Mike Goodspeed, Kevin Stahl, John DiStase Music, Mike Valeras – The Pedantic Autodidact

This tune is an outstanding one, for several reasons.

First, the lineup is a who-is-who of curious sound scientists, a group of guys who understood, and I mean REALLY understood, what it’s about in music. This collab work combines the ideas and vibes of several musicians, and although it can be quite hard to do so, they made it look (or better: sound) easy. I already reviewed some of the works of Goodspeed and DiStase, and by teaming up with Stahl and Valeras, they surpassed themselves in regards to exploring new corners of music.

“The Pedantic Autodidact” has a loveable honesty attached to it. Due to the fact that not everything in the track is well-polished, the music gets a very unique flavor I want to describe as “wise” for now. It’s a texture that lets you know from the first seconds on that it’s not about hitting every mark of any aspect of the song, not at all. It’s about the feeling, the groove, and the flow. Most of all, it’s about collaboration and cooperation in the best expressive way possible.

I played with a lot of different musicians over the years as a session musician. Never made it to a big stage, but that wasn’t the goal anyway. It always was about the connection, no matter where the guys came from or what instrument they played. I heard and played with a lot of them, from heavy metal guitar to harp to hammond to hang. (Heck, one even “played” the side table because his instrument broke during a session.)

Long story short, I learned a lot about chemistry these days, and the guys that came up with the tune we’re talking about have a lot of said chemistry. You can hear it. Feel it. A sound like this makes me smile, it is felt to a point where you’ll find yourself grooving along, and the melodic extras will stick to you even though you can’t sing along. The sound has a wide range of energy woven in, and each one of the artists added a specific kind of vibe to the tune.

I love that collabs like this are still happening out there. It’s about the music and the passion for it. It’s about feeling and living the music instead of chasing numbers. Expressing your true nature as a musician instead of pretending to be someone you’re not. And you gotta agree with me here: this sound is as real as it gets.