Going Nowhere for Nothing Today?
I have a week’s break before October gets crazy, so I’m using the time to go deep on the Roland 303 sequencer, something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.
I’m doing it via the Cyclone Analogic TT-303, which is a modernized version of this box. If you don’t know what it is, you’ve heard it for sure. It’s a super squeaky, bubbly, bouncy sound that you’ve heard in all kinds of dance music and modern music alike.
So of course now I can see how it’s going to change my music forever, and I’ll take over the world much like the Wyld Stallyns in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
But I’ve been through this before. Gotten all excited about something, learned it, put it away, and then had it rise back up later subconsciously to use here and there.
And this is fine.
I think that’s what’s supposed to happen.
As an artist, you go down all these different roads, traveling without a destination. You don’t know where you’re headed, but better is the goal, which is not a good goal, but it’s also not a conscious goal.
You just know there’s something there, so you investigate it and work on it until it’s time not to.
This is both the best and worst part about artistic endeavors. You never know where anything’s gonna lead you, and you also generally never know where you’re going.
And as I’ve said before, if you don’t learn to enjoy, relish, covet, and guard the discovery phase, you are going to be a miserable person as an artist.
Anyway, that’s why people quit. That’s why people don’t practice, etc., etc.
At the end of the day, you have to go deep down these rabbit holes and keep seeking, knowing that it’ll lead you nowhere, and that nowhere is kind of the goal.
Because at some point there’ll be no more music out of you, or art, or whatever your medium is.
Then what?
It’s the same as the journey.
Then nothing.