How do you explain this habit to friends?

How to explain this habits ?

Funny, that’s exactly what I’ve asked myself this monday morning when coworker asked me about how I spent my weekend ; all I could pictured was myself crafting some FM-wooooish sounds for hours.

Pretty hard to explain to people who arent related to music production, either acoustic or electronic, without looking as a weird weekend-junky.

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My family and friends think the music I make (trip hop/downtempo) is sh*t, and aren’t afraid to lovingly tell me!

I don’t really talk about it unless I am specifically asked…but I don’t care man. Hanging out with my friends is a good way not to think about music. Guess I’m quite obsessive with it!

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Don’t bother, most don’t understand and those that do won’t need it explaining anyway.

I think there is a certain amount of misunderstanding about electronic music in general with most people, the general consensus seems to be that you either just use a computer with all pre made sounds or you are a DJ :laughing:

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I don’t. It would be completely and utterly pointless. I don’t actively hide it from anyone, but when it has come up in the past, all it’s ever gotten me is blank stares.

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hehe ) this happened to me in my early 20s.

i started with hard rock when i was about 10, attended various kinds of metal in my earlier teen age, went through punk/hardcore phase from 14 to 17, switched to all kinds of goth/EBM/industrial (because punk is an excellent way of thinking, but nowhere near that interesting musically) … and in mid 90s found myself really enjoying 4/4 beats with screaming 303 lines.

i happily fell into that — but my friends were obviously unhappy about me :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: for them it meant stopping being true.

how did i explain it to them? „let’s smoke some pot and listen“. i believe it’s the only way to reveal totally different music paradigm.

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When I (46) try to explain my hobby, I often make the comparison with our (grand)fathers who glued miniature fighterplanes in their hobby room or who designed a miniature railroad track in the attic.

For me, making electronic music is just a modern version of that. Taking time for yourself, create room to zone out and occasionally do shit your proud of and show to your spouse or a visiting friend. It’s a hobby. And a great one, but my music isn’t some higher form of art. It is the result of spending time doing things I really like.

Friends are not really interested (with most of them I already share a great passion for the football squad we support. That’s our bond).

Must say: since I’m noodling with video to go with my music, they sometimes are a little more interested. That’s cool, but it is not what it’s about for me.

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So true. What saddens me the most are the people who play traditional instruments who, prob out of ignorance, think that it’s somehow fraudulent not to use a ‘proper’ instrument. The number of times I’ve had “oh you just push some buttons” or “well, the box does it all for you”. I could rustle up a half decent line on a bass in 10 mins and somehow that’s more musically impressive than playing them a 3.00min track with what passes for a ‘traditional’ structure is Basslines, drums, keys etc. Something that’s takes weeks from start to finish. Sadly there’s deffo a lot of snobbery involved I think.

Btw it’s not universal. The guitarist I used to play with in the last few bands loved electronic stuff… went to see JMJ with him and he got me the ticket👍

Oxygene redone on classic hardware synths at the Royal Albert Hall. What a concert but that’s another story!

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Yup, seems like some “muso” types feel threatened by it so don’t even try to understand it, really weird.

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traditional instrument background does not prevent rigid thinking in any way.

for instance, many of my drummer friends strongly dislike finger drumming. why? because it’s improper.

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I barely talk about my gear habit and my music (I don’t like the pressure of being commited of showing something - because I’ve not finished one track in my studio worth a little fortune 🥸). So I’ll keep practicing, watch tutorials, read about other people’s music related problems in this forum. And since I just started with making music (being a notoriously untalented musician), I give myself at least 6 more years for becoming proficient in what I do – or even know where this journey takes me.

Before making music I did VJing / created video clips – this was also a very lonely hobby. Everybody likes when it’s there but only very few really appreciated the art and before all work and needed dedication behind it. I guess it’s too nerdy to understand for the casuals… and too weird for the rest.

I think though such hobbys keep us young in the head. It’s definitely better than having no hobbies at all or even worse watching TV all the time instead of having such a passion as we do for creating something instead of only consouming.

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Lol…I spent my spare free weekend time to figure out how to program that EC4 controller for controlling my AS-1 and drooled over that French 6-OP FM monster. See…pure Techn3rd babbling, that no one except you guys here could understand.

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When I was like 10 (1980) I really enjoyed drumming around with this Wersi CX5 that my father bought for his home organ. Of course I got the looks and lecture from my „Papa“ „That’s not music!“

He basically destroyed my Techno career with that. Took me another 15 years to discover that other ppl. were just like me and actually made a whole new music genre out of my „That’s not music!“-experiments.

Burn in hell, „Papa“.

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ugh. when i was 10 (1985), Soviet Union did not start to fall yet, so i’m even afraid to think about „instruments“ accessible to mere mortals :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

so we enjoyed the music that was forbidden just a couple of years ago, but eventually became less forbidden :smile:

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Intervention?

All of my friends are musicians (well, the only one who isn’t wrote about music for almost 20 years), mostly hobbyists like me. Sometimes we talk about music but usually we don’t. I do realise it’s awesome that in addition to Elektronauts I can talk to someone about “wasting” several hours to get some minute detail down in a track that maybe ten people will ever hear.

The people I get blank stares from are people at work and some relatives. I really don’t actively advertise my hobby or try to explain it to anyone. If someone asks about it, I usually try to downplay it: “Yeah, I sometimes write songs for my own amusement”. Maybe next time someone at work or at a family party asks about it, I’ll approach it differently: “I’M COMPLETELY FUCKING OBSESSED WITH WRITING MUSIC, WHAT DO YOU WANNA KNOW?!” :smiley:

I don’t expect people to understand why I do what I do. I can’t really explain that to myself, nor have I ever really thought about it consciously. I just do it. I’ve written songs since I was about 14, and I’m 37 now. I don’t know any other way.

I’ve only started sharing jams and half-finished tracks in the past couple of years. (I did release some demos and two albums in the early 00’s.) I never really enjoyed that part until recently. I’ve learned to distance myself from my music, in a way. I’ve learned to listen to feedback, both positive and negative (if it’s somehow constructive). I think it’s made me a better musician. So I definitely encourage everyone to share their music. :slight_smile:

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I’m the only one to appreciate and play electronic music among my friends, my family and my job collegues.
In my family I have nothing to explain: my wife and my 1,5 yo son do appreciate my hobby (specially my son :slightly_smiling_face:).
My friends simply don’t care. We are old enough to don’t care about music as something to identifie with. I may love to listen bird’s calls and for my friends it would be the same.
My musical hobby is totally ununderstandable for my job mates. We live in two parallel dimensions. They can’t understand what is my gear and how it works. It’s witchcraft!
This forum is the main space where I share my noise online… because it’s special and you are all very kind and stimulating people :slightly_smiling_face:

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Same thing for me but without football … :upside_down_face:
I’m exaggerating because in fact a childhood friend lives surrounded by synths and two friends also make sound, but we don’t really share much around that, each our little attic train. For my other friends, I think some music they listen to should send them to jail.

That’s what’s great here, there aren’t those empty looks that talk about so well @ Hans_Olo, while obviously there are plenty of very different “musical profiles”.

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The people who started making techno and house in the 1980s and 1990s are in their 50s now. For example the British techno producer Surgeon just turned 50. Jeff Mills is 57. So you’re definitely not alone!

Electronic music is still a niche hobby and a niche taste. Most people have no understanding of it, and maybe don’t realize how much the pop music of today owes to electronic music.

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I imagine if your friend told you they spend their free time doing abstract recreations of famous pointillism using found objects, you’d be like “oh. Okay”

Hobbies, real hobbies, seem “weird” to just about everyone. I don’t expect to bond with anyone about my interests. Being an American interested in soccer even gets me strange looks, even when I offer to take my neighbor to a game some time (where he can drink and get away from his toddler).

F boring people in their boring life patterns.

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It’s weird how Corvettes look better as I get older… even the C4s

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