Bad Speler books venues on roadtrip to East Coast

As Lincoln's music scene goes about its business the next couple weeks, marquees will have only the weather and/or bad education to blame for misspellings.

Bad Speler has left the state for the East Coast.

Known to his copilot and fiance as Darren Keen, the man behind the improvised, experimental drum and bass act, was on his way to Chicago's Beat Kitchen on Monday when the Daily Nebraskan called. Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Burlington, Vt., Brooklyn, New York City, St. Louis and Springfield, Mo., round out the trip with a few days in between still open for stops.

As Duffy's Tavern saw to the tour's kickoff Sunday, Lincoln awaits the return of Keen's "giant mixer board with 180 instruments," "a lot of dumb theatrics" and one of this music city's most entertaining staples. But for now, Bad Speler still has two weeks of concerts across the country to look forward to.

Daily Nebraskan: How was the show at Duffy's?

Darren Keen: It was awesome. The turnout was really good. Everyone was really nice. I made shirts for the tour, and I hand-bleached a bunch of shirts and put the band name on them. And everyone was giving a lot of encouragement.

DN: Good. And so you're on your way to Chicago now?

DK: Yeah, I'm just past Iowa City. It's going just fine, listening to a lot of loud music, and my fiance Lacey took over on driving the van a little while ago because I'm tired and a little hung over, so that's good.

DN: Is there anyone else riding along with you two?

DK: Nope, just my fiance, Lacey.

DN: This being your first tour as Bad Speler, have you run into any problems yet that you didn't anticipate?

DK: Not so much. I had a little tough time booking all the days, trouble getting shows between Chicago and New York City, but that was something I expected, so it's gone pretty well so far.

DN: Could you go through what steps you took to set this up?

DK: I just got an e-mail account and e-mailed the booking guys at venues, sent them information about my band and asked if we could set up shows.

DN: Of all the stops, it looks like Burlington, Vermont, is the most out of the way. Why did you book that show?

DK: Yeah, it's a little out of the way (laughs). I just wanted to be up in New England. I was supposed to play Providence, but then the Providence fell through, and I had a show in Brooklyn replace it.

DN: Do you still have slots open?

DK: Yeah, I have next Friday open and a couple on the way back.

DN: Do you have any prospects to fill those dates?

DK: Not really, but I'm working on it.

DN: OK, now talking about the music, when did you start working with (music sequencer software) Ableton Live?

DK: Um, I started working with Ableton a little less than a year ago.

DN: And why did you start Bad Speler in the first place?

DN: Um, I just hadn't ever thought about the idea of making music live with a laptop. With (my other act) The Show is the Rainbow, I just play the tracks behind me, I don't mix anything. And I like a lot of laptop artists, so that was part of it.

When I got started, my friend Logan gave me big pointers about how it's a live, virtual environment with a lot of control of different things. And I'm still learning a lot, but it's cool because my Bad Speler mixes will map my progress with Ableton, like, the second mix that just came out shows how my skills have gotten better with Ableton.

DN: How does a Bad Speler live show work?

DK: Oh, well, I set up on the floor in front of the PA because monitors don't have the same response as a big PA. I play the music playing these two controllers, and I have those set up on a keyboard stand, and my laptop on a higher level; it's a two-tiered stand. Then I mix by cuing clips of audio and MIDI. I like to think of my stuff as a giant mixer board with 180 instruments plugged in (laughs). And there's a lot of dumb theatrics involved because I'm an idiot (laughs).

DN: Being an idiot's all right (laughs). And how do you make sure the technology doesn't get in the way of the music?

DK: I don't think that technology can get in the way of music because everything but a cappella uses some kind of technology. An acoustic guitar is technology, and every step of the way music is influenced by technology.

I mean, people bitch about autotune and superpop albums all the time, but people have been using the most of technology as it has come along. And even though I play with musicians in bands every so often, I think I communicate the best with a laptop; the music as I hear it works best that way. So I'm inspired by technology, and if Ableton wasn't what it is, it'd sound so completely different.

michaeltodd@

dailynebraskan.com