Dark Musings in Shoctober.
First, Happy Shoctober to you all. Now is the season of the witch. My favourite time of year. The air dries and cripsins a bit and fills with an spooky mystical flux. The energy begins to flow and raise the hair on your arms.
Every great artist has a muse. Yet no one can understand the relationship with mine. I've known her over half my life and there's an odd bond between us. Somewhere in her psyche is the ability to channel the words of the ancient dark forces that are waiting for my coming of age so as I may take my place as the herald of the endarkened. With her help, I tweaked "Darkside" to within 98% of its potential without professional help or funding. The muse is like an oracle that guides me somewhat in this journey. Over the years she's helped me scrub out all the wretched songs I've written. I thank her for that. It was her suggestion that I suspend production on "Consecrate" and "Godless" (which are easier songs) and move on to a more intricate, difficult project called "Killer Tune". It's about a serial killer type child abducting psycho predator that constantly eludes law enforcement. The lyrics are a bit gory and are quite disturbing in a way. Not for the faint of heart. But in the end...the muse feels that it will be a breakaway tune.
You see, my music is guided on an ethereal plane. Forces of the underworld speak through me and to me through the muse. I don't want to sound like some lunatic, but then again, maybe I am. I'm not saying I'm John Edwards...I'm just saying there are times when I amaze myself. Musically, I have no formal training. I can't read or write music. I've had no lessons in musical theory. I simply think of a lyrical rhyme, get a rhythm in my head from the words and then a tune comes to mind in pieces and I glue them together. That's how I write music. That's why I need to go to studios with "naturals" . A "natural" is a musician who can help put my thoughts on tape. They play as I hum the tune I want. Now before I go waste their time and my money... I work out the notes via the "hunt and peck" system and record them somehow or at least practice them. There are times when I feel I'm channeling something through me. Since I can't really PLAY a keyboard, when I sit in front of it and begin going into some sort of trance like state and start playing a tune with wither one or both hands without looking ...it boggles me. I feel like I'm not in my body doing this. Like I'm just in the room somewhere...listening. It's rather creepy in a way. I get my best tunes this way.
How I get my tune ideas come when I'm doing something mundane. The white noise of running water while doing a large load of dishes works best. We joke about how, if I made it big (Y'know...the usual fantasies that come with successes like winning the lottery), I'd have to kick the kitchen staff out after a big party and do the dishes by hand and come up with an entire album! Heh.
Anyway... I'm sure that people go through several muses through life in each phase of the game. When you get one, don't take them for granted.
You see...the key to a successful musing is that you're understood by the muse. A friend is one thing, but a muse is more like a job. There are no relationship ties or anything like that. It's sort of like Mentor to Billy Batson/Shazam. The ...Burgess Meredith type trainer to your Stallone/Rocky. A guide when your head is fucked up with confusion and self doubt. A clear digital voice in a static filled analog cellular world. They also keep it real. They tell you what you need to know, not what you want to hear. Unlike a manager or agent, they aren't really in it for their own gain.
Here's and example. I thought I could do it ALL. Be my own engineer, producer, band, promoter, booking agent, valet, costume designer...etc. And if I had 10 more years...maybe I COULD do all those things slowly. But as it would seem, I needed a slap upside the head to tell me that I need to start creating a court. A "High Council" so to speak. I need, at some soon future point in time, to begin putting together the D'Sari Knights. In english? I need to create an inner circle that can believe in the project and lend a hand to the future of today's music and to the "Epica Project". In the way, I have to find musicians to either join me or at least think in close enough format to how I think, that I may hire them, and the music will not suffer. It's all about the music. Nothing else matters until I reach that goal.
Remember my friend who scolded me in Log 09.30.03? He says that there are starving musicians out there everywhere and I should just HIRE some people to play. The point was, he was implying I hire ANY old schmuck that wants to play for a buck. Well the problem lies in this... I don't want to fight with a musician because we don't see eye to eye on how the music should sound. I don't have time for someone to mess with my program. Remember the story about the DJ who came to listen at the studio and gave me idiotic input that ruined the song? I can't play Epica with some Disco lover ...or a Rap dawg. It has to mesh or it's a mess.
Thanks for reading, anyone who cared to. In the meantime... The season of all hallows is upon us! Dark eve to you!
Posted by at October 1, 2003 12:34 PM