The Project
Welcome, again, to another blank word document. Well, for me it is. For you, it is a completely fleshed out thought that I have (hopefully) proofread multiple times and carefully planned what pieces of unreleased and hopelessly unrefined art to inject in the cracks that hopefully doesn’t cause me great anxiety. So that’s what I spent my week thinking about. Let’s talk about it.
If you missed the first entry, here is a quick review. I am starting my first journey down creating original solo music in an effort to move away from solely commissioned and collaborative material. This is part of a Careers in Music course, but, more importantly, it is a major part of my personal growth and goals. Like most major projects, this comes with checkpoints and goals along the way and just like most major projects that I partake in, I have missed one of those goals.
Now, that is a little overstated. I haven’t completely blundered, yet. If you know me, you know that I LOVE to bite off more than I can chew. It’s my favorite pastime that I don’t actually love. This week, I intended to have first drafts of my first two tracks. So far I have only come up with a few ideas and have been unable to decide if any of the ideas that I have picked through already are “up-to-snuff” and ready to be fleshed out with a second draft. Why? Great question. There are a few answers. All of them sound like excuses, but let’s dive in.
The Resistance
Firstly, I did not check the calendar. This past weekend was February camp with the Mandarins. That means that I spent my weekend in Sacramento, California inventorying every piece of audio equipment owned by the Mandarins Drum Corps. If you are familiar with drum corps, then you know that can be quite a bit of work. I believe the final total was 1,515 feet of XLR cable alone. It took the better part of two entire days to work through a small portion of the work that needed to be done and the many hours of flying and travel time took a physical toll on me. Weekends like that definitely eat into the creative energy. See? Excuses.
What else? Well, the rest can be chalked up to Resistance. If you’re not familiar, this is in reference to a well-known author in the creative sphere named Steven Pressfield. In his book, The War of Art, he details his concept of The Resistance, which is the inner voice that distracts us from creative tasks. This week, I definitely gave into Resistance. Now, that’s not to say that I did nothing. In a few paragraphs, I will go over some of the work that I did get through this week. What it does mean is that I spent quite a bit more time thinking instead of simply doing. What was I thinking about? Well, this project, and some of the ideas that have been floating in my head for quite some time have me thinking of what this all means to me and what kind of routine I want to find myself in when this is over. I know, I know. Stop thinking and just get to work. That’s what I’ve been saying BUT mindset is important too.
In addition to Steven Pressfield, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about Rick Rubin this week. His book The Creative Act: A Way of Being was one of my favorite books I read last year, and possibly ever. He takes the reader through his observations of life and what being creative means. In fact, quite a few of his points are very similar to Pressfield’s, but there is one defining difference. Pressfield’s approach is notably more “work-oriented”. He respects the art and I respect that. Don’t get me wrong. His solution, however, is to sit down and do the work. In fact, he has another book, in the same series, if you will, called Do the Work. Pretty on the nose. Rick Rubin’s approach is a little more holistic, which is no surprise if you are familiar with Rick. I heard a great quote by him on a podcast this week as well that sums it up quite nice. It was in response to a well-known scientist and fellow podcaster steering a dinner conversation to business tactics.
“Let’s talk about art instead” – Rick Rubin
The Art
Now on to what came out of my head and made its way on to my computer screen this week. The podcast in question left me with another gem of inspiration. It began with Rick and the host doing a 5-minute breathing exercise set to a soundscape. That soundscape started with a single note and the listeners could hear the overflow of their breathing. From there, I decided that I wanted to make something similar, and the following came from it.
I also had a very engaging evening with my modular synthesizer setup this week. This is an example of a particular type of creating that I love. Every once in a while, I enjoy something that I make enough to post a clip of audio or video to Instagram. When this happens, I am always thrilled when coworkers or friends reach out to tell me that they loved the “song” that I made on Instagram. I always find this humorous because it is more akin to a journal entry than a song, but it is truly flattering. If you are interested in following along with these journal entries, consider following me @griffinlawperc on social media. Here is that snippet from this week. It’s actually am ambient work, which I also really enjoy making. I quite like this one. Play
Where does that leave me? In a word, behind, but I have no reason to fret! I have laid out the next three weeks for drafts, and settling on final track forms, instrumentations, etc. This just means that I need to make it a point to set aside time to be creative every day. In the words of Steven Pressfield, do the work.
“Run and tell all of the angels, this could take all night”
-Foo Fighters
Griffin Law Music 