Off The Page...

Ive got too many words to say

I stutter fall of the page

Because who i am cant be defined in hours or days

youve gotta spend a whole millennia to figure my out

Cos im still discovering myself and what im all about

I’m morphing, transforming changing in front of your face

Shapeshifting, My home is neither in that or this place

Cos on the molecular level most of me is empty space.

The music i produce is merely a starter, hes a brief taste. 

And well you think what your observing of me is physical matter

But im not solid, im moving, constantly improving and grooving

The Waves of vibrational change are so soothing

Listen to your heart and hear all of the music

That surrounds us all around, and resounds in every sound

Bring the out of tune into a tune and the out of bounds into bounds

Figuring more strength lies in discovering the oneness of all

Then attempting to separate myself like a robotic entity waiting for a beck and call.   

Producer's Block

As a composer I am rather fortunate in that I never seem to suffer from the dreaded ‘writer’s block’.  I come up with innumerable ideas, almost one every day and record them quickly, usually on the wee microphone built into my mp3 player.  I then scribble down some chords and lyrics save the file into my ideas folder and then come back to the idea to develop into a ‘finished’ song. 

As lucky as I am in this department (although I believe that the luck you get simply depends on the habits you practice) I suffer from a much subtler form of artistic syndrome, one which has been rarely diagnosed and treated.  Over the last year or so I have struggled with what has recently been labelled ‘producer’s block’.  The symptoms of my own version of the condition include an obsession with the quality of my recordings, a fixation on the squeaky clean final product.  By quality here I am referring to the quality production standard set by the mainstream music industry.  Lately I have became acutely aware that my own process of recording and production has been largely painful and unenjoyable because of how I have attempted to sculpt the sounds to fit the currently industry standards.  Such concerns have resulted in huge chunks of time in which I have written dozens of songs, yet most of them remain unrecorded. 

Recently I have been inspired musically by two people who have alternate approaches to the production process.  Firstly I have developed a great appreciation for the music of my uncle, who composes simple minute long pieces with vocal only.  I go round every so often and record him on my mp3 player microphone.  The crackling and hissing of the audio quality would put most people off listening to my uncle’s music but I listen to the tunes I recorded over and over again. 

Secondly Mark Self has shared his own production techniques with me over the last year or so and they have been highly motivating.  He improvises compositions with guitar and voice, quickly mixes them and puts them online almost right away.  I have spent many hours listening to one album of his in particularly which he recorded with the band DASM.  They composed and recorded the whole album of material in a day.

Artists like my uncle and Mark should be applauded for releasing raw music which refuses to confine itself to the guidelines set by the record industry.  I have a number of friends who in my eyes are talented musicians but who never record and release material because they feel like their music isn’t up-to-standard.  Like Lauryn Hill said in her MTV unplugged album ‘We Compare ourselves amongst ourselves, and that’s not the standard, you already are the standard.  What are you trying to fit into a standard for?’  We certainly live in a surface driven society in which first impressions are everything, yet my uncle and Mark remind us that without looking beyond the surface there is a lot of sustenance  to be missed. A lot of people would switch off as soon they heard any music that strayed slightly out of tune or off-beat.  I want to record music now for those listeners who can hear past the hisses and distortions, who can persevere to realise the beauty of the hidden. 

Last week I got hold of a portable hard-drive recorder, which I hope to take everywhere with me.  I want now to record as much as I can, release as much as I can.  If I can allow myself to accept my own mistakes and imperfections. 

I am busy recording some songs with my uncle which will soon be available at http://greggenre.bandcamp.com.  To listen to some of Mark Self’s recent recordings go to:  http://soundcloud.com/jamesdaylight

Peace