Inadvertent Accomplishment
October 22nd, 2009 Posted in Life As A Nico, MusicianshipSetting: Interior, nicopolitan’s bedroom, late at night. Low light.
Muse: What are you working on?
nicopolitan: Music! And it feels great. I think I’m done with this track.
Muse: It sounds done. How many others have you finished?
nicopolitan: I have no idea. When you told me about a year ago to work on music for 7 hours spread over 7 days a week, no matter if I was having writer’s block or made insignificant changes, I had stuck with it ever since. I started with an empty file folder and now it’s about… [checks folder size] Wh-… 30 gigs of data???
Muse: But how much finished music have you written?
nicopolitan: I dunno.
Muse: Import the finished ones to iTunes and see what it says.
nicopolitan: [imports songs] Wow. Uh. 74 minutes.
Muse: You can release an album now!
nicopolitan: I can release three EP’s at this rate — some of them still need polishing, but the end is definitely in sight.
Muse: Feel good?
nicopolitan: Feels weird! Good, yeah, but it makes me kind of antsy.
Muse: Why?
nicopolitan: Well… now I have to figure out how to play these songs on stage.
Muse: Do you have stagefright?
nicopolitan: I’ve never played a solo act before. Oh-
Muse: Oh, shit!
nicopolitan: Stop putting words in my mouth.
Muse: Stop putting your mouth on my words!
nicopolitan: …What does that even mean?
Muse: ……
nicopolitan: ……………
Muse: …so, book a rehearsal space?
nicopolitan: Uh, yes, book a rehearsal space.
How exciting! David Gray is one of my favorite song writers and he writes much the same way–putting in the time every day. It's a surprisingly similar process to writing a novel.
Yaaaaay, hurrah and Skål to being inspired and creating in the wee hours! :) And extra YAY to your 30 gigs! (Interpret that as you will, and Get thee to a rehearsal space – I haven't seen you on stage since 1998 ;)
7 hours over 7 days? I think that's a plan I could actually stick to. An hour a day of not watching TV instead? Got it. Inspired.
I so want to learn the ways of this. Soon! We must!
Am I allowed to squee all over a guy's comments section? Wait, I don't care.
SQUEE!
When do we get to listen?
I have the same exact problems… and a similar solution – though I can only manage about 30 mins a day.
Feel free to email me when you finish the tracks, or want somebody to check ‘em out.