[Savage Clone]

Oh, and everything feels like "ancient history" when you listen to it after years and years have passed. You know, because you don't live in a vacuum and hopefully you feel improvement and evolution as you live your artistic life. Can you imagine how depressing it would be if it were the other way around? Knowing your best work was all behind you and you would never do anything that great again? I should hope most people would feel they are reaching for new heights, no matter how much they might love things from their past. We all have our "milestone" or favorite works, but I should hope we also try to make a future where we continue to live up to our own standards.

[Rob Instigator]

savage, you ahve just described the plight of artists who enter the art world, make a big splash with their paintings or sculpture, around age 25-30 and then spend the rest of their lives trying to live up to that early success or ideal.
it can be terrible.
I am aiming for success and riches and wealth (moderate) at age 40-45, while having spent my early art career in total obscurity. I have been very succesful at the total obscurity!

the wort world is very fickle, and the music world, with it's hard core fans, can be almost as fickle.

every new record sonic youth has put oiut since sister has been criticized and r4ejected by FANS who then change their minds, after hearing the album more and more.


I think with simple songs, where the draw and the rush come from the energy of the performance and the energy and vibe of the players (Ramones songs, the stooges, minor threat etc) they sound better without too much rehearsal, without too much tweaking and work. just hit record and start rocking.

On complex music, music that depends upon well constructed chord progressions and well played instrumentation, more practice and rehearsal and care when recording is necesary.

[Rob Instigator]

Savage Clone for President.

[Cantankerous]

yes, i am absolutely OCD about making music. if there's one thing wrong with it i will scrap it and if a guitar or vocal take isn't exactly how i want it i will do it over 20 times until it's right. and i listen to really old recordings i made a long time ago (or what feels like forever ago) and they sound so shit to me. even what i'm doing now sounds shit because there is no way to achieve perfection (what "perfection" is in my mind, i don't mean sterility) outside of a studio. it bothers me so much.

[Rob Instigator]

Originally Posted by Cantankerous

yes, i am absolutely OCD about making music. if there's one thing wrong with it i will scrap it and if a guitar or vocal take isn't exactly how i want it i will do it over 20 times until it's right. and i listen to really old recordings i made a long time ago (or what feels like forever ago) and they sound so shit to me. even what i'm doing now sounds shit because there is no way to achieve perfection (what "perfection" is in my mind, i don't mean sterility) outside of a studio. it bothers me so much.

that is how I am with my art after I am finished. I look at it in a week or a month and I feel it is pure shit, or that one little part ruins it all. perfectionism is rough but it makes for constant improvement.

[Cantankerous]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

that is how I am with my art after I am finished. I look at it in a week or a month and I feel it is pure shit, or that one little part ruins it all. perfectionism is rough but it makes for constant improvement.

it's torturous. really, i can't stand it, but i will never half ass anything, it will drive me crazy and eventually i'll have to go back and fix it somehow. this extends to other things too, not just me making music.

[Rob Instigator]

like col'-rippin' on dipshits?

[Cantankerous]

no

this example is really stupid but it's all i can think of right now

if i'm playing a game like super mario and i fall off the edge and die i HAVE to go back and play the same level until i do it right

[Rob Instigator]

me too. too funny.

[Cantankerous]

i watched this show about people with OCD though and i literally had to turn it off; people locking the door and checking 20 times to make sure it was locked and if they touched something with their right hand they had to do it with their left hand. drives me batshit crazy.

[greedrex]

Originally Posted by pbradley

I'm fine with my production because I don't record. If I listened to my music recorded I'm sure I would find it boring as that is only half of the experience. Every idea dies and grows cold when committed to paper (or microphone).

yes however once it leaves yr mind, it's already compromised.

[Death & the Maiden]

Music that I made about a year ago sounds awful to me. At the time, I thought it was pretty good, but now I can see its faults clearly - guitar that sounds like I love Psychocandy too much, a voice that could now be mistaken for a girl's (I also pronounced words differently).

[therealglenstyler]

I can't tell in the interview if he's talking about the songs or the sound in particular but I can sympathise with how agonising re-visiting old stuff can be for sure.

Production wise most people are never likely to have all the opprtunities and support to create a "perfect" sound let alone be so static and consistent in their tastes that revisiting an old recording wouldn't throw up some stuff your contemporary self wouldn't like to sort out or would do differently.

song wise, of course your gonna be a different person from when you wrote something the first time but i think the values and spirit with which you enter into writing a song can be pretty simple ie, to do good, unselfconcious work in honouring your inspiration/idea. personally i reckon if you get that right then you'll be able to look back and at least relate to who you were/what you were trying for at the time, of course that's unlikely to make actually playing it out to others any less of a gigantically toe curling proposition but hey.