In this episode of the Head The Gong Podcast, I give thanks for being led through the fog to a moment of clarity, however fleeting, in which tears were shed and notes were sung. Someone with a sweet smile said it this way: “It is a privilege to live out these days on this lovely planet, to see it all through to the end as much ourselves as ever.”
While sipping my coffee this morning, I stumbled across this tweet by a guy named Daniel Holland (@DannyDutch):
As far as I can tell this is the creative process for most people –
1. This is brilliant
2. This is tricky
3. This is shit
4. I am shit
5. This might be ok
6. I’m now interested in the next project more than I am this one.
Painfully true, in my case. Especially that last bit about moving on to the next project, and especially with regard to musical “ideas.” I literally have hundreds of “song ideas” – by which I mean quick, in-the-moment lo-fi recordings to capture a riff, melody, or chord progression – stretching back decades. Already, this month alone, I’ve generated at least ten of these nuggets of inspiration. I can hardly keep track of them. And I can hardly keep my attention focused on one of them long enough to drag and drop the file into the archives, and certainly not long enough to actually develop the idea and record a proper song. It’s just so much easier to move on to the next thing, await the next moment of inspiration. I must get past this!
I am currently in the midst of a pleasant obsession with the band Kruangbin. I stumbled upon them while tumbling down a YouTube rabbit-hole. Their style – a mostly instrumental, funky-ass psychedelic groove-based international vibe type thing – is nothing like anything I’ve been into in the past. It’s just so smooth, so groovy, that I can’t get enough of it, especially in situations when my attention is occupied, like right now, while I’m typing these lines, or when I’m cleaning up the house. Music with a dominant vocal line often robs attention and focus needed for the task at hand, while Khruangbin’s grooves flow through me on a different, more unconscious level, which enhances whatever else I’m doing. Don’t take my word for it. Dig in.
In this episode of the Head The Gong Podcast, I get back on the creative horse – i.e., “begin again” – by sharing some music I recently came across while tumbling down a YouTube rabbit-hole.
[p.s. I recorded this podcast three weeks ago and didn’t get around to posting it until now!]
In this episode of the Head The Gong Podcast, I verbally wander hither and thither through a forest of ideas tied together loosely (VERY loosely) with the theme of “dispelling illusions.” Meditation, identity, music, and the hacking of the human mind. Stuff like that.
In this episode of the Head The Gong Podcast, I come before the microphone with tail between legs to speak of long layoffs, mask-zone surgeries, creative quandaries, and some of the music I’ve enjoyed lately.
In this episode of the Head The Gong Podcast, I stoke the summer flames of freedom as I ready myself for a road trip to North Carolina to visit some old friends and my former self.
In this episode of the Head The Gong Podcast, I put my life and the lives of others in danger in order to record my random thoughts on the way to and from work.
In this episode of the Head The Gong Podcast, I test out my new microphone while walking around my back yard attempting to resuscitate the dead and dormant intentions which have accumulated lo these many months.
