I’m not sure which came first…important news or the voice that news anchors use to indicate to us that the news they’re reporting is important.
It’s not a voice that anyone actually has in real life but we can all do the impression. So can they. And they do.
Impressions are great because it gives us shorthand to know how we should receive the message.
Just don’t misuse the impressions.
The strongest bond we share as artists is that we’ve all been working in a room, alone, and have absolutely nothing…thinking this must mark the end of creativity.
And then we come up with something.
And then we have nothing again.
And then we keep going.
That’s the bond. The keeping going.
What do you want?
What are you going to do next?
Answering the first one is fun because the boundaries are so wide. We can add all of our whimsical thoughts, our extravagant simple desires, and the way we want our reality to feel.
The second question is harder and perhaps more important because the boundaries are tight. ’Next’ means two minutes from now or two seconds from now…definitely not two months from now. It’s harder to get away with adding wild imagination when the constraints for coming through are so near, and the truth of the results are going to be realized so quickly.
Songwriting…the lyrics, chords and melody and some of the main musical hooks
Pre-Production…locking in the tempo, key, more musical elements, dynamics, implementing groove and structure (length of the intro, bars between sections, outro)
Production…sounds and details and adding drama and inspired performances and magical plugins
Production is really fun when the song is written and preproduction is mapped out.
Production is really clunky when the song is still being written and the flow is…not yet flowing.
All of these three elements can be done along side all of the others but it’s a bigger mental leap having to constantly switch back and forth.
Comedians try out new material in small sets and in small clubs to see if what they have is working. If the audience laughs, good. If they don’t laugh, keep working. After the show it’s pretty tough for the non laughing audience members to come and say ‘that was really great, we just didn’t laugh at all, but we loved it’. No. The comic has the answer as soon as the joke is told.
Music is harder. The lip service is so much easier because music is allowed to strike people a myriad of ways. Fist pumping, crying, quiet, singing along, smiling, clapping, arms crossed. So after a song is played, what is the measure for success?
I don’t have a concrete answer but I’ll give it a whirl…
The new material works if something changes in the room. If some people go from being quiet to excited. Talking to attentive. Unmoved to dancing. Dancing to crying. Eyes open to eyes closed. Happy to sad. Sad to happy.
And with that change, the energy in the room changes. When the energy in the room changes there is more visible change…and so the cycle goes.
»» This is also why it’s still important for artists to play live and try new material live. That’s the only way to see and feel the change…people shifting from one state to another. That’s what you need to know.
Don’t be against making the type of music you’re really good at making. Because most people aren’t so good at it. We need you.
Don’t belittle the thing that comes easy for you…or the thing you worked really hard for and now it looks easy.
Don’t hide from praise or assume false humility just because the feat isn’t as difficult as they think it is. You know how you pulled the rabbit out of the hat. They don’t. To you it’s an illusion. To them it’s magic.