How terrifying. Walking the streets with a recording device. I thought this was going to be easy. Twenty years ago, this was easy. But yesterday Stephen and I found the whole experience quite confronting.
It was eleven am and you could have shot a cannon down the middle of the city. People were absent and the whole place looked like a set design. Wind and slurpies on the foot path. We second guessed everyone we saw, making up excuses as to why not to ask anybody any questions. "He looks to busy" - "They look too angry" - "She doesn't want two men asking her questions."
We decided shops were the best place to start. A quieter environment. If the place was empty then maybe they would be happy to have us in the joint.?Our question - "Have you ever been in love in this town?" was received with a mixture of bemusement, concern and interest.
One or two people didn't want to reply at all. But one girl came up with a great answer -
"Never in this town... You've got to go away to fall in love."
She laughed.
She was great.
We took our raw stuff back to the Alcoa studio space.
On the way back I realised how much we were asking of people. They had no obligation to us and for us to be asking about love in a public place was really more confronting for them than it could possibly be for us. The gift of participation had been granted to us today. We spent an hour and a half cutting the stuff together into a song with piano, trumpet and some beautiful loops. I sang a simple duet with her sample and we loved the result. Happy, giggly and sad.
Stephen and I will take the copy of this recording back to the girl next week. It was a great day.
It was full of tension, ambition and a miraculous conclusion. This was truly a love - experience.
It was eleven am and you could have shot a cannon down the middle of the city. People were absent and the whole place looked like a set design. Wind and slurpies on the foot path. We second guessed everyone we saw, making up excuses as to why not to ask anybody any questions. "He looks to busy" - "They look too angry" - "She doesn't want two men asking her questions."
We decided shops were the best place to start. A quieter environment. If the place was empty then maybe they would be happy to have us in the joint.?Our question - "Have you ever been in love in this town?" was received with a mixture of bemusement, concern and interest.
One or two people didn't want to reply at all. But one girl came up with a great answer -
"Never in this town... You've got to go away to fall in love."
She laughed.
She was great.
We took our raw stuff back to the Alcoa studio space.
On the way back I realised how much we were asking of people. They had no obligation to us and for us to be asking about love in a public place was really more confronting for them than it could possibly be for us. The gift of participation had been granted to us today. We spent an hour and a half cutting the stuff together into a song with piano, trumpet and some beautiful loops. I sang a simple duet with her sample and we loved the result. Happy, giggly and sad.
Stephen and I will take the copy of this recording back to the girl next week. It was a great day.
It was full of tension, ambition and a miraculous conclusion. This was truly a love - experience.
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