Up! I'm still up! 3:38 a.m. This project is wreaking havoc on my sleep. I didn't even get to record today due to hardware mishaps. It is probably the lack of song posting today that is keeping me up now. I like to keep my word.
And my work.
Earlier tonight I put on a cd of my friend Rita's music while my friend flipped through a graphic novel from my book shelf.
"This is my friend Rita singing," I said, "and that book was written by my friend Gabe."
And I thought how great that was that I have many hundreds of friend's cds and books by friends and a house filled with art - and really great art - by friends! Yay!
Recently I was having a fractured three person discussion (with different people, at different times, about the same topic) about overcompensating. Some people say they "LOVE" this or that and it's just because they want people to say that to them. Some people take care of other people above and beyond the call of decency or friendship because they themselves just want to be cared for.
I wondered what it is I overcompensate for. The only thing I really do "too much" of consistently is create. And I realized that yes, I want everyone to create.
My favorite thing about the Thirty-One song project is that it is inspiring other people to make things, do things.
My songs are not great, this is all the crap I have to slog through to get to the good stuff. These songs are all ideas that I am learning a lot from but nothing spectacular is coming out - except for the entire project itself. And the projects that others are now starting because they are inspired by this.
It's all a process. None of it is perfect - not even the songs that end up on an album. Things change - especially something like a song which is played so often it can evolve audibly over a short time. It's almost a shame to record songs at all because that just captures them in time - like a photograph cannot represent the actual physical presence of a person. And some people say that being photographed can steal your soul....
Best not think that way when I have songs to record tomorrow.
Best not think at all at 4 a.m.
To bed go I.
Love,
K
Still enjoying the emerging tracks.
ReplyDeleteWe ran an event in London, UK last weekend which talked about artists' struggles and the balances and compromises which you sometimes reference here.
It was filled with hope.
The overall event was called 'devoted and disgruntled'. Not sure if there's a song in there somewhere? ;-)
rashbre
the highest standards we have are usually reserved for ourselves. i think your work is lovely. :)
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