Advice from Jean Michel Jarre

schrodinger1612

Useful advice from Jean Michel Jarre on creativity and creating your own limitations. Personally I’ve fallen into the trap of buying a bunch of Kontakt instruments and not knowing where to start when it comes time to actually compose a song. I have everything I need already, and that includes fx pedals, ....now is the time to stop gassing and get the most out of what I have. 2019 is for making music and not looking for the next best thing.


OH LOOK, NEW STRYMON!!! 


“In days where you have so many products on the market [...] instead of having this mad quest about being scared of missing something, try to just... breathe... take a break, and think about what instruments - a plugin, a module, a polyphonic synth... whatever - where you feel a kind of empathy with [...] and then when you choose that, just stay focused for six months or one year only on this. Don't take anything else. Just on one element and try to express yourself because what's going to be unique is yourself. It's not the machine. It's not the instrument. It's what you are going to do with it which has the value, and nothing else. And then instead of being fully into the trap of being an archivist of presets, where you don't know where you are, you lose your identity. The best way to create something interesting is express your identity - to develop it - and the only way to do it is to focus on one instrument, whatever it is. [...] Even if you're wrong in your choice, the fact that you choose is more important than anything else."

WiresDreamDisasters

It is good advice. Get the gear that you can afford, learn to use it. Expand from there. I swear I'm still recycling money I spent in 2010 on a good amp, which I then sold and bought another amp, and then another, and then another... and then a pedal... and more pedals...

... and at the end of the day, I'm doing the exact same thing with all of these pieces of equipment. Coz I have my sound and my limitations. I try to embrace them, coz then I get more music written that way and at the end of the day, that's what it is all about.

Fine line between experimenting with stuff for the sake of it, and actually knuckling down to write some choons.

ICBM

My first reaction was to say that Jarre has been using exactly the same sounds since 1976, so his advice isn't surprising...

On the other hand he's one of the most successful electronic musicians ever, holds the record for attendance at a gig, and was once married to Charlotte Rampling, so he's probably right .

Teetonetal

I'm quite a fan of Jarre and I'd say each album is quite distinctive in the sounds used.

octatonic

Teetonetal said:

I'm quite a fan of Jarre and I'd say each album is quite distinctive in the sounds used.

His gear is always changing- from vintage and modular synths, to VI's, to things like the Teenage Engineering OP1, he is always experimenting and coming up with new sounds.

I am mostly in the camp of 'old stuff is better' though, when comes to his albums.

clarkefan

Interesting reference for me, I routinely listen to Equinox more than most albums, and I've often thought there are lessons in composition on that album, regardless of genre and blah blah.  If you listen to it you hear someone applying structure, which to me at least is not obvious in a lot of music.

roberty

Good advice, especially with VST these days it's easy to get lost. Find a workflow and focus on the music

Funkfingers

Sounds to me like a variation on the Brian Eno attitude. Equipment limitations are better for driving creativity than having too many options between which to chose.

Wazmeister

This is my ‘theoretical’ plan in my head; to learn inside and out my pedals...

I never quite give myself chance to get my head around and ‘learn’ them.

Will I do it ???

Hmmm....

Grumpyrocker

When I hear advice like that I think "Brilliant I just need to concentrate on one thing."

But then usually follow it with, "So what one NEW thing shall I buy to concentrate on?"