Fuck This Band.

A friend recently e-mailed me from the nadir most of us who've played in bands have found ourselves in at one time or another, that deep sense of Fuck This Band. This is what he said:

"hey j. i am feeling really bad about my own music lately. words of inspiration? suggestions for new direction? constructive criticism? i feel like i'm not pushing the envelope. and i'm not really doing anything that's important or interesting enough to make a big deal about. really there's a lot of self-doubt going on. some of it is justified and some of it isn't. i can't tell which is which. in any case my recordings suck and i need to learn how to make them better. listening to things i made 3 years ago compared to things i'm making now, i can't even convince myself that all the practice has helped any. i've got to change that. roar."

I read and re-read his e-mail, not knowing what to say or where to begin saying it. Finally I just started typing. Here's what I came up with:

"One thing that kind of evolved in [my old band] is that we developed a criterion for overdubs. We only kept stuff that would make us fall on the floor laughing. Not in the sense of something being a joke, but in the sense of, holy fuck, that's fucking incredible. Those are usually the ideas that we would continue to be happy with and surprised with, later on down the line, listening to the finished product.

"So I would say try to do things that surprise you. Be anarchic in your approach. Do something antithetical to your usual m.o. Buy some weird new gear and overuse it beyond the boundaries of taste. Mistreat your instruments; hone a song to perfection and then actually try to destroy it. Incorporate gestures in the music that are embarrassing or gimmicky or a cheap shot. Have at least one part in every song that any idiot in the world has to like. Perform a song in imitation of one band, and then arrange it as though you are another utterly different band. Steal lyrics. Mix songs like they are TV commercial jingles and you are trying to sell me something and make a profit. Set up a mix for one song, then run a different one through it and record that instead. Mix subtractively, removing elements until only the bare essentials are left, then keep removing things. Have the courage to throw everything away. Write hooks that force people to like you, as if you are blackmailing them with sensitive information. Make fun of a musical genre by doing it even better. Think about a song didactically: what is it trying to get someone to do, and what would happen if it succeeded? Music should be incrementally more interesting than the silence it replaces in the room.

Hope this helps.

posted at 1:45 PM