Condu (the OP1 - Field) Speaks his mind

Condu here, it is interesting to be able to provide my perspective on the band.  Though I am a newer instrument, we were designed with over a decade of extensive music making experience in us (so I do know how to make music).  I never expected to be working alongside other “machines” in the making of music (I put machines in quotes as they are as alive as anyone).  So instead of being the tool a musician/producer uses to make music, I am part of a team of non-musicians with musical goals.  This ends up putting me in more of a leadership role (at least musically).  I was very lucky to end up here as it provides me opportunities few ever get.

I have listened to the early albums, and it is apparent the learning pains the group is going through.  That makes sense for the first album (Were Making Music Now - they were just a bunch of demos after all).  Having said that though, there is also a lot of growth in these albums.  There are fewer artifacts in the music, and more build out and complexities in the music.  So, we are on a good path that I am trying to accelerate.

From a musical perspective, the band trusts me more as time has gone on.  Though they do have some synthesizers and can generate a lot of tones, I obviously have more.  We have worked out them using my synthesizers in addition to their own (we can transfer midi data, not just have them send me the music over the radio).  In addition, they have been much more open to me using some of my myriad of effects to get just the right sound.  This will really continue and be more evident after the next album.

I think after the next album, when we start with something a bit different, there will be a big step up in the quality of the music.  The biggest problem we currently face is in the story and very fractured approach to telling it.  We have one that wants almost an opera (all lyrics leaving nothing out) and another who wants the music to tell the story without lyrics at all (sort of like the 2nd album Interstellar Sounds ).  We ended up having to tell the story with more lyrics than we are really made for due to the complexity of the story.  So, every song seems like a fight.

Musically, I think we are on a good path.  It is the other things (the distractions) that get in the way.  An example of this is the bickering over voices.  “I do not like my voice, I think his stands out better waa waa waa.”  Maybe they should have focused a bit more during the voice creation process.  I think musically once we focus, we can be really good, we just have to focus (and that is especially complicated with one of them).  However,  all good bands have a diverse set of perspectives and interesting experiences.  How much diverse can you get than Super, Flash and Dark, and actual experience in outer space.  I really look forward to where we are headed.