Jimi Hendrix Didn’t Have a Stylist

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One of the things that I’ve noticed the last few years is that the people considered the most stylish or best dressed or whatever are usually celebs who borrow samples or even worse have stylists who borrow samples for them. Jimi and Brian didn’t have stylists, Miles didn’t have a stylist. I think most people have gotten so used to seeing red carpet dressing and thinking that’s “style” that they don’t recognize people who really have their own. I’ve worked with “trendsetters” who had a hard time figuring out what could go with a pair of black boot cut double faced pants. Then the next thing I see is they are being named to the ten best dressed list. And I’ve known countless people with their own style who the media never notices.

SKM

The KidBlast Sound System

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When Susan and I decided to leave our jobs in fashion, my first thought was to get back to my first love, music. It had been 10 years since I performed with Scott Newman as  The Law of Accident and I knew that the technology had come a long way. I was checking out all the different electronic music websites when I came across a bass guitar that controls synthesizers and I became intrigued. In the early eighties I tried out a bass like this at a synthesizer convention. At the time it was about $1200 and out of the question. I remember the guy who was showing it had a British accent. I found one on craigslist for $450 and I went to Williamsburg and bought it. I knew I had found my new direction. The next step was to choose a host for the synthesizers the bass would control. I tried Logic Pro, Reason, Audiomulch, and a few others and I decided on Ableton Live. I didn’t realize at the time that Ableton would open up a whole new world. As I looked around the internet for information about my Peavey Midibase I discovered that the guy who had designed the bass was the same person who gave me the original demonstration.  His name is Steve Chick and he is from Australia, not England as I thought. He has perfected the technology and now hand makes instruments as The Industrial Radio Pro4 Midibass. I started a correspondence with him and his brother James and had them make a bespoke instrument for me. This instrument is the cornerstone of the KidBlast Sound system. I have added the KMI Softstep and the Novation Launchpad. I’ll post some music soon.

SKM

Escape

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What if you found that your dream job was slowly turning into a nightmare?  If your business was realizing record sales and notice from the outside world just as you were being undermined and second-guessed from within?  Would you be able to drop out?  And what would you do?   Could you escape from nowheresville?

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