onsdag 29 april 2009
måndag 2 juni 2008
sound addictions and the joys of a new moniker
I noticed this thing today which made me think a bit,
I assume you are familiar with the situation when you've got a melody or something like that without words that is playing on constant repeat in your head and it's stuck there wether you like it or not. Since emulating a synthetizer in your head is quite the feat you have to do the best with your voice to play it - bedubidu-didu didududu - and even though you can hear the original more or less clear you have to sing along a with it. The shorter the time since you heard it the more accurate you can recreate it, right?
What if you have a melody stuck in there that keeps you returning back to listen to the song to be able to hum that awesome synthline closer to the original? Wouldn't that be some sort of sound addiction? I wish I could create stuff like that and feed a fanbase of addicts.
---
I came back from a lengthy stay away from home today and as soon as I had said hello to dogs and family, got drunk with friends and slept in my own bed I hit up the ol' sound laboratory. To make things interesting I came up with a new moniker that I hope will both inspire and help me stick to a new sound. Oh the things we do to amuse ourselves...
(photo from Jasmin Jodry, http://dams.rca.ac.uk/netpub/server.np?find&site=Show2006&catalog=catalog&template=genstudent.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=1107)
I assume you are familiar with the situation when you've got a melody or something like that without words that is playing on constant repeat in your head and it's stuck there wether you like it or not. Since emulating a synthetizer in your head is quite the feat you have to do the best with your voice to play it - bedubidu-didu didududu - and even though you can hear the original more or less clear you have to sing along a with it. The shorter the time since you heard it the more accurate you can recreate it, right?
What if you have a melody stuck in there that keeps you returning back to listen to the song to be able to hum that awesome synthline closer to the original? Wouldn't that be some sort of sound addiction? I wish I could create stuff like that and feed a fanbase of addicts.
---
I came back from a lengthy stay away from home today and as soon as I had said hello to dogs and family, got drunk with friends and slept in my own bed I hit up the ol' sound laboratory. To make things interesting I came up with a new moniker that I hope will both inspire and help me stick to a new sound. Oh the things we do to amuse ourselves...
(photo from Jasmin Jodry, http://dams.rca.ac.uk/netpub/server.np?find&site=Show2006&catalog=catalog&template=genstudent.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=1107)
söndag 9 mars 2008
essay
working in Cubase feels like an uphill struggle at the moment and even though I have a very good synth loop lying around gathering dust I do not dare to try to build anything around it as I am afraid of spoiling it by choking it in uninspired stuff.
So I thought I'd just write something here to keep the ball rolling. A reply in a forum I made earlier today sparked an old idea of mine to life that I had thought about much and refined to the point where I took it for granted, a synthetic a priori, and just let it sink away to the background.
The idea is about creating something that is good and enjoyable for others, and why some artisans simply are better than others. Surely I think the biggest explanation of it comes down to that he who practices the most becomes the better one, but what is there to practice? Becoming swift and accurate playing chords on the guitar, finding your style and perfecting it, learning the inner workings of a synth, is that all that it takes to become good?
These are miscellanelous factors, because in my view creating something is depicting something of what is inside you. We are polysensual creatures, some people might be more graphic inside their heads while others are more reliant on sounds - even the engineer with his mathematics takes something out from inside of him when he constructs his bridge. The more accurately and lifelike you can capture what is inside you and put on a paper, on a recording or whatever, the better your work is.
If a painter is suffering and depressed and successfully can capture that on a canvas then he has created a fine piece of art, has he not?
But then the young beginner who stares at the canvas feeling all his feelings and tries to paint with his clumsy fingers and runny paint, he has no less of an artistic vision than our first suffering artist, he simply cannot express what he feels and therefore is not an as good a painter as someone with the experience and knowledge of how to let out what is inside him.
So am I saying that everyone can create just as good art as anyone? Well, both yes and no. Theoretically yes, but our lifespans are in reality often too short to truly find what form of art suits you and therefore it mostly comes down to luck if you pick up a medium that corresponds to you. Also this ability to let out what is inside you, trainable as it is, varies a lot from person to person in regards to how strong it is.
So to take a modern example of an at least in my eyes truly great artist, Banksy, he has a mind full of ideas which he can express with a medium that both suits him and he knows well from years of training. A good artist lets his audience see what he sees, Banksy sees a lot of aspects of modern society in a particular and clear way and that he can share that vision to others is something not only I greatly admire him for, but also other people too.
But what I think everyone who aspires to be someone has to practice is the ability to open the valves to their insides and let it pour out. It is very much a psychological thing, but you can only reach so far copying others and if you want to reach further, then tap what is inside you.
Find your medium, learn to wield it and then fuel it with something personal.
---
Everytime I've pumped out a few tracks in a row or written a lot in a short space of time I feel a bit drained and have to let it wait. I still try but it results in little more than what banging your head against a wall and repeating yesterday would do. You guessed it; I am in one of those lows now.
But one last word of imagined wisdom, being a commercially successful artist also takes another skill; namely consistency, the consistency to negate these valleys between your peaks.
I guess that is what I am training now...
So I thought I'd just write something here to keep the ball rolling. A reply in a forum I made earlier today sparked an old idea of mine to life that I had thought about much and refined to the point where I took it for granted, a synthetic a priori, and just let it sink away to the background.
The idea is about creating something that is good and enjoyable for others, and why some artisans simply are better than others. Surely I think the biggest explanation of it comes down to that he who practices the most becomes the better one, but what is there to practice? Becoming swift and accurate playing chords on the guitar, finding your style and perfecting it, learning the inner workings of a synth, is that all that it takes to become good?
These are miscellanelous factors, because in my view creating something is depicting something of what is inside you. We are polysensual creatures, some people might be more graphic inside their heads while others are more reliant on sounds - even the engineer with his mathematics takes something out from inside of him when he constructs his bridge. The more accurately and lifelike you can capture what is inside you and put on a paper, on a recording or whatever, the better your work is.
If a painter is suffering and depressed and successfully can capture that on a canvas then he has created a fine piece of art, has he not?
But then the young beginner who stares at the canvas feeling all his feelings and tries to paint with his clumsy fingers and runny paint, he has no less of an artistic vision than our first suffering artist, he simply cannot express what he feels and therefore is not an as good a painter as someone with the experience and knowledge of how to let out what is inside him.
So am I saying that everyone can create just as good art as anyone? Well, both yes and no. Theoretically yes, but our lifespans are in reality often too short to truly find what form of art suits you and therefore it mostly comes down to luck if you pick up a medium that corresponds to you. Also this ability to let out what is inside you, trainable as it is, varies a lot from person to person in regards to how strong it is.
So to take a modern example of an at least in my eyes truly great artist, Banksy, he has a mind full of ideas which he can express with a medium that both suits him and he knows well from years of training. A good artist lets his audience see what he sees, Banksy sees a lot of aspects of modern society in a particular and clear way and that he can share that vision to others is something not only I greatly admire him for, but also other people too.
But what I think everyone who aspires to be someone has to practice is the ability to open the valves to their insides and let it pour out. It is very much a psychological thing, but you can only reach so far copying others and if you want to reach further, then tap what is inside you.
Find your medium, learn to wield it and then fuel it with something personal.
---
Everytime I've pumped out a few tracks in a row or written a lot in a short space of time I feel a bit drained and have to let it wait. I still try but it results in little more than what banging your head against a wall and repeating yesterday would do. You guessed it; I am in one of those lows now.
But one last word of imagined wisdom, being a commercially successful artist also takes another skill; namely consistency, the consistency to negate these valleys between your peaks.
I guess that is what I am training now...
fredag 7 mars 2008
new track up
instead of drowning my sorrows the other night I decided to simply finish the track I was working on, disregarding how warped the outcome might be. I think it went pretty well and at least it was very nice to do something contructive rather than destructive. I didn't mind quality of sound at all so just listen to it with open ears and wait untill I get back to it and fix it up.
here it is, my unemployed interlude called limbo;
http://www.internetdj.com/artists.php?op=stream&song=45303
here it is, my unemployed interlude called limbo;
http://www.internetdj.com/artists.php?op=stream&song=45303
I'm busy looking for work at the moment, and drinking complex drinks, so there's not much producing going on at the moment, but I do have two ideas for a track - one of them is to imitate the Pulk, Pull Revolving Doors track from Radiohead, but I'm not sure how well I can do that.
And then also I would like to put a bounty on the head of the French rapper who made a song using that track for his beat. MC Solar or something I think his called. Cash on delivery.
Untill better times come I guess I will just fiddle around randomly in Cubase and see if anything good comes up.
tjenixen,
And then also I would like to put a bounty on the head of the French rapper who made a song using that track for his beat. MC Solar or something I think his called. Cash on delivery.
Untill better times come I guess I will just fiddle around randomly in Cubase and see if anything good comes up.
tjenixen,
torsdag 6 mars 2008
the hilarity continues: today my already shred up ear got itself another mauling. How? I was hugging my girlfriend one last time seeing as we broke up and the bastard of a piercing got stuck in her hair.
I guess I'll just have to kick it Beethoven-style for a bit longer then.
There is also another not so favourable effect coming from this last hug of good bye; I reckon that I'll just have to bin the track I was working on.
You see that workplace I mentioned turned out to be run by a twat and I didn't come back for a second day so I am what they call unemployed these days. Yesterday I channeled all my time and boredom into a track that is incredibly stripped down and quite repetitive but cool as fuck still, and my aim was to finish it off in the coming days as it is more one of those spur-of-the-moment novelty tracks than that technical masterpiece.
Well, how can I continue working on a track that silently screams unemployed now that I am more heartbroken than actually unemployed? I mean I want it to sound cool and personal, not like some other electro emo stuff from Stephan Bodzin - mind you that I still think that his Daytona Beach EP is awesome.
I have heaps of theories about alcohol and creativity, other substances and creativity, anguish and creativity and just plain creativity in general, I should really write a disseration about it, but the basic principle is that creativity itself is a sort of energy and that you physically need energy to channel it out into something. What charges creativity is emotions, but also it is flavoured by them. Not necessarily in a corresponding A leads to B way but you get the point: the more things you have inside you the easier it gets to create something, be it a musical piece, a text or a drawing.
But now that my main source of energy has changed, do I dare continue with what I was doing as the risk of not being able to maintain style is quite big?
Maybe that's what skill is, to be able to form any sort of energy into exactly what you want to be.
I guess I'll just have to kick it Beethoven-style for a bit longer then.
There is also another not so favourable effect coming from this last hug of good bye; I reckon that I'll just have to bin the track I was working on.
You see that workplace I mentioned turned out to be run by a twat and I didn't come back for a second day so I am what they call unemployed these days. Yesterday I channeled all my time and boredom into a track that is incredibly stripped down and quite repetitive but cool as fuck still, and my aim was to finish it off in the coming days as it is more one of those spur-of-the-moment novelty tracks than that technical masterpiece.
Well, how can I continue working on a track that silently screams unemployed now that I am more heartbroken than actually unemployed? I mean I want it to sound cool and personal, not like some other electro emo stuff from Stephan Bodzin - mind you that I still think that his Daytona Beach EP is awesome.
I have heaps of theories about alcohol and creativity, other substances and creativity, anguish and creativity and just plain creativity in general, I should really write a disseration about it, but the basic principle is that creativity itself is a sort of energy and that you physically need energy to channel it out into something. What charges creativity is emotions, but also it is flavoured by them. Not necessarily in a corresponding A leads to B way but you get the point: the more things you have inside you the easier it gets to create something, be it a musical piece, a text or a drawing.
But now that my main source of energy has changed, do I dare continue with what I was doing as the risk of not being able to maintain style is quite big?
Maybe that's what skill is, to be able to form any sort of energy into exactly what you want to be.
måndag 3 mars 2008
Tomorrow I am starting a new not overly fantastic job and right now I am spoiling myself with allowing myself to update both this and my Swedish blog and then get cracking in cubase instead of doing stuff that really matters, like fixing up the bike or checking the shortest route to get there.
As they say, forbidden fruit is the sweetest.
My new track, the Polar Bear Tango, can be listened to from this link;
http://www.internetdj.com/artists.php?op=stream&song=45207
One thing that made me feel good was that a mate jumped on the chance to remix it so I'm eagerly waiting to see what he can bust out of it. Damn him if he outdo's me.
Man I wish I had Battery for my drum samples again, I so miss the pitch envelope and saturator. If you ever stumble across some stand-alone pitch envelope generator thing then give me a shout, eh?
As they say, forbidden fruit is the sweetest.
My new track, the Polar Bear Tango, can be listened to from this link;
http://www.internetdj.com/artists.php?op=stream&song=45207
One thing that made me feel good was that a mate jumped on the chance to remix it so I'm eagerly waiting to see what he can bust out of it. Damn him if he outdo's me.
Man I wish I had Battery for my drum samples again, I so miss the pitch envelope and saturator. If you ever stumble across some stand-alone pitch envelope generator thing then give me a shout, eh?
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