Retrospection

 

 

When I finish something, especially something that takes a long time (22 Songs), I like to loop back and examine the creative process. Short-form work, which may take a day or days, leaves less of a path or is always taking the same path by way of routine.

I have never been a "quotidian" kind of artist. In fact, I prefer things to be open-ended (or at least serialized) which is essentially a form of routine or framework to allow the work to be done.

It used to be that I could never remember what I did, or how I resolved something. Computers changed all that, and even more so with notebooks in the Cloud (such as Evernote), and blogging, because they are searchable, and so I diary things that I think I might want to find later. Everyone naturally does this as a matter of course now but was less frequent before computers and the internet.

Titles, especially for instrumental music, is more difficult because there is no language involved. It's the same with photographs--but at least with photos, you can always title them "Untitled". You can't do that with music.

I am thinking about the final title while composing under working titles, as they can inform the music in subtle ways. They often get added at the end as more of the visual concept of the album. (I've always thought of myself as a "packager" of ideas, and titles are a part of the final product).

Computer-assisted creative work (especially multi-track recording) typically creates a blizzard of files that have to be "shoveled" once a piece is done. In retrospect, tape was so much more efficient for storage rather than hundreds of files strewn around hard disks.

Archiving is like cleaning up after a huge event. The cooking and all the other preparation can be the fun part, but I hate doing the dishes.

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[10/18/2024: AI-generated music solves the entire problem of production, but I’m not sure convenience itself, or “streamlining” a process is ultimately what we always want. You don’t want to make things so easy you’d miss its difficulty or complexity later. Personally, I like rigorous craft. You can’t get into flow without it. I wasn’t a “quotidian” artist back in 2017, but the Songday project has made me one].