lost inspiration

[TomViolenz]

Yep. Like a DJ playing a rubber turntable.

I thought more like the sound of one hand clapping

I wrote this song in a Zen-inspired state, but afterword the bass didn't quite fit in.

Oh, I know exactly what you mean. I wrote so much cool stuff stoned, which was just the most awesome shit you would ever believe!
Next morning it was just weird screeching noises, go figure

[mrdelurk]

I wrote so much cool stuff stoned, which was just the most awesome shit you would ever believe!
Next morning it was just weird screeching noises, go figure

There is a joke about this I just love.
Jamaica runs out of weed. Next morning, everyone stares at each other: "what's this awful music?"

[TomViolenz]

I always wanted to do a tour of the Coffee Shops in Amsterdam.
Must be the most forgiving and admiring audience there is

Just gotta hope that they don't sell decent brownies.
Once the munchies set in their care for you goes out the window

Let's stop hijacking that thread though

[TomViolenz]

But to make all this MJ talk at least somewhat topical:

Beware of putting any real focus or belief in it of course. Drugs ARE bad for you!

That said:
Even the Dalai Lama says: Everything in moderation.....even moderation!

as it pertains to the topic, I think as an occasional holiday of and from the mind it has helped me wonders before.

Sure, don't expect the stuff you make when you're high to be good in a real sense, but there are often absolute diamonds hidden in the rough.
I explain that with you being able to shake all the preconceptions you have about what is good and what must be fullfilled and all the other doubts you may have about you being an artist and such. Instead you are full in the moment and new connections, before deeply hidden, open up.
It also shifts quite dramatically how you hear music, which is also a very interesting change of perspective that can help you.

This is even more true if you think about work flow or stage performance ideas.
And if you are in a band, getting high together for a jam in the practice room is a great bonding experience!

That effect wares off quickly though. So if you do this more often than every couple of months, you first get ever diminishing returns and then lose any perspective on what good really means.

Even more and all the side effects of depression, constant lazieness and general stupidity WILL follow!

So if you are in a rut and know you can partake responsibly, a spliff here and there may be exactly what the doctor ordered!

But be an adult and know your limits!!!

just my 2ct.

[Martin Gifford]

Beatles were the most creative band ever, IMO. They often nicked ideas from other people. People nicked from them too, of course, e.g. Bridge over troubled water is an obvious nick from Let It Be - if you analyse the two, you will see many similarities.

Re: inspiration and forcing it, here's what John Lennon said about Nowhere Man which he wrote after staying up all night:

"I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then 'Nowhere Man' came, words and music, the whole damn thing as I lay down"."

Simple as that!

Mind you, I've lost inspiration too at the moment. Especially with sequenced computer music, it can feel very mechanical - 4 beats divided by 4 etc. blah. So maybe pick up an acoustic guitar or real piano and see if that helps. Or singing counter-melodies over the top of popular songs. Also, collaboration can be magical.

I agree that drugs can help. The creativity boost can last for about 3 years after a joint or some shrooms. So I've heard. BTW, anyone know where to get good hash cookies in Sydney? I have a friend who's lost inspiration too at the moment.

[eyeknow]

The pot = creativity myth is just that. Most people, it just makes them want to get munchies and watch tv.

[tedlogan]

TomV - I agree, that's about right I'd say, but not really in my case. I haven't done any drugs (apart from alchohol) in years, for me it just leads to doing nothing at all and wasting my time.

Martin - regarding drugs - no. Just a big NO haha. I'd recommend to someone who's never taken them to not start at all. It usually leads to trouble.

eyeknow - that's pretty much me on weed, though with added doses of Left 4 Dead so I quit years ago as well.

Some more years back, I had a superb acid trip with my best friend, New Year's 2007 or 2008. We listened to a range of music, from Tiny Tim to Strapping Young Lad, Susumu Yokota to Darkthrone, Gary Numan to DeBussy, the Doors and Ministry (the band, not the amphetamine wankfest). With some sprinkles of random electronic musics. And Killing Joke's excellent Hosannas from the basements of hell. Afterwards I picked up my electric guitar and plugged it into an effects unit and jammed the most amazing session, all the while recording. Psychedelic passages, drones, heavy filth, spastic wicked leads and gentle pickings. My brain and fingers were speaking excitedly to each other, no delay, just pure expression. Just past the LSD's peak, and in the ZONE on the plateau of wonder.

The next day I listened to my recording and almost gave up on music entirely after hearing what I made. A total load of shit - a steaming uninteresting messy pile of shite.

Since that day, I don't record/mix etc unless completely sober.

You get people who shine on the drugs (including alcohol) though, who've recorded and released some great music.

[JoshG567]

I have a buddy who draws.

He likes to get something going, some minimal direction from a sketch before he's ready to really jump into something.

It's when he's got that laid down that he likes to get high.

At that point he's got the motivation, the weed just gives him obsessive focus.

[memes_33]

agree with others- smoke a ton of weed. it might not motivate you to do anything, but maybe you'll feel better about it.

i've been lacking motivation myself these days (see above), but was thinking the other day about how much i wanted to hear "artist x" remixed by "artist y". since it doesn't exist, i'm telling myself that i should just create what i think that would sound like.

also, if you are really into listening to a certain song or artist at the moment, just try to re-create one of their tracks. you might not be able to "use" it, but it might be fun to do anyway.

[runningwithit]

message to the kids: don't do drugs!

i think drawing a picture or going to play is an idea within reason, 'being within the boat'

that or writing out the music by hand, which was a crafty way to trick the brain into rethinking.

don't do drugs, drugs are just a baggage!

[eyeknow]

agree with others- smoke a ton of weed. it might not motivate you to do anything, but maybe you'll feel better about it.

[Martin Gifford]

The Beatles said that drugs helped them. But they didn't record on drugs - they said their drug recordings were bad, so yes, that fits with what others have said here.

But I never said smoke a ton - that would be pointless. In fact, I specifically said the effect of one can last three years. My friend said that it opened him up to the right side of the brain for three years. His dream interpretation, musicality and lyrics were all better. Then one day it suddenly dried up, exactly like writers block. Everything became dry and shallow - left brain kicked in.

Also, what alternative is there to the status quo? We are born into society's matrix. Where is the exit door to see reality? Where is the door to our greater potential? Society pokes and prods us into a very limited version of ourselves. We've got to find a way out. Deep analysis can lead you to seeing society's matrix, but it doesn't give you the way out because we are surrounded by society. Also, deep analysis is grueling, so no one does it.

One avenue I discovered was Voice Dialogue. I had a session of that personal growth technique and the facilitator told me to sit where my creative self would like to sit. Well, the most uncanny thing happened. I literally felt like Jimi Hendrix took over my body. It was spooky! So that shows how society cuts down our potential - we almost never get in touch with that pure creative potential in us. If society wasn't so ignorant, we wouldn't need any solutions.

[eyeknow]

I dunno. I took a vicadin today and all it makes me is happy (though for about 30 minutes I was really focused on guitar playing) I still just want to post and talk gear (drunk, high, sober, tired, energized.....POST! )

[mrdelurk]

According to the story, Gerswhin wrote Rhapsody In Blues in a month.
I wondered for many years, how in the @#$% does one create a seminal work like that in a mere month? How does one simply summon inspiration like that?

Many years later, I learned the answer. When you have no day job, and paying the rent and having food on the table depends on having the Rhapsody finished in a month - it will be finished in a month.

[eyeknow]

Well, you wouldn't have to worry about that if you didn't spend all your saving on chronic

I kid, I kid...... (though some people do bitch about not having any money after spending on pot, I can afford plugins......I can't afford that shit! )