urSESSION - Ledhed - RESEDA

urSESSION MUSIC

Votes: 3

Ledhed

ABOUT

MEMBER SINCE: 03/14/2008
INFLUENCES: I'm under it
ASPIRATION: To get over
INTERESTS: Music, lyrics, recording, performing
RECORD LABEL: None yet
HERE FOR: Connect with Artists, Connect with Fans, Friends, Networking

BIO

I've been making beats since I was a kid: I used to take a double-cassette tape player (you know, the OLD ones that not only did Hi-Speed Dubbing but let you play two tapes at the same time) and overdub Casio beats and make up my own tracks while using my Walkman headphones as a microphone. I didn't even know what the hell I was doing or why-- it just felt right. It came naturally. I didn't know that this was how music was made or that one day I could actually make a living doing what I was doing. To be honest, I thought there was something seriously wrong with me.

And that's true.

After I figured out how to layer tracks on top of each other using that primitive equipment, I stopped doing everything else: no more basketball, riding my bike, collecting comic books, watching cartoons... all that stuff fell to the wayside as my new focus became music, and in particular the process of getting sounds down on some sort of recorded medium.

I played in some bands in my high school years, learned guitar and bass, dabbled with keyboards and flirted with drums... but I also had a Tascam 4-Track Cassette Recorder, and that was the instrument I was a true master at-- I was OK at jamming out but no one around me knew what to make of my curiosity for recording the bands I played in or how I knew where the mic went or how loud each instrument needed to be when we were in someone's mom's garage making a racket.

I skipped college and went straight to the School of Hard Knocks. I started showing friends how to make beats, and pretty soon I was part of a hip-hop crew. I showed everyone in the clique how to make ill tracks, and they gave me tips on my flow. We recorded beats and rhymes in our North Hollywood apartment but when we played live we translated the samples and drum machine loops into real parts. I played bass alongside a guitarist and a drummer, and we backed up three MCs (one of which knew how to play the alto sax) and all modesty aside WE TORE IT UP when we did shows.

That lasted for two years, but then everyone had a falling out with each other and the potential was wasted. But I still had the recordings and the know-how. I had an ear, too: I'd hear a beat from someone who I'd just taught how to program a Boss Dr. Rhythm 660 and I could tell if it was tight or wack right off the bat. There is no formula for knowing if a beat is dope or not-- you know it if you hear it.

Nowadays, I play bass in rock bands and jam out with musician buddies who want to learn how to make their own demos, but I never stopped making ill tracks. These days, it's not just hip-hop: there's techno, rock, reggae, avant-garde and Top 40 sounds being cranked out of my head and into my samplers now.

The 4-Track has been retired but in the wake of that I have software and RAM and memory and cables and interfaces... and yet I still feel like an 8 year-old kid, locked up in his room, playing records backwards on his mom's turntable, unscrewing cassettes and splicing the tape on my own, secretly recording my older brother as he watched a football game and using his voice for a song...

I never outgrew that shit. I was born to do it.

MUSICAL INFLUENCES

RAP: Eric B. & Rakim, LL Cool J, The Fat Boys, RUN-DMC, Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, NWA, Cypress Hill, Wu-Tang, Grandmaster Flash, Outkast

ROCK: Bowie, The Beatles (when they were trippin' on 'cid), The Doors, Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Radiohead, U2, RHCP, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, DEVO

FUNK: Prince, Parliament-Funkadelic, Rufus & Chaka Khan, Rick James, Herbie Hancock & Miles Davis (when they went fusion)

PUNK: Black Flag, X, Circle Jerks, Butthole Surfers, Dead Kennedys, Minutemen, Suicidal Tendencies, The Misfits

I LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE AS WELL, JUST NOT AS MUCH AS THE ONES I LISTED ABOVE...

COMMENTS

VIEW ALL

Devilz-Speciez

Apr 10 2008 08:55:12 PM

woooo just voted! sweet work!
please return the fav, by voting on my 100k battle

Denial Method

Mar 24 2008 12:00:48 AM

Hi! Thanks for friending us! We're glad to have you in the community. Stop by our page to say hi or leave a comment so we can get to know you. -DM

Loka LaFevre

Mar 22 2008 08:15:51 PM

Heyo ledhed!!! thanks joining my lil community my friend... have you come by and checked out my werkz yet? id love to know your thoughts & hear if ya voted ;) love Loka

Enjoy The Zoo (NEW SONG/ PICS)

Mar 18 2008 06:45:22 PM

yea.... will do 4 sho. - ETZ

Sacrilogious

Mar 18 2008 05:22:43 PM

Hey!!Thanks for the add!! Come listening my music if you have time... You don't like?Don't vote^^ You like?VOTE!!! Charly

FunkyJahPunkys

Mar 18 2008 11:33:02 AM

Enjoy The Zoo (NEW SONG/ PICS)

Mar 17 2008 02:37:13 PM

yo yo yo!!!.. welcome to ursession!! how are you doin??? come check out our music and let us know what u think... ALSO, DONT FORGET TO *VOTE* IF UR DIGGIN IT!!! - ETZ

TANTRIC CYCLE

Mar 15 2008 07:17:38 PM

hello and thank you very much!
greetings from austria to the united states,
have a nice weekend!
tantric cycle