Monkey Do said:
Ott^ said:
It comes when it comes and you can't force it.
You gonna be using that one when we're still waiting for your next album in 2036?
I dunno what Soliptic is panicking about - I haven't finished a tune in about 18 months.
Instead, I've been going to parties and having a life, and its been really good fun. After spending 5 years locked in the studio, learning to write songs, I decided it would probably be healthy to have a year or so off and recharge the batteries. Get a bit of fresh air - meet a beautiful woman - stuff like that. I felt I could rest on my laurels a bit because I'd finally made a record I was proud of. Took 20 years but I got there in the end.
Three weeks ago i sat down and decided to get on with making the next one, and although it was slow at first, I'm gathering momentum and now its all starting to flow.
I've started 20-odd tunes this year and finished none of them. As we all know, any idiot can start a tune, but it takes real graft and concentration to finish them. All it takes to destroy my concentration is
one phone call, so getting into the right headspace can be difficult when I have to go out and play a gig every weekend. I don't know how anyone can hold down a job and write music. I won't bang on about it but I reckon its an issue for a lot of people.
As my old Granny used to say,
"If you have nothing to say, keep quiet". This applies to music too I think. If you have nothing to express, stay away from your studio. Deliberately stay away from it and let the ideas build up. Take up fishing or write short stories - anything. How many times have you sat down at your computer and knocked up some bass and drums in the hope of becoming inspired by them, only to bin them 2 hours later because nothing is coming? This is corrosive, I think, because when you've done that a few times your confidence can take a real beating.
Bass and drums are
easy - especially with trance
[waits for snorts of indignation]. Its the stuff over the top that requires real inspiration, so rather than starting with, say, a kik drum and bassline, why not start with a vocal or a melody? Work out what it is you are actually trying to say and say it as succinctly as possible, and only THEN add the supporting elements.
If all you are trying to say is
"DOOFdubbaDOOFdubbaDOOFdubbaDOOF..." then you can do that in about 10 minutes. Trouble is, thats already been said a thousand times already, so the real challenge [and one that lots of people shy away from] is to say something that resonates, even if it only resonates with you. When you are describing a blinding tune you heard at a party one night, you never say "It was the one that went
DOOFdubbaDOOFdubbaDOOFdubbaDOOF..." do you? The bits that stick out are the bits that make the tune what it is - and these are the bits that you should spend your time trying to realise.
That is not to say the drums and bass aren't important, obviously.
A while back I was talking to Simon about my lack of motivation in the studio and he made a great suggestion.
"Sit in your studio and just make sounds. Don't write a tune or anything - just build up a folder full of random sounds made of whatever you can find. After a while, you'll be so bursting to use them that tunes will just start falling out."
So I did.
And they have.
) and see what hooks into that. Experimentation really.
