Things I want to bitch about.
Well, the last post ended with "here ends todays rant". That wasn't true. It's still today, and I'm still ranting.
Things I want to rant about today include:
1) How unhealthy my lifestyle is.
2) Pissed people yelling at me out of car windows for wearing Shorts in Summer
3) Fairness
4) Honesty
5) The power supply for my mac died
6) Working like a dog
7) Things changing
1) How unhealthy my lifestyle is
It was half eleven at night. I walked into town (I like walking), to get some food. I have something of a tendency (especially on weekend nights) to go for greasy food, and by preference, that's Burger King. It was a nice walk. I chatted to one of my friends on my mobile for half the walk; it's good to know he's alive and well, since I've not seen him in ages. I rang off, ordered my greasyfood (TM), watched the music videos whilst my food was reheated (cooked?), and wandered back home. Which is where I am now. Lots of people out in town tonight. No hassle from people on the street, which is good.
And it struck me how badly I eat.
I don't get a lot of sleep; I work late on music.
And, since I'm working at night, I'm not cooking.
My room is a mess, and currently contains four. Yes, four (4) (****) empty pizza boxes. That's just disgusting. And now the burger king packaging. I can never eat an entire burger king.
Everyone has a self-destructive streak, I think, and mine seems to manifest itself through eating burger king. I know what it's doing to my insides.
I need to fix this.
2) Pissed people yelling at me out of car windows for wearing Shorts in Summer
Really.
I know they're pissed, and that they don't mean any real harm, but it's annoying.
3) Fairness
If you give yourself a code of rules to live by, you kinda have to.
I'm single at the moment, and was considering the matter, when it occurred to me that I don't really have a choice in the matter.
Like I said, my lifestyle is pretty horrendous; I work like a dog, morning, noon and night, and it would be completely unfair to bring another person into my situation.
I like having a girlfriend. It's nice to love and to be loved.
But how could I reasonably expect another human to try and cope with me?
When would I see them? How would I find time to spend with them?
There's the old argument: "oh, you'd make time". Often repeated by naive, but well-meaning individuals who just have not got even the first idea about what my life is like.
My life looks set to get even worse; by which I mean some of the things I work on are looking to become sucessful. With enough fingers in enough pies, you will end up somewhere.
When that happens, I'll be stripping things down further to make time to support the sucess of things.
I'm going to be single for a long time.
4) Honesty
There's two types of honesty.
Honesty to other people - which isn't worth discussing. If you treat people with love, the honesty works itself out.
Honesty to yourself is the difficult one.
A lot of issues with honesty to other people stem out of it too.
But I'm not hinting at any deep secret I have here, but merely revealing something I've come to realise.
When you're making music, and wanting success from it, you MUST be honest with yourself about what you're trying to achieve.
If you want your record played by a certain DJ, be honest. Then figure out what he likes to play, and make something that he _can_ play. If you go mad, and pour your soul into an experimental arhythmic jazz masterpiece, and hand it to a club DJ, why would you be surprised when he doesn't play it?
If you want to sign a record to a particular label, make something that the label can sell.
If you want success, be honest. Focus on that.
I've heard people become releasing producers inside a year.
They know exactly what they want to do, and they do it. What they want to do is get their records released.
5) The power supply on my mac died
I have a powerbook. It's great. It means I can sketch music away from the studio.
The power supply failed.
I've seen about five of them die now. I paid my tax, after a good deal of complaining, and another is on its way. Not happy.
6) Working like a dog
So, I'm in a studio every night of the week, excepting the ones where I'm exhausted and fall asleep. I work like a dog. It's bringing results, and I'm learning a lot.
But, like I've mentioned above, it ain't healthy, and it keeps me single.
I don't believe in making music by random luck; I think it's about being honest about what you're trying to do, and doing it. That does take time.
I've received very kind comments in the past about my speed of workflow in the studio. Hopefully that can increase further, so I can spend more time sleeping.
But, and here's the thing, I'm involved with a lot of projects. I only work on things that I love; that's the rule. And there's still a lot of projects.
Even if I do get faster, it just reduces the time from conception to release. Perhaps I can try to maintain that delay, and get more sleep in... maybe even make time to have someone special!
But then, if projects become more successful, they'll require more time to sustain them.
Then what do I do?
There's a tendency for musical projects to require DJing to support them. When do I find the time?
7) Things changing
Things are changing.
I've recently started working with someone very high profile, who's been looking for a collaborator. We get on very well, and some lush music has resulted.
However, he's high profile, in the sense that labels ask _him_ for music... He doesn't go to them, they hassle him for tunes.
Now, I'm not surprised to find myself working with someone so accomplished, because, at the end of the day, I work like a dog; I do have a strict work ethic, and I've never been afraid of hard work. I know that if I could find someone like me to work with, I'd not pass up the chance, because I know that they'd be focussed and dedicated to the cause.
Yet the direction things are going is a little daunting. Like I've said before, time is sparse. I've had to slow down a few projects already to keep this one at its natural pace.
It's quite unnatural, I'm sure, for someone to be concerned by the promise of becoming a 'name' DJ and producer, but for me it really is about the music.
Like I've said; I have a dayjob, and whilst the money would be excellent (Clearing student debts? Deposit for a house?), the 'fame' doesn't help to do anything but constrict my time further.
That said; I can't imagine a better opportunity to make music that will make people dance and be happy, and it's in my genre of preference. I'm deeply grateful to my collaborator for all the guidance and instruction he's giving me. He's more accomplished than he realises - but even if he did, he'd still be grounded about it all. You just can't beat people like that.
Anyway, I've been too self-indulgent as it is with all this writing. I have to get back to work. I have a tune to write.
Well, the last post ended with "here ends todays rant". That wasn't true. It's still today, and I'm still ranting.
Things I want to rant about today include:
1) How unhealthy my lifestyle is.
2) Pissed people yelling at me out of car windows for wearing Shorts in Summer
3) Fairness
4) Honesty
5) The power supply for my mac died
6) Working like a dog
7) Things changing
1) How unhealthy my lifestyle is
It was half eleven at night. I walked into town (I like walking), to get some food. I have something of a tendency (especially on weekend nights) to go for greasy food, and by preference, that's Burger King. It was a nice walk. I chatted to one of my friends on my mobile for half the walk; it's good to know he's alive and well, since I've not seen him in ages. I rang off, ordered my greasyfood (TM), watched the music videos whilst my food was reheated (cooked?), and wandered back home. Which is where I am now. Lots of people out in town tonight. No hassle from people on the street, which is good.
And it struck me how badly I eat.
I don't get a lot of sleep; I work late on music.
And, since I'm working at night, I'm not cooking.
My room is a mess, and currently contains four. Yes, four (4) (****) empty pizza boxes. That's just disgusting. And now the burger king packaging. I can never eat an entire burger king.
Everyone has a self-destructive streak, I think, and mine seems to manifest itself through eating burger king. I know what it's doing to my insides.
I need to fix this.
2) Pissed people yelling at me out of car windows for wearing Shorts in Summer
Really.
I know they're pissed, and that they don't mean any real harm, but it's annoying.
3) Fairness
If you give yourself a code of rules to live by, you kinda have to.
I'm single at the moment, and was considering the matter, when it occurred to me that I don't really have a choice in the matter.
Like I said, my lifestyle is pretty horrendous; I work like a dog, morning, noon and night, and it would be completely unfair to bring another person into my situation.
I like having a girlfriend. It's nice to love and to be loved.
But how could I reasonably expect another human to try and cope with me?
When would I see them? How would I find time to spend with them?
There's the old argument: "oh, you'd make time". Often repeated by naive, but well-meaning individuals who just have not got even the first idea about what my life is like.
My life looks set to get even worse; by which I mean some of the things I work on are looking to become sucessful. With enough fingers in enough pies, you will end up somewhere.
When that happens, I'll be stripping things down further to make time to support the sucess of things.
I'm going to be single for a long time.
4) Honesty
There's two types of honesty.
Honesty to other people - which isn't worth discussing. If you treat people with love, the honesty works itself out.
Honesty to yourself is the difficult one.
A lot of issues with honesty to other people stem out of it too.
But I'm not hinting at any deep secret I have here, but merely revealing something I've come to realise.
When you're making music, and wanting success from it, you MUST be honest with yourself about what you're trying to achieve.
If you want your record played by a certain DJ, be honest. Then figure out what he likes to play, and make something that he _can_ play. If you go mad, and pour your soul into an experimental arhythmic jazz masterpiece, and hand it to a club DJ, why would you be surprised when he doesn't play it?
If you want to sign a record to a particular label, make something that the label can sell.
If you want success, be honest. Focus on that.
I've heard people become releasing producers inside a year.
They know exactly what they want to do, and they do it. What they want to do is get their records released.
5) The power supply on my mac died
I have a powerbook. It's great. It means I can sketch music away from the studio.
The power supply failed.
I've seen about five of them die now. I paid my tax, after a good deal of complaining, and another is on its way. Not happy.
6) Working like a dog
So, I'm in a studio every night of the week, excepting the ones where I'm exhausted and fall asleep. I work like a dog. It's bringing results, and I'm learning a lot.
But, like I've mentioned above, it ain't healthy, and it keeps me single.
I don't believe in making music by random luck; I think it's about being honest about what you're trying to do, and doing it. That does take time.
I've received very kind comments in the past about my speed of workflow in the studio. Hopefully that can increase further, so I can spend more time sleeping.
But, and here's the thing, I'm involved with a lot of projects. I only work on things that I love; that's the rule. And there's still a lot of projects.
Even if I do get faster, it just reduces the time from conception to release. Perhaps I can try to maintain that delay, and get more sleep in... maybe even make time to have someone special!
But then, if projects become more successful, they'll require more time to sustain them.
Then what do I do?
There's a tendency for musical projects to require DJing to support them. When do I find the time?
7) Things changing
Things are changing.
I've recently started working with someone very high profile, who's been looking for a collaborator. We get on very well, and some lush music has resulted.
However, he's high profile, in the sense that labels ask _him_ for music... He doesn't go to them, they hassle him for tunes.
Now, I'm not surprised to find myself working with someone so accomplished, because, at the end of the day, I work like a dog; I do have a strict work ethic, and I've never been afraid of hard work. I know that if I could find someone like me to work with, I'd not pass up the chance, because I know that they'd be focussed and dedicated to the cause.
Yet the direction things are going is a little daunting. Like I've said before, time is sparse. I've had to slow down a few projects already to keep this one at its natural pace.
It's quite unnatural, I'm sure, for someone to be concerned by the promise of becoming a 'name' DJ and producer, but for me it really is about the music.
Like I've said; I have a dayjob, and whilst the money would be excellent (Clearing student debts? Deposit for a house?), the 'fame' doesn't help to do anything but constrict my time further.
That said; I can't imagine a better opportunity to make music that will make people dance and be happy, and it's in my genre of preference. I'm deeply grateful to my collaborator for all the guidance and instruction he's giving me. He's more accomplished than he realises - but even if he did, he'd still be grounded about it all. You just can't beat people like that.
Anyway, I've been too self-indulgent as it is with all this writing. I have to get back to work. I have a tune to write.
posted by Dave Sonalksis at 4:49 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home