned
into the music scene for many years.
Absolutely fantastic.
Yeah, amazing.
And when we spoke, and this was thanks to Esther,
who's just, I'm happy to say I accepted the co-host invite there. So if you want to invite
anyone else up on stage, Esther, you've got the power to there with that. And we should
have a similar functionality with Music Village as well, which one day I hope that us guys will be in Music Village
talking rather than Twitter Spaces, but for now we can't do that because it's not yet live.
But the goal is to create a new music industry, really, through the power of live conversation
and then figure out what needs fixing and then basically discuss it and then fix it.
That's the goal so that's really the thinking of this space specifically so what do you think about the music industry today Ken compared to you know
when you maybe first got into it quite a few years ago now what how has it
changed and what do you think is missing? It's a completely different industry. People can record a song or make a video in their bedroom
and it can reach the world, I mean, at this point.
And people have much more control than in years past.
And, I mean, obviously that means there's a lot of bad music that is out there, but there's
a lot of, there's a lot of very good music that never would get heard because the tastemakers
didn't select them. And a lot of people can reach the industry. Of course, AI technology has changed the industry completely. And so it's rapidly evolving. I think there's a lot of great music today, but a lot of it doesn't get platformed because like years ago, a lot of money pushes a lot of artists still and the people who are pushed by certain companies or, you know,
media, and they always have to step up. But I mean, as long as if people want to find good music,
they can look anywhere. And it's available to you. You just have to search it. You know, anybody who says
the music today is not as good is wrong. I mean, there's a lot of great music, but you have to find
it. That is interesting. Yeah. So you think that the music today is as good as the past?
It depends. It depends on what people are
interested in. I mean, it really does. I mean, for rock and roll, obviously, there is less,
there's just a less rock, there's less amount of rock and roll at this point, the less guitars,
and there are people just, I mean, it's not the music of the time, but I mean, for, for hip hop rap, certainly,
I mean, obviously, I mean, whether or not we think hip hop or rap is ever going to match
the nineties, you know, at the time of Nas's beginning, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest,
you know, Mobb Deep and all that. Well, that's a different story.
But, you know, it's still vital music, of course, being made, you know, in jazz, in pop.
But, yeah, obviously, it's just a totally different model.
You know, the music industry is a completely different model, especially with the rise of technology.
So, you know, it depends on what people are looking for.
Yeah, sure. I definitely wish I had lived in the Pink Floyd era of the 70s, I guess.
Yeah, sure, sure. Of course, the years of Pink Floyd, I mean, you know, if we go back to the 70s, you know, that was a time in which Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, you know, Led Zeppelin, the ends of Led Zeppelin was, they all existed.
Bruce Springsteen, everybody was, everybody was working.
And there was a Stevie Wonder, you Wonder, Marvin Gaye. It was a confluence of different sounds.
It was very, very eclectic at that time. It was different. When you consider that Stevie Wonder
could be played next to, at that time, on radio and people were paying attention to Stevie Wonder and Pink Floyd, you know, at the same time.
So that doesn't happen today.
So it's a little bit different.
It's quite a different, you know, I mean,
obviously in the 60s, the 60s were even more eclectic,
but we're talking about that's a half a century ago.
You know, I mean, when you put it in perspective, you know, we think about bands like Pink Floyd,
but that was incredibly long time ago when you consider it.
So we have to put everything in perspective.
Yeah, one of my personal dreams would be if Pink Floyd reformed. I still believe that
that's possible. That would get the music industry.
Yeah, I wonder if the personalities though, I don't know if the personalities would, Waters
and Gilmore and all, I don't know if that will ever happen at this point. But you know,
musically it certainly can always happen so who knows yeah with the right energy they did it 2005 was it they did the live eight yeah that's right yeah
yeah yeah and the right money and the right money at this point right it's going to take
always takes a lot of money it always takes money to get these guys back together.
Yeah, it's all.
Yeah, please go ahead.
No, I just say, at this point, money pretty much, what used to happen, like Woodstock would never happen today, only because the amount of money.
Jimi Hendrix got paid $18,000 to play Woodstock.
So, you know, and those kinds of festivals,
you know, it's impossible to host any,
with a slew of acts of prominence
because it's too expensive.
I wonder what that is in today's money, 18,000.
Yeah.
From what, 69?
I don't know.
I don't know what the inflation rate would be from 1969,
so I'm not really sure what that would be.
But if you can imagine,
I think Joan Baez got paid $10,000.
They got paid peanuts at that time.
So it's a, and then now it would be in the, at that time, you know, so it's a, it's a, you know,
and then now it would be in, in the millions, the multi-millions, you know, so, you know, so,
yeah, I, I, I don't know, so it's just, it's just too difficult, but I mean, if we're talking about,
or, you know, bands, you know, reuniting, or older bands, even, even modern bands, you know,
older bands, even modern bands, you know, reuniting.
Maybe bands that were popular in the 90s, you know,
who either broke up or whatever or just, you know,
have been on the down low.
It would cost a lot of money.
So I don't know.
I mean, it depends.
It depends on what kind of music people are interested in.
That's the problem.
Yeah, jump in, Suzanne.
Is your mic working?
I couldn't quite hear you before.
We've got the great Suzanne Niles up here on stage and she's obviously from the Authenticity
Institute which has made this possible.
And so, yeah, she's, it looks like it sounds coming out but it's not, I'm not hearing it,
so it's a bit strange. But yeah, so a little bit of background about this space is Esther, fantastic Esther, introduced me to Ken.
And we spoke, when was it last week?
Last week, yes.
Yeah, exactly it was.
And it was a great chat.
And I was fascinated by what Ken was talking about.
And I thought, wow, I'd love to host a space with Ken and you know find out a bit more about him really so yeah it'll be really interesting
to see how this rolls and flows and how it grows but I definitely think there's a place for
musicians to meet and that's the goal of Music village is to create an audio metaverse where musicians can meet
and network and oh michael's that so john uh ken's accepted i should say uh so i didn't realize it
yeah yeah so what what's your favorite music i guess you probably is that the sort of question you get asked like five times a week in your job? Yeah, I guess so.
But I love I'm a very big Prince fan.
I mean, I've always been a Prince fan.
And but I mean, I am a big fan of R&B.
Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, D'angelo um uh marvin gay otis redding um you know percy mayfield all
those guys uh and you know women i am a very big fan of course i i've written a lot about hip-hop
over the years a great deal like uh in the 90s in the um in the 2000s um and and i i don't write about it as much
now um because it's just been evolving so fast but i mean uh i you know i've written about uh
the wu-tang clan i mean every everybody's wu-tang clan and uh um naz and obviously rock him rock um, Nas, obviously Rakim. Rakim is my favorite. I think Rakim is the greatest, uh, rapper in,
in ever. And it's my, that's, that's from my perspective. Um, but I, I, I like, of course,
and I grew up on rock and roll. So, I mean, it, I, I like all music to be honest with you,
but, um, I, I really have a particular love of R and B. Yeah.
I really have a particular love of R&B, yeah.
Cool.
Could I just get a name check on that rapper?
R-A-K-I-M.
R-A-K-I-M.
Eric B. and Rakim.
They were very, very prominent in the late 80s,
in the early 90s.
And Rakim basically invented I mean he basically invented flow I mean he
he's he changed he changed rap music um and uh he is he's created the jazz flow that uh everybody
is uh kind of co-opted uh internal rhymes external rhymes he he really changed um hip-hop and uh you know paid in full and follow the leader
those records are seminal records and i think everything obviously uh has evolved but uh you
really will not have guys like i mean naz is basically um his his his metaphorically his stepson because naz it sounds a lot like rakim but he uh
everybody eminem every everyone who came after him really refers back to rakim ultimately and uh
he's he's a similar rapper and now obviously uh he's been lost in the shuffle because he really didn't.
Once his peak ended, he did not continue.
You know, guys like Jay-Z and other artists obviously, you know, made billions.
But he ended up, you know, he's in New York.
He's a New York guy.
And he really, to me uh and i think to many people
he he changed hip-hop music
that's really cool i i always i knew about grandmaster flash i'm not the biggest hit
that's right yeah same era yeah right grandmaster flash was uh obviously the ground floor that's the
ground floor of uh interesting story ground floor of an interesting story.
I'll tell you an interesting story.
I saw The Clash.
I'm older.
So I was old enough to see The Clash.
And I saw The Clash on Broadway.
And it was a wild show.
But they had Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five five opening if you can believe it uh and uh they
uh opened and the crowd was booing them and uh it was wild because they really wanted to showcase
hip-hop you know those the uh the clash obviously were way ahead of their time and uh they showcased
hip-hop and grandmaster flash and they booing. But they ultimately won the crowd over.
You know.
But it was tough.
People were throwing things.
The crowd just wasn't into it.
But, yeah.
That's what I remember.
And, obviously, the clash came out.
And, you know, tore the roof off the place.
But it was a memorable thing.
But it does show you how, at that time, you know, the rock and roll guys were trying to promote rap music, you know.
So, yeah, yeah. So it's quite interesting.
That's quite a show, The Clash featuring Grandmaster Clash. Wow.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Clash was a tremendous, tremendous live band. They were a great live band.
I had Joe Strummer.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, and for a lot of people who don't listen, I mean, for a lot of people who may not know rock and roll and don't know, you know, rock and roll from the past, the Clash, were basically, you know, the, the, one of the seminal, uh, uh, latter day punk bands, you know, I mean, and rock and roll bands, they
would ultimately became just, you know, so, and they were, they were a huge force in rock
and roll, so, uh, because I know a lot of people today don't, don't know the rock and
roll of the past, so I don't know what people are interested in.
I'm not sure what other people are listening to.
Here's one.
Do you think that the loss of physical media,
whether it's CDs, vinyl, mini-discs, whatever,
do you think that severed people's ability
to sort of connect to music from the past?
Oh, absolutely. Yes. Yes. No doubt. Yeah.
I mean, I think it's a problem because, you know, I, I, I, obviously I think there, there is a pocket
of music fans today that appreciate what is now called classic rock or classic punk, you know, whatever. I mean, that's like an oxymoron
because, you know, punk was about tearing things down and remaking everything and they didn't want
icons. So, but yeah, I mean, I think there's a pocket of music fans today that listen to older
music, but I do think the loss of physical media, the loss of holding the album and making it yours, that was the value in the old time.
That was your music.
You held on to the vinyl.
And I guess later in the 90s, whatever the CD.
Now it's all online. You go on Spotify or Apple Music and it's just part of the internet. You don't really have it. So you don't identify with it as much.
Now it's all online.
You know, and some people, there are some artists out there in which there's this intense identification with the artists today. So it's still there. But certainly in the past, if you're talking about the past music, yeah, I mean, I think that's a reality.
And when Bob Dylan's movie, the movie on Bob Dylan came out, A Complete Unknown, and you had this resurgence online can generate interest in the past and uh and
artists like bob dylan or or folk music which has pretty much gone out of fashion at this point
um but uh there is or let's say a song is played on a television series like Stranger Things or The Last of Us or whatever.
And what happens is people who watch it, you know, young people or whomever may be watching, all of a sudden are, who is that band?
Who is that band? Who is that? And they go out and find it.
Who is that?
And they go out and find it.
So there are all ways to connect with past music.
Yeah, I've got this theory that digital music,
going to digital only was a big mistake in my opinion,
because it, yeah, it takes the ownership of the music away.
And physically holding it, I think, is a real important thing. So I feel it's inevitable that
that comes back. I don't think it was a movement to digital and that's it. I feel that it will go
back to physical. But the question is, in in what form i'm thinking it could be vinyl
i'm not completely sure someone might invent something like someone could invent a form of
vinyl that could store four hours instead of 40 minutes right yeah then we're onto something but
yeah i can't believe there's only 40 minutes on a vinyl i only realized the other day that was
yeah right i mean uh it's it's funny because uh that's funny because albums were 45 minutes. That was basically what albums were. And obviously the rise of the CD led to people who were able to make 70 minutes worth of music or 80 minutes or whatever.
70 minutes worth of music
or 80 minutes or whatever.
And ultimately, it led to a decline in quality
because they figured, oh, I can make 80 minutes.
I'll just throw everything on there.
So you had 80 minutes of not very good.
When you think about all the great records
that are not double albums,
they are very tight.
They're very...
So, I mean, they're 40 minutes, half hour. So I agree with
you that the physical media may come back, but I think it has to be affordable. You know, albums
now are $30. I don't, I, I used to go to, I mean, stores years ago, and if I wanted to buy like five either albums or CDs, I could do it.
You can't buy, you know, if you're buying five vinyl records now, it's $150.
It's a lot of money.
It's a lot of money.
Yeah.
I remember buying CDs like in the 90s.
I'd buy probably two or three a week or maybe not every week,
but it wouldn't be uncommon for me to be like, oh, I'll buy a few of them.
There'd be singles too.
You know, a CD with just one song.
CD single.
Yeah.
So, I mean, but yeah, you've got to do it cheaper though.
And like you said, and so there aren't a lot of choices.
I kind of picture thumb drives.
I mean, it's not really, it doesn't scale that well.
An individual musician could make their own, like, one-off a rarity.
But pen drives with music on, CDs, vinyls, I'm not sure.
There's maybe something.
I don't know that that would have to be the,
that would be the technology people have to figure that out.
I don't know. That's not, that's not my field.
So I'm not really sure, but yeah, I mean, that has to be a way,
but I do agree that having physical media i mean whether it i mean the same
thing with a book you know i mean it's uh a book uh when you hold a book it it's yours uh so i mean
with uh music that's what it was uh and i i know now uh even though there is a vinyl comeback now, but for a lot of people, vinyl, they don't know, they really don't own them.
They don't own any albums.
And so they don't associate with them.
So the industry would have to change dramatically because the, the,
they make too much money now because all they got to do is,
is have a platform in which the artists get paid nothing for streams.
Basically they make no money artists, you know, young artists.
I know a lot of young artists who are on spotify and and they they
complain that they can't make a living so they have to go play shows sell merchandise and do
uh as much touring as possible and uh that's a that's a problem for all young artists. They sell merch.
Yeah, for sure. And that's really where I want Music Village to come in
is to provide revenue streams to musicians.
And I think that one of the revenue streams
will be musicians in a band, let's say.
Let's say the Arctic Monkeys,
but maybe not the best example,
because they're already rich, but something like that, them discussing their new album that
they're working on live in a basically a $2 per entry, you get to listen to the band talking about,
you know, when the Beatles recorded, was it Love Me Do or not Love Me Do, Let It Be,
there was all that famous footage of them filming it.
And that's come out recently.
Imagine if you could hear live the Beatles talking about the music making process when it happened for, you know, two dollars per fan.
I feel like that's a revenue stream.
Yeah, sure.
Tap into.
So, yeah.
Always possible.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, It's always the possibilities of platforms.
You don't know.
Esther, welcome back to the stage.
I don't know if your mic's working yet, Suzanne.
If you guys want to jump in at any point and ask him a question.
Please jump in.
Can you hear me? Yeah, loud and clear It's nice to
have you here, really amazing
to give you
useful insights and
all the knowledge you've garnered
over the years about music
Thank you Thank you. Thank you.
At the beginning, you mentioned AI,
and everyone is talking about AI,
the generative AI and large language models.
So what do you think about AI in the music scene?
And how do you think
it's going to happen
20 years from now?
I think you just broke up there
just for a second
just when you started to ask it.
Could you ask it again?
Okay.
In the beginning,
can you mention AI?
So everyone is talking about AI
and generative AI and LLMs. So what do you think
the role of AI will be and how will it affect the music scene and industry in the next 10 to 20 years
from now? Oh, I think it will. I think I really do believe this. When I spoke to Edward last week, we talked a little bit about the evolution, the AI, because we are not really going to be sure if we're listening to, and even though with auto-tune and all the tricks that they do in the studio, we don't know at this point who we're listening to sometimes.
Because as I told Edward last week, and I think it's really instructive,
I was shuffling through YouTube, and I'm going to tell this story again
because it blew me away.
I was shuffling through YouTube and I came across this video of a young R&B singer and
I clicked on it because I'm always looking for new music and I clicked on it and the
video, she's a very beautiful woman and she she's singing, and it's interesting,
but it was kind of monochromatic vocal.
And about halfway through, I realized it's not a real person.
It's AI.
It's an AI-generated song with AI-generated image on the video,
you know, undulating video. I mean, it was a robot voice uh you know undulating video robot voice
it was a vocal voice and i was like and there are people commenting on underneath and what a great
vocal what a what a wonderful musician and i'm laughing i'm like this is ai for god's sake so
clapping. I'm like, this is AI for God's sake. So it was pretty funny. So I think we're going
to encounter a lot of that now in which we're, you know, there might be an artist who's not
really an artist, but it might be just, you know, technology for all we know. It's a possibility.
And I do think obviously AI will change how things are recorded and other modes of the industry.
So I do think we're in for a change, a major change, and not all of it good.
So I don't know.
But I do think that ultimately we're going to see a seismic change in the history because of AI.
But it's going to be a huge change in all of our culture.
Because I think AI is something that has barely tapped into.
We've barely tapped into, and I think it's just going to change the world.
All right, thank you. Is that Esther? just going to change the world.
All right.
Is that Esther?
Was that Esther?
Yes,
that was weekend.
Esther.
hey,
hey,
good to talk to you.
Oh my goodness.
All right.
Great.
Wow. I'm happy. Yeah. Yeah. Same you. Oh, my goodness. All right. Great. Wow, I'm happy to talk to you. Yeah, same here.
Oh, that's so nice.
I didn't know.
I wasn't sure it was you.
Fantastic to talk to you.
I'm very happy to hear you.
Yeah, same.
No, go ahead.
I'm sorry.
No, I have another question.
I know you are a huge hip-hop and R&B fan. So what do you think about the quality of hip-hop artists? Because I grew up listening to a lot of rappers. What do you think of the quality of rap in the 80s, 90s to what we have now with Kendrick, Drake, and a lot of new generation rappers.
What do you think of the quality of the lyrics?
I think that there are some great MCs today.
Unquestionably great MCs today.
Kendrick, Rhapsody.
I love Vince Staples.
I like J. Cole.
I like a lot of different rappers i think though that
the quality of lyricism um and obviously kendrick is going to go down as one of the greatest ever
um unquestionably but i think that the quality of lyricism is not as, and Rakim, as I mentioned,
but a lot of the rappers, they had a message,
you know, the old song, The Message,
which obviously goes way, way back.
But I mean, they were talking about something.
Now, a lot of the, there's very, I mean,
I can't, other than Kendrick maybe and Rhapsody and a few other artists, there aren't people who are talking about
the human condition and the struggle, the struggle of life and politics and society.
And I think that's the problem now is that people are more concerned about the
brand.
They're more concerned about selling watches and other things than actually
saying something that might be a little bit controversial.
When you listen to public enemy,
if you listen to the old school public enemy,
they were saying they were really,
really powerful.
And they were saying some things really really powerful and they were saying some things
that were shaking up society and you'd never see that anymore so i think there are some good
lyricists but they got so a lot of them have nothing to say all they talk about is women
making money and and that's fine and that's fine if it's turn up music if it's just for party music it's great but i think the origins
of hip-hop were rooted in uh in the great poetry of langston hughes and nikki giovanni and all the
great you know black poets uh americ black american poets and who were really talking about
the class struggle um racism and a lot of different class struggle, racism, and a lot of
different things. And that's where a lot of early hip hop was at. So it's a very different thing.
More today, it's more about selling whatever merchandise and whatever they wanted. So it's
a different thing. Even though people like Hendrick, again, I will say,
really, and J. Cole, they have plenty to say, you know, so I just think it's a different,
different, you know, there's a difference between making rhymes and actually saying something.
So that's what I would say.
So that's what I would say.
See if Suzanne can, she's left and joined, left and rejoined.
Ah, yeah, it's, you there, Suzanne?
Thank you so much for the brilliant response.
Oh, Esther, of course.
Yes, absolutely.
I don't know how brilliant it was, but it was a response.
No, I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
No, I just, I think we, you know, it's, you know, music is constantly evolving and, you know, whether or not it's as good as in the past, it's up, I guess it's up to people, but it really does mean a lot to figure out, you know, what's the import for our culture today.
Edward, can you hear me now? This is Suzanne.
Oh, yes. Yes.
You can hear me?
Yes.
Yes, I can hear you, Suzanne.
Oh, boy, I've been working the whole time trying to get my audio settings right on this computer.
time trying to get my audio settings right on this computer. I'm dying to speak. And
I'm dying to speak.
do you know who Bill Shenneman was?
Yes.
I was married to him for 10 years.
Oh, really? Wow.
So I had a, but it was after his heyday of rock and roll engineering and producing.
But I did get to spend some time in the studio with some more recent projects.
And we lived right down the street from Blue Jay Recording in Carlisle, Massachusetts.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
So I was dying to just check in with you and see if you knew him.
And as you may know, he passed away a couple of years ago. But boy, would he love to be in on this conversation.
Wow. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
My goodness. Yeah. So you're a Massachusetts person?
Yes, I. Yes, I am.
I lived in Boston for many years.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'm Massachusetts, yeah.
I mean, I was a Bostonian for most of my life.
Yeah.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah.
Well, I came here to college and never left.
I was raised in suburban Detroit a long time ago. I'm definitely
New England now. Oh my goodness. It's a totally different world in New England. I'm actually on
the West Coast. I'm out in Long Beach, California. So I spent most of my life in Boston. I've been
in all the music clubs. I know this is going to be,
this is, for everybody else in the conversation here,
they're going to be wondering,
oh, what does this mean to us?
But yeah, I mean, Boston's a great music scene.
One of the great music scenes in the country.
Produced a lot of great bands.
Morphine, you know, the Lemonheads,
and obviously Aerosmith, and many, many other bands, and great rappers.
I mean, Guru from Gangstar originally was born in Roxbury, Dorchester.
When you guys were talking about vinyl, I have an anecdote that I'd like to tell about vinyl.
And this was back when, oh, probably almost 10 years ago now,
when Bear and I were living under the same,
Bill Shenaman and I were living under the same room.
His nickname is Bear, so if I call him that by mistake.
He had the fanciest audio setup in his own room, including two six-foot tall speakers. I forget the brand, but they were gigantic speakers.
So he and what he called audio hoses, the audio cables were like three quarters of an inch in diameter.
Anyway, you probably know what I mean.
He had the whole thing and, you know,
and my son, his stepson at the time, you know,
they would have this little discussions
about MP3 digital versus or CDs versus vinyl. versus vinyl so you know it was a topic of discussion
and uh so one time one day and he had a listening chair set up in his room that was measured you
know the fraction of an inch correctly positioned from those two speakers so the stereo image would be perfect if you sat in that chair and so
he's he said hey let's set up a comparison and so we took one of his favorite
james taylor albums he had a cd and a vinyl and of course he had the fanciest greatest
a vinyl and of course he had the fanciest greatest turntable you could imagine with
the best you know needle and every the whole thing it's okay listen let's try
something so he sat my son down in the chair well we'll skip that he said me
down in the chair first well second but anyway so we were sitting in the chair
where the stereo image was perfect everything was perfect perfect perfect and he played
the CD and he played the same song on the vinyl and you could hear the
difference with that with that setup so when I hear people arguing about digital versus vinyl versus analog. It depends on what you're listening
to it on and you can hear the difference. I mean, you know, the proponents and lovers
of vinyl will say, you know, it's analog. You got the whole thing in those grooves.
You got all the dynamics. You got all all the details you got everything it's in that groove and digital just you know samples all the all the stuff anyway so i'm just
telling you that i have heard with my own ears the difference between cd and vinyl and there is a
difference but if you have to listen to it on equipment that can do justice to the analog.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
I heard it with my own ears.
I heard it.
I know what people are talking about.
Absolutely. kind of relevant revelatory because you can hear the nuances the details the the minute uh differences
in sound uh on the vinyl and and that all a lot of that gets lost in the cd that's right but if
you don't have the the high-end uh you know ability to hear it you you won't care right
and a lot of people don't have that kind of equipment
though oh my god nobody almost nobody does no one does exactly exactly yeah yeah yeah that's the
funny thing uh that uh you know obviously it's always an economic issue uh ultimately it's always
an economic issue uh whether or not you can appreciate those kind of things.
But I don't think there's any doubt there is a difference.
And you know what's interesting is that there are a lot of people trying to bring back cassettes now.
Oh, I have another story.
Yes.
About cassettes.
I bought a cassette player from, oh, I can't remember.
You probably know the name of the place in the Boston area.
And I don't know why I went there, but I needed a cassette player and I wanted a
good one because I was recording.
Oh, I know why it's because I was recording student musicians at our local high
school and there was a virtuoso oboe player.
And I was recording some of his stuff
just as a favor to the family.
And there was some funny stuff going on in the cassette.
I was recording it on cassette with a Sony Pro Walkman,
which is a kind of a high-end compact pocket-sized thing.
That's really good. Anyway,
and there was some funny stuff going on in the high end.
And I, you know, I thought, Oh, maybe I need a better player,
you know, set player. So I found this place,
this high-end audio place in some place in Boston, western suburbs of Boston.
And I can't remember the guy's name who was there.
But he said, and he told me, he said, you know, I've got a deck here.
It was, oh, I could pick it out on multiple choice, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
That he said that he had it calibrated and adjusted and set up perfectly.
And he told me and he believed, and I believed him,
that you could get similar audio quality, analog audio quality,
from a magnetic tape if you have the right equipment.
Are you following me? Does that make sense to you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I bought that cassette deck from him.
And he said, listen, you got to promise me you'll keep it all up to date and aligned and cleaned and everything.
And you'll get pretty much vinyl quality because, you know, it's analog.
It's got all the stuff on that little tape.
Yeah, exactly.
And you just have to be able to play it. So anyway, I just wanted to mention that, that I ran into somebody who believed his cassette tape player
had the same, you know, analog wonderfulness as vinyl.
That would have to be a great, great, because cassettes are,
I mean, and I cannot, for the life of me,
understand why anybody would want to bring cassettes are, I mean, and I cannot for the life of me understand why anybody would want to bring cassettes back.
Because the sound on cassettes are usually pretty dinky and dim.
But there's this, you know, there are the retro freaks, you know, the people who want everything old, old, old school.
They insist that the old, old, old, even if, you know, it's not nearly as good.
They think there's some kind of traditional purity.
But trust me, as someone who, you know, remember cassettes and the struggle of trying to listen to them.
And, you know, I mean, there was no comparison between vinyl.
And I mean, you would know this. I mean, there's no comparison between vinyl unless I mean, he must have had like a very, very expensive cassette player.
Yeah. What's what's the name i'm thinking of not
nakamichi it's i don't think it's another one anyway doesn't matter but all i'm saying is
apparently it's possible to get really good analog sound from a cassette deck if you have the right
deck right right equipment right how many people are going to have the right i know it's it comes
down to money right yeah exactly yeah so i don't so. But I'll pass on the cassette trend though.
Unquestionably pass on that. But it's coming back. I mean, everything comes back. I mean,
and something else that I talked to Edward about last week on, and that's the same thing with
popular music is that what we think was out always comes back. And we were talking about guitars and other things,
but everything in popular music, and this is the lesson,
whether it's how the music is serviced or whatever,
now vinyl coming back, like we talked about cassettes coming back,
everything circles around.
And that might be true.
And philosophically, it might be true about life, for all we know. And that's a whole different conversation that would be a philosophical conversation. But in popular music, you do see things that we think are out come back, come back again. And that's what something I, Edward, I was talking about last week
and we can talk about briefly here,
is that I do think rock and roll will come back.
I hope so.
I do believe that guitars,
people are craving guitars.
And that might be a blend of,
I'm not talking about straight up uh you know uh
rock and roll and because uh but i mean it might be a blend of something we don't know you know
obviously we already went through the rap rock uh blend phase and for the most part that was a
disaster other than great bands like razor against the Machine but you know I would never
have to want to listen to Limp Bizkit again you know not in my life those guys can you know
go into the great Limp Bizkit in the sky so um but you know I mean but yeah I mean
we've had the blurring of that but who knows how it would be, but we'll see. I mean, uh, but I do when I,
because I do look online all the time for young bands. And I noticed a lot of young bands are
bringing back guitars again, you know, and it's, it's a positive sign. If you like rock and roll
now, if you don't like rock and roll, it's, it's a negative sign. So it depends on what people like.
if you don't like rock and roll it's it's a negative sign so it depends on what people like
um well not i don't mean to hug the the stage here but i was i was having i was having a fit
listening to you while i was trying to get my audio to work um and another thing i was uh wanting to
ask you about is um in a previous life,
I was a children's singer songwriter and I have,
this was like, I don't know, 30 years ago.
But I have a big inventory of songs that are written,
rough recorded, but not produced.
And I used to produce all my own stuff in a MIDI studio
with black boxes all stacked up with the yeah
this and the that and the sink the symphony sink and all that stuff and everything but anyway so
all that's gone um but i have um and i you know i did all my own arrangements and had a wonderful
time doing all that but uh you know life moved on and um i have an inventory now of unproduced songs.
And it occurred to me with all this AI stuff going on, maybe I could get a little help from AI because I don't have the time or I don't have it in me to do arrangements anymore.
But I would love to get those songs listenable.
I said, oh, maybe AI can help me.
So I kind of looked around and I found some online stuff. One was Moises, I think, and a couple things that were helpful. They could strip out the voice and the drums and the bass of my recordings.
And, but they, what they would do is they would say, well, do you want to add a drum
track?
What style do you want?
You know, let's add a percussion track.
What style do you want?
And what I was hoping for was just something that I could say, take this voice and guitar
rough recording, you know, separate out the track, separate the, I forget what they call
them, the rails or the pass or whatever, you know, separate the video track, separate the, I forget what they call them, the trails or the paths or whatever, you know,
separate the video and the guitar because I want to use the guitar.
And for now I want to keep the voice, but I may rerecord that.
But anyway,
is there anything available now that you can just give it that and say,
hey, do you want to do a cool arrangement,
sort of country-ish, rock and roll-ish, whatever.
So I asked ChatGPT because I wasn't able to find anything
that could do that.
And ChatGPT said, not yet, but people are working on it.
What's your take on, will I sometime before the end
of my life, will there be something where I can give them
my voice and guitar demo thing and say, hey, make a cool arrangement with
this. Oh, I'm sure they, I'm sure there will be. I mean, I'm not a tech guy, so I don't know for
sure, but in just seeing how everything, how AI manipulates so many things or, you know,
so many things or uh you know so appropriates and and reworks i i have no doubt that you'll
be able to do that not maybe not now but maybe in a few years i absolutely definitely think you
know you i mean you have the you have the demo tapes so i mean you have i do yeah yeah well i
was the reason i was asking was i was hoping maybe you knew that there was something now.
I don't. No. Yeah, I don't. I honestly don't. I'm not a production guy.
So, you know, and the producers I know, I mean, I could ultimately ask, but, you know, I'm not a.
Probably not.
Yeah, I'm not a production guy at all.
So, yeah. So I guess I'll be stuck with trying to find some real humans to help me out.
Well, you might really have to find a real person, yeah.
Somebody who breathes, yeah.
Maybe Music Village will have some people that could help me out.
That's right.
You never know.
They may pop up here and say, hey, let me hear.
Let me hear the music and let me see what I can do with them.
You never know.
Yeah, yeah. Let me hear the music and let me see what I can do with them. You never know. Yeah.
Yeah.
Obviously, we'll see as you go along.
So you never know.
Maybe Edward and Esther can play on it.
I don't know.
Anybody is welcome as long as it sounds good.
Okay.
Oh, well, anyhow. So that's what i wanted to ask you about was the ai thing and i
wanted to uh and i wanted to see if you knew uh bill shanaman yeah a long time yeah yeah yeah
yeah absolutely yeah and uh i i so fascinated you were married to him it's amazing
my goodness yeah well it seems like everybody in the at least in the rock and roll era back then
you know knew him and you know everybody so it sounds like you may be from the same era sort of
maybe yeah probably yeah yeah yeah okay yeah younger yeah yeah yeah so who knows great yeah
unbelievable so there you go yeah that's uh that's I was having a fit, trying to connect my audio so I could mention those things to you.
They're connected now.
So, okay.
No, that's great.
I'm glad you gave some input and, you know, gave us some ideas.
That's great.
Okay.
Well, I'll be quiet now.
No need to be quiet. no need to be quiet at all
you made it there suzanne that's an amazing story yeah really crazy there and also there's
an idea there in the like all the people that have say written songs over the years but never
recorded them some sort of ai or some way to make that easy for people.
I like that.
It could be like something in that.
Yeah.
Well, as I discovered it, you can do it track by track,
but you still have to be kind of hands-on to give it direction.
And I just want to throw the whole thing over the fence and say,
hey, make this into something.
Oh, yeah.
So I got too much else to do
but i just don't want to let those things die uh you know i want to right you know i'd love to
you know produce my what do you call it my library of stuff and get it all done in the time I have left. So that's what I want to do.
Well, it's always time.
It's time to do it.
You'll never know.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, it's been, we're coming up on the hour here.
So last minute or so, if anyone wants to, I don't know,
ask any other questions, jump in, say anything else, I don't know, ask any other
questions, jump in, say anything else, I guess
now's a good time.
Kim, what's your favorite Pink Floyd
album?
My favorite Pink Floyd,
probably Dark Side of the Moon.
I'm a big fan of Dark Side of the Moon.
I am not a...
I mean, I love parts of, I mean, I think the wall,
I remember when the wall came out and I was, I only liked the parts of that. I liked some of the earlier stuff too, the really early stuff.
But to me, Dark Side of the moon always to me is a kind of like
a foundational record reminds me of a certain time in my life and i know it's a very popular
it's a popular pick but that that's that's mine um yeah that would that would be my pick i mean
do you have a favorite animals definitely animals well yeah animals i remember the animals tour I saw the animals tour with the big animal
Oh get away
No way
What a cliffhanger
Oh wow
The big animal
Yeah the big inflatable animal
Like that was a really
Very very
What a great show And you, uh, you know,
I mean, just tremendous musicians who made great music and, uh, obviously, uh, very immaculate
production and very sonically gorgeous. Um, you know, not everybody's cup of tea. I know a lot
of people who hate Pink Floyd and that's their opinion.
But, you know, and I had friends who were very big progressive rock fans.
And they basically got me into it at that time.
And but I obviously, you know, the early years, obviously the seed years.
And so it really depends.
But to me, I mean, let's face it, all music, when you talk about likes, all music refers to a specific where you heard certain songs and where you heard certain albums, where you were in that life.
That's how we associate music.
And that's the beauty of music, is that I can tell you what I was listening to and what was important in relationships I had, in where I was in my life,
where I was in different things.
And that's the beauty about music, and that's probably why I picked Dark Side.
Well, you know, speaking of the animals,
I don't know if you're a fan of watching late night
WGBH fundraising concerts,
but they do a lot of them and I like them
because it's old stuff from my time and Motown
and, but lots of great stuff. They have a great concert. of them and i like them because it's old stuff you know from my time and you know motown and
and but lots of great stuff they uh have a great concert um the highwaymen and and um
black and white knight um oh the rory arbison yeah oh man if you have a chance anyway but the reason i brought it up is because they have lots of, you know, groups like songs from the 60s or songs from
the 70s with remaining living members of the real bands play it. And I just wanted to say,
speaking of the animals, Eric Burton is still around and he sang House of the Rising Sun
in one of the concerts. Oh, really? Yeah, sounds the same, same voice. same voice wow oh that's a great free association
i love this we went from pink floyd animals to the animals that is that is a great free
association yeah that is a oh i love that look at that some of the some of the old guys are still performing for
specials they got to be really old i mean hey the rolling stones are still playing in the 80s
in their 80s and uh you know the who keeps saying and i know we gotta we gotta split but uh but the
who keeps i remember the who having a farewell concert 30 years ago? And now they're doing it again. They're saying, this is the last concert.
And I'm like, guys, go away.
I mean, at some point you either got to leave
or you can't keep promising it's the last show.
You know?
I mean, it's funny.
Yeah, but yeah, I'm sure the Animals, Eric Burden, yeah.
I mean, obviously another foundational band is rock and roll. So yeah. But, you know,
I mean, you know, we went from Pink Floyd to the animals in a heartbeat.
So look at that. You never know what rock and roll can do.
I know when it comes to music, one thing leads to another.
That's right. That's right.
Well, I'm great. Really happy to meet you.
Very nice to meet you. Yes, absolutely. Suzanne. Yes. Nice really happy to meet you. Well, very nice to meet you.
Yes, absolutely.
Suzanne, yes, nice to meet you.
Yeah, and great.
And well, this was very interesting.
I'm glad to talk to everybody.
Esther, very lovely talking to you.
And I will chat with you a little bit later.
And Edward, always a pleasure to chat and talk here.
Yeah, thanks, Ken.
Thanks, Esther.
Thanks, Susan.
It's been great.
Thank you, Edward.
Thank you, Susan.
Okay.
Bye, everybody.
Okay.
And hopefully we can reconvene another time and hopefully there'll
be more people and we can draw, we can tell people to join and get more people in here.
That sounds great.
Definitely.
Yeah, let's do it.
And this one is recorded as well.
So it, we can get more people to listen to this,
but basically by sharing it, I guess, and it will live on.
So that's another good thing with these spaces,
that they're recorded with a link.
So PermanLinks, I think that's what it's called.
Fantastic.
Okay, so next time I'm going to figure out how to join
under my name and not under Michael Duran, my, my pseudonym.
But I, I, I had to figure out a back way in.
So I got in here. So anyway, listen,
I have an interview to prepare for. So I, I will see every,
I will talk to everybody another time and I wish you all the best.
I'll be in touch. Okay. I'll be, I will message to everybody another time, and I wish you all the best. Esther, I'll be in touch, okay?
I'll message you later.
All right.
Thank you, Ken.
Okay.
Thanks for coming.
Take care, everybody.
Okay.
Bye, guys.
Thanks, Ken.
Bye.
Bye, Suzanne.
Bye.
Bye.
Okay, musicvillage.io.
Check it out.
See you guys later next week.
Take it easy.
Good night.
Good night. Thank you.
