Wednesday 31st January, 2024
Pace yourself Nathan… pace yourself…
A lesson that I never seem to learn, is that of taking my time. Of course, when I released my first string of singles from the first album, I didn’t really know what I was doing. By the time I was due to release the entire album & film, I knew exactly what I was doing wrong. I continued because it was a personal life goal… & I’m glad I did it of course. But now the time has come again to be patient… & I’m not learning my lesson.
These days are spent planning a big return to social media, live music, & releasing new music. When I speak to industry people, with vast experiences of releasing music… they all tell me to think ahead. So it’s looking like I won’t be releasing ANY new music in 2024. At least not for streaming. I will be playing all my new songs live… so at least I’ll be able to show you all this year.
Baked into my personality is showing. I love to show & tell. My best friend’s impression of me is “did you know?“ (in a terrible Dublin twang). I’ve always wanted to tell my dreams to people, or tell them about the weird ideas & facts that I happen upon. I ask them questions that pop up in my own head… the list goes on. So when I make a song, when we produce something in the studio, or when I do any new kind of circus thing… all I want to do is show people. This doesn’t work so well when I’m supposed to be patient & hold on to things for a while. This is why I tend to show some extra things to people over at patreon. There’s not a lot of people there so it doesn’t make a massive difference in the grand scheme of things. (it’s actually free for anyone to see… but few people check it out)
There’s another aspect to this patience, as a creative. When you are making things, you already have a vision of what it will or could be, well in advance of actually making it. One of the most famous issues that creators have is that of the medium. When you take a brilliant idea from your head, you need to format it into words, movement, music, etc… That dilutes & filters the idea. Then that medium has to be taken in by another human & they have to filter it through their own experience & their own senses… that’s gonna dilute the idea once more. By the end of the chain of transmission, your idea is lucky to be understood at all… & that’s if you’re actually good at what you do. Some artists take advantage of this & leverage the process as a way to express, rather than starting with a pre-concieved idea, but that’s a tangent for another day.
Let’s gently glide back to the point…
In my head, I have this almost finished idea of what I want the second album to be about, what I want it to sound like, what I want it to look like. It’s so exciting! I just want everyone to appreciate the amazing ideas & artwork that I have in my head… but I must wait. I need to combine those ideals with the realities of making, with the influences of my collaborators, etc. In my experience, you do tend to end up with a much better project when you enjoy those influences & collaborators. (so it’s good to have a loose grip on your ideals)
My main issue, if there is one here, is that I’m trapped with a creative idea throughout the time of conception to production to demonstration. By the time you hear a song, or see a film… the artist that initiated the idea has lived with that idea for months, if not years. That’s why it’s important for me to have a REALLY good idea that I can explore infinitely. So I can iterate on it while we’re developing the idea. In a way, it’s why collaborators are so great. They keep your initial idea interesting during the time spend making.
So to sum up this week…
I’m an impatient boy, & also a creative genius… (at least in my own head)
Chat to you next week!
Nathan
