Unexpurgated with Randolf Arriola

http://youtu.be/m5WaniMxhxc RANDOLF Arriola is as much a technician as he is a guitarist. Throughout the years, he’s worked in bands, worked in clubs and played at festivals. He’s probably the leading live looping artist in Singapore. And definitely among the top in Asia – if he isn’t already in a class of his own. But surprisingly, other than the regulars who go to Harry’s to listen to him play, or musicians with whom he’s come into contact with, most don’t even know who he is, or if he even exists. So we got the man to talk a little bit about himself. (NOTE: This instalment of Unexpurgated also contains segments of an earlier interview we did with Randolf a year ago. Photos by Anton Chia, Shiro Ang and Jason Ho.)

(Part of Randolf's rig he uses live) Often misunderstood, Live Looping does not use prerecorded materials. Almost like watching a multitrack recording studio running real time Live Looping is the art of creating and capturing musical phrases live on the spot and layering live overdubs to create, mix and morph harmonies and rhythms that effectively build in sonic layers to eventually sound like multiple players playing at the same time. With Live Looping in the pub environment like at Harry's Dempsey Hill where I perform solo with voice and guitar, I get to make creative and spontaneous choices by sensing the mood of the room and can either replicate or recreate almost entire songs alone eg. U2's With Or Without You, the unplugged version of Hotel Califonia, Massive Attack's Teardrop or even Miles Davis's So What. With my original music and production work the use of Live Looping gives me immediate results in deciding and presenting creative choices. My most recent development that I'm very excited about is simply having the iPhone mounted on to my Klein Electric Guitar. With this setup combination It creates, records and processes sounds to and from the guitar. The audio is transmitted wireless via Bluetooth.