Johannes Schult

My new solo album Heteroscedasticity will be out on Sunday, 19th October 2008 – only six days from now! I locked myself in the bathroom and played some of my songs to celebrate the album release. The first (or rather the last) out of four parts is now online. It shows me playing Judy Mary Jane on the ukulele. (Not that I had rehearsed the song more than once.)

Honestly, I have mixed feeling about posting it directly in the site, because I have always been an advocate of avoiding Flash. Well, here it is; goodbye to you, dear integrity. Speaking of selling out, I included a bunch of older tunes you probably already know. But who knows – maybe some new fans discover my music just now. Anyway, there will be more videos coming soon. And on Sunday the album itself will be launched. Here is the cover artwork.

You probably heard this one before (I heard it from J.R.): don’t drink and derive!

While the first three parts where actually bogus and solely for entertainment purposes, the following two recommendations are serious, possibly helpful for non-statisticians, too – and actually free.

• A very helpful software tool for data entry is EpiData. If you are working with manual data input (e.g., questionnaire data) you should definitely check it out – unless, of course, you already know (and use) it.
• The Firefox extension is Zotero is capable of collecting, managing, and citing research sources. It rivals common citation software, not only because it is free, but also because it is very easy to handle. I got to know Zotero just two days ago – thanks to Biddy for the hint – and felt at home with its usage in a matter of minutes.

Da gibt es heutzutage (zumindest in bestimmten Ländern) die ausgeklügeltsten Impfungen, allerlei hochkomplexe Diagnoseverfahren in Krankenhäusern und natürlich minimalinvasive Behandlungsmethoden, die hier und dort Großoperationen ersetzen. Doch trotz all dieser medizinischen Fortschritte hat immer noch niemand ein effektives Mittel gegen Schluckauf gefunden. Hick.

Today, I recorded the last missing piece for my upcoming solo album Heteroscedasticity. I still have to assemble the individual tracks to a coherent unit (tough job) and create some kind of artwork. It is going to be a download-only album, available for free, licensed Creative Commons by-nc; so you can create your own physical album if you care. Right now, the song order in the music section does not correspond to the initial title numbers. I will fix that once all tracks are there. Please be patient – and re-download everything after the album release for maximum correctness.

I had planned to make a video of me playing some songs live to a non-existent audience. I’ve already compiled a setlist: some songs from the album, a couple of other tracks, and a cover version. I’m not sure when/if I find the time for this, but the idea is to have some moving pictures to go along with the album.

I don’t have the time to do more promotional activities and for the time being everything is strictly non-commercial. I’ll just see where it goes from there – probably nowhere. And that would be okay with me. But at least I can point back at something specific whenever someone learns that I used to make music while I was studying. This being said, I’m not going to burn my drums. But we (my drums and I) are going to live apart and I’ll be busy with other (non-musical) things, anyway.

When I switched to WordPress some time ago I created a blogroll (to be found in the right side), basically because it was the default setting. Ever since I have the feeling that every blog I link to becomes rather inactive. By now there’s only a couple of blogs left which are updated on a somewhat regular basis. The rest remains dormant, if not dead. I don’t think this has much to do with me linking to them. Maintaining a blog requires a certain amount of dedication and content. Still, I’m hesitant to add new links to the list. But then again, what would the internet be without links? The internets? The nets? The islands?

Prophylaktisch habe ich mir ein Twitter-Profil eingerichtet. In welcher Form ich es nutzen werde, kann ich im Moment noch nicht sagen. Heute erscheinen übrigens die neuen Alben von Neal Morse (christlicher Progressive Rock) und Van Canto (A-Cappella-Metal), beide sehr hörenswert.

This is a song about statistics, more specifically analysis of variance (ANOVA) and its possible romantic implications. I enjoy data analysis and dread the day the lyrics become autobiographical. A former fellow student inspired me to the chorus when I visited him early in August 2008. I wrote the lyrics on the train home and wrote and recorded everything a couple of days later. There’s drums, guitars (acoustic and electric ones), keyboards (bass and piano), vocals (lead and harmony!), a few recorder notes, and even hand claps!

Download the song: mp3 ogg (more music)

Sie denkt an die Sonne. Sie träumt von der Welt.
Sie kämmt ihre Haare, wie ihr es gefällt.
Sie lacht mit den Kindern. Sie füttert den Hund.
Sie geht gerne joggen und bleibt so gesund.

Sie mag die Bretagne. Sie spielt gerne Skat.
Sie pflanzt viele Blumen und fährt häufig Rad.
Sie kocht Marmelade. Sie schreibt ein Gedicht.
Sie sieht in den Wolken ein weißes Gesicht.

Ihn kümmert das alles nicht,
Denn jetzt gerade denkt er sich:
ANOVA mit gerichteten Kontrasten.
Voll Euphorie haut er die Syntax in die Tasten.
ANOVA und dazu dann noch ein Schaubild.
Die Glückshormone tanzen wild in seinem Kopf.

Sie liegt auf der Wiese. Sie badet im Meer.
Sie ist nicht mehr 18, doch nimmt’s nicht so schwer.
Sie liebt Schokolade. Sie ist stets auf Zack.
Sie bäckt einen Kuchen mit Kokosgeschmack.

Ihn kümmert das alles nicht,
Denn jetzt gerade denkt er sich:
ANOVA mit gerichteten Kontrasten.
Voll Euphorie haut er die Syntax in die Tasten.
ANOVA und dazu dann noch ein Schaubild.
Ein Nudelholz trifft ihn von hinten auf den Kopf.

Benommen schaut er in das Licht.
Er traut seinen Augen nicht.
ANOVA mit gerichteten Kontrasten.
Mit voller Wucht fällt sein Schädel auf die Tasten.
ANOVA mit unendlich vielen Sternchen.
Die Engel singen im Chor in seinem Kopf.

ANOVA mit gerichteten Kontrasten.
Mit voller Wucht fällt sein Schädel auf die Tasten.
ANOVA mit unendlich vielen Sternchen.
Der Rhythmus schlägt von innen gegen seinen Kopf.

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

It’s difficult to find the right words to describe my attitude towards do-it-yourself musicians who embraced the internet and get some exposure they couldn’t possibly have gotten way back when. Sure, the mainstream is still there with over-priced albums and mass media advertising. Just go to your local mall and look at it yourself. No need to write about it. But what’s with the sullen one-man-bands out here? Not all of them are good. Few achieve professional recording quality. None produces an epic masterpiece like Mike Oldfield’s “Music of the Spheres”.

Still, there’s plenty of great artists out there who have realized that locking up the music won’t help their mission. My latest discovery is Scott Andrew. He’s making acoustic pop that, at times, reminds me of R.E.M., yet sounds merrier. Stumbling across his homepage, I found an inviting virtual place. I immediately felt encouraged to check out his music and liked what I heard. The songs didn’t leave me speechless, but the light atmosphere and the charismatic voice sounded good.

I could have left it at that. If a musician offers his songs for free on his homepage he must be stupid and doesn’t deserve any (financial) support, right? Wrong. Scott sells his latest cd “Save You From Yourself” for 8 US$ (if you signed up on his mailing list/demo club). So I just bought it. It felt right. The album arrived today. It looks good, sounds great, and beats 98% of the current German charts.

For the first time some of my music has been featured in a podcast, namely the latest show of Jawbone Radio. (Around 2:30 and at the very end.) Thanks to Len and Nora!