Does some particular emotion, state of mind or state of health or other push you to write?
For work there are times when I have to sit done and write or reinterpret music for a purpose and it feels very much like a job at points. Not unenjoyable and certainly preferable to a lot of other things I have to do in life but I always feel quite detached from it as I'm writing from a calculated or almost scientific manner, my heart isn`t always in it.
For a while now I haven't written anything for myself partly because I've been too busy but in truth the greater part is that I just haven't felt inspired.
Yesterday we awoke to some pretty horrific news and late last night the trauma was further hammered home when fuller details were made clear to me. At first this brewed as shock and upset then today I awoke with an anger about it and probably a healthy dose of 'life's too short' get going in mind.
Today for the first time in a while I started writing quite furiously. It helped that rare free timewas avilable but again I realise that I always write best at the lower ebb, although what I write doesn't necessarily reflect that emotion.
You read about artists who write sporadically based on emotional state and equally you read about other who write regularly like an exercise. Other feel most inspired in a particular location or setting. So does something inspire you to create in periods or do you try and stick to a regime like you would with practice? Obviously this is complicated if you write in a band situation but there must still be times when you feel you are writing at your best.
So full moon, Jack Daniels and coke, chicken salad sandwiches, motorway tailback or pictures of fluffy kittens.... What kicks you up the arse and most has you reaching for a pen and paper or the record button?
My muse is not a horse and art is not a race.
Comments
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
Or it may be that I can't remember any music "rules" so I just make stuff up that sounds nice.
PS @randomhandclaps hope you and yours get through your bad times OK.
Our drummer (who is a multi-instrumentalist) maintains that playing music in the morning is an abomination and it should be primarily a nocturnal activity. I am the only 9-5 corporate drone in our band so I have to take my musicianly inspirations wherever I can!
I find that without a "finish-line" to adhere to I can carry on waffling for ever, redoing parts and tweaking indefinitely.
Having a defined point in time focuses me, and removes the whole "get it perfect" aspect. Once it's done, it's done and move on.
That said, I only do stuff for myself and as part of challenges like we have here and elsewhere, so there's not much need for pristine production.
Now I'm older, happily married, more financially comfortable and contented with my life I have no fire and haven't written anything decent or exciting for quite a few years... I'm too happy to write these days it seems, I appear to need misery and despair to bring out the good stuff...
With so many comparison web sites out there, how do I choose the best one?
There was this period of about three years when I really got into it and it consumed my life. In that period I had lots of free time (I was only working about 3-12 hours a week but earning more than enough to live on), I had hit that point of alcohol consumption where it prompted creativity but hadn't yet closed down into habit, and I was riding the massive emotional storm in the aftermath of my wife leaving me and going off with the kids.
I recorded about two dozen or more songs which still live on the web (I cleared my hard drives). And I have the ideas recorded for three or four times that many. Some of the ideas are okay. And these live on a DVD storage disc.
As I sorted out the drinking, and had to work more I lost the urge and the space to write. Then I got into a covers band and spent time on that.
But if I get the time I'd like to write again. There are still things to say.
At present music is a form of meditation for me - so making it is about siezing whatever is in front of me and at present I don't plan that.. I might though.