Pausing for Osmosis

Sometimes you find yourself alone in a dark wood. Or maybe one just loses the thread of what they’re doing.

I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately, new (to me anyway) music in particular. It’s a necessary part of being a creative. You have to experience art in order to make art. Something that happens to me when I listen to a lot of music is it starts to infect my work.

This can be a good thing. Like any good artist I appropriate, ok, steal, ideas all the time. I steal then and I remold them into something that’s mine.

Dave Sitek of ‘TV on the Radio’ tells a story about meeting his idol, Brian Eno. Sitek reportedly said, “I just wanted you to know I ripped you off so much, and I have to say, ‘Thank you, and I’m sorry.’” Eno pointed to the door and said, “Just put a little bit in the tip jar on the way out.”

One thing that often happens to me is I start comparing my work to others. I’ve mostly trained myself not to fall into the trap where all my work is utter crap compared to these masters of the form. I know I’m not necessarily as ‘good’ and I’m comfortable with that. No, I get stalled thinking I should incorporate stuff I’m hearing into the work in progress. Or worse, convince myself I should change direction because what I’m hearing “does this cool thing in the middle section.”

So that’s my progress report: I’ve been listening to lots of music and second guessing everything I’m working on. So I took a break over the 4th of July holiday here in the US. Back to the studio this week with fresh ears and some space between me and all the influence I’ve been absorbing.