leafcutterjohn.com

Thanks for posting this, this is honestly how I feel every day about everything… I even feel guilty reading about all the different music projects you’re working on (and i’m not working on).

As far as music goes, now that it’s relatively easy for anyone to produce stuff in their homes I think the implications for music will be very interesting as well… I wonder in the future whether kids will understand the payoff of making music. In the past it used to mean something to get signed and have a record out. Now it’s difficult to even make a buck doing it. I really find this to be scary.

Please cheer us up with some music, leafcutter :)

Hi Jimi,

Don’t feel guilty, work on things that interest you and you won’t go far wrong.

I think you are right that are changing massively in music at the moment, but I don’t think it’s all bad news by any means.

I have been making music since i was about 14, in bands with my friends, you know the usual teen things. I am now fast approaching my 34th birthday which will mark 20 years of musical endeavor. In that time the means to produce music at home has certainly become cheaper but don’t think that actually making music has got any easier (for me at least).

When I just had a guitar and a 4-track and a shitty microphone I was as happy with my efforts as I have ever been. In fact as home recording software gets more capable/complicated the choices you have to make grow exponentially and as Barry Schwartz expresses in his video the chances of being satisfied can actually reduce in proportion the the production options you have available.

In my experience it’s always been hard to make money from music, I don’t know many artists or bands that make much money, It always amazes me how famous artists can get and still not make any. It’s not particularly fair but it’s the way things are. One of the good things is that if you are involved in an aspect of non-pop music most of the people you will encounter are in it for the love and not the money.

I believe that the record industry has been in real trouble for at least 10 years. Talk to any label manager and they’ll tell you records sales keep going down and down. This has been the case ever since i entered the business in 2000. At the moment a number of labels are stopping production of physical formats as they can no longer make even break even. This is bad news on a number of levels and makes it much harder for established artists to take risks, and for new artists to emerge and develop with the support of a label.

However new ways of getting your music out there are popping up all the time, and I have noticed no shortage of excellent new music. If all the record labels shriveled up and died overnight there would definitely still be amazing music!

Chin up!

J.

I think that most of my dissatisfied music ego was put in check after I read the following quote by Mira Calix:

“As far as the future of electronics goes: I’m fairly easy to please as long as I can get my hands on a good string sound, muck up my own voice, and sample a couple of pebbles, I’ll be happy (although a 120-piece orchestra and a Cray would be nice).”

I remember drooling over the Tenori-On when it first came out and being quite discouraged with my home set up in comparison. I also pined for every significant software release that had come out for two years.

After I attended a few sound workshops I started to appreciate that with a little creativity you can get a lot out of very little. The Owl Project helped to emphasize this idea with their ethos of limiting yourself to small variables in order to create something that quickly becomes larger, more complex. It’s become fun to see how how many variable can be produced from something as simple as a slow turning of a knob.

And although I would still love a Tenori-On, I’m more excited to get my first Arduinome working, made out of that cheap Bliptronic machine.

Simple is the way to go!

I love the idea that too many choices can be not only unnecessary, but damaging. In a political policy sense, the concept of redistributing wealth to benefit both poor and rich seems really helpful.

Schwartz mentions the paralysis that sometimes occurs in the face of many choices. I thought also of ADD, the flip side of paralysis – instead of choosing nothing, many things are chosen and the chooser flits rapidly between them, unable to settle on one for long.

The potential curse of masterful technique for an artist must also have something to do with this concept. Picasso switching the brush to the left hand to access better creativity. Cage’s chance operations. LeafcutterJohn’s Forester software, etc. – artists making choices that allow escapes from previously developed techniques and formulas. These choices can help the artist transcend by creating a fishbowl of restrictions. (the paradox of restriction)