Stuff and Things Blah Blah ...
Welcome to the (continuing) Sunday Ramble© series
I was looking back at some music files that I’ve been working on, and it looks like--basically, I haven’t opened Ableton Live all summer.
I think I really peaked when I did the South by Southwest show in March, an electronic set. I feel like I did a great job. But it wasn’t, like, 100%-good what I can do.
And I think what’s really come up is I’m phasing out of an electronic phase.
Do I go back to Ableton at some point? I don’t know.
But I’m realizing how song-based I am right now, and that it feels very correct. I don’t have to argue with myself about it. I just really like writing songs with the acoustic guitar, and kind of the perfect next step is the MPC Live One.
Just because, as I’ve been doing over the past week, I can easily use a simple template. I’ve got drums, I’ve got a bass keyboard (keeps me away from overplaying bass-wise because I’m a bassist). This is about songwriting, not about showing off and being a douche. (So, a little douche guard there for me.)
And then a couple, you know, one Juno keyboard, like in the style of a Prophet-5. The keyboard throughout Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty. It’s just a nice smooth pad in the background.
And as I set up this template for my next songwriting group semester, my thought is to keep it simple, like Free Fallin’.
Now, I don’t really know if I ever even liked the song. I like it. There’s not a lot to it. I love it, for sure. And it’s a part of my life and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But it’s maybe a little too simple, but it’s also Tom Petty’s most famous song, which is crazy.
Anyway, where I am now is in a good place.
Between the instruments I already have, the Zoom L-6 mixer, which gets used weekly for about 10 different things, and, you know, writing, I kind of got it.
I can make full tracks and not even demo tracks. Like, track tracks.
Which is the thought process and the demo process: don’t put anything down you don’t want ending up in the track.
So it’s all to say that no one’s heart is gonna break if I don’t keep going down the electronic road.
There’s not a fan base that’s going to die.
Now, I’ve talked about it before, but if you are unknown and unpopular, like me, consider going with it and really reaping the benefits.
I’m switching back to writing-songs-mode for myself. I think.
We’ll see.
But I can do it freely.
Now, if you had a following and you’ve built up all this stuff, what do you... who’s... can you?
I don’t know.
I think that, especially the way the music world is now, the algorithm really wants you to behave and do a certain thing, a certain way.
And existing in unpopularity outside of your circle of friends and musical friends, it’s like, you can do anything you want.
And really, those other artists can do anything they want to, but mine is with, like, just shelve Ableton.
Shelve it for a year. Shelve it for two years. Sell the Push 3. Throw it on Craigslist. When I want it, just go buy one back.
It'll be there waiting for me. It will continue to go down in price.
Because between the MPC Key 37 and the Live One, I’m fixed.
I’m going revel in my unpopularity for a little bit and finish making my template and try to write some good songs over the next eight to ten weeks. (sometimes the group ends early at eight, sometimes they do the full 10 weeks--apathy based)
But I’m set up.
I’m writing a lot, concentrating on song form (Which is another thing MPC really helps me do. It kind of forces you to do that because you build it in sections. Or sequences, as they call it.)
Ready to keep it totally douche-free for the rest of the year.