A return to music production
Some 2 years ago, I decided to stop making music and put all my energy into building my business and moving to Costa Rica. With the latter a fait accompli, the itch to make music has returned. Or rather, the itch to be creative has been slowing growing for the past few months as I told myself over & over that once we get to Costa Rica, I can get back at it. So now I'm here, in tropical paradise, and while I'm still busy (thanks to the impending birth of child #3) I can finally start thinking about production.
Things will be different this time because when I stopped, I felt my creativity had been sapped. This was my fault as over the years I'd gone from being curious and creative to stiflingly focussed on making dance music. My one release of such music, the Plywood EP on Night Drive Music, sounds completely soul-less to me. There's something missing, kinda like there's something missing when you compare a cadaver to someone who's alive. (I'll prove this at some point later once I suss out an mp3 player and load some old tracks in for comparison.) I needed a break, to rid myself of habits and regain joy & curiosity.
I will do things a bit differently this time, starting with no cracked software. I had every VST imaginable and went from trying create sounds to patch-hopping. This time I will stick to the DAW I own (FL Studio, totally worth the $149 I spent on it, thanks to lifetime free updates), and buy 1 single workhorse synth to start. I will learn the DAW and the synth inside out. This decision is helped by the fact that I made some money from music licensing in the past year thanks to Pump Audio. The lame excuse of not making money no longer works.
No more forcing myself to do something just because that's what I want either. The music has to lead the way. When I consider the music that I still like after years & years, it's generally slower tempo'd. I might like dance music, but maybe it's not what I should be making. I'm going to explore old school dub (King Tubby, etc), figure out how to build & EQ a beat properly and try producing IDM & trip-hop. I'm sure I'll make some faster-paced music too, but it won't be the end-all and be-all.
Mostly, I'm just going to enjoy it. Have some fun with figuring out sounds and get a kick out of re-learning tricks to programming & sequencing. And not obsess about finishing songs or making X or Y.
