There's so many styles of music. Thousands, almost as many as there are religions. That's basically what my music is to me right now. Its my passion, my love, its a lot like a religion. If I drive somewhere, there is always music on. And not just some crap from the radio. I've got my ipod plugged in and I can jam to any of the thousands of songs lucky enough to make it onto a playlist. I appreciate each song on my pod for a different reason. They all absorb into my psyche and some of them even make it into my own songs.
Yeh, thats right. I rip off the music I listen to all the time. Rarely am I conscious of it at first, but as I go along, adding parts, modifying riffs, layering melodies, I almost always begin to realize that I have stolen ideas or borrowed sounds. But never without my own twist! To swipe a riff without making it your own would be blasphemy, but to re-envision, fusing genres and creating your own is to be great.
Recently, I ripped off Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks" and fused it with a bit from Gojira's "Ocean Planet." I had no idea at the time, but after playing ti over a few times I realized what I had done; bluegrass meets death metal. Not necessarily the first song I've done like this, but this one is certainly the most refined example to date.
While working on my Creative Writing Manifesto tonight, I noticed a passage in my textbook about "the zone." Right, like when an athlete say "I'm in the zone" after getting a touchdown, or a basket, or whatever the hell since I really don't care about sports. Its the same for a writer and for a music head such as myself. Yesterday around noon I began working on this unique instrumental bluegrass-death metal song, and before I knew it, 14 hours had passed. It was 2 a.m. and the days event had completely passed me by. Yes I had eaten dinner, and yes I had even found time for a work out, but all these activities were done in a zombie-like state. I was there, but I wasn't really there. In my head I was writing riffs, rearranging older ones, and silently listening to the whole song on a loop.
Unlike other lesser artists, however, I'm not just going to publish the "its not done yet, but I just had to get it out of my head so here it is tell me what you think"-version. I won't apologize for this; I look down on people who call themselves musicians and don't put all their effort into everything that they do musically. They'd rather give 50% of their effort now and wait for when they're in a band or when people are around to watch to give it there all. When I write a song I dedicate myself to it. It becomes a part of me and often times I can't play or listen to anything else until every aspect of it is complete. I wont publish a song in any version until it is a version that I have spent a lot of time perfecting to a finished form. By doing this, I can make good songs that are original and make me proud. After all, shouldn't being proud of my work be all that matters? Making music that has heart and a piece of me in it is what I live for.
Like the many great artists before me, I won't stop despite being beat down. I'll always look for ways to improve myself and make my music better. The more I like my music the more others will. That is my philosophy; or at least one part of it.Musical
