So, to follow on from the last post where I revealed my crippling perfectionist tendencies I'd like to add another reason for delays in my album getting finished and that is the mysterious world of pointlessly self-imposed rules.
I have a set of unwritten rules that I've been following for as long as I can remember. It's a code of conduct that I've always adhered to and yet very rarely questioned properly. It's become clear to me recently that these rules I work to are not only very restrictive but also pretty stupid. So, I've tried to identify these rules and I've been wondering if they're actually the main reason progress has been so slow.
Let me give you some examples;
1-Don't use big samples of well known songs on you're album.
2-The majority of your album should be made up from melodies you wrote, beats you constructed using as many real instruments and vocals as possible.
3-Never use the same sound twice.
4-Aim to make music that has a good 'song structure' (whatever that means)
5-No rough edges, the production should always be perfect.
There are more but you should get the point from those examples.
Now when I think about the things I've done that have been successful it's seems pretty clear that they didn't follow any of the rules I follow when trying to write an album. When I freely sample anything I want to and ignore any traditional song structures I come up with some pretty good stuff and yet I still straight jacket myself with unhelpful rules.
One area I have a problem with is the idea of making a track that is mostly made up from one big sample, a technique taken to the extreme by Daft Punk (
here's an example) and Girl Talk, not to forget it's the reason Norman Cook is a multi-millionaire. It's not that I don't like sample based music, when it's
done well I absolutely love it, no it's more to do with my own desire to prove to people I can do more than just cut and paste bits of old records. I suppose all those opinionated muso types telling me I'm not a real musician got to me. It's ludicrous when you think about it because I've essentially turned my back on the one thing I'm really good at. So, I've decided it's now OK to make tracks that use big chunks of other tracks as the basis. Everyone else is shamelessly using other people music as the foundation for a new ideas and I'm not going to beat myself up about this anymore. It's still creative, it's still art and it's what I do best.
Another thing that slows me down is my insistence on creating so many of the elements myself. Spending hours to create a new hi-hat sound that most people just won't notice. I've come to realise that it's not worth the effort, yet again I can look back to my own music from the past that people liked as proof that when I don't stick to my own daft rules I can still come up with something people can enjoy. My best work was made quickly and without thinking too much so from now on it will be OK to use a hi-hat sound or a bass noise more than once if it speeds up the process. No one will notice or care.
I could go on but you probably get the point here. I'm over-complicating matters by inventing rules for myself that are proven to be unhelpful. I've needlessly ventured down many creative dead end because of my desire to prove my impressive musicianship only to realise people don't expect me to be a Jazz master, they just want some good and honest cut and paste nonsense. Now that the penny has finally dropped for me I feel free to create and the ideas are pouring out of me. So yes, the album is still in production and will be finished...erm...soon.
