Nightreign has used up all my electro juice.
Have a break, don’t feel bad about it. Something will bring the spark back I’m sure.
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Thanks, friend. I really need to stop drinking in the evenings too which has become pretty much a daily routine since moving here. That really kills any impetus to get my head down and focus on making music.
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I have been struggling with this for a few months now. Normally in summer, writing music takes a back seat to getting out on my motorbike. But I’ve not done much of that either.
So what I’ve been trying lately, is to try things I’ve not done before. Rather than trying to make a new track as such, I’ve been doing deep dives into Ableton Live effects and instruments, playing around with polymeters and polyrhythms, working out how to use my Ableton Move more (usb sampling last night) that kind of stuff.
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I think that’s always a good thing to do when you’re in a rut. You might find yourself all of a sudden making music with these new techniques! Another way to spend the time if you want to keep working on your music but aren’t inspired is to to busy work like sorting samples, building kits, organizing project files etc. Or you go out and record some field sounds, or listen to podcasts etc. thinking about what could make a nice speech sample.
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That’s a great advice
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I had some thoughts on this the other day.
I’m sure it’s a familiar pattern: I get a million music ideas and then it morphs into a sort of problem solving exercise and I get a massive kick out of turning that single nugget of an idea into reality. Then I’m bored to fuck.
In contrast, in my spare time I do a fair bit of audio-related coding (Max/JS, OSC/JS etc.) and frankly spend a fucking ridiculous amount of time and mental energy on a project idea and my enthusiasm and perseverance is a hundred time more than the enthusiasm and perseverance I have to turn tiny music ideas into something that resembles “finished”. If only I could apply that same energy to music making…
I know I have a real deep problem-solving mentality and I know I often do coding projects because it accelerates my learning to have a project goal to solve - it fires me up creatively…
I keep thinking what if I could somehow turn development of musical ideas into a problem solving project but so far I’ve not been able to make that mental contortion (and I’m also not sure it would even be successful).
Something that did occur to me is that when I’m doing any intense coding I have to work almost in near silence. The sound of someone talking in the next room is enough to disrupt my concentration. That got me thinking: I wonder whether making music is a double-edge sword: I’m full of creative urges to make music but once I start the process I very quickly get bored and lose concentration. Maybe the sound of the music begins to disrupt my ability to mentally process it in order to develop the initial idea.
It’s a half-baked theory. Much like all my music ideas. 
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Maybe try programming a tracker or sequencer with the sound turned off and later solve the problem of making a track out of that mess 
?
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This is me. 
Except I find myself 100% problem solving (organising, kits, samples and presets, or turning some youtube-discovered technique into a well-documented process) and think it will solve my lack of creativity … but it rarely does.
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I just reshared this in the NGNY as there was a very apt section.
there’s another section which seems totally applicable here and hopefully it provides a bit of solice for you.
Work hard…but not too hard
When I first started making electronic music it was fun, and massively better than almost anything else. I found playing around with synthesizers easy, enjoyable and mesmerizing. It was almost meditative. But as I pursued a career in electronic music production, I have unfortunately come to the conclusion that making music is actually very hard work; it is difficult, frustrating, exhausting, time consuming and definitely not fun!
For me there is a fun side to it: for example, I still enjoy messing around on a synthesizer or building max patches, and I can easily spend the whole night doing this. But this pleasurable side is almost totally outweighed by the difficulty of actually making work. My advice is this: face up to the fact that music making is mentally and physically demanding; it’s hard, not fun, and probably unhealthy. Because of this I recommend taking lots of breaks, doing housework, walking to the shops, eating good food and so on. Also, I find that it helps if I listen at a relatively quiet level, and to listen carefully. Your ears, like anything else, get tired if you use them too much.
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I started about four years ago and in the beginning, everything was overwhelming. So I just took what worked and that was really liberating, I just couldn’t do it better. But as time moved on, programming synths and sequencing became kind of easy. Lack of music theory is holding me back, I think. But that’s super boring for me to learn. Like there’s no fiddling around until it works because there is no right or wrong in the end. I don’t have any technical excuses if something doesn’t work out.
It’s either back to the roots, make some simple stuff, play around or challenge yourself. Put yourself in a situation where you will fail 100% of the time. That will stop you from overthinking because you just can’t do it better at the moment.
And maybe there’s just too much going on in your life at the moment. There’s no capacity for creativity. For creativity to happen, you need boredom and boredom won’t occur if your brain is occupied by problems all the time.
Take the time to recharge.
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Late to this chat, but yes. Me. All year.
I put it down to being forced to change jobs and then adjusting to new schedules and life rhythms. But maybe it’s deeper: it’s gone on much longer than the transition period (whatever that might mean 
).
In the past couple of weeks I’ve been reading Elektronsuts much more and thinking about getting back into music making. But I’ve not done anything material yet.
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I had this issue in the beginning , where when i would be painting and doing art for video games i would listen to music and come up with amazing ideas for my own music.
But as soon as i switched to music making i was unable to “hear” what i wanted to make, because i couldn’t rely on other music that inspired me in the first place.
Now i implement different strategy, when i start making music i am imagining images in my head of what mood/vibe this music should represent. Like a slide show or frames of a movie.
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Stop enabling my Chase Bliss addiction!
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Take a step back, listen to music you love, listen to new music. Go see some live music. It’ll come back
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I’ve noticed this too.
A drink after dinner used to be a relaxing treat, but now it mostly just makes me sleepy and groggy. I only seem to get a buzz when I’m drinking with friends because the conversation keeps me engaged. If I have a drink by myself, I’ll nod off within like 20 minutes.
I should just admit that it’s not doing what I want anymore and give it up.
Getting older sucks!
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I go through fits and starts of this regularly, I’ve got all the tools I need, free time to pursue my wants and yet I regularly have bouts of inertia where I can’t get started on anything creative, I’ve learned this past year or so that output isn’t the measure of my creativity and that I shouldn’t give in to the perception that just because I’m not being productive that my creativity is gone, it’s still there and when those moments arrive I make the most of them, in-between times I noodle, watch movies, bake, play with my kids and work…
Don’t beat yourself up man, the music, and everything else is still in there… it’ll be back… 
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Perception aside, what do you do to increase your productivity?
I stopped making music recently and started playing drums 
Half joking- I have been a guitarist primarily most of my life, then drifted into electronic music when I stopped ‘playing out’ and started home studio life (or producing as the kids call it!)
Anyway- drumming has given me new zest (and I have lost wright doing it- you don’t see many fat drummers!) - I don’t think about anything, just turn on the kit (e-kit, TDK27) put on a backing track and play…
Doing this has made me appreciate a lot’s of types of music I don’t normally listen to and a much better understanding of rhythm (and how hard drumming is!) that I now take back to Electron drum machines etc…
tl;dr - learn/play another instrument, listen to music you don’t normally listen to…it all helps get out of a rut (and drumming has the added bonus of getting you fit!)
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Spontaneous combustion gets them first
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