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I’ve found that when writing music, I’ve always seemed to want to write that next club hit or even alternative radio track. Lately I’ve learned to let that go. I just started writing as an art form and a way to release the emotions that are inside me and I’ve found that what comes out is much more fulfilling than anything ive done in the past. Great music or Art for that matter comes form within and you have to just embrace what you do and go with it. I seem to be locked into that ambient, Trip Hop, sound whenever i write these days and that’s perfectly OK with me. This is the sound coming from inside. the sound I’m not TRYING to write but I’m just writing. I think that alot of musicians fight that natural sound when writing music, or at least in the early days. When your young you write the music your surrounded by and the sounds that are “cool” to you at that time. Over time that will change as long as your taste for music changes. As will many other things in your life but at the end of the day you’ll have a core. You’ll have this place that things come from naturally and you don’t have to fight it. Call it “talent” or “your niche” but whatever it is, It’s naturally within you and if you don’t fight it you’ll find that when you use that “talent” you’ll feel quite rewarded. My niche has always been Hip Hop (as I’ve said in the past) and I also have always had a love for that very ambient sound and manipulation of that sound with filters, panning left to right or delays. Any way i could play with the sound I would and I’ve created something that’s unique to me because of it.
Now that being said, it brings me to another point. Don’t hate…. Bands grow and develop. Ya they may have started out as a “punk” band or whatever but as you play and play all those years, get older, become influenced by different things and gain a respect for your craft, your music naturally changes. its like telling a cartoon artist who develops into a portrait artist that there portraits suck because you only liked their cartoon stuff, when in reality they are AMAZING at both. I was once that kid who hated anything that wasn’t what I was listening to at that period in my life but it didn’t stick long with me cause I just found that disliking something to WAY more energy then just simply respecting it as music. Now don’t get me wrong there are plenty of songs out there I DON’T like but today i can say I respect it as music and just choose not to listen to it. I’ve said this for years but, you can always find good music in ANY genre, sometimes you just have to look harder than normal.
The other day I was talking to my boy Chris (AZ S.O.S. album artwork) and we were talking about designing and the music we listen to while doing so. I told him most of the time I just put my iTunes on random and go at it. Then when I find something that fills my mood at that moment I’ll stop and play that band/record. Respectfully he agreed that different art or style call for different types of music but when he designs he LOVES to listen to very mellow ambient music to help him feel creative, then came a link to a band called Album Leaf. I WAS STOKED! This is exactly how I hear music in my own head. Mellow, ambient, dramatic, with a sprinkle of great beats, sounds, and glitches (yes I’m listening to it while writing right now). The vocals that come in (if any) are very mellow and mono toned. I feel that they had a heavy influence by Radiohead in the “Hail to the Theif” days.
At the end of the day I think Album Leaf is a perfect example of just writing to write and not thinking about it too much. Letting the sounds within you just come out and accept whatever it is that is driving that song at that moment. Feel good about what you’re doing/writing and go with it. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s not cool or whatever cause the only opinion that truly matters is your own.
That being said, here’s a taste of some music i’ve been working on. Not so much this song but this song is just 1 of a few I’m going to put out eventually, enjoy.