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  • Streets is watching – how to take your controllerist rig out busking

    I”ve always admired buskers, folks who perform music for tips out in parks and, in New York City, in the subway stations. I imagined it would be fun and perhaps even profitable. Not long ago, friend and fellow controllerist Scott Hampton aka Exaltron stepped into the arena and bravely modified his elaborate rig to be both mobile and battery powered. That”s saying a lot because he plays trumpet, keys, several controllers, and vocalizes (singing and human beatboxing) all at once!

    In this interview, Scott tells us about his experiences and challenges as a pioneering subway controllerist..

    Dj Shakey: Tell us about your act..

    Exaltron: When I perform as Exaltron, I use a laptop with Ableton Live to play beats and loop myself on trumpet and guitar as well as vocals. I also do a bunch of controllerism using the Quneo, remixing what I loop on the fly along with some finger-drumming. I draw from a lot of different styles like afro beat, funk, jazz, Latin and a bunch of random weirdness. I like to mix some intense compositional stuff with improvisation and controllerism. I don”t really do covers per se, but I do often use what I call “deep sampling”, which is taking elements of existing songs and compositions and learning how to play them on my instruments so I can do a kind of live mashup thing along with my own compositions. It”s fun to see if people will recognize a verse of an obscure 80s pop song or an old jazz standard melody.
     
    Aside from the Quneo, I also use an Axon AX50 with a Roland pickup to do midi guitar and a KMI Softstep to trigger loops and effects. I made my own Talkbox with fiber optics. People dig that, although somebody referred to it as “Autotune” which was not a nice experience for me.

    Dj Shakey: What motivated you to try busking, something that controllerists are not known to do?

    Exaltron: I was motivated mostly by the prospect of creating a wider audience outside of the typical electronic music fans in New York City. I feel like what I do can have appeal outside of the electronic music scene. I was spending time trying to find quality gigs, promoting shows, begging people to come out, and I would end up, after all that, just playing to a bunch my friends with most of the money going to the bar. So I figured if I could create my own venue in the subway or in the park, that could be very liberating and empowering for me as a musician.
    Dj Shakey: Did you get any guidance from a friend or other source?
    Exaltron: I mostly consulted the internet, as I didn”t know anyone who was busking aside from acts like Underground Horns and a few singer/songwriters. Since those artists aren”t amplified, they operate under completely different set of rules. The best place to start is on the MTA (NYC subway) website,there”s a section called 1050.6 that details all the rules for conduct in the subway, including music and performance. I also found great general info in this guide.

    Officially, music that is amplified is not allowed on the subway platform. If you”re using any kind of amplification, you would have to play on the mezzanine or someplace other than the platform, You also have to be pretty far away from token booth. So if you play by the rules, you are going to be very limited. In practice, I found that as long as you stay out of the way and you are not crazy loud or attracting a huge crowd, the cops will not harass you. I play often on the 59th St. Columbus Circle platform where there is a transit police station right above the platform and I”ve had cops walk right by me many times while I”m playing. It”s kind of crazy -  if you”re a drummer hammering away on the platform,  you”re not breaking any rules, but if you”re a guitarist with a tiny amplifier, the cops could send you packing- which they will do in some places – or fine you, but that”s very rare, from what I”ve heard, that only happens with people who are chronically uncooperative. If you only play in spots where you”ve seen other musicians playing, then you probably won”t get harassed.
    When it came to building the rig, I was coming up short when it came to getting AC power happening with batteries. I knew where to get powerful batteries, but I had no idea how to calculate what kind of power inverter to get based on my hardware. I happened to be on the phone with Moldover and he hipped me to another amazing veteran of the Warper Party from back in 2005 named Onyx Ashanti who was doing something similar. I got in touch with Onyx, and as it happened, he actually was working on a guide to busking for electronic musicians called ”A 21st Century Musicians Guide to Street Busking” which is now available online and you can download it HERE.

    Dj Shakey: What obstacles have you encountered?
    Exaltron: Honestly, the biggest hassles came from my own gear failing on me. The first time I Georgia Truck defensive driving online Training. went out I had one of my wheels fall off the rig that carries everything. I was barely able to drag it back onto the subway and get home without having to pay $50 for a car service. The other big pain is that even with two giant 12-volt batteries, I can only play for about an hour before the power inverter will automatically shut off. The PA  (the speakers and amplifier) could probably run for much longer, maybe six or eight hours, but running an inverter which powers things like a firewire interface and other hardware, it requires a battery that is fully topped off. One thing that I haven”t tried is playing for an hour and then trying to do a quick charge, say in a Starbucks. If that worked, it might give me more bang for my buck, because it”s a lot of work to schlep all that gear just to play for an hour.
     
    I was surprised at how little hassle there was aside from the gear. I was expecting to get a lot of crap from the cops and I was also worried about just being exposed to crowds and getting harassed for playing weirdo music. But when you think about New Yorkers, it takes a lot for them to notice or become confrontational, it seems like people who don”t like what I”m doing just ignore it or maybe mock me with a silly dance as the accidental video bombers did in the mini-doc (ed. NOTE: see Exaltrons 5 min. mini documentary HERE). I”ve never had anything stolen or felt threatened, but I also do tend to keep my donations bag pretty close to my rig. That”s a hot topic among buskers, how far away from your performance area you should put your donations container. There is definitely a school of thought where people won”t give you money as often because they don”t want to come up close to where you”re performing.

    Dj Shakey: Can you talk about some of the benefits of busking?
    Exaltron: I”ve found that when performing for people who are not necessarily fans of this music, it”s necessary to dig down deep and find your online casinos own confidence and/or just be totally zen about it. Busking makes you realize that playing a gig within your own scene is a luxury, people who are fans of electronic music or controllerism are going to appreciate what you”re doing on a higher level compared to people who aren”t familiar with these styles. In that sense it”s given me a lot confidence to accept that whatever creative pursuit you do, If done authentically, some people are going to dislike it, and I feel like if you can”t deal with the fact that you can”t satisfy everyone, then your art won”t be very genuine. By the same token if you”re not pushing yourself to get in front of a lot of different people, then you may be cheating yourself of potential fans outside of whatever scene you might be part of.

    Money has not been great, it”s more of just a kick emotionally to have random strangers throw money in your bag. I think the best I”ve done is close to $20 in one hour, but that”s rare.
    I get a lot of people coming up to me asking questions and flossing all over the place about what kind of crazy game they have going in the music business. For some reason they feel compelled to make all kinds of promises about what they”re going to do for you, but 99% of these people flake in my experience.

    The other thing I realized is that people love to take video on their phones and they usually won”t ask for your performer name or for permission to film you, so for me I made sure to have my artist name prominently displayed whenever I perform so if the video gets posted somewhere, I don”t have to depend on the person who posted it to tell the world who I am.    I think there is definitely a PR boost to doing something like this, which I would love to say was something that I did by design, but it”s mostly become apparent now that I”ve got it going. There”s a quixotic element to it, In other words it”s a little crazy from a logistical and economic perspective, but I think it”s more important to try something different from what everyone else is doing versus always doing the most rational, prudent thing. I think people react to struggle and outlandish ambition perhaps more than they react to pure success – I guess the former is a bit more interesting.
    Dj Shakey: Is there competition from other buskers?

    Exaltron: Actually, the camaraderie amongst buskers was a surprise to me. There is competition for the prime spots, but generally the other performers are very friendly about letting you know how long they plan to be there or where else you could try to set up. It can get kind of weird if someone sets up very close to you or vice versa- you don”t want to be competing volume-wise, that”s just bad for everyone involved. But I haven”t had many issues with that. Mostly the other performers tend to be very supportive, I think it”s because we all know how hard it is to be a musician and especially in the bowels of New York City.

    Dj Shakey: Do you recommend busking for a controllerist?

     

    Yes definitely. I figured that I would get the most attention and positive reaction to playing instruments and live looping, but it seems like I draw the most people and tips when I do the live remixing and controllerism. I guess there”s a novelty to it, and most people have never seen something like a Quneo, so they have no idea what”s going on. I guess it”s a good combination of improvisation and performance, where they can see that pressing certain buttons makes different things happen musically, but there is still a huge amount of novelty to it. Plus you have the ability to demonstrate skill as on a traditional instrument, and skill is definitely something people put a premium on when it comes to subway performers.

    I imagine that performers who use only a laptop and a controller could probably play for hours with a decent portable PA. As long as your laptop has a good battery and your controller doesn”t suck too much power via USB, you could probably do 4-6 hours or more! ..assuming a hater like Exaltron doesn”t come along and sabotage you out of jealousy. (end)
     
    Thanks to EXALTRON for this interview, his website can be found at www.exaltron.com,
    images on Flickr, and videos on Youtube.
    Also thanks goes to trailblazing controllerist / cyborg Onyx Ashanti for the download link for his “A 21st Century Musicians Guide to Street Busking”