Brief 6: Secret 7" - Initial thoughts & research

Secret 7" is back after a 2-year break. This years artists are: 

- The Clash - I'm not down
- London Grammar - Help
- Eurythmics - I saved the world today
- Manic Street Preachers - No surface, all feeling
- Primal Scream - Damage
- Jeff Buckley - Lover, you should have come over
- Jimi Hendrix - Castles made of sand

I chose Jimi Hendrix out of the bunch as this is someone who I would listen to when growing up as my grandparents had his songs on replay everytime I visited. Because of this I would be able to gather first-hand research from them to give me some more inside knowledge on his experience of Jimi Hendrix.

Initial findings about Jimi

Some of the things that stood out to me about him were that there were a lot of conspiracies surrounding him, along with a number of other similar artists, that they sold their soul to the devil. One of the reasons behind this is that they re-introduced a 'Tri-tone' that's played on the guitar, known as 'Diabolus in Musica' otherwise referred to as 'The Devil's Chord'. This opens up the possibility of a lot of ideas related to this.

Searching through old vinyls and CD's in my grandparents' attic space I found this old CD called 'Experience Hendrix'.

Within it is a little bit of info regarding the chosen song 'Castles Made of Sand'.

He didn't have much professional musical training; he was predominantly self-taught. He said that:

"You have to write your own songs in order to get your own personal sound"

His sounds were different to that what had been heard of before. Using instruments and equipment in ways that were otherwise disregarded due to their unappealing sounds.

Hendrix helped to popularise the wah-wah pedal, a piece of kit that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound. He was also the first person to use stereo phasing effects in music recordings, helping to further his unique sound.

All of this coupled with his love for distortion of noise made for his music to be something much different to what people of the time were used to. This is something I could portray in the artwork for his vinyl.