Why do you produce music?

[lem]

Where I live is very much like Steevio describes. Unless you like beer and N-dubz, there are no clubs down here.
There are loads of freeparties, although they seem pretty rare in my area now. When I was 16 it was all about being covered in mud in a field of edm. I had the best time at 16.

I live in quite a built up area, but my neighbours are cool about music throughout the day. I live a fairly reclusive life, working 60 hours a week for fck all. But then I get nearly a third of the year off which i spend doing music. Sometimes it doesnt gel and I can go whole holidays without getting any music done. I would say that the most techno talking contact I get is through this forum.
Sometimes I wish there was more influence of inspiration.

Sometimes I wish I lived in/near london. but then I dont think I could hack it for very long...

[Hades]

I personally believe, like you, that the main reason should always be a love for the process. But the main issue is how can you tell if FOR YOU making music is all that you care about or is it just a hobby? I mean, what's your path? I think we have to take a reality dose and assess whether or not we have a talent. For me it's a very sad thought. I would like to be an artist but I'm not, and it has been very hard to realize this. We are all creative to some extent but I think the real artist is mainly born, not made. For the real artist, thousands of hours learning worth the effort because she/he can ultimately produce memorable and quality music.

You can love making music, and I'm sure we all do, but does it really worth the effort?

I've seen situations of people that are/were convinced their sole purpose on this planet is to make music, and they refused to do sh!t else in their lives.
It's not a thing I think to be proud about, to be honest.

A few years ago, I got introduced to this guy "because we were both into synths, so we had to meet".
The guy basically lived of his girlfriends money, hadn't worked a single day in his life, and didn't even do one single thing in the household. He left everything up to her.
I mean, it's one thing to say "ok, honey, am I allowed to give it a go for one, maximum 2 years and see where it goes ?", but it's a whole other thing to just blatanly say "I believe I was put on this planet to make music" and then just smoke tons of weed and try making music.
As far as I know, the guy is still on a fairly good level, and has only released a few things after maybe 10 years.
But let's be honest : if you'd had all day time for making music for 10 years straight, it would rather be impossible not to get anything released no ? unless you were of course completely untalentend.
To top it off, his girlfriend was this real hotty, and I couldn't quite understand why she endured this arrogant lazy prick for so many years. It turned out she had a hand missing, and let's face it : not many guys want to be seen with a girl like that (unfortunately). She probably considered herself lucky to have found a "creative" boyfriend.
I felt so sorry for her to have such a jerk as a boyfriend. I learned a few years later that she eventually kicked him out. Good for her !!

Another guy is someone I have known for 10 years from the net. He lives in Costa Rica and is convinced to "make it as a professional musician and travel the whole world". He's been manically sending in stuff for the RBMA each year, but never gets selected.
So in reality, he still lives with his mom (he's 37 now), and spends all his money on synths and developed a huge coke addiction.
About half a year ago, I knew he was in rehab, so I suggested he'd come lodge at my place for a few weeks to get away from temptations back home.
I thought I'd get him back into shape (which I did, he gained 12 kilo's during his stay), and we could make some music together. Plus I offered him free use of my (fairly well equiped) studio for his whole stay.
Plus he always said he wanted to travel, so I figured it was his chance to see something of Europe.
You know what he did with his whole stay (2 months) ?
NOTHING !!!
Everything he saw, was because I took him by the hand and took him to places.
And he spent maybe 4 days in my studio in total.
Instead of going out to see places, he spend his time behind the laptop posting crap on facebook.
You know what his stay learned me ? That there are a LOT of people that actually enjoy talking about their big dreams or complaining about how shitty their life is now than actually do something about it.
Honestly, you'd be amazed at how many people would be afraid of taking a great opportunity if you handed it to them on a silver plate !
(Look at "Revolutionary Road" (or even better, read Richard Yates' book) if you want to see a perfect almost surgical dissection of this human behaviour.)

So anyway, what I'm trying to say is this :
of course you should try to go for your dreams. But I think a healthy dose of realism is always a must.
And I personally feel that if you choose this "artist" life, you should make sure you don't hurt your loved ones by doing so. I personally feel a lot better by doing a sh!t job that makes sure I can pay the bills and take care of my family.

[Hades]

Man, if I could get out of the 'rat race' I would.

you just have to do it bro.

fear is the thing which stops most people. my girlfriend is from London, and she was terrified when she first moved out into the sticks, but ask her now and she'd laugh about it. i was a traveller for ten years so it was easy for me.

you just replace tuberides, offices, bars and Costa's with shitloads of space and TIME !

and you thin out the millions of random people to the ones that you really care about.

Yeah im going to get out of it in a years time. I have had enough of not being able to fully concentrate on my music. Some weeks I get a few days, but then most of the time I dont make much music at all because I'm at work.

I find music really just one big battle with my mind. If i could get into the mindset of being happy and broke then it would be cool. Thing is I earn decent money with my day job, so its like going from one extreme to the other which I find like you said is the fear in me stopping me from doing it. I think its pretty sad that money has this hold over me, but living here in London its impossible not to be this way.

I am a bit of recluse also. If I have spare time, I would rather sit and make music then go out and get on it. I guess I do it in stages, one month I'll go out every weekend and then that will be it for a few months.

I've been doing a sh!t job for over 10 years now. Dispatch work, nightshifts.
It's a thing I rolled into completely by accident, and I've long gone past the point where it was still interesting.
But the big reason I keep doing it is cause I have so much spare time.
I used to have half of the month of. Now I work 5 nights (10 to 12 hours, no brakes) and have 10 days off (of which I'm 5 "stand-by" in case one of my 2 other colleagues gets sick, this only happens maybe 5 to 10 nights a year maximum). Some months I have to come in a few hours on days to get some additional training, but that's it.
I mean, honestly, how many people have this much time free and still have a full-time paycheck ?
There are many nights that I wonder what the fck I'm still doing here, but as soon as I start my days off, I forget about all that in a flash.
Just the thought of having to switch some day to a "normal" job depresses me. Well, not the normal hours, but the fact that I'll have so little time to do the stuff I love doing in my life.
I read 2 books a month (or try to), watch about 15 movies a month, do 6 to 8 hours sport a week, and spend 10 to 20 hours a week on music. And of course (and this is the most important of all) : I have time to spend with my kids.
People don't realize this enough, but time is more important than money in this life.
What are you gonna do at the end of your life (if you even get that far) with all your money ? buy back the time you lost ? I think not.
In the last 2 years I came across a fair bit of money, and it hasn't really changed my lifestyle at all. (well ok, I did buy an eventide H8000fw )
But the money came with losing a few loved ones, and that changed my perspective to life a lot more than the money.
It convinced me even more that I should try to stick to my "shadow-job" as long as I can, and enjoy the time I have as much as I can.
My sister is the only other "creative" person in my family. 3 years ago she got diagnosed with breast cancer.
Last august she died, leaving behind 3 young kids and a whole bunch of unfinished paintings (but by far not enough of them).
She got extremely unlucky.
But the thing is, we could ALL die tomorrow in a car crash or whatever, but we always kid ourselves by ignoring this fact.
Seize the day and enjoy life now, cause you don't know how much longer you got.
And I don't mean this in some "let's go party like hell and live in the most irresponsible way possible"-way, but just on a more well thought out philosophical way. Think carefully about how, and with who, and where, you want to spend your life, cause you only have one, and it can be over damn fast too.

anyways, I'll stop ranting now...

[spire]

Some very thought provoking stuff being said in this thread. :]

I'm new to this forum and from the U.S. (Denver to be exact) and it's refreshing to see how you guys across the pond write & think about life in general.

My life as a musician is a struggling one also. I work a 9-5 and rarely find myself having enough energy or mental focus to make music that I'm satisfied with. As others have said about themselves, I too am a very reclusive type of person and if I'm not at work, I'm usually at home thinking about what I should do next (instead of actually doing something). I waste way too much time just being distracted and perpetually jumping from one task to another. It seems like the only time I can actually be a productive person is when I'm at my job anymore.

I don't have enough time to really gain my focus when it comes to music. It seems like as soon as I finally have the motivation to hunker down and get some work done, it's time to go back to work and the real world. My days off from work get used for more realistic tasks like cleaning and whatnot instead of producing music.

There is definitely a balance needed in life between being social and introverted, in which my life is currently very unbalanced (not much of a social life). I feel that social experiences are the most inspiring experiences when it comes to music. Music is about people and the experiences we have. All music, even techno, is about people.

Like someone else said in this thread, I feel my musical ideas have essentially plateaued. I need to take a step back and re-think where I am going with this stuff.

P.S. -- Not sure what my point was in writing all that, but I guess I'm just venting like everyone else...

[Hades]

Do you have a purpose for producing electronic music?

Because I want to (try to) create something beautiful. I basically love sound, hence I love synthesis and using synths, samplers, FX,...
I've been playing piano since I was 7, and got into synths when I was 15, but lost interest while at univ. I restarted about 12 years ago.
Before that I was almost constantly looking for ways to sedate my brain (way too much pot and booze). Ever since I restarted with synths, I found myself trying to develop my brain more instead of sedating it.
And it's just a lot of fun, no ?
I've been living without television for 15 years, and I go nuts when I see how people can waste night after night watching the crap they feed you on tv.
Why not try to do something more constructive with that time ?

Do you want to be famous and rich?

Rich ? Money is only a means to not having to worry about money. You only need enough to live failry comfortable, but if you have too much, you'll have different kind of worries.
When my mom asks me if I'm planning on having more kids than 2, I always answer her I'd have 4 or 5 immediately if I'd win the lottery tomorrow, cause that would give me the means to spend as much time with my kids as I want to and still have enough time and money to spend for myself.
Famous ? Hell no ! If I would ever be able to make music good enough to be booked for shows, I would get tired real soon of the whole travelling thing. Of course anyone would love to play the big clubs or festivals like Labyrinth. But would you love to be away every weekend, trying to make a living ?
You'd see more airports than you'd want to.
I could never cope with that in the long run.
Plus I'd probably waste a pretty damn fine marriage by doing so. Eventually, some night, I'd end up with some hot "star-fucker-chick" cause I was too drunk and too long away from home. Where I come from, we say "don't put a cat near the milk", not sure if that expression is the same in English, but you get the idea, no ?

Do you want to contribute some quality music to the scene?

I don't think in scenes. I just want to create something. Hopefully something beautiful. I will settle for a nice groove too, but if at all possible, I'd prefer something that touches the heart and soul as well.

Do you (realistically) feel you can get somewhere professionally with your music?

I have no idea. I'm getting better, but whether or not I'll ever get good enough is not something I worry about.
I'd be a lot better a lot faster if I'd spend less time on the other stuff I'm rather passionate about in my life like reading, films and sports. But I wouldn't want to give any of those up. I'd hate to be too single-focused. It would narrow my mind too much.

Is it good enough?

Never. I'm a perfectionist.

Do you feel satisfied with the tracks you make?

Sometimes, but the results are still not good enough. I feel great about the sounds I make, but not about the tracks in whole. I usually hardly return to a track later to continue working on it, simply cause I enjoy it more to start something new again. This of course means I have very little stuff finished. But I'll get there eventually. Although I'm very serious/passionate about it, it's still supposed to be fun, right ?

Can you improve what its missing?

Sometimes.

Is making (good) electronic music a talent that can be developed or is it an artistic gift just a few have?

Both !
Let's face it, there's a huge amount of technical stuff you need to learn, and this takes a long time.
I had a typical classical training for years. There you only have to learn how to play technically and you're set. With synths, you have something new to learn with every piece of gear you get, plus there's tons of stuff to learn about making tracks in general.
But yes, of course, you can learn the whole technical part inside out, but if you have no musical feeling or creativity in your genes whatsoever, it's completely pointless.

[steevio]

I've seen situations of people that are/were convinced their sole purpose on this planet is to make music, and they refused to do sh!t else in their lives.
It's not a thing I think to be proud about, to be honest.

but you have to be careful when you say stuff like that, because that assumes that making music is not doing something with their lives.
i'm pretty sure John Lennon probably thought he was put on this planet to make music, was his life wasted ?
think of the amount of pleasure and inspiration that guy gave to millions of people...

i'm sorry but i dont buy into the 'music isnt a real job' bullshit.

ive been involved in the music industry all my life, it employs millions and millions of people, doing every kind of job imaginable, roadies, truck drivers, lighting, sound reinforcement, agencies, PR, instrument manufacturers, pressing plants, printers, magazines, promoters, studio engineers, software designers - infact i could go on all day listing the thousands of jobs which put food on the table and enrich the lives of millions of people, and thats not even taking into account the music itself.

where would it be without the grassroots musicians ? the innovators, the visionaries ?

if you really believe you are a musician, believe in yourself, get out there and do it, and stop thinking its just something only worthy of mucking about in your sparetime, (not aimed at anyone in particular)

what profession should you be proud of ? - a banker ?

edit; sorry, a bit of a rant i know, but it really bothers me that being a musician is somehow not considered something worthy of dedicating your life too.

[::BLM::]

Famous ? Hell no ! If I would ever be able to make music good enough to be booked for shows, I would get tired real soon of the whole travelling thing. Of course anyone would love to play the big clubs or festivals like Labyrinth. But would you love to be away every weekend, trying to make a living ?
You'd see more airports than you'd want to.
I could never cope with that in the long run.
Plus I'd probably waste a pretty damn fine marriage by doing so. Eventually, some night, I'd end up with some hot "star-fucker-chick" cause I was too drunk and too long away from home. Where I come from, we say "don't put a cat near the milk", not sure if that expression is the same in English, but you get the idea, no ?

A lot of people say this, and I agree that it would be a bit sh!t. I already do quite a lot of travelling with my djing and I understand that it would be hard if it was full time, but no matter how many airports I have to see its always better then my job as a waiter.

[simonb]

I go nuts when I see how people can waste night after night watching the crap they feed you on tv.
Why not try to do something more constructive with that time ?

Same, I guess a lot of people have nothing better to do than just plonk themselves in front of a TV? When, thanks to my lovely employer, I was temporarily homeless in London a few months ago I stayed with a friend, a guy I went to uni with, who happens to be a very good guitarist/musician, for a few days and every day him and his girlfriend would come home from work and watch TV until bedtime. To be honest I found it kinda depressing imagining myself having that sort of life but fair enough... (for what it's worth the guy gets a lot of satisfaction from his job, so swings and roundabouts maybe...)

My living room (pretty much my studio, don't use it for much else) backs onto my neighbour's and the wall is pretty thin, when I'm producing I can hear him coming home and watching TV or films all night...

You know what his stay learned me ? That there are a LOT of people that actually enjoy talking about their big dreams or complaining about how shitty their life is now than actually do something about it.
Honestly, you'd be amazed at how many people would be afraid of taking a great opportunity if you handed it to them on a silver plate !

Interesting subject in itself, surely most of us have been guilty at some point of sitting the pub talking about being passionate about, say, music and hating your job and so on then going home and not actually spending time working on music... in fact sometimes even building it up like that in your head can make it quite intimidating and kinda disillusioning when you sit down and realise you're not as good as you want to be. At that point it can be dangerous when the ego gets involved and you start thinking about the great injustice of you not being a big techno musician, putting yourself under pressure, thinking about why all these other guys younger than you are getting signed and getting big gigs and you're sitting there failing to make a basic track, it's all toxic stuff and a lot of it might be down to the seemingly harmless thoughts about how much you love music and want to get further with it... A lot of it's just about taking action and getting better, whether that's squeezing in an hour a day in your busy life or quitting your job and going off the radar for 6 months or whatever it is, as long as you actually sit down and do the work and leave your ego and whatever else is stopping you at the door for that time. It's a crazy thing, sometimes you forget that you're making music because you enjoy doing it! I feel recently I've done well at getting past this block and just getting on with, and of course enjoying, music, even if it's just practising synthesis or organising/making samples or something when the inspiration to actually make a track isn't there, it all helps.

I'd imagine people like your acquaintance might be victims of that - he clearly dreams a lot about being a producer and having this international musician lifestyle and isn't afraid to talk about his passion but when he sits down to work it's not doing him any favours, while for all he knows there's some young guy in his bedroom somewhere whose friends don't even know he writes tunes, staying up late and writing amazing stuff...