Music Peels By Jodi DeMassa
Dedicated to the Freestyle StaFF, Jill and Allen
Acknowledgements: Patience on the Part of Jill and Allen Skills learned from the Freestyle StafF
Table of Contents: Introduction: Music Peels Chapter 1: Overcoming Obstacles Chapter 2: Electronic Music And Record Labels Chapter 3: Reaching Aether Conclusion: Legacy Of The Studio
Foreword:
I participated in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church’s Praise Band for two years. I was a singer and I got close to several members in that band even though I was the only teenager. I joined when I was a freshman and stopped right before Junior year. My friend from church had a documentary project for her school, and she interviewed Carol Knight, another member from the praise band. I thought of the different people in church, but it was easier to think of the people in the praise band. I recalled that a year ago, Allen gave me a CD record of his other band, The Orange Peels, and thought that it would be cool to document a band that wasn’t directly connected to me. I talked to a man at my church that was wondering why I stopped singing in the Praise Band and I told him about school and college prep. I brushed the topic of my book coming up about The Orange Peels and he was surprised that Jill and Allen had a separate band that was relatively successful. The Orange Peels studio was located in Jill and Allen Clapp’s house in Sunnyvale, but now it’s getting relocated to Santa Cruz in their new house. They currently are in the process of moving. Due to that, it was challenging to schedule times for the interviews and catch up on the required amount of photos I needed for my book. To fill the requirements, we had to cram whatever time available we had for photos and interviews. Since we didn’t have access to their house, I took photos of them with their guitars outside of my church. However most of my photos are inside the studio. There’s this overwhelming sight of paintings, posters, and festive lights. It’s crammed with art. You have to practically walk on your tiptoes to get around. Another challenge in documenting the Orange Peels was that Gabriel Coan just happened to come up from Los Angeles on President’s weekend to make their next album. I did not know that he lived in Los Angeles, so I recorded our phone call. In our phone call about electronic music, I hoped that there was more to it but it’s a relatively new thing that’s getting more commonly used. Despite all the location problems, I had to transcribe about two and a half hours of interviews and try to keep up with writing the chapters because I switched my topic a little more than halfway through the project. As a result, I had to be more aggressive in scheduling interviews. The research on the history of the band helped me gain more confidence to ask. In one of Allen’s interviews, we discussed his obsession of space since he was a kid and The Voyager launched. It turned into a conversation of existentialism -- why we try to find meaning in things, and how much of the world we can perceive and actually understand which connects to my book, The World in Six Songs by Daniel
Continuatiaon of the Foreword Levitin. According to a physicist that Allen interviewed, he said that we can”only observe .3 percent of the entire universe...and of that, we don’t even understand it all”. Our senses are so limited compared to cats or dogs--they have a different sense of color--meaning that they can see areas of color in which our mind fills the color with our surroundings. However, Allen argued that even in science, there’s an “element of belief ”. He quoted CS Lewis, who stated that we look for meaning simply because there is meaning--all throughout different cultures are areas of the world. He also argued that the different cultures have different experiences of God. We both agree that everyone has some degree of existential crisis. There has to be some extent of questioning how we came about and how the universe works.
Music Peels
Glass snowflake lights hang from the ceiling. A myriad of cords roam the floors like snakes. A huge setup of radio controls are present. Multicolored band posters are on the wall. There’s a piano filled with music covers. This studio is full to the brim with art. On the wall, there’s posters with their original band name, Allen Clapp and his Orchestra from the Portland Festival. Later, Allen Clapp and his Orchestra evolved to The Orange Peels. Levitin, the author of The World in Six Songs claims that music builds a strong sense of “we” in a diverse group of people. According to Jill Clapp, the band “reflects off each other” when they create their songs. Allen isn’t the only one making the songs or putting it together. When I went to the studio at their house, I could see the flow that The Orange Peels have. From just a sway and an eyebrow lift, John Moremen helped Jill Clapp harmonize to one of their instrumentals. Levitin also argues that our ear is more accurate than a metronome because we predict and infer what will happen. Applied to the studio, our hearing for tone or rhythmical changes involves predicting and inferring the next note. Their harmony makes a sense of “we” in a band. I believe that a home studio is more personal than a professional studio because it allows more reflection on how the band wants to control their sound. In professional studios, one person is producing the sound and tweaking it. There’s little “we” in a professional studio since there’s no input of how the band feels about the sound.
He sat there and could hear all the parts. As a result, he wrote all his parts to “Circling around the Sun” and handed them out to his friends. It eventually got into the hands of Minty Fresh Records. They asked him to play live in their studio, but he was the hen Allen was five and only one playing all the parts except a half, he heard “Rocket the trombone part. Then Jill Clapp Man”by Elton John and switched from trombone to bass. learned it by himself on the piano. Her inspiration to learning bass was He switched to violin when he was from the Beatles album. She said nine and stopped at sixteen, when that it was easy to switch because he realized that he wanted to start of the similar low pitch. Allen and a band. His best highschool friends Jill have been the only ones who and he created The Batmen and have stayed since Allen Clapp and The Morsels which was a garage his Orchestra were formed. Allen punk band and then later split into and His Orchestra headed up to The Mummies and The Counting Portland to play at their first huge Crows. concert on December 20th, 2011. The Mummies continued It’s members were to play with John onto playing garage punk Kale, Nirvana, and Cake, bands that music while The Counting had top ten hits in the day. Nova Crows played a classical rock--both Celic from Nirvana came backstage different blends that Allen didn’t and commented on their set. A feel worked for him. He questioned photographer buzzed around, snapwhether or not he should still be in ping photos of all the bands and the music industry and asked God told them to put their heads togethto give him a sign if he should con- er for a photo. All of them were on tinue. All of a sudden, in the Safecloud nine. way parking lot Allen had suddenly heard a song he hadn’t heard before.
Chapter 1:
Overcoming Obstacles
W
Setting off the impression that Allen’s band was a string orchestra, the name Allen and his Orchestra confused people into thinking that there would be a ‘40’s band playing that night. Someone suggested to rename. The four of them argued over it until they came home from Portland. Unfortunately by the end of the trip, they couldn’t think of a name that everyone didn’t hate. They kept struggling trying to figure out a new name for almost a year. Finally, Allen put his foot down and said “until we have a name, no one will leave the room,” in the studio one day and they came up with The Orange Peels. The Orange Peels didn’t just play locally, but they also went international. They’ve performed in Hungary, Romania, and Canada. When The Orange Peels were going to perform in Budapest, Jill and Allen faced a challenge. Two of their members--Bob Vickers and John Moremon left in the middle of their second record. Luckily, Jill and Allen met other bands from Redwood City that were also going to Budapest for a mission tour. They asked several
guys whom they “hit it off with” to play the other parts of their song. Allen believes “that was the biggest thing in Budapest” that they had to overcome, but also that “they did a great job...it was a weird version of the Orange Peels on that little tour.” The Orange Peels set up a two week tour that went from Washington DC to Canada. Unfortunately, the tour was cancelled due to 9/11. Allen and his band were packed the night before, and in the morning woke up to hear the news. At first they weren’t aware of how this would affect them, but then they realized that they couldn’t go because all the plane flights were cancelled. Allen said “no one
was going anywhere. No one went anywhere for days. Maybe even a week.” As a result of not being able to go, the band had to cancel their plans and postpone the whole tour a year later.
Currently Gabriel Coan plays drums and John Moremen plays lead guitar. The Orange Peels have worked with Minty Fresh Records to produce two albums: Circling
around the Sun and Square. However, most music records today don’t. Artists are using softwares such as Protools and Reason or apps like Tabletinlive--which allow an artist to choose from thousands of pre-recorded instruments loops, drum machines, and single notes to produce their own song.
“Sun Moon is a superb collection of songs that will want you to head out in your muscle car on a sunny summer day with the windows down and the tunes flowing out of the stereo.� -Zachary Houle
Chapter 2: ElectroniC Music and Record Labels What is a paranoid inner-vacuum micro-dub? What about the ruminative postspace hyno-drone?? In electronic music, there’s seven main categories. House music is defined by an upbeat, warm, and soulful sound. It started with disco and dub, but then got into eurodisco in the 80’s , techno dance, and eurodance. Within those categories, many different genres split from that. Disco split into New wave, Italo, and Classical when Dub went into Classical and garage. From the classical music funk, booty bass, and eurodance formed in the 90’s. Another category is trance music. It causes people to cry or scream without knowing exactly why. It came from Italy, or Italians’ English Disco and
went into eurotrance. Trance music is also found in psy genre, hard dance, and industrial music. Techno was created from the industrial Detroit and deals with a musical personification. Electro came out of classical techno while rave came out of european genres. Breakbeat is the mainstream traditional prestige driven genre. It includes ghetto tech, electric, and gangsta music. Jungle music includes old school genres, raga, and neurofunk. They all have a rough 90’s sound to them. There’s also hardcore music which could include hard techno and hardstyle. Lastly, there’s downtempo, which is purely for listening to and figuring out new audio textures and styles that haven’t been discovered yet. People would use electronic music experimentally in the seventies. They would distort a piano or guitar sound to make it sound futuristic. People now use drum machines, synthesizers, and apps to distort the sound by stretching it, tweaking it, and manipulating it. The Orange Peels have used Tabletinlive, a writing tool that has built in instruments in it. It
can copy old and new instruments and generate an electronic sound. Inside the studio, there’s analogue, gear, and digital gear. They use a variety of microphones: ribbon microphones, tube microphones, condenser microphones and tube microphone preamps. Ribbon microphones are good for guitar amps, drum kits, and a mellow vocal sound. Tube microphones give off a supernatural sound and tube mic preamps distort sounds to create a wobbly, warm, and an old, overall sound. They’ve also used a combination of real drums and synthesized drums, guitar, and keyboard for their recent album they created on President’s Day. Other than the cost for equipment, rent, security, and protection alone cost thousands of dollars a month. Artists today are using technology such as Pro Tools to create their music on a hard-drive at home or at other’s studios. According to Gabriel Coan, the really big music record labels still produce and advertise bands, but most record labels just advertise to journalists, websites, radio stations, stores,
amazon, and Itunes. Some don’t put out CD’s, but they leave it on Itunes. A music record label’s incentive is to gain a reputation from helping a band that they like. The Orange Peels have tried creating two of their albums, Square and Circling around the Sun with Minty Fresh Records in Minneapolis. Allen said that both of the experiences were fun, but now he prefers to produce the music himself at his house with the other band member’s input.
“The Orange Peels resurface every couple of years with a new album of wonderfully sophisticated pop music that’s impeccably produced and stocked with plenty of melody, wit, and emotion.” -Tim Sendra
to communication with a diverse amount of people. In the World in Six Songs by Levitin, proposes that music is a better communicator than language because “music, especially rhythmic, patterned music of the kind we typically associate with songs, provides a more powerful mnemonic force for encoding Like the morning dawn, knowledge, vital and shared inforYou sent me into space “Aether Tide” was created on Presi- mation that entire societies need dent’s Day weekend along with five to know, teachings that are handed down by parents to their children other songs within a five day period. I was invited to meet the band and that children can easily memorize” (pg.141). Others would argue members:John Moremon, Gabriel that music reaches people by the Coan, Jill Clapp, and Allen Clapp tone of emotion, or the “honest on that day. Aether Tide” has a signal” of an artist expressing an spacey feel to it; there’s warm voevent connected with his or her cals and a feeling of euphoria. own thoughts and feelings; simulAllen told me that his inspiration taneously transmitting knowledge for “aether tide” was from a 4 am rhythmically so that it passes research. He found out that in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, people be- knowledge onto others and even lieved that aether held the universe into generations. It’s rhythm and rhyme makes it the last to go from together. Einstein made theories about aether with his theory to rel- our memory according to Levitin. ativity. Aether Tide is about leaving In addition to space, he associates music in the satellite so that some- weather with relationships-- how one could find it. He’s also written people are like planets that can either drift or collide, while feelabout supernovas in “High above the Earth” by himself.Some would ings are to storms, rain, or sun. In argue that language is the gateway a stormy weather song, one may
Chapter 3: Reaching Aether
make songs to remember someone in a past relationship. Levitin explains and analyzes “I walk the Line” by Johnny Cash to express how artists remind themselves of mistakes to prevent in a relationship. A rainy song would be used for therapy to help lower stress. Based off Levitin’s studies, it’s been proven that music helps your health, lowers stress levels, regain muscle memory, and helps you remember events.
“2020 is a testament to his attention to detail -- the performances are spot-on throughout, the melodies and lyrics are expert homages to their particular styles and eras, and the sound of this album reflects his obvious influences but generates enough life and fresh spirit of its own to avoid sounding like an exercise in obsessive nostalgia.� - Mark DeMing
Conclusion: Artists are relying less on musical record labels to produce. Most musical records just advertise on the web, to journalists, radio stations, and stores for a band that they like and want to gain a reputation for. The music record labels that still produce have dwindled down significantly since more people started experimenting with electronic music in the 70’s.
Works Cited:
Allen Clapp. “High above Heaven.” Available Light 2002.
Clapp, Allen. Personal Interview. 17. Feb. 2014
Clapp, Jill.Personal Interview. 14. Feb 2014
Coan,Gabriel. Personal Interview. 17. March 2014
ohn Moremon. San Francisco Guitarist, drummer, and Composer. August 22, 2012. Web. Feb. 17, 2014
Levitin, Daniel. The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain created Human Nature. 2008.
The Future Of Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There). Techdirt. No date recorded. 26. March 2014
The Orange Peels. Biography. February 13, 2013. Web. February 17, 2014.
The Orange Peels. “Aether Tide.” Sun Moon. 2013.
Rdstreets. Top 10 Reasons Why the Music Industry is Failing. HubPages. 2014. 26. March 2014
Music Peels
ground. Wanting to become a singer, she auditioned for St. Paul’s Praise Band and was accepted. She became closer with Jill Clapp and her husband, Allen Clapp while she was in the band along with others. Once she knew that Jill and Allen Clapp played in The Orange Peels, she decided that would be her topic for her documentary unit in Freestyle. Her goals are to find something that captivates her for a career, to keep running by passion, and to get into a good art school.
Jodi DeMassa
This is Jodi DeMassa. She went to St. Paul’s CDC where Jill Clapp, a member of The Orange Peels taught her, and she grew up with a Lutheran back-
Music PeEls Written and Designed by Jodi DeMassa