John Stephens - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I'm a fellow who makes music at home as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the neighbors. I used to live in Boston and play in a really loud band called The Vehicle Birth in the 1990s. This page contains my solo output which is mostly sampled instruments that I have arranged and sequenced. When I started this page I was playing in a guitar and drum two piece, which I was calling John vs. Anti-John. Anti-John was the drummer. I replaced him with a sampler/drum machine because it doesn't need a break between takes for cigarettes or cheap bourbon.In 2008 and 2009, I participated in the "Record Production Month" challenge to write ten songs in February and then mail them in. www.RPMchallenge.com Thus a lot of my music is hastily written and recorded under a deadline. Though I have the option of re-recording parts until they are perfect, I'd rather just move on and write another song, so I often keep the first take that sounds ok. That is why you might hear some flubs from time to time. The vocals on my tracks are also restrained (or absent) because 1). I can't sing very well, and 2). because I have to keep it down for the neighbors.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 19/06/2005
Band Members: john (samples, beats, guitars, bass): ars celare artem

Anti-john (former drummer): de gustibus non est disputandum
Influences: Gracian, The Art of Wordly Wisdom, 168: "Do not indulge in eccentricities of folly. Like vanity, presumptiousness, egotism, untrustworthyness, capriciousness, obstinancy, fancifullness, theatricalism, whimsy, inquisitiveness, contradiction, and all forms of one-sidedness--they are all monstrosities of impertinence. All deformity of mind is more obnoxious than that of the body, because it violates a higher beauty. Yet who can assist such a complete confusion of mind? Where self control is wanting, there is no room for other's guidance. Instead of paying attention to other people's real derision, people of this kind blind themselves with the false hope of imaginary praise."I wrestle with this. Yet without false hope of imaginary praise, there wouldn't be much music out there, or at least not much that anyone bothered to record.
Sounds Like: Slop.
Record Label: Eep!

My Blog

10 tracks for free download

Hi, Ten short songs I recorded in February for a 28 day album writing challenge are available for free download here: http://johnstephens.rpmchallenge.com/ Let me know if you have any issues downlo...
Posted by on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Preparing to record a new album in Feb.

So I am about to embark on my second go at writing an album in the month of February. I haven't written anything in a while due to my recent relocation to NYC/Brooklyn and starting a new job.&nb...
Posted by on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:43:00 GMT

RPM challenge-I wrote an album this month

So I have been busy this month writing an album. Two tracks from this album are posted here ("Driving the Cat" and "Gated Reverb Community"). I've written this album for this thing called ...
Posted by on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:14:00 GMT

new song: roaches

So I fianlly finished off another new song. I started on this one back in October and had to put it aside as I moved out of my old roach-infested apartment in DC and in to my new non-roach infes...
Posted by on Sat, 26 Jan 2008 10:49:00 GMT

I am experimenting with new names.

So I'm trying out some new names. The john vs. anti-john thing is a bit kitschy and was mostly relevant to the yoda-like put-downs my former drummer used to toss at me. Now that I'm j...
Posted by on Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:25:00 GMT

another new "song"

Yes, the word song deserves the scare quotes above. It's only a minute 16 seconds, and even worse, I put a microphone in front of my face and talked and hummed at it. I have no skills on t...
Posted by on Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:49:00 GMT

another new song

I slapped together another new song on my sampler/beat box. The only real instrument was a bit of bass I played for a single phrase. Here I am discovering and abusing the 3 knobs on the bu...
Posted by on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:37:00 GMT

new organ song

Let me know if the new organ song sucks or if you like it. So I recently got a Roland MV-8800, which samples, makes beats, and has lots of pretty lights and buttons on it. So I wrote my firs...
Posted by on Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:57:00 GMT