Monday

STUDIO DIARY



TY
: This album is getting weird, even for me. It's kind of scaring me, but I have no context or feedback. So far it's completely in a vacuum. I just hope it doesn't suck.



DAVE: I hope it doesn't either. What an embarrassment and tremendous waste of time it would be for you if it did.



OK, just echoing your fears. Of course that's not true! I guess that's the way you start to feel sometimes when you tell someone you're going to do something as opposed to doing it first. It can get in the way, the expectations, or imagined expectations I should say. Okay, just projecting my fears on you.



Weird and scary. I like it already.



TY: What's interesting is I'm working on projects all the time - constantly - most of those no one sees or hears. They're just filed away, maybe for practice for sharpness.  But, I stay somewhat productive: writing, photos, design, music/sound. And, I'm thinking about art all the time. But, nobody knows or cares, right?

 

But, by announcing, "Hey, look at me, I'm gonna make a new album, aren't I cool and interesting?!" it intentionally puts a great deal of pressure on me, self-inflected pressures.  I become very sensitized and cognizant of expectations.  Rich, Dave, Dan, three or four others...me!  Each step of the process becomes double-filtered:  What I want to do and what impact will it have on/for others.  Makes it hard, but helps me build in surprises or the unexpected. Makes me work for quality. Makes me sweat the details.

 

And expectations are great.  For me and hopefully for others.  I mean, what could people possibly think this will sound like? That's so interesting to me.  I mean, what if I produce a clean, professional, pop album full of light, safe topics?  I mean, we killed god on OFR. What if it just sucked? Everything about it, sloppy technique, bad ideas, amateurish attempt at being relevant or a desperate attempt at being fresh? Happens all the time; artists lose it, writers get blocked, rock stars buy the act and cannot see the forest any more. Happens all the time.

 

I don't know.  I still feel that most people will never get what I do. That's why my attended audiences are so small.  Hopefully, maybe Brennan can do this, someday my lifelong body of work will be placed into some context.  Or, maybe it'll just die with me like my deepest, darkest secrets.



Suck or not, it'll take years for me to understand or appreciate the efforts. I'm just beginning to understand my earlier work.

Friday

I have finally posted my 2004 fav pics on Middlespace:



At least it's off my list.

Tuesday

But by all accounts and all means, far, far from over.



Tip of the iceburg, mon.

Sunday

Studio Diary



So this is it. Now, it's starting - starting - to actually make sense.



Clearing the deck. Leaving it on the field, as they say.



I'm fucked!



Side A: 18:50



Side B: 9:31 of ?



28:21 so far. Tip of the iceberg.



Did I mention that I'm fucked!

Saturday

mining the past for the sake of the future



my attention span has decreased by a factor of 6.



blog this motherfucker

Thursday

six tracks into some really weird shit.



duration-wise, 'bout half way.



pray for me.

Tuesday

STUDIO DIARY



Don't mix tired.

Monday

STUDIO DIARY



today



while sitting on the toilet - nursing a mild tramadol hangover - i picked up a copy of "Middle Spaces" the book.



now i know my mission in the studio.



to make the audio analogy of this autobiographical masterpiece.



that's all.
So far:



Heaven and/or Hell



Devil Tsunami

Devil's Lady

A Global Test

Fun on the Bayou (need new title)



For consideration:



Nigger Rich

State of Emergency

The First 40 Years

Trademark Violations





Too many ideas, not enough brain...

Too many ideas, not enough time...





Tuesday

Daniel Lefcourt is a non-painter's painter.



He's an artist who happens to make paintings—although maybe this could be said of all painters.

Studio Diary - Ponderings



Why do I even have to describe what I do to anyone (anymore)? Maybe it's that I don't understand what it is anymore.



Is it that I aspire to make music or complicated sound patterns? Sometimes I use the word "music" to describe what I do. Whatever it is I do. Art. Whatever art is. Knob turning, sampling, stealing, amusing.



Some sounds are appealing, some not. But this is a case of individual differences... "Dissonance is my harmony; chaos is my rhythm."



Can you feel that baby

It's called Funkadelic music

It will blow your funky mind

Yeah!



Twenty questions from a course in Music Cognition:



Why do people make music?



How do composers know what to write?



How does music give pleasure?



Are musical preferences related to personality?



Why do we need so much music and so much musical variety -- why don't we limit our listening to just the dozen best works?



Does music always have to involve sounds?



Are there certain life experiences that contribute to a person's understanding of music?



Why are melody and rhythm so important in music?



What makes something "musical"?



How are musical memories stored in the brain?



How does repeated listening to a work change our experience of it?



How does music evoke emotions?



How is it that some people are able to improvise music?



Is music a spiritual phenomenon?



Are there musical hallucinations?



Can drugs enhance musical pleasure?



Are there brain structures specialized for just music?



Does a music tell us something about the people who make it?



Are there different ways of "listening"?



What is the relationship between music and the other arts?