How refreshing to encounter a company that is completely honest about what you can expect from their products in the long term. Most companies keep quiet about the harmful side effects of their products or the possibility that you may become addicted to them. They know about the harmful chemicals they add, or about their products not being recyclable. They are fully aware about the suspicious or even scandalous circumstances in which the raw materials that they use for their products are being extracted. In the case of food, they know they add too much sugar, fat, or salt.
Stone Deaf seems so disarmingly honest about their products, that the full responsibility of using them is with the customer. With Stone Deaf, there’s no need to go in search of information in the small print. This brand name comprises all the necessary information you need to know exactly where you stand, or what to expect.
I noticed this board at the 2019 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
As a musician, I’ve been around the block a few times. From playing the rather soft sounding baroque violin, through playing in a chamber music setting or a symphony orchestra to jamming on stage with a pop band. Indeed, especially the latter has indisputably been the most harmful activity for my ears. Our ears are the most intricate and subtle mechanical system of our body. We must at least be aware about that, and we should protect our ears when necessary. Fortunately, this idea is becoming more and more accepted. Wearing earplugs at a rock concert or festival doesn’t mean that you are faint-hearted anymore.
At the same time, wearing earplugs is an example of the symptomatic way we often tend to deal with problems. Instead of tackling their origin, we tackle their result. OK, I admit, in the case of wearing sunglasses, there’s no other way to protect yourself against hazardous sun rays, except staying out of the sun. In the case of loud music, why not simply turn down the volume? It can’t be too difficult to find a balance between experiencing a tight beat and at least taking into account the vulnerability and sensitivity of your audience’s and your own ears.
Overlanding in a noisy truck, with rough tyres that sing across the tarmac all day long, can be quite harmful for one’s ears as well. It’s not so much the loudness or sound pressure in itself, but the fact that it can last for hours and hours. Although the new Daily 4×4 features a quite good cabin noise insulation, the quartet of the rough Michelin XZL’s still may be experienced as too noisy on tarmac, especially during long stretches of highway.
The Michelin XZL, a hell of a tyre. Awaiting for singing across the tarmac.
I don’t have the ambition to be holier than thou. I secretly like listening to my mighty tyres. The way their sound varies according to the quality of the tarmac is amazing. I sometimes use their humming sound as a background for singing, from hitting a perfect fifth or octave to playing with dissonants or improvising whole melodies in different modes. I try to devise the speed of the truck on the basis of the tyres’ pitch. If you’ve developed a good memory for pitch, you don’t need a speedometer anymore. And what’s fascinating as well, is listening to the tyres’ pitch deviations in bends. Indeed, in a bend all four tyres will have different speeds. These deviations manifest themselves in the microtonal range and sometimes result in strange sound interferences. Spinning, sounding, magic.
Yes, our world sometimes resonates in the most infernal ways. Like through singing off-road tyres, and much passes through the ears. So, take care of them.