I normally don't make comments about music on this blog of mine. It is almost ironic because when I started writing on the Legacy Chain, it was mostly about music, but these days it's mostly about programming. But there's almost no way for me to not say something about this one little scandal.
A few days ago I saw this video by Danny Sapko, a bassist, a YouTuber who has a pretty big channel. In this video, he was talking about an Argentinian bassist whose name is Marcelo Pérez Schneider, who apparently has been fooling everybody for decades.
Now, the proof that he presents is very much irrefutable. You can clearly see the tactics. The pedals that he uses to switch between pre-recorded bass lines and the live sound. But somehow, someway, this became political.
Now, it's no secret that Danny Sapko makes his living by making these sort of videos. As a matter of fact, I found Danny's channel many, many months ago because he was the one who exposed an Italian guitarist doing exactly the same thing, not playing live, and even more egregious things like stealing people's work.
So, I think it's important that I state that I'm not defending the practice of what Danny Sapko is doing. I don't find it to be a pro-bono service to the world to expose these people. Not really. He is doing it because he makes his money doing what he's doing.
But also, that doesn't excuse what Marcelo has been doing for, I repeat, decades.
It is understandable that there are fans of Marcelo who are defending him. After all, he is not a nobody. He has a big following. A lot of bassists from Argentina look up to him and see him as a hero.
But then again, most of the people who are defending him are defending him because they say he's a good person, and because they say he fought in the war against the British for the islands, the Malvinas, as it's known in Spanish.
Which, let's be fair, is completely irrelevant to the accusation.
Now, some will say, and I do have to give it to them, that it is not uncommon for people to use tracks when they perform live. As a matter of fact, almost all TV presentations are people pretending to play.
But there is a time and a place for everything.
And let's be fair, if I'm a student, a paying customer, attending one of Marcelo's clinics, it's not entirely ridiculous that I expect him to play the instrument for real.
The drama has been going on for about a week at this point, and it seems to not be slowing down either.
Today, I saw a video of Marcelo, an alleged live video, where he intended to prove to everyone that he is not Milli Vanilli, that he can play those complicated parts in real life.
The video recording began. He showed his humble setup, and then proceeded to cut the camera, and come back live in a very convenient angle.
An angle that hid his feet, the middle of the cable, the back of his elbow, everything.
It did not take but a minute for anyone to catch the obvious cheats he was doing.
The line-selecting pedal.
The weird cough, timed to perfection to hide the pedal being pressed.
The swift tap on what sounded like a space bar, with a hand that, I must admit, moved with the speed of a trained samurai.
Instead of clearing things up, sadly, Marcelo made things even worse.
Right now, as I'm typing away, sharing this little novela for the ages with anyone who follows my writings, he is being "dragged" through the floor (not literally, obviously) as more and more creators are dissecting his videos.
A Streisand effect of a kind, I'd say.
You know, it's sad to watch.
Why?
Because Marcelo is a capable musician. He's probably among the best bassists in his country, and I mean that.
But instead of owning up to it, instead of showing people his actual skills, he decided to double down.
Why throw your reputation in the trash like that?
Why let your ego defeat you so badly?
Those would be my questions to him.
There's nothing political about demanding honesty from an artist, and anyone trying to make this a political issue is just deflecting out of desperation.
Hey look.... SQUIRREL!
MenO