Please Clap - A Live Performace

What is Please Clap?

After years of quarantining and waiting for shows to start up Josh Spoon resurfaced in January 2023 at the LA Pedal Expo to do a short DnB inspired set. The release is the result of that performance. It's a mix of the direct feed and audience so you'll hear cars and people in the quite parts of the performance, which I've always liked the idea of since listening to Official Live: 101 Proof by Pantera. Honestly I just wanted to play again and have fun.

I never did a live record before because I didn't get the confidence until everything went away in the pandemic and learned some things will end and you will have no record of it. I thankfully got a record of this performance.

Since it's release it's been performed on L.A. Country Fair, Dublab's Losely Attached, Palacio Palace, Jazz Dojo and Analog Los Angeles.

Here's my live Dublab Set

Who is Josh Spoon?

Josh is me. Really, I'm Josh Weatherspoon, but that eats up too much space on input boxes for releases.

I've been around music all my life but didn't get into it as a personal expression until I started playing drums in '95 with high school friends.

It wasn't till 2008 that I really got into computer-based music w/ Ableton Live when it was still nerdy.

My first release was the ambitious Beats to the Future. Which is an homage to one of my favorite movies, Back to the Future, and the music I grew up to as a child of the 80s in Queens, New York. It's a sample clearance nightmare.

In subequent release I've explored a lot of different sides of myself and music. With hints of social commentary, humor and genre-melding. I've had fun making the art I want to make and have performed live and run crews numerous times living in L.A. for over a decade.

Why make this and what did he use?

I love creative instant gradification, it's why I did standup and I love performing music live. Many times I have overthought the production of releases, leaving me with no finished or relased art.

When I have a deadline and people depending on me, I get it done knowing that whether it's well received or not, I get a reaction from people and I'm not in my head. I can make quick decision and setup a performance. Then I can make quick decisions in the performance that won't hinder someones forever listening experience like a recording will but will be a fun fleeting moment that will distill hopefully into a great time even if some parts of my set wasn't ther favorite. This performance was not different.

P.S. I'm getting better working through production stagnation. I've spent so many years helping others learn and make their art,n ot until the pandemic did I ask myself, really what do I want to make devoid of external pressures. It's been a weird few years.

So, unless I have a new release to perform. I usually start from scratch on a live performance. This one was no different, I wanted to challenge myself filtering some of the DnB and Jungle elements I've heard (not even close to a knowledgeable listener) through my music brain.

So I went to a site with old 90s .iso files, some sounds I had and loaded them up to a hardware tracker called Polyend Tracker and began to build the project from there with that as the sequencer. From there I just play around. I always need a piece that I can manipulate in a performance. That's where a mono synth called Novation Circuit Mono Station. It handles all the bass duties and filtering the noise you here throughout the performance.

There's a mixer and a Line 6 HX Stomp for effects and compression but the other live element I have is a pulsetone phone that my father-in-law altered a schematic to have the headset and receiver work through mic input. I love the sound in general and my voice through a phone. It's like I’m talking to the audience and not performing. Though I plan to sing more, there is no singing in this release.

Between me triggering sections, using effects in the Tracker and out, manipulating the synths, my voice as a noise machine and using touch tone buttons, that's what in the performance.

BTS Video

Finishing goals for 2023

Continue expanding my artistry by highlighting my strengths and working on my weaknesses.

Do a few more live shows before the year’s end.

Get some of my singer/songwriter tracks demoed or finished.

How can you support

Subscribe to my Bandcamp/Spotify, listen, tell me you like something, and tell others about the tracks you enjoy.

Book me, suggest people to book me, teach me how to book myself.

Let’s collaborate, use computers and instruments, singing, or watching others make art. I’m down.

If you want to link up

Here are some connetion points. I have more sides to my life then what was disussed here and would take hours upon hours of talking to show those sides. I love to connect on any level about things not just music

Raised on Yo! MTV Raps, 120 Minutes, Reverb (HBO), New York Radio in the 80s: WBLS, Z100, 70's Lite Rock

TV

Mr. Show

I Think You Should Leave

Early Big Mouth
Fleabag
Chernobyl
Barry
Veep

Simpsons

Corporate

Duckman

Ugly Americans

Severence

Succession

Breeders

Trying

Rigeous Gemstones

Docs about cults & scammers

YouTube

Wisecrack

Neal Brennan Blocks Podcast

Endless Honeymoon

Corridor Crew

Movies

BTTF

Ghostbusters

Joy Ride

Animated Spider-Men ;)

Different types of Horror

Music

Doom

The Mars Volta

QOTSA

Run the Jewels

ATCQ

Tripping Daisy

The Flaming Lips

Pink Floyd

Prince

Radiohead

Anita Baker

Luther Vandross

Solange

Badu

Fleet Foxes

John Lennon

JPEDGMAFIA

Deftones

70s Herbie albums

Zapp

Smashing Pumpkins

Yasiin Bey (Mos Def)

Earl Sweatshirt

Foo FIghters

New Crosses

Beck

RHCP