2008-02-21

 

A Blessing And A Curse

The following is a selfish introspective.

I chose the title of this post as it is something that has been said before, a title to a Drive By Truckers album. Not that I'm a huge fan, I think that overall they are a decent band.

There is a double meaning. The first thing to read into it is that I ripped it off. It's not original, and not even original to them. The second meaning is the feelings of the bearer of a talent.

A mynah bird. That's what I feel like. I can read something, ape the style and then write in it. I can hear a song and make one that sounds almost like it. I can sing a song and make the tonality of my voice match that of the performer. This gift of mimicry, which some people would love, is also my curse. I feel like I can't create. I write a song and it sounds like someone. I sing a song and I don't sing in my own voice, I ape theirs. I have to consciously think about performing as myself.

I don't hate this talent. I can pick up on things, and learn by example in an amazing manner but when it comes to being myself I struggle. Earlier this evening I was writing and the first stanza of the song came off with a feel resembling Art Brut. The song, as words only, is nearly finished but even in my head when I read them there a British slant to the syllables. A couple weeks ago I was playing bass and wrote an Unsane song. I have a "Hot Snakes as done on Acoustic Instruments" song. Theft.

Maybe I should embrace this follow the "good artists borrow, great artists steal" philosophy, but I feel so flagrant.


# posted by Justin @ 10:20 PM
Comments:
Touche'....I struggle with this very same thing...musically and visual artistically. Its funny how the harder you focus on being "original" or "yourself" the farther you actually get from it. I think the secret is being able to completely detach yourself from all social stigma/subconscience influence attached to creativity...which everyone proclaims is easy, but in practice is very hard. Our inherent taste and creative nature is so influenced by experience that detachment from this is incredibly difficult. The thing you have going for you is that 1. you realize you're blatantly ripping it off, not many in the contemporary art scene (musically or otherwise) actually realize this (hence all the crap on the radio), and 2. the fact that you're ripping it off bothers you...another issue with the current scene. I think the creative process, for some, can be liberated when engaged with another person, i.e. the reason some bands are good but the individual solo projects from the members of said band suck so much. In some cases I think the main culpret for creativity can be summed up in one word, drugs. I imagine that to some degree the chemical presence of the drug quite possible allows the person to detach enough from reality that the innate creative processes of the individual are actually allowed to flow, unincumbered by the prior experiences and/or influences. This might be why the late 60's were so prolific. O well...either we need to get together and work to get those creative processes flowing or you need to get some better drugs. Damn, I am turning into such a slacker. Back to work!
# posted by Anonymous alven : 9:45 AM
 
Lets just do Civella over again, and you can sing Zach's parts. haha. No, seriously, we should make a Civella record.
# posted by Blogger Jason : 11:07 PM
 
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