FPSHOT
Oct 21, 2009, 01:38 AM
It's not from recent, but still quite awesome, I believe
Check out what he says about the Bangla Desh concert :teeth1::teeth1:
The second most interesting thing about Dhani Harrison is his education and training. Son of former Beatle George Harrison, Dhani (pronounced like Danny) grew up in England and excelled in school. Obsessed with video games, race cars, and music as a teen Dhani attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, majoring in industrial design. While at Brown he took many classes at the nearby Rhode Island School of Design, the school where art rockers Talking Heads met.
After a short stint working for the McClaren formula 1 race car team, Dhani and Ollie Hecks formed thenewno2. Thenewno2 isn’t as much of a band as, as Harrison categorizes it, a “protype project.” Under this moniker, Dhani and Hecks have worked as packaging designers on projects such as Concert for George, George Harrison’s Brainwashed, and The Dark Horse Years Boxed Set, and they did menu design for The Concert for Bangladesh. Dhani has consulted for such companies as Harmonix (creator of Rock Band), most notably on the upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band release—a project close to his heart.
This February thenewno2’s first CD, You Are Here, was released—with Harrison and Hecks writing, producing, directing and packaging the concept. Here is recent interview with Hearsay.
How did you like Brown University?
Some of the funnest times of my life. I had a blast. I took a lot of classes at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) along with Brown. Which is a bit funny—a lot of RISD grads work at Harmonix.
I got into industrial design due my love of video games as a teen. When I was in high school, I was obsessed with the video game WipeOut. It was the first video game that had known music artists, such as the Chemical Brothers and Orbital, contributing to the soundtrack. It was from this game that I began to see how music can be used in a much different context than it usually. I also loved the James Bond game popular at that time—I saw villains on my front lawn, in stairwells, in the closest, in my dreams. (laughs).
I really admire the work that Amon Tobin has done in creating music for video games. He did the music to the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell game. It is amazing in that music has a definite purpose in the game, which is great, but also it stands alone well as a soundtrack CD.
Does your love of video games have anything to do with the release of “Yomp” and “Crazy Tuesday” as downloadable songs on Rock Band? What has been the reaction to these releases, being that thenewno2 is a newer group?
I don’t have specific figures to give you, as to how the Rock Band exposure has helped You Are Here. I know that when Motley Crue released a brand new song (“Saints of Los Angeles”) on Rock Band, they had 80,000 downloads in a month—twice the number on Itunes and Amazon combined. What’s the average age of the fan of Motley Crue fan, 40? I tell you, that wasn’t 80,000 40-year-old Motley Crue fans downloading on Itunes. They expanded their base to younger fans—while selling their songs on a closed system. It’s the future of music distribution.
What do you mean by that?
Rock Band, like all video games, is a closed system. You can’t copy or bootleg from it. You put something out on CD or Itunes, and it’s out there to be copied. In terms of protecting your copyrighted material, closed systems are the best way of releasing music right now.
Rock Band is also different than the older generation’s musical experience. With Rock Band and Guitar Hero, you experience the song actively. Your playing becomes organic to the song.
You blow the fretting sequence, the song is over.
Right. This has had an extremely positive affect for music. These kids play the games as songs, learn them, master them, get bored and move on to mastering the actual instrument. It’s great. That’s why I was such a big proponent of The Beatles: Rock Band project—you’ll experience these great songs in a whole new way.
The Beatles: Rock Band sounds like it is going to be big.
I’m really excited about. I first met with Alex Rigopulos, the president of Harmonix, two years ago about thenewno2. Then the conversation turned to the possibility of doing “it.”( The Beatles: Rock Band). I replied it would be great but I also told him it will never happen.
Why?
Politics, the parties involved. Look, the Beatles aren’t even on Itunes yet. They can’t even get that decided. But, surprisingly, everyone has agreed on Rock Band. I really love being part of it. This is the future of music.
Let’s talk about You Are Here. One of the YouTube comments to the CD’s first video, “Another John Doe,” categorizes thenewno2 as “ a relaxed Radiohead.”
Really? I don’t see that. The guys in Radiohead, Thom York and the bunch, grew up about 7-8 kilometers down the road, in Edmondsley. My school used to play their school in sports. The Radiohead guys were a bit older than us, maybe 7-8 years older. They were like a much more serious older brother. Don’t get me wrong—they are really nice guys, they are just way more serious and way more pessimistic. We are way more of the goof-off younger brother, seeing how serious his older brother is. We are serious about the music, but not as much with our selves. We also see ourselves as more optimistic.
The video of “Another John Doe” reminds me of Richard Lester’s work.
Hmmm. I’ve met Richard Lester, wonderful man. No, it’s really basic stuff. Filmed in a warehouse, with several camera angles edited fast. I’d say it is more David Byrne than Richard Lester.
When I saw your performance on Conan O’Brien on YouTube, I expected many more keyboards. Instead, you have three guitarists and one keyboard player.
Yeah, but we had alot of programming pads around us and we ran loops. Conan was fun, but the set was freezing. We were constantly trying to move around to keep off the cold. I guess the producers of the show do that to keep the audience awake. (laughs)
“Shelter” has a bit of that synthesizer sound from Who’s Next.
I recorded the Fender Rhodes part of that a few years back, and brought it around and fooled around with it for the new CD. We now do a much more organic version of it live —you can see it on Rollingstone.com. I like the way we did it originally; I might have to reverse engineer back to the original with that Peter Townsend keyboard.
I really liked the song “Idle Lover.” Some really good pop hooks.
Oh. Yea I like that song. (Uncomfortable pause) OK. (Both laughs)
“Back To You” includes newscasts of the 2005 London bombing.
The London bombing occurred right before Live 8 and the G8 summit. I remember coming over to London right before the bombing, and my mother telling me what a great vibe was in the air. People were sick of the terrorism threat and the Patriot Act and basically sick of being afraid; people were truly enthused about doing something about Africa. Not only were the people enthused, but also the government was going to get behind it. Even George Bush was supporting African initiatives. Then the bombs went off, and you could feel the loss of momentum.
The Live 8 shows were good.
They were very good, but the feeling was gone. All the money that was supposed to go Africa now went to fight terrorism. I’m not trying to make it out to be a big conspiracy, but it was weird how the bombing made it convenient for the special interests.
I also felt very bad for the organizers. I was very young when my dad did Concert for Bangladesh, but I remember him telling me later how much work it involved, before and after the concert. It was out of these attitudes that “Back To You” was written.
I am dangerously in love with the way President Obama is doing things. Very dangerously—I shouldn’t be allowing myself to feel this good! (laughs). But just this week the President signed the Reeves Law, which makes way for paralysis research and rehabilitation. It is also going to allow for stem cell research.
I was watching this on C-SPAN and Obama is about to sign it, but he stops and says, “We have to get Matthew up here.” Matthew is Christopher Reeves’s son and has been working hard towards getting this bill past; he was also my roommate at Brown. So the signing stops until Matthew gets up there. I’m all choked up watching, knowing all that Matthew went through, and the President—with all on his mind—waited for Matthew to join him. My old roommate is up there with the President! I just love the guy.
You are schedule to play in San Diego next month. Any other concert or TV appearances?
I don’t know how much I can tell you at this time, but there is some television appearances lining up. There’s been some talk about some tour dates with TV on the Radio; I am really excited about that happening. Since this label is just Ollie and me, it takes some time for us to get all this stuff scheduled.
http://www.hearsay.cc/blog/?p=1383
Check out what he says about the Bangla Desh concert :teeth1::teeth1:
The second most interesting thing about Dhani Harrison is his education and training. Son of former Beatle George Harrison, Dhani (pronounced like Danny) grew up in England and excelled in school. Obsessed with video games, race cars, and music as a teen Dhani attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, majoring in industrial design. While at Brown he took many classes at the nearby Rhode Island School of Design, the school where art rockers Talking Heads met.
After a short stint working for the McClaren formula 1 race car team, Dhani and Ollie Hecks formed thenewno2. Thenewno2 isn’t as much of a band as, as Harrison categorizes it, a “protype project.” Under this moniker, Dhani and Hecks have worked as packaging designers on projects such as Concert for George, George Harrison’s Brainwashed, and The Dark Horse Years Boxed Set, and they did menu design for The Concert for Bangladesh. Dhani has consulted for such companies as Harmonix (creator of Rock Band), most notably on the upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band release—a project close to his heart.
This February thenewno2’s first CD, You Are Here, was released—with Harrison and Hecks writing, producing, directing and packaging the concept. Here is recent interview with Hearsay.
How did you like Brown University?
Some of the funnest times of my life. I had a blast. I took a lot of classes at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) along with Brown. Which is a bit funny—a lot of RISD grads work at Harmonix.
I got into industrial design due my love of video games as a teen. When I was in high school, I was obsessed with the video game WipeOut. It was the first video game that had known music artists, such as the Chemical Brothers and Orbital, contributing to the soundtrack. It was from this game that I began to see how music can be used in a much different context than it usually. I also loved the James Bond game popular at that time—I saw villains on my front lawn, in stairwells, in the closest, in my dreams. (laughs).
I really admire the work that Amon Tobin has done in creating music for video games. He did the music to the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell game. It is amazing in that music has a definite purpose in the game, which is great, but also it stands alone well as a soundtrack CD.
Does your love of video games have anything to do with the release of “Yomp” and “Crazy Tuesday” as downloadable songs on Rock Band? What has been the reaction to these releases, being that thenewno2 is a newer group?
I don’t have specific figures to give you, as to how the Rock Band exposure has helped You Are Here. I know that when Motley Crue released a brand new song (“Saints of Los Angeles”) on Rock Band, they had 80,000 downloads in a month—twice the number on Itunes and Amazon combined. What’s the average age of the fan of Motley Crue fan, 40? I tell you, that wasn’t 80,000 40-year-old Motley Crue fans downloading on Itunes. They expanded their base to younger fans—while selling their songs on a closed system. It’s the future of music distribution.
What do you mean by that?
Rock Band, like all video games, is a closed system. You can’t copy or bootleg from it. You put something out on CD or Itunes, and it’s out there to be copied. In terms of protecting your copyrighted material, closed systems are the best way of releasing music right now.
Rock Band is also different than the older generation’s musical experience. With Rock Band and Guitar Hero, you experience the song actively. Your playing becomes organic to the song.
You blow the fretting sequence, the song is over.
Right. This has had an extremely positive affect for music. These kids play the games as songs, learn them, master them, get bored and move on to mastering the actual instrument. It’s great. That’s why I was such a big proponent of The Beatles: Rock Band project—you’ll experience these great songs in a whole new way.
The Beatles: Rock Band sounds like it is going to be big.
I’m really excited about. I first met with Alex Rigopulos, the president of Harmonix, two years ago about thenewno2. Then the conversation turned to the possibility of doing “it.”( The Beatles: Rock Band). I replied it would be great but I also told him it will never happen.
Why?
Politics, the parties involved. Look, the Beatles aren’t even on Itunes yet. They can’t even get that decided. But, surprisingly, everyone has agreed on Rock Band. I really love being part of it. This is the future of music.
Let’s talk about You Are Here. One of the YouTube comments to the CD’s first video, “Another John Doe,” categorizes thenewno2 as “ a relaxed Radiohead.”
Really? I don’t see that. The guys in Radiohead, Thom York and the bunch, grew up about 7-8 kilometers down the road, in Edmondsley. My school used to play their school in sports. The Radiohead guys were a bit older than us, maybe 7-8 years older. They were like a much more serious older brother. Don’t get me wrong—they are really nice guys, they are just way more serious and way more pessimistic. We are way more of the goof-off younger brother, seeing how serious his older brother is. We are serious about the music, but not as much with our selves. We also see ourselves as more optimistic.
The video of “Another John Doe” reminds me of Richard Lester’s work.
Hmmm. I’ve met Richard Lester, wonderful man. No, it’s really basic stuff. Filmed in a warehouse, with several camera angles edited fast. I’d say it is more David Byrne than Richard Lester.
When I saw your performance on Conan O’Brien on YouTube, I expected many more keyboards. Instead, you have three guitarists and one keyboard player.
Yeah, but we had alot of programming pads around us and we ran loops. Conan was fun, but the set was freezing. We were constantly trying to move around to keep off the cold. I guess the producers of the show do that to keep the audience awake. (laughs)
“Shelter” has a bit of that synthesizer sound from Who’s Next.
I recorded the Fender Rhodes part of that a few years back, and brought it around and fooled around with it for the new CD. We now do a much more organic version of it live —you can see it on Rollingstone.com. I like the way we did it originally; I might have to reverse engineer back to the original with that Peter Townsend keyboard.
I really liked the song “Idle Lover.” Some really good pop hooks.
Oh. Yea I like that song. (Uncomfortable pause) OK. (Both laughs)
“Back To You” includes newscasts of the 2005 London bombing.
The London bombing occurred right before Live 8 and the G8 summit. I remember coming over to London right before the bombing, and my mother telling me what a great vibe was in the air. People were sick of the terrorism threat and the Patriot Act and basically sick of being afraid; people were truly enthused about doing something about Africa. Not only were the people enthused, but also the government was going to get behind it. Even George Bush was supporting African initiatives. Then the bombs went off, and you could feel the loss of momentum.
The Live 8 shows were good.
They were very good, but the feeling was gone. All the money that was supposed to go Africa now went to fight terrorism. I’m not trying to make it out to be a big conspiracy, but it was weird how the bombing made it convenient for the special interests.
I also felt very bad for the organizers. I was very young when my dad did Concert for Bangladesh, but I remember him telling me later how much work it involved, before and after the concert. It was out of these attitudes that “Back To You” was written.
I am dangerously in love with the way President Obama is doing things. Very dangerously—I shouldn’t be allowing myself to feel this good! (laughs). But just this week the President signed the Reeves Law, which makes way for paralysis research and rehabilitation. It is also going to allow for stem cell research.
I was watching this on C-SPAN and Obama is about to sign it, but he stops and says, “We have to get Matthew up here.” Matthew is Christopher Reeves’s son and has been working hard towards getting this bill past; he was also my roommate at Brown. So the signing stops until Matthew gets up there. I’m all choked up watching, knowing all that Matthew went through, and the President—with all on his mind—waited for Matthew to join him. My old roommate is up there with the President! I just love the guy.
You are schedule to play in San Diego next month. Any other concert or TV appearances?
I don’t know how much I can tell you at this time, but there is some television appearances lining up. There’s been some talk about some tour dates with TV on the Radio; I am really excited about that happening. Since this label is just Ollie and me, it takes some time for us to get all this stuff scheduled.
http://www.hearsay.cc/blog/?p=1383