white robot records
Hello,
welcome to white robot records.
i'm not gonna waste your time with a bunch of corporate BS. i would like to mention that we believe in ALL these projects and there's some pretty fine music contained here.
we're a small company so every sale counts.
we love you guys for supporting us and it keeps us going. enjoy your time here, come back often we're always changing things around. drop us a line or leave your comments. oh..and by the way. i don't look anything like my picture.
botty
pres. of white robot
Jim Konen (aka mr botty)
Due to requests regarding "who are you mrbotty" ?
Here's some bio info to put-in-your pipe and smoke.
lets see... oh yea,
I began my musical adventure began as a kid.
I became interested in a guitar I found at my grandparents house which belonged to my grandfather. It was a Sears Silvertone arch top. I often wonder what kind of songs he played on it. I never heard him play and never even knew he did. He had passed on so, I have no idea. At the time I was young and just enjoyed plucking the strings and messing with the tuners. At the time of my first lesson I discovered the guitar was unplayable. My buddies and I would put our favorite records on the turntable, grab a broom, and pretend we were musicians (is this still done?) playing the guitar (fun stuff when your ten). Then in 64, when the Beatles emerged onto the American music scene. I bugged my parents forever to take guitar lessons. They finally relented and I found myself practicing on a new "Panoramic" acoustic my dad paid $50.00 for at the local music store. His only comment was that, "I better learn how to play that thing". I'm sure he's sorry he ever said that! I never had to be asked to practice by my parents cause' I enjoyed it so much in fact i'm sure they would have liked me to stop and help around the house. I appeared to have a natural affinity for the instrument. Within a year I moved up to an electric instrument,a Norma solid body from Japan, A Mosrite fuzz (that thing sounded great) and amp, Ampeg Reverb Rocket II. Things were shakin' now. I joined and performed around town with a slew of local Detroit bands one of which "The Bottles", had us opening for the likes of some of Detroits most sought after bands like the MC5, The Stooges, Ted Nugent, The Rationals etc... This was the late 60's an exciting time for music here and abroad. The Bottles had a booking deal with Hideout Records a local label who had a guy named Bob Seeger on their roster as well. They put together these shows and we opened up for many of the above bands dozens of times. Maybe I was younger then but I swear the professionalism of an act like the MC5 was something to behold. Many of the big acts of the time like Led Zepplin, Jeff Beck Group,The Who, etc..were performing at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit. Music history was in the making and I was 16 or so in the middle of it. I remember shaking Jimmy Pages hand on their first tour here. It didn't take long for all this music to have some effect on me. I was in my last few years in high school then too and was lucky to be asked to play in the school stage band. They needed a guitar player for the rock material. This was a great learning experience too. My teacher Mr. Stone was a good drummer and, a cool guy. He liked what the young kids were listening too (rock, pop, funk) I learned a lot of new chords, got to play with a horn section and perform diverse music different than the rock music I was used to. So during the week I got to play at school and on the weekend I would open for the biggest acts in town. By the early 70's I was out of school living in Pittsburgh Pa. living the musician life there and on the road in Ohio, West Virgina, New York, Florida, and Michigan. I was part of a glam band named Scarab. We were a high enery rock band presented as a theatric freak out often ending with the singer ripping into his wrists with his bare hands till they bled and then vomiting fake blood. Theres a lot more story wise to that group to be sure. We were the focus of controversy at every gig. Religious groups would rip out the power and start praying for us. Typical! We were very popular, regionally we played lots of shows with national acts of the time like Johnny and Edgar Winter, Canned Heat, Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull, to name a few. During this time, I happened to hear a copy of "Bitches Brew by Miles Davis one night at a party and found myself attracted to the music of Miles. Here was a guy who was pissing off a lot of jazz purists by mixing jazz with rock. I loved it then and still do. He was right! It's important to mention a few other names like Chick Corea ,Stanley Clarke, John Mclaughlin guys who played with Miles whose music also inspired me. On the other hand I was also interested in "Art Rock" bands like King Crimson, Yes, and ELP. Scarab ran it's course and then Kiss, and Alice Cooper happened. Go figure? Thats ok, I was over it by then and more interested in developing some chops and learning how to mix jazz with rock like Miles did. I then joined a "jazz-rock" group that played out and not too much either. I spent my free time studying music theory and jazz guitar and am proud to say I did learn a few things! In order to make some much needed cash I returned to the disco and funk clubs in town. As regrettable as this sometimes was. Many of the musicians were good players and, like me were trying to make a go of it. We all made it a not so bad experience and I broadened my abilities. By the mid seventies I was into more study of my instrument and music theory. I even studied composition and score writing for a while. I also realized the value of recording your music as a product to be sold, and also realized recording your music helps you to "see" your music during playback and can provide insight into shaping it. I bought a used TEAC 4 track (Reel to Reel), mixing board, fx etc... to record my music. By the mid eighties I was on an upward climb with a local band called the ERGE. A Pop-rock band fronted by a female singer. We wrote and recorded our own music, released a Single and generated some buzz locally. It was enough to grab the attention of a Manager which did evolve into a small record deal with Geffen Records. I relocated to L.A. for a year and watched things fall apart. I returned home more determined than ever, to do music on my own terms. I purchased a sampler/sequencer and started writing, recording and performing solo with it. Rap, and electronic music were emerging as new music forms. DJ's were slicing up old school hits and remixing them into new ones. Detroit was once again becoming a leader in electronic music as well.This again inspired what began as the seed for the music now heard on this site. At that time the "music biz", was in flux because of sagging sales and music downloading. The "level playing field" of the internet really opened up opportunities for indie's like me and many others to market their music. Many of us who make music have discovered that there are wonderful people like you out there who seek us out. You are not just interested in the top 10 or 40 or whatever. you looking for music like the kind I make here and... you BUY it! (cool). Since then, I have continued to evolve my music and this site. So rock, jazz, electronic, looped and improvised music is a part of what this music is about. I have heard the term "techno jazz" applied here. Naturally, as a disclaimer, I, would never want to incur the wrath of either camp if they should at all feel insult as a result of hearing this music. As you can see from this bio. There is a "wild child" rock and roll ethic mixed with jazz and electronic concepts. After all this time. My style of music is the culmination of my experience. Besides, as soon as you stick all this stuff into a computer it can get deep!
Hope this helps
Thanks for listening
mr botty