A little bit more topical this one, I've been quite too caught up with physio, general health things and work deadlines to really put some genuine time and focus into my music work as of late.
So, my music sessions have been some brain-fried scrawls, or just whacking down a quick riff idea or loop while I've a few spare minutes, as the aforementioned have rather been "using up my brain cells" as I like to say.
I generally find that to be a useful "bare-minimum" option if I don't have the energy or free time to work properly on something, and it's something I'd suggest to anyone who find themselves in a similar situation often where you really want to have some creative time - but you can't have a proper full session at the moment for time, health, or energy reasons.
Whether it's a quick sketch, writing a few lines, or recording a quick clip of an idea while you have it, it'll mean you have plenty (or in my case, loads) of ideas to come back to build and from later on when you can take the time to.
Of course you could argue, "well you're already sat down with Logic open, why not just continue" but for me especially sometimes I just need to switch off from things completely or, as I've found over the years, if I do continue to work on a track even when I'm not in the right mental/physical state, I just completely butcher the project, or the track will fall flat as I'm not able to put the effort and energy into it that it needs.
This is particularly true if it's a track where I'll need to be recording instruments for it. Myself, and any other recording musician will tell you that recording music is a very mentally intensive process so for me in particular I really need to be in the right physical and mental space to get what I need out of a recording session.
If I'm not up to it but I force myself "to power through it" then mistakes get made, too many takes get taken and I ultimately end up not using anything from that session anyway. It ends being a waste of time and a session, which in a professional studio context where I'd be paying for time, I wouldn't want to do.
I'm well aware this all probably sounds like excuses for not being productive but I was, for a long while, also on the opposite end of this as well.
For a good few years I had been "too productive" and managed to pump out song after song, juggling different projects which, sure, from the outside looks impressive, but I look back on some of this work I was producing around that time and now I hear a bunch of underbaked, badly written tracks all of which could and should have had more time taken on them. See below, for a sample of what I mean.
I think the point I'm trying to make is I'm at this point in my life trying get that balance between keeping those creative gears turning but, at the same time trying to produce quality tracks now as opposed to sheer quantity.
This isn't to flex or brag all, but I think from about 2018 to 2022 I'd written, recorded and produced at least 110-120 tracks, whereas it's been around 33, from 2023 to the time of writing.
Speaking of which, my latest single "Writhing in Wrath" is now available on all platforms, if industrial dance bangers are your thing I would appreciate your time.
It's something I've wrote with this more measured approach in mind, as well as a track I've made since buying The Mix Engineer's Handbook by Bobby Owinski (a pillar of university studies), and it's really reminded me if nothing else of some good, or more professional, habits I've needed to pick back up in the 7 or so years since leaving the academic world.
I'll elabroate on that in a later post, since it's not quite on the topic of this one.
Anyway, this one turned into a bit of a ramble and a rant, but hopefully the message of "do what's manageable, as much or as little as that is", came across...
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