Oliver Chesler, aka The Horrorist, has a great post today at his site – Work On Your Music, Not Your Excuses:
There are only rare moments where you will feel the fire of a great song coming on and get into the studio fast enough to get it down. However, all your great songs are inside you anyway. Whether or not you’re hot or cold they are there. You have to get into the studio and warm yourself up. Sit and make a crap dull song, erase it, get frustrated and then viola the good one starts to creep out.
I can’t tell you how many times I went into the studio with a sterile mind and came out with a song I was proud of only because I stayed long enough to make it happen. I also am ashamed to tell you I wasted too much time in life waiting for inspiration, full of self-handicapped exuses instead of sitting in front of Ableton Live.
Anything holding you back?
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This is a very good point. It is crucial to find your muse. I personally do not use music software (thaz jus’ me), I have synths & Akai, but one thing that I do that would help most, regardless of technique, is to play every single day. Some days are very busy, but even if you can only play for 15 minutes then that is 15 minutes that might steer you into a new hook or beat. I try to play every day, and most days I get to jam for a couple hours. Just turning on your fave synth and messing around will put you in the right frame for writing/programming.
I also recommend vices (everybody has one) grab a bottle or a bong and you’d be surprised at how fast the muse creeps up behind you.
But I disagree that all your songs are inside you already, as you hear and see new things in life, new experiences will turn into new inspirations, and ideas you’ve never thought of before will blossom.
St. B –
The bong and bottle certainly have played major roles in the development of electronic music – but they’re responsible for a ton of crap, too.