It’s been several days now since the news of Steve Jobs parting from the planet and I can’t help but think of all the
things that he had instigated that had changed the way I think and use technology in my everyday life.
The first time I really became involved was my purchase of an early 40 Gig iPod. MP3 was still all new and not many people had them as yet and certainly no one I knew but the mere thought of having my whole CD collection in one place, in my pocket, was outrageously provocative. I kept looking at the large price ticket for one of these items and finally I came across a discounted duty free iPod at Sydney airport at the international terminal on one of my many trips for work to New Zealand.
Excitedly I played with it on the three hour flight but I had nothing to put on it. Not one song in my laptop. Why? Because I had not even ventured into to realm of putting music onto my computer at this point at all. I had a portable CD player so no need. My how things changed from that day.
My friend Greg Walker in Christchurch asked if I would accompany him on a quest to find a guitar for his son so we set off and did the rounds of the music stores first before I remembered you can sometimes stumble across a bargain second hand instrument at a pawn broker.
While he was paying for our find I discovered the used CD section. There were hundreds of CDs to choose from for only $2 each. It took no time for me to find 40 albums I always wanted to own and made my purchase.
Now at this point there was no wireless broadband and I had no idea how to connect to the hotel room phone line for internet so I loaded up 40 albums and manually put in all the information for each track including album and genre. I spent the whole night doing it but was so excited I didn’t care and finally lay on my comfy bed and listened to all these great songs with my ear buds.
I then (bravely) gave away all the CDs before heading back to Sydney to my studio for a session. My PC was giving me trouble (as it did reasonably often) and I was wanting to make an upgrade to a portable solution to fix my dilemma as I was also using a portable 8 track Fostex recording device for field work.
It took a little more time to happen but I finally decided to let go and buy an Apple Mac. It was an eBay purchase, 17″ Powerbook that I still have and use today (for small jobs). The big thing for me as a non tech head but computer savvy user was this…I never set anything up before successfully on a PC. Hardware and software needed to do what I wanted them to perform was seemingly out of my league…until now that is.
On receiving my Powerbook I promptly ventured off to the Mac store and bought the latest version of Logic Studio. Then I went to a music store and bought an audio interface (MOTU Traveller). Back at the studio I loaded the software, plugged in the hardware and within half an hour I began working with my new system and have never looked back. In fact it’s been 6 years since my computer guy (whom I love dearly as my friend and saviour on so many occassions) has done any work for me in my studio.
OK, so that was some time ago and I’ve written over 110 songs in the past three years (Making Tracks and Music Media Tribe workshops) with school children of all ages on this technology and I love it, they love it and I can honestly say that it has changed my life immensely. I can go absolutely anywhere with my music technology in hand and do what ever I need to do and usually more than I expected and, with great outcomes. It has changed songwriting forever.
So, I’d like to thank you Steve Jobs for your vision and putting together teams of people who have created so many amazing changes in my life and my ability to create music especially. RIP
