Heart of Gold: The Brilliance of Chromewaves
For roughly seven years, Frank Yang has been helping me find good music. His website, (http://chromewaves.net) is one of the few that I consider a must-read every day. There are a lot of websites run by people with great rss readers. Frank separates himself by spicing it up by taking his own concert photos, which are always terrific. He also makes it very clear who he likes and doesn’t make any bones about ignoring the music that he isn’t passionate about. While it’s obvious that some blogs are swayed by the opinions given to them by record companies, Chromewaves remains fiercely independent. While I may not always agree with his taste, I never doubt his sincerity and am generally charmed by his choices.
Frank took time to answer some questions on how he came to be one of the premier “tastemakers” in the indie music world.
TDOA: I’m not sure people in the U.S. or in Europe recognize how musically vibrant Canada is. I grew up in Detroit, listening to Brave New Waves on CBC, so I owe a special debt to Canada. Why do you think Toronto and Canada in general seems to be musically “ahead” of the U.S. generally?
FY: Well I don’t know if that’s especially true – it could simply be a case of the grass being greener, etc etc. It’s certainly not an uncommon perspective, I’m a barely reformed Anglophile/Britpop kid and have probably been suckered into listening to stuff that’s not really all that good because of a little NME hype and a charming accent. I think that the last five to seven years have found Canada coming into its own on the international stage, at least in critical/college/indie circles, for the first time perhaps ever and in the process, have managed to dispell a lot of the old jokes and stereotypes about Canadian music (Celine/Bryan Adams/Loverboy/etc). It may be less a case of “wow, Canada is awesome” as “Canada, huh? Who’d have thunk it?”. There’s always been terrific talent in Canada but its rarely managed to break out of the domestic market in any meaningful way until recently, and the success of your Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire and New Pornographers has not only people outside Canada to look closer at what we’ve got to offer, but it’s encouraged people inside Canada to believe that they can build audiences outside of Canada. Its been a positive thing all around.
TDOA: As we grow older, our musical tastes change. You’ve talked on your site about your love of shoegaze. In the last year or two it seems like Wilco has permeated alot of what you listen to now. Is that accurate and can you give us a brief synopsis of how your taste has changed over the years?
FY: Well, the thing with shoegazing is that until very recently, it was very much a sound locked in time and when most/all of the purveyors of that sound are defunct, it’s hard to stay engaged. Sure there were bands that aped the sound but very few were doing anything that was new or interesting except in a strict retro/tribute sense. As far as writing goes, there’s only so much that can be said about Ride or Slowdive when neither band is doing anything anymore. As for Wilco and their being a guidepost for what I’m listening to recently, they’ve been one of my favourite bands for coming on twelve years or so now – they probably predate my shoegaze fetish. But if you talk about stuff that’s more folk or country-influenced as an increasing staple of my musical diet, yeah – I’m drawn more to words and songwriting than pure sonics nowadays but still need some more interesting musical accompaniment than your standard singer-songwriter fare tends to offer.
I think my musical tastes have definitely expanded and grown more refined over the years, but if I needed to I could probably still distill it down to Six Degrees Of Neil Young. The noisy stuff, the folky stuff, the traditional stuff, the avant garde stuff – Neil’s done it all. And in that sense, my tastes haven’t changed much. It just moves in cycles depending on what I’m in the mood for and what’s current in whatever style that’s good or interesting.
TDOA: It’s gratifying to read a blog of someone who is growing older, yet their taste in music isn’t narrowing. However, this isn’t the norm. Why do you think people become less adventurous in their musical choices as they grow older?
FY: Well when you’re younger, you have more time and energy to explore something like music, and how it reflects on you and your more malleable sense of self (I hope that doesn’t sound too pretentious). As you get older, that free time inevitably lessens and who you are, what you like, becomes more defined. I think it then becomes a self-fulfilling thing. I like this music or stuff that sounds like this music because it reminds me stuff I know I like. there’s less risk. And then there’s the nostalgia factor, where a certain sound or style of music – or even specific artist – is a favourite because it reminds you of your youth or a time before you made a total hash of your life. Or maybe that’s just me.
TDOA: Obviously you get your music from a variety of sources, but are there a few places that you find consistently help you find great new music?
FY: It seems a bit contrary for a music blogger to say, but I still like reading music magazines, few as they may be these days. When I was younger, before you could sample things online instantly via MySpace or whatever, much of my new music discoveries were via printed reviews in magazines like Spin and Option. A well-written review could actually stoke my imagination about what something might sound like and prompt me to seek it out at local record stores or ones in other cities. I was very much about the search and the thrill of discovery. Stuff is just so easy these days. I don’t mean to complain about the convenience factor, but I do have some of that moaning old man who longs for hte good old days. So as long as there remain good, written reviews available in magazines like Magnet or The Big Takeover, I like taking some guidance from those. There’s also word of mouth from people I know and trust, and lots of good stuff just shows up in my inbox or RSS reader.
TDOA: Record labels have a history of trying to influence radio stations to get their bands played and I think we’re starting to see it on the internet too. Do you ever feel like an effort is being made to get you to publicize a band that you might not have written about previously?
FY: Well yeah, a lot of my correspondence these days are people trying to get me to listen to/go see and write about acts I don’t know about. Which is great, in one way, because that’s how I learn about new stuff, but it’s also tough to manage because of the sheer volume – both in terms of quantity and of white noise or static. It’s gotten to the point where I have to ignore a lot of it just to stay sane. I figure if something is really good, it’ll cross my ears at some point either via endorsement from someone with more time, energy and patience than I or some other way. I don’t need to be the first to break something, that’s a young man’s game. For a while I tried to keep up with what was sent to me but I’ve since largely given up, it’s just impossible to do in the time I have available to dedicate to the blog.
TDOA: Your photography at the concerts that you attend is one of the things that makes your site unique. It seems like this is something that’s become more and more important to you over the years. Please talk about the genesis of adding concert photos to your site and we’d love any “the guitarist of band “x” once punched me for taking too many pics, stories.
FY: Well, it started pretty basically – I wanted to add more visual components to my posts, and posting stock PR shots with concert reviews seemed silly. I had a digital point-and-shoot and became one of those annoying people who constantly fired off the flash at shows taking bad photos. Wanting to improve on that led to more practice, more gear, and eventually instead of sneaking in my little pocket camera I was getting accreditation to shoot the likes of Radiohead, Neil Young, Nick Cave, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine – and that was just last year. Thrilling and satisfying on a personal and professional level. No real stories, though. Only one I could think of taht comes close would be M Ward a few years ago, who is notoriously camera-shy and generally bans photogs at all his shows. I still managed to get permission from the promoter and his manager to shoot three songs, but when the show started, after the first song Ward spotted me and began holding his hand up in front of my lens while playing – pretty impressive from a dexterity and not missing a note point of view. couldn’t do anything except respect his wishes, but the camera away and just enjoy the show.
TDOA: If you could meet any one musician, writer or director (living) who would it be and why?
FY: I’m not big on the meeting celebs thing, mostly because I’d never have anything interesting to say. But that said, it was amazing meeting Neil Young after a Toronto show last year, if just for a minute. it was a meet and greet, we did both and took a picture and he moved on. But it was still pretty awesome.
TDOA: What inspired you to start your own website?
FY: Boredom. Sheer, abject boredom. And the fact that I had some webhosting space and a domain name purchased originally for my web developer portfolio. but then I got a full-time job and that became less necessary so I started doing on of these “blog” things that some of my friends were. And then my OCD took over.
TDOA: Do you have a goal for your site or is there something specific that you hope that people “gain” from reading your site?
FY: I hope they find something they like, I hope they enjoy the way it’s presented, and I hope they support the bands that the discover.
TDOA: If you could vote one band “off the island”, who would it be?
FY: Oh, I don’t need any bands to cease to exist – it’s easy enough to ignore pretty much anyone you choose to, or more accurately, to devote your attention to bands you do like. That’s one benefit of the utter fragmentation of popular culture – if you don’t want to hear The Killers, it’s easy to never ever hear The Killers.
For more information about Chromewaves, visit http://www.chromewaves.net
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