I've plunged into music. I'm full of musical ideas; this is now my default method of artistic expression, and I'm enthused about studying scores, and about becoming a better piano player. The downside is that visual art would perhaps be easier to promote, and that a need to write a book too. Music, at this moment in global culture, is ubiquitous, somewhat underrated as an artform as a result, and extremely difficult (or impossible) to succeed at commercially. There are a thousand other reasons why I shouldn't spent all of my time on music; yet, at this moment, it is my passion.
Still, this month I have some paintings to paint (it's still a little dark and cold for this), and ideally a book to write.
I've written some musical notes for a piece called 'The Light Bulb 1', a series of three poems/texts about a doomed relationship and heartbreak. The subject, and style is utterly uncommercial, and perhaps close (in my mind) to some of Björk's avant-garde works. Still, the words are written and I really should do something with them.
Today, however, I've revisited an early song called 'Written On Rice'. It's a long and complex pop song in the style of The Beatles' 'I Am The Walrus', and was originally going to be part of a broadly anti-Christian EP. Ultimately I only sketched an intro called 'One Dream Is All it Takes' (I've lost this, I think I sketched it in Noise Station 1); and this song. All of this was begun in Nov 2002; 23 years ago.
Today I've revisted the song and have worked solidly on it for 8 hours. I've added new drum, bass, and piano sounds, and re-sequenced (composed, that is) all of those. Back then I used one note for the bass, a super-simple drum pattern that was as good as a loop, and a very basic piano. Now, I make each voice play along with the melody, and interact with each other, so the composition is much more complex. My voice, and my understanding of vocals, is utterly different from 2002 too. This version is that is raised by 5 semitones as a result of this knowledge, and is now in F rather than C.
Those three parts have taken all day so far. This is one problem with charging into music. It all takes me such a long time now. It takes a long time because the work is harder, more complex, more involved.
In 2002, Prometheus couldn't play this tune at full speed, even when dramatically cut down with external pre-renders. This, at least, has changed, although this project is one of my biggest songs in terms of number of tracks and instruments.
The Light Bulb project can, for now, wait too, but I plan on working on many projects at once. I work best when doing that.
