I Make My Music Complex and Then I Kill My Darlings [LIVE STREAM]
We like to make things complex, don’t we? I think it’s because at first, we’re so limited by our novice skills (or lack thereof) that we’re desperate to travel fast and shove a lot in. Babies, we’re crawling at the starting line and finally when our legs are long and strong enough to run we get to burn off all that pent up energy. In our first few years of learning musical instruments, we have no choice but to keep it simple. We only know a couple chords and our fingers can only coordinate to hit a couple keys at the same time. But then….one day an extra finger flickers with movements and our eyes grow big and we’re like “OMG that finger moved and I totally didn’t tell it to! OMG My muscle memory is taking over! OMG my brain just figured out that harmony without me even trying!” The victories of early progress are so sweet. So we run as fast and hard as we can. We want to play with ALL of the sounds, cram them in there. This applies to more than just music making, songwriting, electronic music production. This applies to pretty much all of human life. We get all excited and stuff way too much in our bellies. I think this is a great thing for artists. When you feel free to express yourself, go crazy with it! Run free, run wild. Explore everything. Don’t hold anything back. This message is especially for those of us who have felt blocked, shy, and afraid. When that harness if finally snapped off of you, when your heart breaks out of the cage, then fuck yes!!!! Be boundless in your creations! Spread your wings and get funky with as many sounds as you can pour in your ears. Enjoy the chaos of the unlimited combinations! A time of sophistication, fine tuning, culling and “killing your darlings” aka deleting the good (but not great) bits will soon be upon you! For me, that’s today.
During this live stream on Twitch, I’m listening through a song that’s got way too much going on. It sounds cluttered. I was experimenting with bass guitars, bass drums, bell sounds, sub sub sub sub. I was filling up the song with more body that would make us get lost in it, feel it deeply resonating through our bodies. I’m practicing keeping a more consistent baseline throughout the entire song so it feels like one cohesive piece rather than a bunch of little chunks of random sounds stuck together. I’m learning the balance of going wild creating an epic sound journey and also making sure I don’t lose the plot half way through the song. Essentially, as long as I keep some common threat (in this song it’s a pretty continuous clapping sound) from beginning to end, then I have more room to do whatever crazy thing I want to do with the other instruments and voice. Somebody (the clap) is holding down the fort so it still feels like the same song. So today, I’m hunting for all sounds that don’t fulfill that mission. Clear out the extra sounds that are causing clutter and only keep the ones that are adding delicious texture, steady rhythm and wild sonic adventures. Okay, I’m getting carried away. Time to get to work…I mean PLAY.
(LIVE STREAM) Electronic Music Production in Ableton Live 10
Come chill with me on TWITCH: https://www.twitch.tv/chawilde
I simultaneously went live on @chawilde Instagram.
The song I’m working on today is on my upcoming album. It’s called “Lose Myself in the Song”. I’m sharing the creation process behind this one song to let you in on my world, the vibe of this album that’s about to drop in your lap (probably in 2021), pass on helpful production tips and inspire a little dancer party in your soul. Enjoy!
CHA🍍WILDE