I had a fan recently ask me how I started work on my latest song and how it took shape. After thinking about it for a while, I typed up a long response detailing inspirations and blah blah blah, you all know the basics if you've been doing this long enough.
But something I hadn't thought about before was looking at your music as not just sounds but more as brush strokes on a canvas.
To quote and paraphrase my response to the initial message:
"I can't play a single instrument. But I can strive to be an artist in my medium and music is a large, blank canvas upon which to paint your wildest dreams if you have the tools. FL Studio is my easel and love for music is my paint. Of course, the music theory and mixing skills I've learned through practice are important tools but they're just embellishments to the larger picture. Rock Candy just happens to be a postcard that I spent a year painting."
I feel like a lot of us get caught up in the technical aspect of our productions and forget about the emotional part of it. You can't always know what the next step in your song is or what the proper mode is to write in. 99% of people won't give a flying fuck if you're in lydian or phrygian, 5/4 or 7/8, anything like that. Sometimes, you just have to stomp on some fucking strawberries and see what happens.
Not to sound rude, but we talk out of our asses on here a lot and honestly, you don't need half the working knowledge of this stuff that most of us do to make a good song. You don't need to drive yourself insane making everything picture perfect. Making every detail perfect is a fool's errand because you eventually lose sight of the bigger picture that you started with if you focus on the small stuff. Sure, someone on here might tell you that your mixdown is god's gift to earth but what does it matter if it's not enjoyable to listen to.
TL;DR - Throw shit at the wall and don't be afraid to get messy. Music is an art form, not a rigid production.
Submitted October 11, 2016 at 01:55AM by KalebKJC94 https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/56wh8j/looking_at_your_music_differently/?utm_source=ifttt