Ep 8: Jeff Bernett

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. For the complete interview, you can access here.

Kristine Dizon: Hello! My name is Kristine Dizon, and I'm the CEO and Founder of The Modern Artist Project. Today, I'm with Jeff Bernett, who is a musician, producer, digital marketer, and vintage synthesizer enthusiast, who happens to be the CEO of Caedence. Thank you, Jeff, for joining us today.

Jeff Bernett: Thank you for having me Kristine!

KD: Can you tell us a little bit more about your background?

JB: Sure! I've been playing guitar since I was 13, so 27 years now. I got started because my older brother and uncle both played guitar and I wanted to join in on the fun. I haven't put it down since then. [I’ve] been in a number of bands. I started playing, I suppose you'd say gigs, at around age 20 and haven't stopped since then. I've gotten into playing bass as well. 
​
Minneapolis is an amazing place to be a musician just because there's so much talent per square mile in this place, it's kind of crazy. I've had the good fortune of going on tour, both in the U.S. and a little one in South America. I've had the honor to play on the U.S. Air Force base in Doha in Qatar. Just a lot of fun things that I've been able to do because of music: travel, meet people…It's been amazing.

KD: It sounds like you have a lot of different activities, and it's very enriching too with all the different travels that you've done and all of the experience that you have with being a working musician. I know about your project Caedence and I'm really excited to hear about it. Could you tell us a little bit more about that?

JB: Sure! Caedence is a browser-based music collaboration platform that lets musicians sync and customize music charts, lyrics, and sheet music, but also a lot of performance elements like audio, MIDI, and visuals. You can do it across devices and in real-time. For instance, let's say one person wants to see just the lyrics and another person wants to see chords, lyrics, and an audio file. Each person can see exactly what he or she wants to see on their own device. Doesn't matter the operating system. It could be a PC, or it could be a Mac.

Backing up a little bit about why Caedence came about, a couple of years back I became the guitarist for a tribute to women in pop, rock, and country called Starlette’s Web. It's a really fun tribute project playing cover songs. I kind of became the de facto musical director, just by whatever forces make those kinds of things happen. There were six new musicians – in the sense that we had never played with each other – and we had about three hours' worth of music to learn in about six weeks, going up six different learning curves with six learning styles. We also wanted to use backing tracks to really fill out the sound. A lot of pop music has more elements than a four-piece band can really recreate live.

So, all those things forced this idea on me. We made for some very tense rehearsals like, “Guys, we got two weeks left and we got half the set that we haven't even touched yet,” that kind of stuff. I just had that lightning bolt moment of like, “All right. What if there was some sort of scrolling, animated display letting people know [where we are] in the song?” You know, basic things [like] chords and lyrics. I know some things out there existed, but there was nothing out there that existed in the kind of way that I wanted to, where people could sync and customize it.

That very night, I started doing a lot of web searches [for] products and was like, “That’s pretty close, but not really,” and then I was like, “Is this my idea?” And it was. Fast forward about three and a half years later, we've got a patent on that idea of synchronized, customizable music displays. That's not the technical name for it, but that's basically what it’s patenting. We have another one on the way for some highly precise timing. In this process, we made some discoveries about getting really precise timing between devices, so that's the second one that's on the way.

It's been great! A few bands have already started to use it around Minneapolis. One in Duluth has already started to use it and we're not even in our beta yet. The response has been great. It's awesome to see musicians do things that they had never really been able to do before, especially when it comes to show elements like lights, backing tracks, and program changes for people who know about MIDI. It's just been really inspiring.

KD: Thank you for sharing that with us, Jeff. I think it's amazing to hear these types of stories about how ideas come about and how people learn. One of the things that you mentioned earlier was the fact that you were dealing with different learning styles. How were you able to come up with ways of being able to help those people?

JB: I have an educational background. I was an English teacher for several years and one of the basic tenets of teaching is that not everyone learns the same way. It really came down to the flexibility of Caedence in terms of its ability to deliver as much or as little information, and the kind of information at a given time.

Like I described, some people will just want to see a horizontal timeline where it just says markers of the song, like chorus, bridge, verse two, etc. Some people will want to see the entire score, like a traditional music staff, and some people will just want to see the lyrics because that’s how they associate. I've met people who play and think that way. You can put up different colors, like, “A chorus is always green,” or, “A loud part is always red,” you know? Dynamics, arrangement, just really letting the performer customize as much of his or her watching and learning environment as possible.

KD: That's amazing! Also, they can put personal notes for themselves. Like, “Make sure to watch this person,” or “Make sure to hear for this chord,” or things like that.

JB: Yep! The private note feature is awesome – we call them “post-its”.  [Users can] pull up a little post-it and it kind of slaps on the timeline. Exactly what you said, [you can write] “Watch M.D.” or, “Switch guitars”. If you're doing any sort of choreography, [you can write] “Move to this spot”. It’s cool because with five or six people it would be littered with a bunch of different post-its, but each person can see just their own notes to themselves.

KD: That’s really great! When you think about all of those aspects of rehearsal, it seems like, from your own personal experience, that you really thought of everything in regards to being able to touch on those learning points of each individual element of the group and being able to bring it together. How did you find the rehearsals after that when you started testing it with your own group?

JB: I'm glad you asked! When we started using Caedence in rehearsal, we would get through stuff about halfway through. We still had half the rehearsal left because we weren't hemming and hawing about parts. It made us so much more efficient and allowed us to get into the deeper elements of the show. Like, now that we've got the form down beautifully, let's really dig into some of these finer points. Let's start making some interludes. Let's start thinking about choreography. All these other things that we weren't necessarily able to get to within a given rehearsal because everything was just right in front of them. There was no debate, and that was awesome.

KD: It seems like it's a lot more efficient if you're only using whatever block of time that you guys would anticipate prior to Caedence, and being able to shrink that down and develop other aspects of your performance. It sounds like something that is really a big game changer in regard to rehearsals and bands. I know for a fact there's [something] similar – but not the same as what you mentioned earlier – in music education. We've had things like SmartMusic where kids would play along with a piece of music and then [ask themselves], “Is this the correct note?” type of thing. But, it seems like what you've done, Jeff, is you expanded the idea in regards to not just having it be a one-way street with any sort of computer or program, but it's a way of being able to communicate across different elements of the stage, and that's really fascinating. When you think about the idea of Caedence and being able to apply it to an educational setting – let's say bands or orchestras – how do you see that working?

JB: In total transparency, I personally have given the most thought to my background of playing and gigging in five to six-piece bands. Fortunately, my partner Anton, his wife, is a music teacher, and they have started to riff about how this could be used in a classroom setting or in a larger band. I think it could be great for an instructor to give section notes to each [instrument family], and also the ability for students to give themselves private notes. Those two things alone could definitely speed up the learning curve and improve performances all around.

And then, being a person who loves big kinds of productions, Caedence can sync still images and we've recently added video. At recital time, it can become this multi-modal way of [saying], “Hey parents, this is your kids and they're in a bigger, cooler [production] now!” There are lights going, it’s perfectly timed with the hits of the brass, all these cool things. Make it a cut above and maybe what you would get otherwise.

KD: For sure! What's really interesting is, for example, some concerts have themes, right? [For instance] movie themes have, in the background, some images from the film. Being able to have the audience not only listen to the sound of the group performing but also associate that with different images and being able to engage with that. That's something that's really interesting. From an educational standpoint and coming from an educator also, I definitely can understand being able to tap into those learning pathways for students and, just in general, for people too! I think you're really onto something here, Jeff, in regard to the education route, but I also completely understand the things that you're doing with bands. Can you tell us a couple of things about some of the bands that you've worked with, and how they've been able to engage with the program?

JB: Yeah! A friend since high school, Ryan Liestman, he and I were in a band many years ago called The Rule. We had the good fortune of becoming Cyndi Lauper's support act on one of her tours, so that was amazing to tour with her. Recently, he's had this project called Rion, and it’s pop, reggae, funk, and R&B all mashed together – all of his influences. He's a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, keys, and guitarist. He used Caedence – and I was in the band as well – so we became a two-person band, plus backing tracks and a DJ.

So, Caedence was running the backing track. We didn't have a drummer or bass player, both Ryan and I were guitarists, and the keyboards were [also] missing. So, Caedence was running all that audio and, in addition to the audio, it was running a very elaborate light show. We bought some light fixtures, we were programming this part of the song, [for example], the lights do this on this note. In addition to that, he bought a laser, and Caedence was also able to control the laser. So, he's moving lights and lasers and it’s all perfectly timed. When you see all of it come together, it's amazing. We had this one section where he was playing this cool part on his guitar with these different notes, and the laser is moving up and down with each note. It was amazing to see!

Caedence was also changing our sounds. We had different guitar sounds: some clean with some reverb, some with some distortion, and some with different delays. Caedence was doing all of the changes to those programs so that we didn't need to manually worry about, “This part needs this sound.” Caedence was saying, “Alright, at bar 17 this happens.” As a guitarist or any other kind of musician who has to switch sounds, it's an amazing feeling to be 10-20 feet away from your device and have the sound switch for you.

KD: That's amazing. You have to send me the clip with all the lasers and all the craziness! I'd be really interested to see how that turned out because it sounds like you were able to save time in regards to rehearsal and maybe have better relationships with people, you know?

JB: I never thought of that, but that's a beautiful observation. Now that you mention it, it did seem like the tensions definitely alleviated because there can be mounting frustration, you know? That makes perfect sense. I will add that: “Like your band members better!”

KD: That's really amazing because when you think about it, it's not just resolving these things with rehearsal, but it's also the relationships that you have with people. With Caedence, it's a program that kind of runs itself. You just have to do what the device says and you guys should be in the same spot. But, it seems like it allows for more room to focus on the music versus focusing on, “He got mad at me,” or, “She got mad at me because I told her about this,” allowing that type of trust to build more.

That's something universities would definitely benefit from. For example, the Berkley College of Music, in regards to the popular music programs that they have there. I think that that would be really powerful for them to also learn because we all have devices. It’s 2023, right Jeff? What suggestions would you have for someone who may not have an iPad or something like that to be able to use Caedence?

JB: Like I was saying, it can be used on an old Windows PC, like a desktop. The beauty of the fact that Caedence is browser-based, it allows an Android user, an iPad user, [an] old PC, it doesn't really matter as long as it's running a modern enough browser. It can be used on Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc. To those people who don't have a device, I would say go out and do what you can to get one, just cause it makes life easier. As far as using the program itself, it's literally just a tab in a browser running.

KD: This is really great! When you think about all the different things that you've done in regard to this crazy journey, I'd like to learn more about your background, how you were able to get to this point in this journey to where you are today, in regards to the things that Caedence has already accomplished. You guys are going to NAMM, right?

JB: Yeah! We'll be there in April. We're looking forward to that. We were there in June last year. We’re also part of the MIDI Association. I'm not sure if your viewers know, MIDI is Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It’s kind of a music language protocol for devices that was made in, like, 1983 as a way for these different device manufacturers to have each device like a Roland talk to a Yamaha. They came up with this language, and they're having their 40-year anniversary this year, so we're going as part of the MIDI Association. We're excited to be part of that community, they've been very helpful to us and very supportive.

As far as other things, I've had pretty much nothing but good fortune. Even just living in the Minneapolis area was a blessing in itself. I've heard people say, “You can't throw a rock in Minneapolis without hitting a good musician.” They're just everywhere. That was my first bit of good fortune. The people that I've met: Ryan, the one that I was telling you about, was working with a mentor in his high school years, Wain McFarlane. [He’s a] very big Minneapolis musician, used to have a band called Ipso Facto – kind of a big reggae rock thing – and Wain took Ryan under his wing, and I kind of was along for the ride in terms of meeting all these amazing musicians. Meeting Michael Bland from Prince and The New Power Generation, just all these connections.

When I think about it and go back, I can connect the dots of like, “I met this person, and they introduced me to this person, and that made me do this,” all of it has culminated with Caedence. It’s like, I wouldn't have met Stephanie, who was the leader of Starlette’s Web, had I not known Michael. It's all those meetings that have led to Caedence. 

In terms of early inspiration, like I was saying, my brother and uncle both playing guitar. I'd ask [my brother], “How do I play this Nirvana song? How do I play ‘Heart-Shaped Box’?” I kept asking him, but I never would say, quote-unquote, “I'm a guitar player.” He's like, “Well Jeff, why don't you just play guitar?” I remember that day, I was just like, “I suppose I could!” Before that, it was just like a spectator thing that I would dabble in, and then he was like, “Well, why don't you just play guitar?” That kind of shifted my perspective, so that was a big moment when I was 13. I had the good fortune of having an excellent guitar teacher, Mark Arneson, Minneapolis, multi-instrumentalist producer. I feel spoiled looking back at all these opportunities and good, talented people that I was surrounded by.

KD: That's amazing! What I hear is the fact that you also recognize those things and are able to feel fortunate. When we think about careers in music, at TMAP, The Modern Artist Project, [we think about] being able to help young professionals and young people. No one really taught me how to write a biography or what it meant to write a CV as a musician or artist. 

What's really great about your journey was the fact that it’s so enriching with so many different experiences. Prince, Starlette’s Web, all of these beautiful musical moments, and being able to make them and finding ways to achieve that. That's such a valuable contribution, especially to our society, and with it being 2023: making rehearsals relevant to students today. When we think about what it means to rehearse, that's a paper within itself or a separate discussion. A lot of times, people don't realize all of these elements that we've been talking about. How does this person learn? How do I communicate with this person?

Sometimes as artists, we’re very emotional. We can be kind of sensitive because we feel so much about music. [It’s about] being able to minimize those things. I see with Caedence, with all of these digital things coming out, this is something that actually can empower future generations in a very positive way, Jeff, so thank you. When you think about your different experiences as a musician, producer, and head of Caedence, what type of advice would you give to someone?

JB: I would say it ultimately comes down to a very big element of what TMAP is trying to teach people to do: market themselves and just own the fact that, hey, we're in this world. There's a lot of quote-unquote “noise” and you need to stand out above it. Just embracing that initial fact is very important. The days of some patron taking care of me or some agent doing all of my legwork are sadly over for the vast majority of people. Most people need to be everything to themselves. You need to be your own manager, agent, PR person, publicist, stylist, everything you need to do yourself.

I suppose just the recognition of that truth is probably step one, and then step two, I would say, is to just enjoy the fact that, yeah, it creates some challenges, but it also creates a lot of opportunity to own your entire brand. Perhaps, someone with an agent in the 70s or 80s would have been like, “That's not really what I am, but that's what my agent says,” or, “That's what my manager says I am.” It's this new time of the artist being everything to themselves, and it's empowering at the same time.

In terms of more nitty-gritty, practical advice, I'd say get a good bio together, get a good website, and don't skimp on stuff looking professional. The moment someone gets a whiff of like, “Their website doesn't look very good, so if they don't care about this, are they gonna care about their performance?” All that stuff makes an impression on people. So yeah, make sure your website looks good, your social media is together and on brand, and post stuff that's authentic and lets people know who you are as an artist.

Even in the digital age, there's still no substitute for going out and meeting people, and the opportunities that come up from in-person meetings are oftentimes the best. If you have the choice between, “I could practice for a couple of hours or I could go to this two-hour meet and greet,” God bless practicing, but if you really want more opportunities to come your way, you need to embrace those things. You can practice after. It's easier to arrange practice time, so just take advantage of those opportunities.

KD: What's really great is you bring up this idea of what it was like back then, and how society has changed too. In a sense with all of the digital marketing and all of the things that are available digitally, if I don't know how to do this, I could easily look it up.

Also, this idea of what it means to be genuine, between you and me, if someone is presenting themselves in one way and that person is not authentic, you turn off from it, you know? That's the thing with our society today, we want to thrive on genuine nature and authenticity. We want the real person. We don't want this manufactured idea of what society wants. We want the person who is creating the music. That's what I think.

So, this is really cool! You guys are going to be at NAMM. Are there any other exciting things that I've missed?

JB: We're set to release the beta [of Caedence] sometime around spring, so that's coming together to coincide with going to NAMM. Other than that, more bands are starting to use it. We've got a growing list of beta users, so when we flip the switch, I'm sure we'll have a huge amount of news and cool stuff that people are creating with Caedence, and we're just excited to see how people use it. It's really cool to let people realize a creative vision that maybe they hadn't been able to do because of a shortage of time. A lot of it comes down to time. About those rehearsals, if everyone is confused a bit that adds up, and before you know it, 45 minutes to an hour has gone by. That could have gone to cooler stuff, you know?

KD: For sure! Could you provide us with the website address for Caedence?

JB: Absolutely! It’s caedence.io. There's a link to sign up for the beta list. Just fill that out and I'll add your name to the list. I'll probably reach out and say thank you! I affectionately say we want people to try and break this thing. We want people to really test its limits. Especially now with the video having recently been added, I'm excited to see what people do, just because people are so incredibly visual nowadays. Getting younger people to sit still with an auditory experience, it's kind of a big ask. Adding this visual element could be a gateway for people to [think], “Oh! This is great music too!”

KD: Yeah, this is really great! So Jeff, thank you for joining us today and for sharing your experience and thoughts. It was really awesome to hear more about Caedence. We look forward to seeing the amazing things that you continue to do for our community!

JB: Well, thank you so much, Kristine, for having me! Looking forward to showing you guys more in the not-too-distant future.