Mazec wrote:I hope to achieve a sense of smug superiority which will help me maintain my self confidence in the presence of people who are cooler than I am, but listen to or play shittier music than I do.

I make music because it's the only thing worth doing in life. Music is life. There's nothing like being swept up in a "groove" and playing your little, enlarged heart out for hours on end.

I play music because I can relate to it. I've always had. I feel a need to do it. making something you can call your own, something descent to offer the world is what drives me, and the way I've been inspired to make music, i hope to inspire others, whether it's a hundered people, or one. I think that'd be the ultimate reward for this challenging art.

I make music for many different reasons. One would be because I enjoy music. I also like recording my own music because doing so leaves behind evidence that I existed. There are all these sounds I made that prove I was here, and that this is what I did. I like sharing my music with others and maybe someday, I can play the music I've made for my children. Its fun to create. Its fun to interact with other musicians. I really love music, which is why I also love to play.

I don't play music specifically for money, poon or recognition. If I can gain these things because of my music... thats cool.



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i think it would be really nice to balance the equation.

I would be happy if, for every second of my life i have spent playing an instrument, some other person would spend an equivalent second enjoying something i made. My end of the equation includes every second of plunky bullshit noodling, every second if the twenty-seventh take, every second of my 10-year old ass bitching to mom about my piano lessons with my thumb on middle C. The other end of the equation is every second of enjoyment some person gets from something i made, be it on the first or fiftieth listen.

A model would look like this:
IF
I stopped playing music right now, maybe I could assume the following:

average hours I spent per week playing an instrument: maybe 10... it's currently more than that, probably more than 20 right now, but that's a very conservative average
weeks of my life spent playing music: maybe 1040
Hours spent playing instruments, equivalent to hours of enjoyment required of others to balance the equiation: 10,400

So if I put out a 1-hour record, and throughout the course of its existence, the number of people who enjoy it multiplied by the average number of listens per person would have to approach 10,400.

Think I'm behind in this little algebraic challenge... shit, better get to it.

I'm not sure to be honest! I think if I'm ever going to produce something worthy of being called 'art' it'll probably be through the medium of writing rather than music, but I'm so into music that I can't help but want to make some of my own. I think if I can create a feeling in someone, or at least amuse them for a moment or two, then that's an excellent bonus on top of the fact that I just enjoy messing around with sound. I'm never going to be the best player you've ever heard and have no big ambitions; if I can get to a point this year where I'm playing some stuff live, that's going to be fantastic. I had the makings of a band a few months ago but through that I realised that really I'm more into doing stuff on my own, although it'll be nice if I can get some people to play with me live. It's just pure enjoyment for me. I've had a myspace account for a couple of months and the sharing back and forth of these self-amusements with local people doing the same thing has been wonderful, particularly because I haven't done live things yet, so just carrying on this communication is something I want to keep doing. Putting out some self financed home made vinyl would be wonderful. For me, it's the little things.

Four track noodles here.

Even if I never record a single piece of music, I love the fact that no matter how much shit is going on in my life or how emotionally overwhelmed I feel, I can always sit down with an instrument and let all that stuff out through it. Even if no-one ever likes a single part of anything I play, when I do play, all that noise that comes out is an expression of who I am and how I feel. There are few things that can make me feel as good and as calm as that.

Maybe I don't hope to accomplish anything through it, but that isn't necessarily a problem for me.