| golden child |
08.07.2006 02:33 PM |
1. Most experiments are failures. In every other field of endeavor, the first dozen/hundred/thousand/ten thousand experiments crash and burn before the product comes out like it should. In "experimental" music, a large number of the artists involved seem to record their first or second effort and put it on the internet for the world to see. If the first recording sucks, nobody will EVER listen to the later recordings, even if they are really good. Take the time to make something good before you share it.
2. Everybody has already done what you just did. Noise has existed in something close to its current form for 30+ years. Experimental music in the broader sense, especially based on guitars, has been around longer. People who are better than you have already had your idea and pulled it off with much more aplomb. This ties in with my first point: don't just say "what happens when I hold something electrical near my guitar pickups?" and then assume you have split the atom. REALLY CREATE.
3. Don't work exclusively on computers, unless you want nobody to take you seriously. Computers are fantastic tools for editing your work, producing new sounds, and doing lots of other amazing stuff. However, computers still can't do everything, and most of all they tend to be awkward and ineffective in live performance settings. If you have never worked with real equipment or played a real show, it will be apparent in the kind of music you make. If you somehow make something good on a computer despite your lack of grounding, you are going to look like a colossal asshole when you get asked to play a show and then have to say "Umm....I can't play shows."
4. Be deliberate about what you are doing. Computer audio editing programs have lots of effects. Mixers, effects pedals, and instruments have lots of knobs. Be aware of what you are doing when you manipulate this vast array of options. If you PRESS BUTAN all the time, your music will sound very bad. Learn from your failed experiments in button-pressing and knob-twisting.
5. Remember, you are still making music. Noise and experimental music can be very free-form, and annihilate the barriers and conventions of traditional music. That doesn't mean you should simply hold your guitar into an amplifier for an hour and call if music. And if you do, Lou Reed will have done it already, and will have done it better. Your music still needs a structure and purpose. Dynamics and variation are good. I will repeat that again. DYNAMICS AND VARIATION ARE GOOD. Whatever your first effort was, it did not have enough dynamics, variation, or balance, do it again at least twice.
6. Make an investment. Yes, you can download an amazing free program with lots of cool effects. Keep in mind that you usually get what you pay for, just as with anything else in life. The more time and money you put into your music, the better it will be. If you want to save money, learn to build things yourself, find good deals, and beg, borrow, or steal whatever you need to accomplish what you need to accomplish. But don't assume that a 20-watt combo amp is going to do the same thing as a 600-watt power amp, or that the effect that came with your free audio program is the same as having a real pedal.
7. Develop a social network. If you exist in a vacuum, you will never have any idea if what you are doing or where you are going. Meet other people who are interested in the same kinds of music. Go to shows, and if they don't happen in your area, put them on yourself. When you record something, solicit criticism from people who know what they are talking about. This does not mean the Musician's Lounge. ML is good for a lot of things, but intelligently deconstructing a piece of noise isn't one of them. Get off your ass and make some friends. Without a social network, you will go NOWHERE. With an awesome social network, you will probably succeed even if you suck.
8. Consider what the fuck you are trying to accomplish. There are a lot of things you can do with out of the way styles of music. Some of it is just for the fun of it, and if that's the case a lot of the above advice isn't that important. Maybe you want to record something and have it released. Maybe you want to play shows or tour. Whatever it is, you need to figure it out and try to behave accordingly. If you are trying to tour, then recording something on your computer and putting it on myspace probably isn't the best way to go. If you are just trying to have fun, don't worry too much if everybody hates you.
9. Nobody owes you a damned thing. Everybody hates noise and "out there" music. It's true. Even the very best music from the margins is still marginal. You will certainly not be the best, and nobody is going to pay any attention to you. Any success you have will be the result of a ridiculous amount of hard work. Nobody is going to give you ANYTHING. Be prepared for soul-crushing amounts of apathy on the part of the rest of the world. That doesn't mean that what you're doing isn't worthwhile, it just means that you need to ask yourself who you're doing it for, and rethink what you're trying to accomplish and whether it's realistic.
10. You must find your own way. I don't mean this in some sort of mystical, Eastern sense. I mean nobody can tell you what equipment to buy, what to sound like, or anything else about what specifically you need to do. A significant number of threads ask for advice on what sort of equipment is requisite for experimental music. The answer is: whatever equipment turns out to be useful. The only real answer is that you should probably get a compact mixer. Beyond that, you are on your own. Your style, your equipment, your friends, your everything have to be your own, and you'll probably fail to accomplish the big dreams you have in your head unless you are lucky and incredibly persistent.
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