Musicians, painters, sculptors, graphic designers, writers, encoders, and artsy-types of all kinds:
Everyone has influences, consciously or unconsciously. Articles that made us suddenly see the world in a whole different light, Pieces of art or pieces of music that moved us so deeply that we said "I want to do that."
I want to know what those pivotal moments are for you. They can be from any time in your life, even yesterday or today. And while I made this in particular for artsy-types, I leave this open to anyone who has been inspired to go in a certain direction in their lives because of pivotal moments
There are too many works across too many genres to generate a list. What I notice though, is that they all have one thing in common, which is that they all made me question my ideas about reality and how language and sound has an influence on the perception of reality. One idea that really changed the way I thought about writing poetry was the understanding that a blank page is a universe to be populated by the imagination, skill and style of the creator. The universe becomes real when someone else perceives it and finishes populating the universe with their imagination and perceptions, which are influenced by all the life they've lived until encountering the poem. So, the reader supplies the light, which is why a poem needs to be crafted, much like a gem needs to be cut. A well-cut gem will catch the light in a number of ways that the rough stone can't, even if they're elementally the same thing. A well-crafted poem will catch the attention of a reader in much the same way, hopefully inciting the reader to explore all the facets and admire the craftsmanship. Some people though, just like shiny stuff and can't tell the difference between a diamond and crumpled up aluminum foil. Learning that was pretty pivotal too.
very well said. thank you for your contribution.
I had been playing double bass for a year and a half when I was asked to play in the local community orchestra. It was with this ensemble, in maybe the second concert that i played with them, that I had this pivotal moment in my career as a musician. This piece landed on my stand. Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. Not only had I never heard the piece before, but I'd never even heard of the composer. Boy, was I in for it. To put a bit of context into this, I have to put my musical life into context: I started playing the bass at 19, and before playing the double bass I'd never played a stringed instrument in my life- the closest being electric bass, which while being tuned the same is NOT the same (as I soon learned). I had played wind instruments in concert band for years, but I went to a STEM high school and we never played anything of any real depth. So here I am, in WAY over my head. I don't even know where to start learning this part. I'm being taught by a violist, not a bassist, so in a lot of ways I'm pretty much on my own. It was an uphill battle the whole way, and, while I have no memory of the concert itself, I'm pretty I shat all over the part (thankfully there were two other bassists in the section to cover me). The end result was, however, that I was hooked. The feeling I got from being a part of something so much bigger than myself was so intoxicating - I NEEDED to do this for the rest of my life. and here I am, working on a master's degree in classical music performance right now.
oh boy, the difference between upright and electric is HUGE. i remember when i was in 9th grade and i had to start playing upright for the orchestra. I'd been playing electric for three years and was like "yeah, it's only intermediate orchestra, i'm sure i've got this." man, i did not got that. i didn't even know how to use a bow.
ho man, did 9th grade you and 19 year old me ever have something in common.man, i did not got that. i didn't even know how to use a bow.
I wrote a bit about this here, but in short: A friends older brother introduced me to distortion via the song Revolution by the Beatles and it made me want to discover more about distortion and the Beatles. Both would have profound impacts on my life. Later, after learning how to play the guitar and various other instruments I started writing songs. When I was younger I would write voraciously but the songs never really satisfied me. They all seemed too "safe." Then I saw a documentary about the making of one of my favorite albums Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco*, the documentary is called I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, (below is a bit of it) and it changed me as an artist. In particular one line completely changed the way I approached writing and making music in general. At one point Jeff Tweedy, the chief song writer in the band says that their songs are theirs to "destroy." That simple sentence was the most liberating thing I had ever heard. I was able to cut an invisible string in my mind that had attached my creativity to a perceived audience. I began writing songs because I had to for me and not because I wanted to please someone/anyone. I could experiment with the recordings of these songs as much as I wanted. I could try new things and if I wanted to "destroy" a pretty little song I wrote, then dammit.... I would. The art was mine and only I determined its worth. It's amazing what a simple little line in a documentary can do. If you've not seen the documentary before, check it out. It's fantastic.
I can feel the resonations, so good.I could experiment with the recordings of these songs as much as I wanted. I could try new things and if I wanted to "destroy" a pretty little song I wrote, then dammit.... I would.
I have always been leery of calling myself a writer. I doubt I will ever publish anything, and nor do I really want to. But I will always write. For me, my inspiration has always come from great writing. Every time I read something that changed my perspective or made me feel emotion I wanted to create something that would do the same for someone else.
If you write, then you are a writer. Your attitude seems to reflect that. Would you mind providing an example of something that you consider to be great writing? I'm interested in what your inspiration is.
One thing that's really engaging me at the moment are musicians who break the mould in an almost sneaky fashion. As in, they lead you to think you're going to get the same old and them completed switch it up and just flip your whole perspective. In the real underground of Drum & Bass right now there's people challenging what rhythms are really possible. Pushing and pulling what can be consider Drum & Bass but still way out there, it's great. Most people know the standard Amen Break pattern that is used continuously in the genre and they think that's all there is, but listen to something like this: https://soundcloud.com/diffrent/tech9 or https://soundcloud.com/straydnb/stray-halogenix-poison-warm0... I love how those crazy rhythms just burst out of nowhere. I strive for true uniqueness in my output so these types of things are really inspiring. Of course, I could talk for pages on my many other areas of influences, but this is just one at the present moment.
Honestly just out of ignorance, as I follow quite a bit of electronic music, but many genres just contain endless rabbit holes that need constant tending to to really understand their trajectories, it sounds like faster garage, and is there really a distinction? I mean, like you said, DnB has been mostly based off the Amen sample, and I do really like the tracks you posted a lot, but is this really DnB? It more so just seems like a conglomeration of a lot of things at once.
Well, I think that all genres of music like to take characteristics from each other and I think it's best when they do. Drum & Bass is an interesting one because the genre is not defined by elements that necessarily have to take the forefront, but by the ones which act as the foundations of the track. The importance of this is that you can make a track with any sort of stylistic influences you want, as long as you have the beat and bass in the Drum & Bass mould. Originally, this was chopped up breakbeats such as the famous Amen break we've mentioned, but a plethora of others were sampled from funk and jazz records. However, back at the end of the 2000s we saw the producer dBrdige (a veteran and legend of the scene) and the duo Instra:mental bring about the 'Autonomic' movement. This was a label, club night and podcast that aimed to realign what Drum & Bass could be thought of. The genre has tendency to copy itself and gets itself into ruts so this movement saw producers flocking to outside influences and bring them back. It was a lot more bare-bones and carefully considered, allowing the music to breath and absorb the other styles. Electro, Techno, 80s, Ambient, Garage and many more were being enveloped in the Drum & Bass mould. A lot of it was actually halftime, so it didn't even resemble the speed that many consider a must. It showed drum & Bass had a lot potential for expansion and could be perhaps more open to interpretation than previously thought. I saw this nice summary of it: "Autonomic is music first, Drum & Bass second. " Examples: You can see how far away this is from what most people to think of as Drum & Bass, yet it is still considered so. You can even see hints of the tracks I left in my original post. Artists are now much more aware of the possibility of pushing and pulling the sound whilst still remaining within its ever broadening confines. And, of course, sometimes Drum & Bass may sound like faster garage, but bother genres evolved from Breakbeat Hardcore back in early 90s so they're always going to share stylistic similarities. In fact, if you speed up the standard garage beat you pretty much get the standard Drum & Bass beat. The beauty of music, and art in general, is artists can always borrow, steal and recycle everyones previous efforts and turn it into something totally unique. The opportunity just seems to be rarely taken, or sometimes even frowned upon.
Hey rezzeJ, you seem to know a lot about Drum & Bass and those styles of music. What would you recommend to a person who has recently starting listening to stuff like Logistics, Commix, and London Elektricity?
That depends a little on what particular Logistics and London Elektricity bits you are digging, but as you mentioned Commix (who are now defunct) too. I'm going to presume you mean the earlier stuff. That was when Liquid Drum & Bass was last in its prime. Here are my suggestions, sorry about the mass Youtube embeds: The indisputable master of chilled Drum & Bass is the highly regarded Calibre: Naibu is absolutely brilliant composer: This Well Being track is all time favourite of mine: Bachelors of Science Lenzman always brings the good vibes: Technicolour & Komatic (Now known as Technimatic) I'm going to start going a bit deeper now. Nuage Oak Synkro Seba Eveson I hope you find something here you like and I hope I judged your tastes right. :)
Awesome, thank you so much! I'm going to have to start delving into some of this music. You've certainly given me a lot to chew on. I've actually heard of Lenzman before!
This is great! Thank you so much, I'm definitely going to dig deeper into the Autonomic stuff!
Peter Saville had a big influence on me. I loved the music of New Order and Joy Division, but each album was a work of art that wasn't a shortcut to the ego of the band. It is respectful.
It's constantly shifting and over the past year-ish has shifted drastically. There are multiple facets to the music I make, so it will be segregated. I play guitar and have recently started singing. When I first started playing guitar five years ago I was entirely about classic rock, stuff like Pink Floyd and The Allman Brothers were what I liked a lot. My playing was also styled after John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Everything has since moved on past those artists though. In terms of who influences me, I have recently been immensely influenced by music such as Girls, Pavement, and Kurt Vile. I've recently written a lot of lyrics that I'm working on putting to music, now I just need equipment to record it with. However, if I'm just screwing around on my acoustic guitar I almost inevitably end up ripping off Waxahatchee or something else like that. I also make electronic, chiptune music. I've very influenced by noise music, industrial music, Krautrock, and by fellow chiptune musicians such as Zen Albatross. I currently have 3.5 songs done on an LP that's hopefully going to be out in the Summer, one of which is from the EP I released in November.
Was there a first record you listened to, or a show you went to that lead you to this drastic change in the past year? or is it the sort of thing that's impossible to pin down?
Oh jeez. I've been a huge Pavement fan for a couple of years now, ever since first hearing Gold Soundz. From there I kind of progressed down the lo-fi tunnel, discovering other bands such as Galaxie 500, Dinosaur Jr., The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Black Tambourine, and shoegaze bands like Slowdive, Amusement Parks on Fire, etc. The DIY culture of the early stuff is wonderful, and I love the fuzzed out guitar playing that goes through a simple-ish melody and chord progression. There's something so lackadaisically poetic about it, and it's really what drives me a lot of the time I'm playing music. I have a roommate that is more or less obsessed with Burger Records, which puts out an insane amount of great west coast garage punk and lo-fi music. I've since been exposed to tons of bands like Cosmonauts and Natural Child that I also love. But I'm much influenced by the slightly more refined and subtly somber bands that draw from dream pop and have a "hazy" quality to them. It's music that you can easily get lost in and removed from your surroundings in. The recent stuff has developed into something more meandering, or more aggressive depending on whether your own the Kurt Vile or Thee Oh Sees side of the fence (I'm on both, personally). My delve into that aspect of music probably started with Pavement, as mentioned earlier, and also with the first time that I heard Ariel Pink. From there, working in a radio station allows exposure to a ton of other artists in similar genres. I'm just going to stop there before this turns into something that people will need diagrams for. But I could go on for a long time about it. As for it being the past year, it really accelerated with my increased involvement with the music scene here and an uptake in the amount of music I listen to on a regular basis.