slumpin...

udp · Post by **udp** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:46 am

Sometimes when I'm stuck for melodic or rhythmic inspiration, I spend time just making sounds, or finding sounds and messing them up. If I'm dry on sounds I go write beats or melodies. This way I still accomplish something toward the final goal of writing songs. If I don't immediately use those sounds or beats or melodies, they are waiting for me in future projects. Good Luck.

D K · Post by **D K** » Mon May 30, 2005 1:02 am

i try to take a step back..
instead of looking for something new,
or an altered state, (to each his own, i'm a fan of that, btw,)
i just try to remember how valuable the things i'm lucky enough
to have are.
i'm married, too, and for me
it's the most motivating of all!
d

leisuremuffin · Post by **leisuremuffin** » Mon May 30, 2005 5:26 am

rikhyray wrote: If some like to fuck themselves up with drugs it is their problem, and possibly for their family too but recommending it here is just sick and stupid. It is not even worth to use the word irresponsible. I believe we are all friends here so "helping" with such idotic ideas is not funny.

Drugs are tools like any other. I could use a saw to build a useful structure or to hack off someone's limbs.

in my opinion, alchohol is far more dangerous than pot (obviously) as well as more dangerous than LSD or mushrooms. You can't really take LSD or mushrooms every night. And certainly more people fuck their lives up with alcohol than psychedelics.

Remember, angstrom suggested to "Go camping with a big stack of halucinogens." Something that i would have to say is fairly harmless, and for some people, quite beneficial. Had he said, "go start a meth habbit" that would be a different story.

-lm

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Mon May 30, 2005 5:53 am

I think it depends on your personality.

For example, years ago, around 1992, I bought a sheet of lsd - 100 hits - for 70.00.

The person gave it to me and said pay me later. At the time lsd was selling for $5.00 a hit. In theory I could have made $500.00 and after paying the guy his money would have ended up with $430.00 profit if I didn't take any for myself.

Only I did take some for myself. Lots. I turned no profit and ended up losing money.... I would trip for 4 and 5 days in a row then take a day or two off and at one point was up to taking 16 hits of lsd at a time.

So, out of that 100 hits I estimate I sold maybe 25, gave away about 15 to friends and took about 60 myself, in the perod of about a month.

And that is before I got "really bad" with drugs.

That's just my personality, and that is why I stopped doing drugs and drinking in 1999. I would have ended up dead.

But again, I realize that not everyone is like me, some people can handle drugs and some cant. I cant.

I have to say though, from experience, I believe the idea that drugs enhance creativity is a myth. If anything they stifle it. Maybe if done in moderation, but, even then, I don't think the drugs themselves enhance creativity - I think maybe it is the experiences of ones life and how the mind reacts to those experiences.

Winterpark · Post by **Winterpark** » Mon May 30, 2005 7:12 am

wow... that's a pretty heavy story Smutek,

re: the whole slump thing; I reckon it's cyclical, and that you have to get ready for it to come to you. So whilst i've been eagerly awaiting inspiration to strike, i'll do these things....

1. re-patch/clean up my studio.
2. Write synth patches.
3. experiment with sound for fun.

as far as motivation goes, i've found that if i don't have deadlines, stuff doesn't get done, and also I have recently been inviting people into the studio to record them, and have found this has been an added incentive to get things done properly.

-am

jahnlay · Post by **jahnlay** » Mon May 30, 2005 10:31 am

Hey Anonymouse,

I gave up after 20 years of at least a pack a day, easily. I went to a doctor and got a prescription for some stuff called Zyban (might be called something different in your country, made by Glaxo-Smithkline), it's based on an anti-depressant and works like the bomb. It was easy for me to quit! To top it off, my girlfriend was still smoking (living with me) and I had cigarettes in the house, yet it still worked. Check it out. I've been clean for 2 years now, and people smoking doesn't bother me.

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Mon May 30, 2005 11:17 am

Noone's suggested a wank and a glass of water yet?

Also... don't forget to breathe:

http://fwbo.org/mindfulness.html

-Paws

conny · Post by **conny** » Mon May 30, 2005 11:56 am

smutek wrote:I don't think the drugs themselves enhance creativity - I think maybe it is the experiences of ones life and how the mind reacts to those experiences.

I totally agree on that.
And I guess there are different responses to drugs.
I know very well that I am the addictive type, doing something more then once turnes out to be a habbit for life in may case. So I never dared to try drugs (more then once, and it did not make my any good, it made me - even more - confused).

My father was an alkoholic (in periods). I think I am becoming one myself at times, as self medication against anxiety and depressive thoughts.
But I have seen, when I do a lot of writing, that with a bottle of wine in the system, I believe that I am writing splendid things. But the next day they do not talk back to me at all. Part of it may have something left, but it tends to die faster that things I write in a sober condition.

The only way I may see drug use as creative in the long run is like the camp tour that was suggested. That is: Do a mind storm but always sort things out afterwards with a steady hand in full daylight. There are times for the flow as well for the razor blade.

I would not myself recommend the drug tripp.
I would recommend a practice I heard the vikings used at times:
They would go alone at the evening to the shore of a lake, light a fire and sit still the whole night, watching the fire burn, glow and die out. Then it was morning and they walked home again. Ready to do some work.
Maybe a myth, but I like it. And don't know if they had something to drink or stuff their minds with, but I choose to think they had nothing with them.
To be able to carry back the things their mind has connected to during the night.

// C

MrSleep · Post by **MrSleep** » Mon May 30, 2005 1:15 pm

forget genre's, forget charts, forget success and money., forget sounds that sound cheesy and most importantly dont forget to forget yourself.., be a child, remember that, remember mumy buying you this thing called a computer (or pretend to) and it makes lots and lots of different noises, loose yourself in that and not worry about finishing a song.,, dont worry about what you dont know and dont worry about what others know more than you., what you are oblivious to is a plus and not a minus,, dont think there are better musicians than you out there because nobody interprets the world like you do,,, your only limited by the ideal that doesnt exist.
go on play..

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Mon May 30, 2005 2:03 pm

I think it's really important not to force anything. Give yourself break, ask yourself why it is that you want to make art (aural or visual), what it is you want to say with it. If it's just cos you're going through the motions then maybe the slump is just trying to tell you something.

Maybe the things that drove you to create in the past are simply no longer relavant to you any more. I think I'm describing my own reasons for my slump here actually, it might strike a chord in you

or maybe not.

I'm still twatting around with this software (and a few other apps too) and just wallowing in sounds and i'm confident that something will pop out at some point, probably when I'm least expecting it, hell, I'm still enjoying myself.

I did the drugs thing too in the 90's, had an absolute blast i must admit (didn't do that much acid though

) I did a gig for a biker gang once (rock band) on loads of base speed

I did a 20 minute gutar solo (alone) i think it went down ok but that's something I'd NEVER normally have done, it must have been TERRIBLE. Trouble is at the time I thought it was fantastic.

I favour a straight head these days, keep fit and eat good quality organic food. Dull as fuck mind, i do miss some things about those bygone years.

Right, I'm off for a hot knife!

Kidding.

forge · Post by **forge** » Mon May 30, 2005 2:18 pm

MrSleep wrote:forget genre's, forget charts, forget success and money., forget sounds that sound cheesy and most importantly dont forget to forget yourself.., be a child, remember that, remember mumy buying you this thing called a computer (or pretend to) and it makes lots and lots of different noises, loose yourself in that and not worry about finishing a song.,, dont worry about what you dont know and dont worry about what others know more than you., what you are oblivious to is a plus and not a minus,, dont think there are better musicians than you out there because nobody interprets the world like you do,,, your only limited by the ideal that doesnt exist.
go on play..

Build it and they will come!!!

think ya hit the nail on the head there sleep!