In this special episode, I talk with TJ Duke (Musician and Cloud Nothings Bassist) about his musical process, our latest 7MS collaboration and creating during COVID19.
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TRANSCRIPT
7MS Episode 99 - A Conversation with TJ DUKE - powered by Happy Scribe
It's Aaron, how are you doing? I hope you and yours are well, and look, just remember, keep hanging in there. OK? So, last episode I told a story called "The Legend of Ali", and it was a remix of a story I told a while back. But most importantly, it was the first collaboration that I've done with my friend and musician T.J. Duke. He did the soundtrack for that story. So, if you haven't listened to the Legend of Ali, last week, make sure and listen, because this week's episode is a 7 minute conversation with TJ. Now, TJ's main gig is as a bass player for the popular band Cloud Nothings. But outside that career, he's an incredible musician. He creates soundscapes and experimental music and now is starting to score podcasts like this storytelling podcast. And we really loved doing it. So, I figured I would sit down with him. We did this remotely because of the COVID thing, but I asked him some questions about his process, what it was like scoring one of my stories. And I think I start here with the question, um, I'm asking him about when music became an important part of his life...
Take me back to when music became a huge part of your life on a daily routine.
It was when I was, I was given a guitar by my by my grandfather in middle school that I didn't really know how to play, but really enjoyed the sound of. So, I sort of just tinkered around with that thing for, you know, it was it became a daily routine for me. So, I just I just practiced with that thing .I kind of would just make whatever music pleased me. It wasn't like, it wasn't I wasn't trying to play songs or trying to do, you know, anything in particular. It was just sort of the, it was having like a kinesthetic relationship with something that made like tones to me that was really like entrancing. So I sort of just I just played all the time, like, until I until I, you know, eventually sort of knew what I was doing.
What did this sound do for you? Like, why did it become not just something that you liked, but something that you had to do?
I think I was already like a little a little bit sound obsessed. I was like, I was always very focused on, like, what things sounded like either if it was in movies and soundtracks and stuff like that, or even, like, I would, I would listen to it was like listening to, like Bob Ross or something. If school got canceled, you know, you catch Bob Ross or like city council meetings and stuff like that, all those things were really like, weirdly like, entrancing to me, like where I would be, like, hyper focused on the sound of them. And yeah, I don't know, I just it's sort of that stuff sort of bled together with music and then it, you know, it became like a big, big sort of obsession. And then, like, the more I learned about music, the more, the more I just delved into it and kept and just kept at it, really, you know, like I mean, you were there, you sort of, you and I even ...Like any opportunity I had to play music with my friends or anybody I could find, like I was just doing that all the time.
I just also remember, and this is where we're going to get to about our collaboration here is, I remember you outside of just doing stuff as part of an ensemble. You were always creating stuff on the side on your own that was sort of ambient and kind of quirky. And I just was always attracted to those sounds like you still do that, right? You're still creating stuff on the side while you're playing and touring, right?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's definitely a daily routine for me. I yeah, I write and record something every day, even if it's not necessarily music. I go out and record just sounds outside or, you know, anything that I can use or listen to or, or just I don't know, it's just, it's just a little bit of an obsession, you know what I mean.
So this whole pandemic thing has been a disaster. We were talking about that like. Just 2020, like the longest year ever. But, so it sucks because I know with Cloud Nothing's touring. And a lot of the stuff that you were doing with your band kind of has been on hault to a certain degree, but in a selfish way, serendipitously, like you and I have been able to collaborate. And so this past episode, we did that Legend of Ali story. And I know you had a little bit of time and I was like, hey, you know, because of the sound you always used to create on the side and really, like you said, on a daily routine, I wanted to see if you could score that. One, when I asked you that, were you like, "oh shit" like or were you like, did you dig it? And then the second part to that is, what.. how did you approach scoring it? Because I'm always interested to see how people do that with the storytelling that I do.
Yeah, I well, first of all, thank you for letting me do it. I was really excited that you asked me to do it because I've, I've sort of.. I love playing in bands and I love playing in Cloud Nothings and I love touring and playing in front of a crowd and stuff like that. But there's ..I've always wanted to sort of sneak my way into doing like music for film or something like that or like, something that that I feel like a lot of the music that I make on my own lends itself to visuals. So, I was really grateful for the opportunity to be able to do that. But as far as approaching it, I, I listened to it a lot of times,
Sorry!
Just sort of like sort of my my process. No, no, you don't apologize. It was great. I just was trying to really get a deep understanding of it, as if it was my own story instead of like I don't know, I just wanted to understand it deeply. So, I listen to it a bunch, and then, I sort of it's... hard to explain, I guess, but there's there's like the informational, like if you're looking at this thing, it's two lines. There's an informational line, which is what happened in the words and everything like that. But then there's an emotional line where it's like you can see, you know, the emotional line, like deviate from the information and stuff like that and swell, and, you know, there's peaks and valleys there. So, I tried to pay attention to all of the emotional peaks and valleys. And that was sort of the guideline that I used to to score it. And I was trying to trying to keep things, not I didn't want to get on top of the story at all. I was trying to, like, just bolster parts, you know, instead of taking the focus away from the story at all. I wanted to just, you know, help at any point I could. So, a lot of the stuff in there isn't necessarily like me playing music. There were recordings that I went out and got like, I got a recording of someone hitting a Wiffle Ball and I got, you know, recordings of just outdoors and just things that that make the story feel more open and less like less like it's in a vacuum or something. You know?
I thought of the great job with that.
Thank you very much!
Even listening, I thought it was really sophisticated. And, as a storyteller with language, I think you did, you honored that story and you kind of know it from a narrative perspective and you just uplifted it. That's why when we re-released it last week, I said even in the intro, I felt like it was a different piece because it created that ambiance you were talking about. It was yeah. It was like an experience. It was really, really cool.
Yeah, it was really it was really a great experience for me as well. And I and I, I'm not sure in the story like, it really conjured a lot of like visual...I know that you and I grew up in the same city. So, like, there's not that many places that the stuff could have gone down.
So you know where that was at!
Yeah, like I but I had like, I had really clear, really visceral, like, visions of where it was happening and what it was like and and what what I would feel like if I was there, like, and I don't know if this took place, like when you guys were at the playground, if that... Where did that take place?
Right across the street where your grandmother used to teach.
Oh, it was at Ella Canavan.
Yeah
Wow, that's wild. So, in my mind it was at Garfield (laughs) my old school. So like, but it conjured up all these, you know, old memories and stuff like that for me, which I think was helpful for me to get into the to the real, like, deep feeling of the thing. Yeah, it was really interesting that way. Like, I don't imagine I would have the exact same experience if it weren't, if you and I didn't have such a such a deep relationship. And like having grown up in the same place and been friends for years and stuff like that.
I feel the same way. And I just wanted to ask you, do you... It's not like, .. I think we talked about this, not like I'm like putting you on the spot, but I'd like to do more of these. Are you down with doing that?
I would love to do more of these, absolutely. I had an excellent time doing it. I know you sent me a couple you sent me a couple more stories that you're working on, too, that are all really great, like any of those opportunities. I would I would jump on. That would be great.
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