Thinking About Music

The intro part

I love music. Music is one of the biggest passions in my life, if you weren’t aware already. I’ve been making playing music my whole life, involved in the technical side of music production since I was 16, and have been bopping my head to tunes since before I was born, I’m pretty sure. I think it’s one of the most beautiful forms of artistic expression in so many different ways.

A large part of the “something” whenever, will be musical content. I’ve already written down 90 different ideas, album reviews, specific thoughts, or other pieces of content I’m hoping to put up here soon. I think it’s important to set a few ground rules first before I begin talking about it. One of the things I hate most is being misunderstood, and one of the easiest things for me to do, is communicate in a way where it seems I’m the only person that knows what I’m trying to say.

Let’s take a second to just hash out a few things about how I view music, and then we can get into the meat and potatoes.

Guidelines to how I talk about music

There are a few big key ideas that I personally hold pretty close to core concepts for me. As with anything artistic, there’s so much left to personal opinion. As with anything subjective, there’s so much critique around that topic. As with anything that’s critiqued, there’s disagreement. We run into the classic ‘Roger and Ebert’ problem. Roger and Ebert only like the movies that Roger and Ebert like. That’s it.

There is no barometer by which we can even come close to objectively measuring music. All art reflects aspects of ourselves back to us. It’s like the phrase, “You can only meet someone as deeply as they’ve met themselves.” We can only experience music to the depth that we’ll resonate with it. Of course there’s nuance to any statement that generalized.

1. I hate your favorite band and you hate mine.

It should go without saying that we each have our own specific music tastes. Sure, some people’s overlaps, and I hope to be able to show you some music that you’ll enjoy, but at the end of the day we have different subjective weighting on what moves us. I am never going to be speaking objectively in terms of the ‘best’ band, or the ‘best’ anything.

The opinions reflected here are my own, not the general audience’s.
I’m not telling you how you should feel.

2. Never say never

I firmly believe that your relation to music is largely influenced by personality, lived experience, delivery, and current situation. I’ve listened to a lot of music that I just didn’t like. Some of it has been music I LOVE right now, music I listen to daily, but the first time I heard it I thought it sucks. I think there’s a mood, a time, a moment, an experience you have to have first, some piece of context that needs to exist in some way for you to grab certain pieces. I know that seems obvious, but it’s worth expressing.

There’s a lot of music I don’t like. I hope you’ll remember that that statement has a ghost element to it.

There’s a lot of music I don’t like. (yet)

Because of that, I really won’t be talking about pieces I don’t enjoy. I don’t find that to be something with any value to share.

3. We all have our style preferences, and I have a heavy style bias

I lean very much towards music that has fewer backing elements, is less production-oriented, has fewer effects on it, and could be replicated with 100% accuracy live in person without the use of a backing track, or software arrangement. THAT BEING SAID there’s so much music in that genre I love, and it’s a genre I still adore.

“I don’t like it” is not a bad phrase. I don’t like a lot of music that’s objectively good. (I hate the Beatles records.)

Let’s all just remember that I’m talking about opinion here.

4. I listen to the song, the record, and the performance

This might seem confusing at first, but it’s an important note because it’s just what I’m trained to do.

When I talk about a ‘record’ I’m talking about the actual recording you listen to, and everything that goes into it.

When I talk about a ‘song’ I’m talking about the notes + the melody, as a concept, unperformed.

When I talk about a ‘performance’ I’m talking about the unmodified, unprocessed, performance given by the artist.

It’s important for me to separate these things out because they’re very different elements. Each one can fuck up the others, or improve the others.

While I will try my best to always use the correct term, I am going to inevitably screw it up. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to determine through context clues which I mean.

If not, shoot me an email [email protected] and let me know I fucked up on my word accuracy and I’ll be thrilled to go back and clean things up. (Thank you for editing for me for free.)

5. I’m a little dramatic about things sometimes

One of the things I love about being involved in the production side of music is that I have such a unique role to play in the process of creating this art. I get to help the artist make their song the BEST it can be, and make it as close to what they see in their mind’s eye as possible.

One bad habit I have is tending to say something “ruins” a song. I get a little overboard when I feel like there is a gross disservice being done to the artist’s work that is painfully obvious or easy to correct. I hate the idea of an artist having an idea in their head, but never making the song because they don’t know how, or they don’t think anyone would want to hear it.

The #1 goal you NEED to have when working with an artist is to help them make their songs a reality, and lend suggestions and expertise where appropriate. You’re a tool for their project just as much as you’re fundamental in creating art through your work. You are a sentient paintbrush that must simultaneously respect the artist holding you, and also respect each of the fibers you’re in charge of bending to paint the picture.

I really do not like when a song works against itself in a way that I feel is obviously holding it back. But again, even that is a matter of personal preference and perspective. It’s very plausible I’m alone in my feelings on that, and that’s okay.

6. If you don’t fuck with it, don’t fuck with it

I don’t like metal music. It’s just not my thing. I’m the last person that should be offering criticism about it, advice on making it, let alone producing it for an artist.

If you don’t LIKE the music you’re listening to, don’t let your personal opinion from enjoying that. As we’ve discussed, I don’t like the Beatles. I’m not going to get into that. I’m not here to shit on anything, anyone, anybody.

7. Approaching from a helpful angle

Even for content I don’t enjoy, some of it has a specific reason why. In those cases, there’s a clear and obvious personal difference that I might explore further. This isn’t to pester the artist for doing it their way, not laud my way as ‘better,’ but merely to highlight artistic differences, style, behavior, and offer another viewpoint.

Here’s a list of examples of articles I might write about records I don’t like to listen to:

1. “I want to Re-Record: (What makes The Beatles song ‘I want to hold your hand’ so good, and how different people have covered it.)”
2. “I will always love you: What Whitney brought to the song Dolly didn’t, what Dolly brought that Whitney left out.”
3. “Song Covers that capture the original in a powerful new way”

8. Life is boring if we all have the same taste

We’re not here to shit on music, artists, or people’s tastes. We’re here to explore music and have fun finding the differences that make us unique. Imagine if we shared the same tastes. The 1 best restaurant on the planet would always be sold out. People would have to tell their co-workers that nobody will like their music, because it would be true. You’d know the second you made something that you sucked instead of being able to enjoy your own expressions.

9. We don’t judge

Believe it or not, I’ve never met most of the people whose art I will be discussing. I don’t know if they’re happy with how the record turned out. I don’t know if they’re happy with how the engineer mixed it, or how the producer put things together.

We just assume that they were and that they are okay with the end product. Sometimes we forget there are a lot of other factors that go into things. Maybe they ran out of time or money for that project and just had to make a decision. Maybe the one week they could record they had vocal challenges due to sickness or they just weren’t comfortable enough with the producer.

Maybe everything went perfectly and they’re thrilled. We don’t know.

I am never trying to shit on what someone is happy with. If they put a song together a certain way, and it’s 100% all they could hope for, that’s what the song needs to be. Regardless of what I think makes it better, improves it, or switches it up, the song needs to be THEIRS. I highly value authenticity in artistry. I could listen to a song I love, and if I saw an interview where the artist was unhappy with it, and felt like it wasn’t something they enjoyed, I would like it a lot less.

I’m here to listen to their art, their music, not mine. I write my own shit, I get that to sound as close to how I want it as I can, that’s what I’m in control of. I want to hear through the song, record, and performance, what they want me to hear. If they do that, and I just don’t like it, I hope I find the context and pieces I need to come back later and connect with it.

10. Let it get to you

There’s a very small selection of music that can penetrate deep into your soul when you are trying to stop it from doing so. I’ve shown up late to a lot of good music just because I wasn’t open to the idea of letting it try and tell me its story. Every song has a reason why it was written. I try to explore songs that I have a connection with, that grab me, or that I enjoy, and I try and share what I connect with about it.

If you start reading and listening, and you’re just not vibing, maybe step away and come back later. I would hate for you to try and see something from my point of view, which is already a very generous thing to do with your time, and for you to come out feeling like you didn’t get anything from the experience. Some pieces I’ll talk write about just aren’t for everyone (yet) and realizing that is totally fine.

Logistics of following along

I’ll always include a link or embedded player to the work I’m referencing so you can listen to it on the page. I try to get all my links through bandcamp, both because the player is the best, and because it takes about 250 streams before the artist makes $0.50 but 1 song purchase before they make that. Purchasing music is still the most lucrative way to support an artist, and I’d highly recommend you participate in it for artists you enjoy deeply.

Conclusion

Did any of this need to be said? Probably not. You probably got the gist by point 2. This site is nothing if not ’needlessly over-explained,’ which as a fun easter-egg was one of the original ideas for the name of the place. Now you know.

Requests & guest content

Are you dying to know my thoughts on a specific album? Do you have a song or topic you’ve been thinking about non-stop and want to share? Is there an artist that’s just so captivating to you that you’re deciding whether or not you should become their manager because of how much time you already spend doing their marketing?

I would love to fucking hear about that.

I’d love to do a guest author series and take submissions from people about their passions, whether about the musical series or otherwise. Please feel free to send requests or inquiries about writing guest content to [email protected] and I’ll get back to you, whenever.

The outro part

There are so many wonderful things in life, and you’re one of them.
Take some time to say three nice things about yourself.
You deserve it.

Have a beautiful day.