Given a direct choice between reality and artifice, I believe I’m most likely to choose the former. This concept has underpinned much of my creative practice. Even when beat cutting / pasting was at the height of its popularity, I’d be stuck behind the drums all day trying to get a take..
Similarly, the desire to expose both process and the actual, visceral emotions behind it indicate why I’m so taken with improvisation.
This website, in its current form, only exists as an attempt for me to expose the ideas behind what I make, the underlying metaphysic if you will.
We all have things we are willing to trade away when it comes to our practice, control vs. time invested is a big one, particularly in the digital realm, where the means by which one produces work may be far from intuitive. Don’t want to learn DSP to implement an FIR filter? There are a host of ready made plugins that will fulfill this function admirably. As one’s needs become more esoteric, so does the need to do it oneself and so begins a journey. The only remaining issue then is how deep the rabbithole you want / are prepared to travel.
I’ve spent plenty of time learning new stuff to facilitate the production of sound work, maybe less than you, it’s hard to tell.
What feels to me like a huge parabola of (mostly) self-instruction is not only dwarfed when compared to the trajectories of others, it’s not even the point of it all. I have to remind myself occasionally that making stuff is the point and that learning should serve to facilitate such an outcome.
I’ve only ever thought myself to have one ‘talent’ or ‘gift’ (rather dislike both those words) and that’s the ability to persevere.
Rather than stop when most sensible people would and turn their attentions to things a little more wordly, I keep going until I’ve learnt that sticking, figured how to get that code to run, finished that piece etc.
Such tenacity is hardly inducive to seemless social integration, so you could ask (with some justification) what the point of such industry is? I certainly have (and will again, no doubt).
May I direct you to re-read the first sentence of this missive? I believe that’s the answer.
This isn’t rock’n'roll, pre-packaged and readily digestible.
The work is a pre-requisite and isn’t, of itself, something you can trade as a commodity.
Assiduous effort over a long period will get you there. There being a Utopia with only one guaranteed inhabitant.
And that’s the real.
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