Today’s the day (that possibly 3, maybe even 4, people have been waiting for). My album ‘Morphic’ is now available on all the streaming services.
I have been making music on and off since I was a kid, essentially (that’s medieval times, folks). But mostly ‘off’. I have had a few release, but they really don’t add up to hill of beans. I’m my own worst critic, and almost everything that I start working on, musically, doesn’t get finished. I get frustrated with what I’m creating early on and either a) abandon it entirely or b) finish it but more with a sense of loathing; if I finish it, it’s more a case of drawing a line under it. In either scenario, the upshot of it is that I don’t want to go anywhere near music equipment again for a while. Looking at a blank canvas fills me with a series of dread: “What’s the point, I’m just going to create a pile of shit again”.
Listening to other people’s music can sometimes give me a feeling that “Yes, I could do this”. In my head, I can construct some amazing things. If only there were a way to plug straight into the brain and bring those thoughts to life, but we’re not there yet. So there is the usual problem of ‘have great idea’ coming up against ‘blank canvas causing paralysis’. At other times, I listen to music that I like and it has the opposite effect: “This is so good … I’d never think to do that little effect, I’d never have the time or patience to construct all those drum fills”. The result of that thinking is “so why should I even bother trying?”
My new approach to creating music (and defeating the creative block demons)
But somehow my thinking has changed. I’ve been busy since April, just plugging away at ideas here and there. I’ve taken a different approach to what I have done before and it works something like this:
- Got ten minutes spare? Open up the DAW.
- Add an instrument. Play something. Anything.
- Add another instrument. Play something else, see how it fits with the previous track.
- Repeat that a few times with everything looping.
- If it sounds even halfway decent, save it, close it and walk away.
- If it sucks, don’t save it. It never existed, walk away and don’t fret about it. What have I lost? 10 minutes.
I do this often, and build up a collection of ideas in the process, but because I have not been sat listening to them for hours on end (at this point), they’re not imprinted in my head. The next part to this is that, whenever I have more time, I go back to these ideas and open them and they feel like fresh ideas (see previous point) and I can make a snap judgment about them. “Oh yeah, this one had something going for it!”. Then I work on that idea until it becomes a track.
This technique has worked for me: with the exception of 3 tracks on the album, I created everything here since April. With the collection that I was building up, it occurred to me: “There’s an album here”.
I’m under no illusion about how polished this sounds. This is all done in whatever free time I have, and I am not thinking “I am going to make it as a recording artist!”. I’m sharing it because I actually like what I have created. And given how much I normally rip into my own creations, that must mean there’s something here for others to enjoy. I hope so.
If you like it, stream it, buy it, share it, whatever you choose. If you don’t like it, that’s fine too. Because I have no intention of giving up the day job!
Where can I play this thing?
Oh, glad that you asked! If you follow this link, you will find links to all the usual streaming services:
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