Ok, I’m not some musical scholar but ever since I conducted an interview with Eman Laerton (YHBTM - interview coming soon) I’ve been thinking about the concept of original music. When was the last time you heard something truly new? Maybe you’ll hear things that sound fresh, or maybe even innovative… but never new. That awesome band you saw at the Viper Room, with the original sound? Well it’s not original.

Why has it been so long? I’m thinking it’s because we haven’t had a new instrument introduced to us in a sexy way. We started off with some basic percussions, perhaps wind instruments early in the history of music. Back then it was cool because it was noise that was organized into an artistic language - the concept of music alone was mind blowing.

Classical music had the piano and a whole orchestra.

The blues had the acoustic guitar.

And then we have Rock N’ Roll and the electric guitar. Actually the sax was a major contender as Rock’s leading instrument for a bit, but the electric guitar won in the end - the sax exploring other territories eventually finding it’s home in Jazz.

Hip Hop has turntables, and so does Electronica/Trance.

The point is that all of these different musical genres have had their day in the sun, and for the most part have had a new instrument marketed to the masses in an appealing way. No new genre is ever created without the advent of a new instrument. So you want NEW music? Are you in a band looking for that NEW sound? Well, maybe you should invent a new instrument first, and find ways to pull off some cool gimmicks to market the instrument in a sexy way (think Hendrix + Fender). Maybe it’s as simple as strapping your Mac Book Pro to a 2×4.