Noise

Over these next few months I have to think about the angle I will be taking for my Masters. Work that maybe even pulls me forward to a PHD if it engrosses me the way I hope. Expect a few blogs of me trying to decipher my thoughts and processes towards potential artistic end goals.

One thing I learnt from loving, studying and observing music for a lot of my life, is that it is noise. Now yes, it is sound of course and therefore takes the shape of noise, but I mean more of a relentless clutter of things. With the growth of technology, bedroom composers thriving and pop fantasies shoved down our throats every waking hour, there are no limits to what is created. Talent can be overwhelmed, too timid to step into the busy street of shouting and traffic. Bolder, less capable 'musicians' can be fearless (as perhaps they have less to lose?), and strike out as the doughy mass on the market that another person with a new wardrobe and cheque book can snap up and mould.

We are in a strange time. But unlike a few musicians and songwriters I have spoken to, I don't believe we have lost our way. I don't feel true creativity is being killed or anything as dark as that (recent music court cases in the media have caused a stir along the lines of this). I do feel though that what filters to a lot of non-musical consumers is absolute garbage, and that doesn't help. An automatic downer is put on the experimental and 'non-conformist' writers which I believe needn't be there. The situation isn't dire, people do honestly know the difference between a 4 chord id-rubbing pop ballad and a life's work compositional masterpiece. Two extreme examples, I know, but these really do seem to be artist's fears. That our greatest work could mean nothing, but Jason Derulo has another hit single.

When it comes to discussing the current battles of music plagiarism vs. innocent influences, I do find myself a little saddened. It is good to know that as an artist and writer, there are ways of protecting what I've made, and getting what I deserve if the mad situation arises that someone has actually stolen something from me, but I am a little disturbed by our quick to fire attitude towards suing. Especially in cases that are emotion-based, with little to go on. In all honesty, you could probably take any song written now and drag it back to having a similar catchy chord progression, or melodic line of something made 20 years ago. When people have certain tastes in style, it is almost impossible for a song to be made without hitting a beat that has been done before. I know it generally goes a little deeper than that where court is concerned, but you need enough money in the first place to sue, so really these cases are a lot of fighting for the sake of it, and a lot of 'remember me? I'm still here!' publicity. Just to keep the noise going for a little longer. 

What happened to just being flattered that someone, somewhere, may have cared enough about your work that it became embedded in the veins of their very own creations? That you changed someone's life somewhere down the line and gave a beauty that they may have unconsciously passed on to another?

I am often afraid, but not of my future work. Not of the things I make after I have climbed another academic stepping stone. I have faith that there will be some purpose somewhere for my next sculpture or big composition, because I know I will be better read, theoretically sounder and hopefully wiser than I am now.

I am scared for the things I have already created, that time after time I record, rerecord, and meddle with. I know I am not a good enough engineer yet for the level of production the industry expects, and it means I am never confident enough with the recordings of pieces I wrote even a year ago to sign them off and move on. This is always at the back of my head, and is something I must work on, one day at a time. You only get better through experience, so it is important I give it a try. It's all just noise anyway.

AKC x