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> In September, 2 months in, I was not only trying to make as many songs as possible, under the nagging time pressure of my sabbatical slipping away like sand;

> In September, 2 months in, I was not only trying to make as many songs as possible, under the nagging time pressure of my sabbatical slipping away like sand; I also started working with other musicians. The author focuses a lot on the prolific creation and "boring" routine, which I completely agree with, and I want to steal some of their routine for my own creative time. However I think they're underselling the impact of the time pressure and the collaboration with others that keeps them accountable for actually doing the thing. Also the enormous continuous chunk of free time for this to all happen in. I'll be very interested to know the follow up to: "I now know I can make as many albums as I want without even needing to take time off work."

larve 4y ago
(author here) 100%, the time pressure and collaboration is what made things fall into place. It’s what made me realize that I have to keep at it, rain or sunshine, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to complete what I set out to do. As for the follow-up: I have been very much focused on writing and programming this year, and haven’t felt the itch to make music, but I can feel that I will take it up again soon. However, I have been keeping up my practice time and been reasonably steady at writing my blog and the enormous iceberg of notes underneath. I see the same approach working for me in writing (being prolific, producing a lot of garbage, layering and juxtaposing and experimenting), although I am an absolute amateur and at the beginning of my journey. The point of having copious amounts of free time is interesting. I often wonder about exactly the same follow up as you: what makes this sustainable? I did produce most of my music while having a full time job after coming back from the sabbatical. It felt like having a 1-2h window before breakfast and some longer sessions in the weekend was extremely more effective than spending entire days without a clear focus. Further, once I did get about 20 songs released and « leveled » up technically, I found that the studio time tended to yield more bang for the buck. That could just be a technical thing: I got a bit of gear that made recording my hardware and my mixing so much easier (SSL UC1 and UF8 and a ERM multiclock). One to two hours (not that that’s not a lot of time, but I don’t have children) a day adds up really quickly if you keep a consistent output. I kept a similar rhythm this year for writing and I’m about to pass 800k words written in my vault. That’s about 800k words of garbage, but it’s impressive nonetheless :)
- DavidPiper 4y ago
  Hey, thanks for taking the time to reply. > I have been very much focused on writing and programming this year, and haven’t felt the itch to make music, but I can feel that I will take it up again soon Know that feeling very well! I haven't taken a large chunk of time like that yet, and so my whole process is dribs and drabs. But I'm going to try applying some of the "make it a process" things you talk about even to those times and see what happens. > Further, once I did get about 20 songs released and « leveled » up technically, I found that the studio time tended to yield more bang for the buck. That could just be a technical thing: I got a bit of gear that made recording my hardware and my mixing so much easier (SSL UC1 and UF8 and a ERM multiclock). The right gear has definitely helped me. I'm only up to about 6 originals, and I can feel the technical improvement on my part with each piece still. I do a lot of transcribing though too as a way of practicing with the tools and learning what others do. That being said, I'm still in limbo about whether all that practice is actaully applicable or just a deeper form of artistic procrastination. 100% agree about the 2 hours a day, somehow I'm not finding that at the moment (also no kids), but I think it's mostly due to a renewed focus on reading and a slight balloon in doomscrolling recently which I have to address. 800k words is very impressive, keep it up! No doubt in a few weeks I'll decide to commit to learning to draw well, and the timer resets back to 0 for that new hobby too :)
  - larve 4y ago
    Drawing is so cool because you can listen to podcasts at the same time, it’s a very different kind of activity. Music is all consuming, drawing actually makes it easier for me to process audio information.

larve 4y ago

(author here) 100%, the time pressure and collaboration is what made things fall into place. It’s what made me realize that I have to keep at it, rain or sunshine, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to complete what I set out to do. As for the follow-up: I have been very much focused on writing and programming this year, and haven’t felt the itch to make music, but I can feel that I will take it up again soon. However, I have been keeping up my practice time and been reasonably steady at writing my blog and the enormous iceberg of notes underneath. I see the same approach working for me in writing (being prolific, producing a lot of garbage, layering and juxtaposing and experimenting), although I am an absolute amateur and at the beginning of my journey. The point of having copious amounts of free time is interesting. I often wonder about exactly the same follow up as you: what makes this sustainable? I did produce most of my music while having a full time job after coming back from the sabbatical. It felt like having a 1-2h window before breakfast and some longer sessions in the weekend was extremely more effective than spending entire days without a clear focus. Further, once I did get about 20 songs released and « leveled » up technically, I found that the studio time tended to yield more bang for the buck. That could just be a technical thing: I got a bit of gear that made recording my hardware and my mixing so much easier (SSL UC1 and UF8 and a ERM multiclock). One to two hours (not that that’s not a lot of time, but I don’t have children) a day adds up really quickly if you keep a consistent output. I kept a similar rhythm this year for writing and I’m about to pass 800k words written in my vault. That’s about 800k words of garbage, but it’s impressive nonetheless :)

DavidPiper 4y ago
Hey, thanks for taking the time to reply. > I have been very much focused on writing and programming this year, and haven’t felt the itch to make music, but I can feel that I will take it up again soon Know that feeling very well! I haven't taken a large chunk of time like that yet, and so my whole process is dribs and drabs. But I'm going to try applying some of the "make it a process" things you talk about even to those times and see what happens. > Further, once I did get about 20 songs released and « leveled » up technically, I found that the studio time tended to yield more bang for the buck. That could just be a technical thing: I got a bit of gear that made recording my hardware and my mixing so much easier (SSL UC1 and UF8 and a ERM multiclock). The right gear has definitely helped me. I'm only up to about 6 originals, and I can feel the technical improvement on my part with each piece still. I do a lot of transcribing though too as a way of practicing with the tools and learning what others do. That being said, I'm still in limbo about whether all that practice is actaully applicable or just a deeper form of artistic procrastination. 100% agree about the 2 hours a day, somehow I'm not finding that at the moment (also no kids), but I think it's mostly due to a renewed focus on reading and a slight balloon in doomscrolling recently which I have to address. 800k words is very impressive, keep it up! No doubt in a few weeks I'll decide to commit to learning to draw well, and the timer resets back to 0 for that new hobby too :)
- larve 4y ago
  Drawing is so cool because you can listen to podcasts at the same time, it’s a very different kind of activity. Music is all consuming, drawing actually makes it easier for me to process audio information.