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Record producer Paul Boddy who
also teaches courses at Basingstoke's College of Technology explains
more about how he tempted Maryn Ware away from the penthouse of
Heaven 17 and down to the pavements of modern education...
"My background in the music industry is as a producer/engineer/remixer
and am fairly good mates with a guy called Rohan
Heath. Rohan was the main member
of
Urban Cookie Collective
and also has written several big dance tunes such as "You
Take My Breath Away" by
Surreal
and "Brave New World"
for Charlotte Church.
Having known and worked with Rohan for a few years, I was aware
that Martyn had done some production work for Rohan on one of the
Urban Cookie LPs. As a result of this my mind started to tick.....I
needed someone to open the college's new studio facility plus I
also thought it would be a chance to meet one of my musical heroes.
(Image: Martyn and the highly
sought after Korg 700)
Rohan suggested that it would be cool if I sent Martyn a speculative
email re: the aforementioned and we developed a relationship from
thereon.
The music dept of the college runs two courses: 2 Year Music Technology
National Diploma and 1 Year Sound Engineering (First National Diploma).
As part of the 2 year course I teach a unit called Music Technology
in Performance and part of this covers the history and development
ofelectronic music. I use this to shamelessly plug the early HL
stuff (plus Kraftwerk,
Gary
Numan, John
Foxx etc.) and hopefully
open my students ears to the really influential music which influenced
not only myself but many of today's artists.
As well as Martyn agreeing to open our studio, the real coup was
getting him to come down and give 2 lectures to my students. The
first was on his experiences with The League (complete with his
Korg 700s which he demonstrated and played along to "Being
Boiled" while he was here
-
(you're probably getting jealous at this point Rob!).
Martyn mentioned that the 700s was his first ever synth and although
had sold the
original years ago, Vince Clarke
(Depeche
Mode, Erasure
and his current business partner) who owns probably the biggest
private collection of analogue synths in the world, gave him a present
one day, which just happened to be a Korg 700s.
The second lecture Martyn gave was on his pioneering work using
3D sound technology. Martyn in conjunction with Vince creates 3D
sound installations for events using a totally revolutionary software
system which allows the placing of any sound, anywhere in the 3D
sound field.
As a result of this, Martyn invited my students and myself up to
the studio in Brixton where he mixes these tracks. We all had a
fantastic day out, Martyn was incredibly accommodating and even
mixed 2 of my students tracks into 3d format.
(Image: Martyn & Paul with
one of the greatest electronic albums ever recorded: Travelogue)
Secrets Online would like to thank Paul Boddy for taking the time
to share details of what sounds like a fantastic few days. If you
would like to find out more about the courses on offer at Basingstoke's
College of Technology, you can phone them on 01256
354141 or write to them at the
following address:
Basingstoke College of Technology
Worting Road
Basingstoke
Hants
RG21 8TN
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