I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the power of nostalgia in both my music making choices and more broadly in the world of electronic music.
A lot of this thinking was triggered by me spending the last few weeks just using my Syntakt. I can’t shake the feeling that I’m lacking decent hats, even though I’m making plenty of nice sounding (to me) hats with the Syntakt now. I think what I’m struggling with is that I can’t make the 909/707 hats that the nostalgic part of my brain wants to hear and I think it’s holding me back. I’m at the point where I don’t even trust my own judgement anymore, like, is something objectively shit based on how little it sounds like a 909?
I don’t want this to revolve around the Syntakt, I’m bored of that conversation, but using it has made me realise quite how narrow some of my horizons actually are when it comes to sound design and synthesis. I say I want innovative new things and new ways of making new sounds, but do I really? Or do I just want a bunch of Roland Clones (which I’ll no doubt complain about for not being very innovative)?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really asking for advice. For the first time in ages I’m happy with my music making and the gear I’m making it on, I just wish I could get rid of that little voice in my head that’s holding me back because my hats aren’t 909 samples.
I’ve always had this thing where I really try to avoid listening to music while I’m making an album or putting a live set together, but I think my prejudices might be too ingrained. Also, what if I do manage to burn off all the nostalgia and make something completely new? There’d be no common ground for the listener to meet me on and no-one would like it anyway, because I’m not sure how much anybody wants to actually hear something new. We all just want to be 14 again, don’t we…