A fledgling artist's journey into music production
I’ve started following a few podcasts lately to start getting a sense of the journey other artists have taken on their way to becoming known and respected. It’s been a hard hit on my ego, hearing the lengths some people went to in order to become successful. And that’s good.
What’s less good, is the fear and self-doubt that accompanies it. Primarily around my ability to communicate effectively with others.
Continue reading “Deal With the Doubt”Hello, my name is Ian, and I’m a connection-abuser.
Continue reading “Do it Your Way”From my journal today:
October 14, 2020
The problem with the philosophy I’ve built so far is it puts a lot of pressure on the individual to push themselves their whole life. Not that the pushing isn’t good, not that it doesn’t lead to greater happiness, but that it doesn’t take into account the possibility that it might all be for nothing.
There is no proof that anything we do today will have any impact ten or a hundred thousand years from now. Those ripples could have a negligible impact on the human race and the world it inhabits.
What I am now trying to consider, as a way of balancing my drive and preventing it from becoming a consuming source of suffering itself, is that none of this may ultimately matter. It may be worth making my peace with that possibility.
Continue reading “Flirting with Nihilism”
In every aspect of our lives, we deal with patterns and pattern recognition, from playing video games to recognizing that talking to your spouse about their weight is probably a very bad move.
And we certainly use it when mastering a skill, which includes music production of course.
Continue reading “Patterns All the Way Down”EDIT: I wrote this experience down in my journal, then decided to share it, as a way of reminding others who deal with anxiety and negative self-talk that they are not alone. If that sounds like something that might be triggering for you, best to leave this one alone.
Continue reading “Why Creating is Hard”Today, I’m finishing my first song built from scratch. It’s been surprisingly fun to do so – I dunno, I expected it to be.. harder? Surely any time now someone will laugh at my childish attempt at music, and point out no less than three hundred things I’ve missed.
We shall see.
Regardless, it’s SO MUCH FUN learning new ways to mess around with sound. I’m like a kid building with Lego blocks, and I keep finding new ones strewn around the floor (which is the standard place to store Lego, I believe).
Excitement aside, I remain wary of my progress. I got farther than this before in an entrepreneurial endeavour before burning out – and I almost got sued too, but that’s another story.
To help make sure that doesn’t happen again, thought I’d write about the self-sabotaging habits I’ve spotted so far.
Continue reading “A Non-Comprehensive List of Temptations”I am not a philosopher, but I often play one in my journal. Recently I sat down and wrote the following:
Continue reading “A Way to Live”The time to nurse an idea is at the time of it’s birth. Every minute it lives gives it a better chance of surviving.
Napoleon Hill
About three days ago, I started work on the first music track that I will be able to call wholly mine – no unmodified presets, no proprietary loops or effects.
It’s been a somewhat terrifying experience at times, but it’s also given me some perspective on my creative process.
Continue reading “A Series of Yesses”I haven’t even sat down at my desk when it hits me. A kind of vague, creeping dread of the unknown journey to come.
Over the next 2 hours, I will face frustrations and setbacks. Things I thought would come easily, won’t. Theories I had about how to make something sound a certain way will fall through. And once and a while, in a brief but weightless moment, I will get something to work.
Continue reading “The Grind (AKA The Daily Discomfort)”