Published: October 10, 2008 8:56 PM EST
By: Isaac Davis Jr., MBA (Juniorscave.com)
New Music Spotlight
Ace Noface and the Misdeals
Ace Noface and the Misdeals "Alternative Piano Rock for
the Brave."
Ace is a fighter and someone who doesn't take life for granted. Ace, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease, described as a devastating degenerative neurological disorder, has not let his disease stop him for reaching for the stars.
Ace recently took the time to complete an interview for Junior's Cave.
Here is what developed.
Isaac: Elaborate on who you are and your upbringing.
Ace: I grew up in the suburbs of a college town that is a few miles from the state capital. Both of my parents hold advanced degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. They were both college instructors. There were hundreds of books in the house, ranging from classic and contemporary novels to technical journals.
The values they worked to instill upon me were the importance of charity, belief in good government, cultural identity and social justice. One of my earliest memories was watching the results come in from a presidential election. I asked my father what was the difference between Democrats and Republicans. He said, "Republicans care about money; Democrats care about people."
Isaac: Was there any one musician that spoke to your heart so profoundly, you were inspired to do your own thing?
Ace: I have to answer this question in two parts. I first became interested in music when I was about 12 years old. My friend Eric turned me on to heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. He decided that we should form our own band and call it "The Satanics" and since he already had a guitar, I should play bass. So the first thing that I did after I got my first bass was learn how to play along with Iron Maiden's "Piece of Mind." So Iron Maiden's Steve Harris inspired me to practice for three hours a day after school.
Until three years ago, I had only written joke songs. Then I got my ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) diagnosis, and went into a period of emotional withdrawal. A few months later, I rented a documentary about Frank Zappa. Among other things, the film showed how he dealt with his diagnosis of terminal prostate cancer. Up until the end, he worked 12 hour days in the studio making music. A light went on in my head, and I knew what I needed to do: learn the craft of songwriting, and leave behind a significant musical legacy.
Isaac: Which singer/group would you say you would most like to do a duet with?
Ace: It has always been my fantasy to write a song to be arranged and performed by Steely Dan. It would be a challenge to do this, because there is a lot of guitar and horns in their music, and I only write parts for piano, bass and drums plus vocals, and it would be exciting to see what those guys could do with it.
Isaac: What singer/songwriter do you most connect with?
Ace: That's easy: Daniel Johnston. I was surfing through Netflix, looking for movies that the site thinks that I would like based on my rating of movies I have seen before. Right there in front of me was a documentary with a compelling title, "The Devil and Daniel Johnston." It described him as an extraordinarily talented but troubled songwriter. He was living in Austin, Texas a few years before I moved there. Everywhere I went in Austin, there seemed to be posters that had a drawing of a weird frog, with the words: "hi, how are you?" When I found out that that image was written by Daniel Johnston and the quote was the title of his first album, I had to rent it.
It turns out that Daniel Johnston and I have had similar life experiences. Both of us are bipolar, and have created massive disruption in our lives during manic episodes. We have both experienced religious delusions. Both of us create music as well as visual art. And both of us had nearly obsessive feelings towards women that we had dated a long time ago.
I went to his website to buy some music, and happened to look at his touring schedule. I was elated to find out that he was playing in a nearby town in three weeks. Since I had downloaded a collection of his greatest hits, I was expecting to be familiar with all the songs that he would play, and I was not disappointed. The concert was very inspiring. The last song he played "Devil Town" made more of an emotional connection between the performer and the audience, who sang along, than I have ever seen before.
Isaac: Out of your entire song collection that you've written thus far, which song(s) would you say is/are the most personal/meaningful to you?
Ace: "Whiskey bottle" is the story of a brief but profound hallucination at the peak of a manic episode. I wrote about the meaning of the song in great detail in a blog post on the front page of my website.
Isaac: Which singers/groups do you enjoy/like from some of today's music genres?
Isaac: What charities are you involved with or support?
Ace: I was interviewed by the local television station during the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Jerry Lewis telethon. I am also planning to speak at a corporate fundraiser for the ALSA. I also give a monthly donation to American friends of Mogen David Adom, Israel's first responders, who risk their lives rushing in after terrorist attacks.
Isaac: Have you (or would you ever consider) writing a song about any of today's particular world issues/problems? If so, what world issue would speak to you the most to write about?
Ace: I try to keep up with what's going on in Pakistan and the Middle East. I'm also interested in pollution, global warming, and domestic energy policy. I don't think that I could write a song about any of these things, however. Once in a while, I'll read a news story that really grabs my attention and stays in the back of my mind for weeks. For example, there was a story about a man in Toronto who was arrested, and they found that he had stolen 2000+ bikes. I wrote a song sung from the perspective of the bicycle thief, trying to understand his motives which remain a mystery.
I have not yet done this, but I think that if I were to write a song based on current events, it would be about the growing world food crisis, and the social instability that has resulted in the rise of food costs.
Isaac: Why should people listen to your music?
Ace: My songs are true expressions of universal emotions: anger, obsession, confusion, anxiety, and love. By my use of concrete images, listeners can easily give voice to their as yet unexpressed feelings. It's music that matters.
Isaac: What has been one of the most rewarding aspects about making music?
Ace: Each song that I write is a reflection of a part of my soul. When I complete a song, I am filled with the optimism that that part of me could last forever.
Isaac: How far into the creation of a song do you share any of it with anyone? Who would you play it for? Would it be a chorus, a verse and chorus, or a complete song?
Ace: I always write the music first, and then my lyrics to fit the melody in the song. Most of the time, I'll let the completed music sit for two or three weeks while I let my subconscious generate ideas for the key parts of the song, like the chorus or the title or the refrain. (For a more complete discussion of my songwriting technique, read the blog post "idea farmer" on my homepage).
Most of the time, I also rely on feedback from my sister, my girlfriend (both of whom are songwriters) and my massage therapist, a musical theater performer. I'll often send them the instrumental version of the song, and ask them either what the song should be about, or if they hear any words that they think would fit in the song.
Isaac: How much do you let others "mess around with one of your new songs?
Ace: I give my vocalists plenty of latitude towards how they inject emotional expression into the song. As long as they sing the lyrics at the pitch that I wrote, they are free to change the duration of the notes, use pitch bending and even scream a little bit.
Isaac: Do you have to be a tortured soul to be a singer-songwriter?
Ace: I don't think so. What is required, however, is being engaged with the world around you, so you can be genuinely affected by music, movies, books, relationships and current events. Another requirement is being in touch with your feelings, so much so that you are able to put those feelings into words and project them into the music.
Isaac: Are your songs strictly autobiographical or are they embroidered autobiography?
Ace: My songs are only autobiographical in the abstract sense. I take whatever emotion I'm dealing with at the time, and put it into a more dramatic context than a song that's just about me and my feelings. For example, recently I had been obsessing about an old relationship, so I took the raw feeling and turned it into a song about an obsessive bicycle thief.
Isaac: How long does it take you to process your emotions and turn them into songs?
Ace: I do a lot of the work on getting in touch with my feelings on Thursday afternoons with my psychoanalyst. It's not uncommon for me to come up with an idea for a song a few hours after a session.
Isaac: The best piece of advice you actually followed?
Ace: Goal setting. The first thing that I do every morning when I get in front of my computer is come up with 4-6 tasks to be accomplished that day. Whenever I get tired of doing something, I can always go back to the document and find something else I can be doing. Doing this has dramatically improved my productivity. I also have the intermediate and long-range goals that are printed out on a piece of paper hanging from my monitor. At a glance, I can see how things are going with my CD, growing my fan base, and my songwriting goals for the year.
Isaac: Give Shutouts to your family and friends.
Ace: To everyone: May I continue to be worthy of your support. Love you, Sugar!
Isaac: Last but certainly not least, what are you working on, now?
Ace: I need to come up with lyrics for a couple of songs, with the working titles "charcoal" and "cola". Unfortunately, I've been unable to really get started with either of these. Hopefully, something will get shaken loose next Thursday!
