In the past, “This Deal In History” has featured a cut from a long-ago New Deal concert alongside comments and insights from Jamie.
In honour of TND’s return to Colorado next week (first time with Davide!), we here at New Deal HQ asked Jamie to talk about a clip from TND’s May 2008 show at the Mishawaka Amphitheatre.
If you’ve ever been to a concert at “The Mish” then you know what a beautiful place it is to see live music. I can tell you, however, that nothing compares to being on stage playing music there. The water rolling by behind you, the scenery and audience in front of you - it changes your approach to music, or at least it did for me on that night back in 2008.
The cut comes in hot with what i call the “roller skating groove” pumping away courtesy of Dan’s grinding low-end and Darren’s galloping disco beat. It sounds to me like i’ve got the filter on the Nord Lead wide open and set to “stun” while i stab away on the upper reaches of the keyboard. At 0:48 somebody yells out a heads-up (with all of our hand signals and non-verbal communications you sometimes have to just do it old-school with your voice!).
That shout was to tell me to stop playing which I did, leaving it to Dan and Darren. They break it down to some fancy bass and hi-hat until I return with a spacey melody on a keyboard that I apparently had on stage that night but don’t have anymore (can’t place that synth sound!).
By 2:42 we’re hitting pretty hard with a unison line (keys & bass) that eventually returns to that spacey synth phrase (and then back to the unison line) just in time for a HARD LEFT TURN at 4:20 to a different key, different sound and different groove. I’ve mentioned before how much I love those sudden gear changes. It always makes for an interesting scene shift and this one is no different. I’m really having trouble placing which keyboard is being used for that main melody… it might have been this super-small grey thing that I used for a while, resting it on top of the Juno.
No confusion what keyboard that is at 5:30 - the Juno comes in strong and proud with a second melody before returning to the first line played on the other synth. 6:25 has me bringing the Juno back together with the previous keyboard while Darren starts ramping up the tempo until we drop into some good ol’ Drum & Bass at 7:05 with a key change thrown in for good measure.
I play the trigger for “Self Orbit” at 7:25 but we hold back for a while (probably allowing me to wrestle with the tuning of the Moog which appeared to be giving me trouble all night). I like the restraint we’re showing in this section - Darren beatboxes and it’s just drums and keys for a while before I start teasing the Self Orbit melody, letting it simmer until we hit it full-throttle at 10:37.
FUN FACT - Dan is playing the bass line to “A Little While Longer” in the middle section of “Self Orbit” at 11:15. I’m not sure why but it works!
12:25 - Another hard turn and we’re entering Robot Territory. That synth line is definitely the Nord Lead. Special shout-out to Dan’s bass tone in this section. The man has got some serious fuzz going on!
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t point out MSG’s spot-on delay throws and general sonic awesomeness that he’s displaying in this clip (13:10). The sounds are so clean yet so muscular - I don’t know how we’d do it without him there. I’m glad that he’s still with us!
I’m guessing that the lead sound that I dial in at 13:28 is my in-the-moment attempt to emulate the guitar-synth lines at the end of David Bowie’s “Ashes To Ashes”. Sure sounds like it to me, at least.
14:24 you can hear somebody call out a cue for shots (again, the old-fashioned way!) and we oblige with a bunch of hardcore hits before lying down in a bed of dub, cushioned by MSG’s echoes and reverbs.
The Mish was definitely opening me up to some spacier sounds and textures on this night. It does some magical things to the mind, that’s for sure.
Thanks for listening,
-Jamie
