ArtistInfo

Charlie Winston
Mischifus

Album UK 2007 on Long Tale Recordings label
Folk, World, and Soundtrack

© 2007 charliewinston.com ℗ 2007 charliewinston.com & Realworld Works Limited All compositions published by Realworld Works Ltd Liner Notes: The music on this record was created for a dance/theatre production to be performed live on stage by little old me, mischief and eye. The working theme of the show was LINES. I thought through what instruments I could play to best create a line; it had to be the voice. So, in the first week of development, I turned up with a microphone and busking amp and decided to base all the music of the show around whatever noises I could make using me chops. It didn't mean completely neglecting the piano anbd guitar - my two writing tools, as accompaniment, but I knew that I wanted to keep their input to a pooh bear minimum. This meant all bass lines, beats, horns, strings, keyboards, or any other random unidentified objects had to be produced by the mouth. Whistling also became a nifty little friend of mine. The only other real instrument that managed to sneak a cameo appearance into the show without being vetoed was my out of tune melodica. In order to be a one man band and build up layers of all thems instruments what I did mention earlier, I had to get a loop pedal, to enable me to paint a picture within a few pushes of a coupl'a buttons. Having that, as well as a few teaspoons of echo and delay, I could do just about anything I wanted. . . . .at least, so the doctor said - they'll prescribe anything these days to keep things E.Q. For inspiration, I went back to my childhood, when my Dad would play the old mono recordings of The Mills Brothers - a 40's vocal swing quintet; they had just one guitarist and sang the rest, whether it be trombone, trumpet, clainet or bass. They were proper innovators. Sachmo and Ella were also a big influence down the vocal path. And more recently, Bobby McFerin, with tracks like 'Don't Worry, Be Happy". The whole track is made from the body - it's a spot of jayneows! He really explored the voice to the full. When it came to creating percussion, well, I mean that's me favourite bit. I was eight when my folks gave me a drum kit. I stopped learing after a year but it left me with a terminal disease called the Beats (an obsession with constantly hitting oneself - often a way of procrastinating or daydreaming) and that led me to beatboxing. As a kid in the nineteen eighties - the days of electro and hiphop - my beatbox hero was Dougie Fresh, rising up with all the originals like Run DMC and Grand Master Flash. I remember lunch times in promary school, walking around playing field beatboxing, while my partner in crime, Ali Love, would rap to it. So, for the show, I knocked together various different riffs and rhythms in the devising process as a starting block for the dancers and actors to work with and just let the tunes grow out of that. I love the discipline of watching actors and dancers improvise and doing the same as a writing process - it's impulsive and unpremeditated. Noodling and doodling has many surprises. It's just about trusting that it aint out of line to break the rules. That's wot they were maid four. Recorded at MI7 Studios. Warning! This record is a Winston Pro-Duck-Shun. Duration is not given on the release, taken from CD-Text.

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	Charlie Winston voc, *1978 GB painting, doodles, album by
	Buy Hoare lighting

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