Lag of Creativity

 

When I work on new pieces of music and arrange them from ideas which emerged from a guitar, or even from words and rhythm, they take on stylistic worlds of their own. Once a track has been tracked and mixed they sound like records from decades ago. On a recent piece, the first mix sounded like a session from George Harrison's All Things Must Pass circa 1970, then late 70s Steely Dan, then something from the aughts. It's the instruments that contain the music, even the synths. I'm finding that I really like organs of all kinds, which have stylistic worlds within them as well: Gospel/R&B, 60s Bubblegum Farfisas or the baroque with pipe organs.

The fact that there is a lag of several months between the genesis of songs and when mixes are made compromises the integrity of the concept of creating one song a month. I could be working on Some December in June. Concepts are like working with oils, or paint that never dries. What is typical of conceptual thinking is the appearance that the ideas remained loyal to the original intentions, but in reality change hundreds of times--a moving target essentially. Concepts can be frustrating because you feel you have to adhere to them religiously. Similarly with lyrics: I've found that every song needs bespoke words, and the words drive the rhythms reciprocally. All of this displaces the original intentions and style or genre, and then you go with the result, displaced in myriad ways.