Multi-genre producer problems

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

First and foremost, I love music. I love just about everything about it. That being said, I find myself delving into different genres and can’t help, but feel "diluted’ as an artist. I’m struggling to find “my sound” cause I’m into so many things. In my case I used to just flip between 90s boom bap and techno a few times a year like it was seasonal or something. Now it’s gotten worse (more numerous) and though it’s been fun delving into what makes genres and styles what they are I just feel shallow as an artist.

Does anyone have this experience?

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#2

Don’t sweat it. Honestly you don’t have to worry at all about “your sound” because everything you do will inherently be you. Just try to Andy Warhol, (copy), some piece of music…your version will be different. and people will remark at the subtle differences. That’s your sound. Seriously don’t over think it, just do it. Let other people figure it out for you while you continue to produce content. *mic drop

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#3

:point_up_2:t2:

#4

Nice. Thank you for that. Snapped me out of my perspective, which I appreciate. Feel much better :slight_smile: Cheers Warden!

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#5

I’ve come to accept thats just part of my writing. I swap between genres with pretty much each song I write. I do find however that some recurring elements ‘crop up’ regularly…Which I take to be a good sign. They are the elements that are definitely ‘Me’ if that makes sense? Other than that I couldn’t have put it better than @NightWarden

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#6

Ya, makes total sense. Glad I’m not alone! If you’re switching between genres do you produce under different monikers?

#7

this is me:

this is me too:

And everything in between… I don’t care really. If I have to release stuff I just use different monikers. I’ve come to accept I have no style although I certainly have a sound. It’s just not obvious.

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#8

Yeah…Busted! A sort of doff of the cap to some of the guys who I’ve followed for years and who I look up to in production terms. Guys like Danny Hibrid and Neil Rumney. In fact I’d hazard a guess that Mr Rumney has released more stuff under more names than anyone! Possibly…

Back when I was DJ’ing and buying records in earnest I used to hang out at a friends shop and chat to some of the other guys who came in, most of which either DJ’ed, produced or did a bit of both. The word on the street back then was that some guys did it to avoid the taxman. Not sure how much of that was urban myth but it coincided with certain ‘big name’ DJ’s’ getting a knock on the door by said taxman after the authorities got wise to the money they were making playing multiple sets per night and remixing tunes. That would have been the early to mid 90’s.

I can’t get close to @acidhouseforall in terms of eclecticism (or quality for that matter!) but heres a couple of mine of different styles.

First thing I did when I got my first looper pedal ( a Digitech Jamman…Can you see what I did there?)

My take on a 90’s techno classic

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#9

YES always

I tend to float between minimalist tech/idm, prog-amiga-synthwave and metal, which are pretty far away from each other… although recently it’s been skewed heavily towards minimalism, which I originally tried because I thought it’d be easier than writing prog, but just turned out to be a different kind of challenge.

I’ve focused a bit in the past few years, but in the past I’ve tried my hand at post-rock, grindcore, black metal, noise, breakcore, ambient, doom metal, new age, trance, classical guitar, and probably a bunch of other styles.

I think the best thing is to break off each different style into a different pseudonym… that said though, it’d be fun to take the Ween / Regurgitator / Secret Chiefs 3 approach and just lump everything together (though SC3 do the “sub-bands” thing). Nobody ever told them to focus on one style!

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#10

I’d see this as an advantage. Producing other genres, you can learn stuff that can be transported into different genres. Id say different genres also need some different producing skills from a technical aspekt. That means you grow with it.

And if you somehow hit a track in a specific genre that goes off, you can ride that wave as long as it lasts.

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#11

And what exactly is your problem? :wink:
Just enjoy and do what you love!
Sure, if you do the same thing again and again you will gain skills in it. But otherwise you will miss a lot of opportunities to gain creativity too.

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#12

Same experience.
Electronica, melodic house/techno, sample based Boom Bap, Triphop/Downbeat, IDM/Glitch, Ambient… I’m switching all the time, often song to song.
I try to collect similar stuff together on different albums or even different pseudonyms.
Also playing ocassionally in rock/folk bands

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#13

The trick is combining what you like from each genre and coming up with a mutation :wink: That’s how new genres emerge, I like to think that genres are just a framework to implement as strictly or loosely as you see fit, go with the flow and cast your net wide.

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#14

exactly! but not an easy trick.
some styles are hard to combine

And my ear is also used to conventions to some degree. It‘s sometimes hard to overcome these or get used to.
But that‘s the point where it gets exciting imo :slightly_smiling_face: at least all my fav artists did this to some extent

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#15

For me, there’s a desire to have a “brand” to my releases. Not sure about anyone else, but I can’t seem to eliminate that desire and just make music. I’ve almost gone to the level of having style guidelines for my music :stuck_out_tongue:

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#16

Well - I guess everyone does it how it fits the best.
I’m more errmmmm. I don’t know what I do. But I have fun!

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