A real artist's work can never be duplicated. Others may reinterpret, but all true art is inextricably linked to its originator or unique collaborators.
To me, a worthy band is one which can not be mistaken for another. This is to say their sound, their style, their technique can only be reproduced by those particular individuals. A great example of this would be Tool. Whenever someone tries to duplicate one of their songs live, it just doesn't cut the mustard. I've seen bands attempt this way too many times and it invariably will sound like an inferior imitation. (Like when you really wanted an iPod Touch for Christmas, but you end up getting a Zune.)
Music covers tend to be a different story. A true artist can reinterpret a great song when they come at it from a new angle. A new approach, like Ryan Adams' version of Oasis' "Wonderwall."
Or Johnny Cash's incredibly powerful remake of "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails... (which I will not post here because I don't want any one to get massively bummed out.)
I tend to disdain when people try to update a song simply by running an electric guitar through some distortion while playing the exact same thing at a faster tempo. For some reason people think this is a valid way to remake a song. Those people are dumb.
I've had some significant experiences dealing with those who have tried to redirect my vision because of their own inability to grasp what I was going for. This tends to happen a lot when artists deal with inflexible engineers, producers and other middlemen. In my own experience in dealing with particular recording engineers, I've had to fight tooth and nail to get my auditory "vision" across. Certain technicians learn only a few ways that things are conventionally done and only want to do them as such. These are people who don't want to find a new angle or new approach to something. I don't see how one can go through life this way.
I've spent a considerable amount of time developing my bass technique and what I believe to be a truly unique style. I will get more into the specifics of why my style is super-kick-ass in subsequent posts, but in the meantime you can read more about it here -> Wikipedia and watch videos here -> Youtube.
When recording in the studio, I will be working on "dialing in" my sound the way I hear it in my head. This is initially met with, "let's just make this sound like a bass and move on," by Joe Engineer. I generally want my bass to sound like purple thunder up your ass... which takes some time.
When recording my most recent album (Vaeda "Unsafe at any Speed") I had our producer rearrange our 45 day recording schedule so that we had twice the time originally slated to record bass. Though I am equally proud of my songwriting contributions, what I do on bass is a fundamental part of the sound and should not be compromised. Whatever ends up on record should sound distinctly like Vaeda. All parts of sound should serve the song, and many of our songs were born out of my bass. (I will elaborate on my experiences in a later posting which will be entitled "The Case for Bass.")
In the case of recording I've always stuck to my guns. I know what I wanted and pushed for it to come across in the final product sonically. It can cause tension and conflict, but I'm not making art to placate anyone. If it's not up to my standards, y'all can suck it.
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