Tonight’s post started as an idea before I went to see SunnO))) at the Great American Music Hall on Monday night. And, truth be told, I’m composing these words just before I dash out to see night 2 of their San Francisco shows (my intent is to have a draft done before the second night’s set and, hopefully, post the finished version after the show but before midnight, if I time this right).
Anywho, the show last night was an almost ritualistic, devotional experience, if you’re devoted to both volume and distortion. For those of you not familiar with SunnO))) (which, I must admit, is probably most of you — they are definitely an acquired taste), most of their music is based on loud, tuned-down, heavily distorted guitars, working in tandem to create monolithic slabs of noise so intense, with so many harmonics and undertones, it’s almost hypnotic. What makes their shows such a spectacle, and such a draw to me, is how the duo has to not only play their guitars, but simultaneously use their amplifiers (there were 16 cranked to 11 at Monday’s show) and the feedback those wide-open stacks of speakers create in whichever venue they’re in, manipulating those rumbles and peals and growls to recreate the songs they want to perform on the night.
And that cacophony leads to the nugget of an idea I had before I saw Monday’s show. See, I’ve been thinking about how to build teams. And after my recent, unexpected layoff, I have been thinking about which new opportunities in my inbox I want to start pursuing. Some of those involve leading existing teams, some are to bring a seasoned perspective to emerging teams, and some are to build a team from scratch. It’s that last option which is most intriguing to me.
I liken the idea to being in bands. I’ve auditioned for some, been added to one, and built a few of my own. And those approaches all have their own pros and cons. Auditioning is like trying to convince a group that your skills will compliment the collective and help them head to where they want to go. Being asked to join one means that you’ve already shown enough of your worth on your own to make it past all the initial vetting hurdles in order to add to the greater good. But building something from the ground up means you’re not only defining the direction, but also identifying who is going to help you get there. It’s like playing the instruments and the room at the same time.
Like I mentioned in an earlier post, adding an element to an existing solution can be tricky. But so can developing one. Do you build a team based on the direction and destination you want to go, picking members based on the specific skills they have which you think will help you get there? Or do you gather people whose instincts, curiosity, and decision-making you trust, putting them together to see where they end up? To make another potentially clumsy music analogy, it’s like deciding between composing for an existing string ensemble, with all the inherent sonic constraints, or booking time in a recording studio and inviting your favorite players to bring their preferred instrument to record whatever they concoct.
I’m not sure which way my thinking is headed yet. But I need to find something relatively soon. All I know is there are a lot of strings to pull and speakers to hear and venues to try them out in. Like SunnO))). Who I’m headed out to see now.
See you tomorrow?
Update: I made it home just after 11 p.m., my ears ringing, head spinning, a smile plastered on my face, and these words posted mere moments before the witching hour. Thanks for letting me force these analogies night after night — it’s definitely therapeutic, at the very least, and sometimes even helpful.
665
24 January 2023
Feedback is a gift.
Tonight’s post started as an idea before I went to see SunnO))) at the Great American Music Hall on Monday night. And, truth be told, I’m composing these words just before I dash out to see night 2 of their San Francisco shows (my intent is to have a draft done before the second night’s set and, hopefully, post the finished version after the show but before midnight, if I time this right).
Anywho, the show last night was an almost ritualistic, devotional experience, if you’re devoted to both volume and distortion. For those of you not familiar with SunnO))) (which, I must admit, is probably most of you — they are definitely an acquired taste), most of their music is based on loud, tuned-down, heavily distorted guitars, working in tandem to create monolithic slabs of noise so intense, with so many harmonics and undertones, it’s almost hypnotic. What makes their shows such a spectacle, and such a draw to me, is how the duo has to not only play their guitars, but simultaneously use their amplifiers (there were 16 cranked to 11 at Monday’s show) and the feedback those wide-open stacks of speakers create in whichever venue they’re in, manipulating those rumbles and peals and growls to recreate the songs they want to perform on the night.
And that cacophony leads to the nugget of an idea I had before I saw Monday’s show. See, I’ve been thinking about how to build teams. And after my recent, unexpected layoff, I have been thinking about which new opportunities in my inbox I want to start pursuing. Some of those involve leading existing teams, some are to bring a seasoned perspective to emerging teams, and some are to build a team from scratch. It’s that last option which is most intriguing to me.
I liken the idea to being in bands. I’ve auditioned for some, been added to one, and built a few of my own. And those approaches all have their own pros and cons. Auditioning is like trying to convince a group that your skills will compliment the collective and help them head to where they want to go. Being asked to join one means that you’ve already shown enough of your worth on your own to make it past all the initial vetting hurdles in order to add to the greater good. But building something from the ground up means you’re not only defining the direction, but also identifying who is going to help you get there. It’s like playing the instruments and the room at the same time.
Like I mentioned in an earlier post, adding an element to an existing solution can be tricky. But so can developing one. Do you build a team based on the direction and destination you want to go, picking members based on the specific skills they have which you think will help you get there? Or do you gather people whose instincts, curiosity, and decision-making you trust, putting them together to see where they end up? To make another potentially clumsy music analogy, it’s like deciding between composing for an existing string ensemble, with all the inherent sonic constraints, or booking time in a recording studio and inviting your favorite players to bring their preferred instrument to record whatever they concoct.
I’m not sure which way my thinking is headed yet. But I need to find something relatively soon. All I know is there are a lot of strings to pull and speakers to hear and venues to try them out in. Like SunnO))). Who I’m headed out to see now.
See you tomorrow?
Update: I made it home just after 11 p.m., my ears ringing, head spinning, a smile plastered on my face, and these words posted mere moments before the witching hour. Thanks for letting me force these analogies night after night — it’s definitely therapeutic, at the very least, and sometimes even helpful.