Musical Involvement in a Consumer World
by yippi (Brian A. Cameron)

Almost five years ago I began traveling a path which has had a strong effect on my relationship with music, people and culture. I cannot say exactly what set the traveling in motion, but as I wander I can reflect upon my experiences and share my viewpoint. Years ago I first heard someone say that music is a reflection of society, and yet I feel that this view is incomplete.

Five years ago I had just graduated from college and had been learning to play guitar for about three years. I was eager to find musicians who were interested in playing together, but since I was still quite a novice I didn't see the point in getting in over my head. I hooked up with friends who were also interested in creating music, but had little or no training. We chose to put people in a roomful of instruments and letting them at it to see what happens. Over time we learned how to play with one another and how to create an atmosphere with the freedom to explore.

The ground rules are few, simple, and as easy to follow as they are ambiguous. Whoever shows up is in the band, whatever instruments are brought is what gets used, and whatever happens or doesn't happen is cool. The idea is that music is a form of alingual communication, and in order to learn how to speak you have to first learn how to make sound. Making eye contact or watching how someone moves are simple examples of how music is communicated alingually. As a group, we call ourselves The Sheep Fiends and the story of how that name came to be is a different story for another time (heh, check the web page).

I have noticed that people find it bewildering that we take the creation of spontaneous and improvisational music so seriously. Many people and musicians alike equate non-organized music with dis-organized music or even non-music. In a day and age of music formatted for all imaginable taste, a short jaunt to the store shows music representative of all possible sub-cultures. I would guess that the personal involvement that most people have with the creation of music is summed up by the choosing and purchasing of what will represent their taste in their media collection.

I had been playing with The Sheep Fiends for just over a year before I stumbled across the Leri-L mailing list and another six months before I met any of these people in the flesh. I remember that it was late in 1992 when leri came to visit my hometown and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet many of these people who I had met over the internet. In summary, I had a glorious time and ended up staying out far too late. Early the next morning I had to force myself out of two hours of slumber and head downtown to a recording studio with The Sheep Fiends. It was cold and we waited for hours in the cold for the sound engineer to turn up. The Sheep Fiends recorded music all day long. This experience created a link between gravity and music in my mind which has manifested in many ways.

Not surprisingly, there are musicians abound among the lerii, and over the past three years I have had the honor of being able to play with many of them. Quite a few lerii have become members of The Sheep Fiends by sitting in with us on a jam or two, or for two or three years. By being one of those people who brings drums, guitars, and whatnot along whenever I'm hanging out with friends, I try to encourage people to play music together. In so doing, I have met a good number people who had learned how to play music when they were young, yet haven't picked up their instrument in years. A little encouragement and willingness to disregard their rustyness often bring a few chords out of the dusty recesses of their minds. The reward of seeing their faces as they realize, perhaps for the first time, that creating music can be a joyful experience is beyond description. It is this willingness to communicate, to bend, to listen, to see, to show, and to share that brings a sense of the sacred to all art forms. I should point out that The Sheep Fiends is not leri's home band. Many members of leri are not in The Sheep Fiends and vice versa, yet I think it is fair to say that there has been feedback and influences transferred back and forth between the two. One way that I have tried to share my attitudes towards community music with the Leri community has been by putting together two compilation tapes of musicians I have met over the Leri list. I think it is important to be able to help artists be heard and to encourage people to creatively look inwards.

I hope that sometime in the not-too-distant future that more people realize the importance of personal involvement in the creative medias. While I do recognize there is a place for commercial music, I hope that the folk tradition of creating art for its own edification is something that we, as a people, retain. I forsee that this era of electronic and electrical instruments will spawn new types of folk music. After all, the music that common people create is directly related to those instruments which are common to the culture. Let us not forget where we have come from and not be afraid or ashamed to let our own intuition and creativity be visible and an inspiration to others.

To finish, I would like to pass along a few words from Jeffff, a fellow Sheep Fiender, lerii, and good friend. He is describing his own personal experiences playing with The Sheep Fiends and captures the essence of personal involvement in group artistic expression.

---

in the zone, a sweet sweet smile creeps across his face. sweet music ebbs and flows, a current surging forth, moving into the light, the current force pulling the rest of the flow tentatively with it, then counter to it. an eddie swirls and twists, soon to dissolve and flow once again. He looks over to Yippi, head bowed, swaying from side to side, and around the circle some stare into space, pounding their drum drums. Another walks into the room, and the current grows stronger. A new voice sings and the river rounds a bend.

in the zone, he is aware, he chants, he sings, he hears. he feels a new surge from behind him, at the perfect moment, the only moment, he jumps into the flow and flow grows soon to break against a stone and shatter into pieces. some flow around it, but the sense of current fades, slows and ceases. all are silent, for a moment, then gasps and utterances of "wow", and many many smiles, and many many to the smoking room.

From a distance, he can hear that the Fiends are Fiending once more, and from a distance, he feels the current moving in the center of the flow, and from a distance the draw is unmistakable and ever- present. he and another break free and float towards the circle, pick up, sit down and add opposition or fortification, and soon once more become one as sweet music rises and rises.