Anyone else feeling this right now? I feel stagnant in my career, but also my industry and broader career prospects also feel stagnant, like there is nowhere to go. This bleeds into my financial prospects and what feels possible for the future…
Creatively, I feel somewhat stagnant, too.
Music wise, I haven’t heard anything recently that has blown my socks off in the last 12-24 months…maybe the new Andy Stott will? Similar with movies and books….
For as bad as the pandemic era was, I feel like there was a lot of possibility in that 2020-2022 era in terms of people coming up with new creative concepts, new business ideas, new ways of doing things, the amount of amazing music gear launches, etc…
Obviously the cost of living and AI anxiety is probably playing a role , but it just feels like we are in this in-between era and I feel like I am treading water in multiple phases of life.
No problem is so big that it can’t be solved with a new bit of gear.
Just kidding!
I took up roller skating over the last year. It increased my appreciation for the music, to be engaged in rhythmic movement during the songs.
The primary function of listening to music is, for me, to determine if a given song or tune is adaptable to my students. My pleasure comes not so much from listening, but rather from the realization that the music is adaptable, as well as the enlightening sensation of understanding something well enough to take it apart and put it back together into my own version/variation on the original.
If you’re experiencing no pleasure from your preoccupations, just say screw the pleasure, it’s time instead for delayed gratification. And if you’re experiencing no inspiration, dive into the workaday aspects of your creative process.
In your vulnerable state, stay away from the gear-lust threads on this forum.
It comes and goes.
Getting away from the internet+news and reading books helped me a lot.
Now that I’m back to the usual I still feel this stagnation…
Yes, news make you bad, the lack of options is paralizing.
This album was my blast from the summer… It really felt like it carried summer with it. I am sure there are gems here and there, it’s a matter of digging.
My own music is the only place where I never seem to feel stagnation for some reason… I always look forward to something, even if it’s an album I haven’t done half of it for months. Gets me to procrastinate and do something else I guess.
If I had a suggestion there, it would be to experiment relentlessly: go raw or drone, push this as far and as often as you can.
It sets your mind in an exploration state, pushes you to use what you have in different ways, let you maybe embrace new genres of music…
I know that. Myself being making “music” for more than 40 years there have been creative block phases, sometimes for a week up to several months.
Last year I even thought about selling gear and getting a pool billard table instead. No joking.
What helped me out was taking a break. No making music, no listening to music. After such a break I often came back on it even more creative than before.
IMO we put too much emphasis on innovation and not enough on the value of going through the process of putting something together. The thing is, even when you’re doing a spec project where you basically painting-by-numbers, you’ll always put a bit of yourself in it whether intentional or not.
As far as AI, it is a big unknown and it does sometimes feel like “what’s the point.” However, when you go through the process of making and creating, you’ll always take something from it.
Regarding music, my response to this kind of feeling is always to go see live acts, preferably local ones (small). Maybe not all the music will be inspiring, but I find the “small” artists often give me a new perspective on my own music.
With the new music thing, I feel like a kind of parallel of what is going on with daw/dawless is going on. With the DAW, where anything is possible the unlimited possibilities become paralysing similarly with listening to new music, it feels like anything and everything can now be said and heard at any time, so nothing feels surprising anymore (today’s internet age vs earlier record shop era)
I find with new music it really helps to try and research scenes and cultures that might be alien to you as that is where sonic ideas get a fresh context for the listener. But it’s not a natural thing for people to look beyond their tribe and it takes effort.
Exactly. And I would add : no news either. Immerse yourself in a positive bubble with family and friends and stop letting the state of the world drag you down. Take the time to recharge, in a way.
Otherwise, to get around writer’s block, I always start a new track by trying out a new technique. It helps me get something going, and then I just take it from there.
And even if the finished track isn’t good, I’ll have at least made some technical progress.
i did a live set two weeks ago. the work leading up to it felt very stagnant, boring even. i was doubting myself a lot.
i went into it with a mindset of just do your thing. i was kind of introverted during the performance, grooving along and doing. at one point i had a heavy bass come in. in my studio it was deep and growling. Live it was down in the abyss like an earthquake shaking the whole building all of a sudden i heard several person let out loud screams of joy. people actually liked it, they were dancing, doing that bass face (you know which one).
after the set i had a lot of people coming up asking about my music, someone pointing out that a specific part of the set was one of the best things they´ve heard in a long while.
Your music might feel stagnant to you. but for someone else it might be the dopest, freshest shit they´ve ever heard.
When I used to play in a band, after some time, we came to a conclusion with my band mates: at one point we were just sick of our own songs and didn’t want to hear them any more, let alone practice them. But we realized it meant we were ready. And next gig, we could play the whole set without thinking, just enjoying the moment.
Now I make electronic music, I still think it’s a necessary phase to be fed up with my own songs at one point. It also probably means I’m ready to play them.
(My live set involves quite a lot of real time action, it’s demanding and risky)
Don’t rely on the world around you. The world around you is probably pretty intent on making you depressed.
My life went completely on hold after we had kids. All my prospects of having any sort of meaningful career completely smashed to bits. Couldn’t even get my old job back once the kids were in school, and I thought they liked me…
So it’s up to me to make the change. So I’m now back at university studying for a masters and after only a week my perspective is shifting towards something more positive and meaningful.
My music was going the same way, so I started a band. Writing music for myself had become as stale and predictable as my life was at the time, so writing music for other people is a new challenge. Not always fun, but the results are definitely not the same shit I’ve been doing for years.
Point is, fuck the outside noise, if you don’t like your current situation, change it.
I’m a guitar player first, a loud tube amp and a some dirt pedals is my therapy going on 30 years now. Making a patch from scratch on an analog synth is my new therapy I picked up about 10 years ago. If your music relies on more and more complications beyond that (ie what this forum is dedicated too) it’s seems a common theme. So much burnout on here. It’s has nothing to do with the gear or the times we are in or any other outside influences. It has to do with YOU
That’s a little harsh. The times are difficult, and you don’t know people’s circumstances. But it is true that the way forward for one is through one’s own actions.
Lately i’ve been thinking about the four seasons a lot, what they mean to me, how they have a very distinct and necessary function in nature and how they are present in any creative pursuit.
It’s difficult or nearly impossible not to compare different times in one’s life in terms of creative output, happiness, accomplishments and all that and it’s so easy to forget that sometimes you have to kind of hibernate as an artist, to let some time pass and to accumulate creative energy and vision.
The truth has no mercy my friend. There’s a couple millennia of philosophy waiting for anyone to explore the depth of their despair. And all of it was written by people living in much more difficult times.
What we are experiencing now is people living in their heads and not with their hearts, and that’s a choice
I agree with you and the funny thing is I have embraced philosophy and meditation, I don’t feel depressed or disillusioned with my personal or home life and I realize through studying Stoicism that externals shouldn’t matter much….
I guess a better way to put it is I feel almost like a forced Epicurean…I have my family, my garden and my Elektron trinity and am grateful for all of that. It would just be nice to feel a sense of possibility with the outside world again…
