My Producer/Writer Dilemma

(Trevor Horn, music producer)

Ok boys and girls, this time I want to share something that is really kind of a dilemma for me as a writer and producer. First and foremost, as a musician and writer, you want just to put your music out there right?, communicate with your songs, play them live, you work hard writing them right?, well, for me is more harder than that, I’ve found certain “styles” of music more difficult to produce and even compose. This is the thing, metal songs, or proggy ones in general, tend to have just few instruments, few dynamics too, think of it, lots of heavy riffs, panned guitars left and right, bass in center, a good sounding and loud drum set, and a well suited vocals, yeah that’s it! even though with dynamics, a metal record this days just stays in the same volume from song to song, that’s why they’re so easily introduced in this “Loudness War” thing, yes, is easy just to pop up lots of compression and limiting in this kind of music, for me, is really easy to do, great energy and all that, but the production is dull, lifeless, and even boring. 

Aside from all that, is obvious for me to apply this thinking, but I like the energy and the hype that produce that kind of sound, easy to produce, yes, but that’s the goal right? produce and make it real and get it out there fast right? Well, I think for me is more interesting as a producer now to play with dynamics, instrumentation, and chords structures, creative sounds and ambient things. It is also more difficult to write a song with lots of dynamic movements and a creative production, so to speak, for example there are even more easy to produce styles of music, nowadays the music on the radio is just sample rhythms and a pumping compressor sounding. 

In my life and experience as a musician I have experiment all, metal hyped music, complex music, songwriter stuff, Chords, Riffs, Ambient, instrumentation, easy music, dumb music, jazzy stuff, I mean kind of a Jack of all trades, I had acquired experience in seeing this by becoming a producer myself and be able to approach the music from every other perspectives and corners, and interested more in creative sounds than riffs or chords, which, at the end makes you pop-out of other bands and music. A metal band with a Sax player doing all those riff in a bassy octave?? that’s pop! 

But, as I say, I try to go with the flow in this, but you rather came with a complex production, which is exhausting. So why not go for an easy production styles? something easy to produce and write? well, maybe, but what about your whole musicality? and chops with your instruments and creative ideas? gone? it is really a dilemma don’t you think?. Tell me, what do you think of all this?

The 5 Great Hacks of Writing Music

Hi there! time to put up some advise and humble knowledge, you know share my thoughts on this topic, now I'm going to talk about some advises or as I call it, "Hacks" of creating/writing music. They had work for me, and I know it will for you (hopefully).

Let's get down to it:

1- STOP listening music for a moment.

Yes, believe it or not, this can cause problems on the moment of writing, if you decide to write a song, try stop hearing music for a moment. Why? Because if you are listening to band A or band B or anything, your muses or inspiration will be printed on the material you are writting, or at least you will be "forced" mentally to do so, "Ohh I want to write and compose something like this", and this is bad, at the end you will found yourself  "copying" a lot of things, is not bad that you have your influences and all that, but stay close to your guts and in what you have learnt through the years, I know that you are fascinated and listen to music everyday, so why not stop for a moment, and then write?, believe me this is very helpful.

2- Play your instrument/instruments alone.

This is one that works for me every time, I take an hour or so playing an instrument, and this is NOT schedule "practice" it's just all out playing, can be a guitar, piano, playing with FX's, Patches, I mean, sit with an instrument for a while and just start playing, you will came up with interesting things, what happen is, that you are there playing "something" and after that everything else starts to flow, naturally you can came up with cool riffs, chords progressions, structures, ideas, ANYTHING! And all this is useful, maybe you can come up with cool stuff others not so much, but hey, keep doing it, not every song that you write is gonna be a great EPIC, so practice, writing is something you must practice just like finger exercises.

3- Record yourself

"All ideas most be printed" as I say, it can be a melody, riff or something that "came up" in your head, this happens a lot, and it can happen very spontaneous, so pick up your smartphone or your DAW and record it, it can be your instrument or your voice "humming" the thing. Muses come and go, when I take a stroll or a walk to my job this is a very productive and creative moment for me, I came with almost entire albums in my head!, so remember this, try to capture those moments of creative glory!

4- Play with other musicians

Playing with other fine musicians or jamming along with them can generate a tons of musical ideas, in my case, I love to jam along with just a drummer, it's incredible the ideas and riffs I can pull out in that moment, so if you are a good drummer and you are reading this, I hope that I can play with you one day!, but beware of my ideas!! they're crazy sometimes!

5- Open your ears!

This one is the most important, open your ears every time, try to listen things that is NOT music to inspire you, it can be anything, from the sound and rhythm of brushing your teeth to the drops sounding in your kitchen sink! I remember myself writing a whole song and it starts with the sound of a big truck horn crossing the street of my house. So try to inspire yourself with ANYTHING, distant music, distant sounds, bird sings, I mean anything, you know that we musicians, suffer from a great sickness, which is as I call it: "The Creative Block Sickness" which is that your muses get killed by a bacteria called "inspiration-less".

Try this advises and see what they can do for you!
Hope it works!

God bless you all!

Iros RR

Updates and plans for 2014

Alright folks, yeah yeah I know, long time I haven't post anything, but hey, It's a new year!! Yeah, 2014 is now here and I have new plans in mind (hopefully). Recently I have been in so many things at the same time and the only musical thing I'm doing is playing at church, I don't even have time to play some videogames nor LISTEN to music anymore!! (which sucks btw).

In fact, so many blessings had came along the way, so I feel really good. I'm beginning to have great gear to suit up my musical needs, guitars, FX's, Power Speakers (Monitors), Midi Keyboard, Plugins, I mean, I bunch of stuff. I haven't wrote a complete thing in YEARS, and I'm planning to do some serious writing by this year, in fact, here is the great news. I plan to release a EP this year, about 5 to 6 songs, written, produced, mixed and even mastered by me!! I will do a lot of planning on this and put deadlines, b/c I know if there isn't a deadline, it will be hard to put this project up. So yes, there will be "pressure".

I really don't know the basic style of format of it, even I don't know on which name I will put it, all I know is that is going to be centered in many things, orchestration, lots of guitar playing, and even some heavy things, it will be like "proggy meets symphonic meets jazzy meets guitars" stuff, if that makes any sense... the thing that is bugging me for awhile is the fact that if I will write real SONGS, will lyrics on, or just instrumental pieces with guest musicians on it, I really had polished my songwriting skills this past year.

Still, I am not ready yet full scale for recording, b/c I need some more gear like stands, mics, and a more powerful PC to do a great job without constraints.

Well this is all in boys and girls, so let's see how it goes!!

Iros RR

Working on some instrumental tunes...

Hi all,

Right now I'm working on some instrumental tunes and demos, I'm not thinking too much and just pick my guitar, keys and some riffs, in fact I'm beginning to practice my music production tricks and demoing some tracks. It's time consuming, b/c I have to spend too many hours in my studio to write, record, mix, etc. and, well...this can be good or bad... don't know...

So, this is a little teaser of a song that I've been working on these days, I want to record some real drums in the future, but I can't right now... I'm mic'ing real guitars thou!



Here it is! Take a listen and enjoy it, I will work on more tunes after this one, so stay in tune for that!!

I know that I haven't been very productive in a while, and I know that you all are expecting more guitar playing and more songwriting, yes, I know that my songwriter side is sleeping here, but I'm not sure yet if I'm doing vocal stuff now...my singing voice sucks!! haha!

Later!!
God Bless you all!
IRR

Focused in Music Production more than ever

Is a very difficult life that we're all live in, I surely don't have time for many things now, life change you know... Thanks God for everything thou, but I've encountered that I have less and less time for musical things than ever. In fact, I rarely pick an instrument now, have tons of months without playing a single lick or riff, haven't recorded anything, haven't upload a video of some sort, nothing...

However thou, my creative juices have been diminished for a while now, and this is bad!, I haven't wrote anything new since last year or so. I surely have been interested in other musical things like Music Production for example and making records, and it take AGES to be good at it by trial and error. As a Christian musician right now I know that God have something more epic prepared for me in the musical realm, but it's in God's time not in my own verdict.  I know that in this new way of life God will provide and will open new doors, boundaries and new experiences for me thou.

In fact, I have reached important milestones in my home studio now, thanks God for that!, I will post pictures of that later, it's not finished yet thou...but it will! sure, by God's will. I have been very chilled thou, and with time everything is getting complete little by little. I know that you haven't heard of me in a while, but there's so much going on in my life right now, some good stuff happening, can't be more grateful!

I'm still practicing and turning knobs you know, practicing a lot, mixing a lot, try to produce some good sounding demos myself and so on, still is musically the most important thing for me now, and believe me, it takes time and a lot of effort, it takes even YEARS to be good at this!

Well, later then!

God bless you all!

Music Theory Vs. The Real Deal

Hi all

In this post I'm going to talk about another topic that is bugging me for awhile, yeah, I know that recently my posts are just based on topics that bugs me LOL, but anyways I haven't wrote something for a while now so here we go.

Ok, right now I've encountered that a lot of musicians just focus on reading books of music theory, focus in being sort of a like a "music theorist" less than write music and create music on their own, and this for me is just ridiculous! think about it, they study hard, they always talk about complex harmony and theories, for what?? for nothing! because what they usually do is not using any of that at all in the writing of music (which is the main purpose of it I think) and this my friends, is lame, so lame.

This is what happens, they think that they are experts and master of harmony and theory, what you expect is that they become musical geniuses of some sort, but nothing happens, they just play their instrument, practice that, grab the real book or whatever and start to make covers and play them live for the sake of be outside playing, they are commonly teachers too (you know they have a lot of information in their heads so what better thing to do to pass out this info to a beginner and feel like a master of music). For me that doesn't make any sense to me, why? because there is really no artistic enervation, no artistic vision, nothing. You have to WRITE music, have a musical vision beyond what's available in you area or market, try to innovate above all things!

It's kind of rewarding when I encounter some dude on Youtube that writes awesome music, play the hell out of his instrument and he just say: "I don't even know the name of this chords, I don't even know what a melodic minor scale is, I don't know too much of that crap!" THIS my friends is talent, is vision, is passion for music.

And I will tell this one more time, don't get me wrong on this, music theory fundamentals are very important in terms of composition, playing, improvisation, and communication with other musicians, it is, I have read a lot of books and I for sure know my stuff, but why just focus on that?? Why get crazy with all the theories and concepts? is useless, think of it, try to do something else, focus on writing, on production, a vision, etc.

I tell you this, for me, what makes a good musician is not the theoretical background that he have, is the inner ear that he posses, and that is what makes us musicians from people who are not musicians, our EAR, I know a lot of musicians who know every single music theory book, every page of it, but have terrible ear and terrible metronomic precision, and that's for me is a rubbishy type of musician...you know those musicians who really doesn't know yet how to play real tight with a band or how to improvise freely or how to write a simple song!

For you musicians out there who can be identified with this, take this in consideration and begin to puts those books down for a while, focus on other musical stuff, try to think that the more theory that you eat, the more your music at the end will be a product of that, it will be a very mechanical music, dull, loaded with lots of forced time signatures with no sense of feeling at all and your music will be just like a licence card of "I know music theory" and believe me, that's not the goal, Who whats to create music that cannot communicate something? dull and crappy? remember, this is an art form like any other, is expression, is an extension of our souls, is music.

Later

Iros RR

The Songwriter Hat

It’s been like FOREVER since the last time I posted something, but still I’m here, don’t forget about me now people!

On the last post I mentioned that until this date I would be kind of absent and taken out my musician hat for a while. I just had others kind of things that I had to put my attention into. But the thing is that right now I have total attention to musical things and total attention on my musical projects.

Right now at this moment I putting my mind and efforts to a couple of things, first, is my home studio, yes, I’m planning to build one, and this takes a LOT of money, gear and time, I would begin to record some music with the little recording gear available, so I can practice mixing, overall production, ideas and so on, then I can maybe create some GOOD sounding demos.

Another thing that my mind is focused on is in the first project that would come out, there’s A LOT of things that I want to do musically, and I’m kind of undecided on what to embrace, you know a thing based around in the fact that I play a lot styles of music, and don’t really know what to do, so many things: There is a progressive rock band (70’s inspired), a more modern alternative/post-rock band with progressive elements, a jazz/rock (fusion) trio (instrumental music), songwriter thing (simple 4 chord songs, guitar/voice, or piano/voice), electronic-music experimentation very Krautrock inspired with lots of sampling, a very modern-edgy metal band, etc.

Believe me there’s a bunch of stuff, very different to each other, some musicians friends have told me that just do whatever I feel to do at this moment, and that embracing a lot of simultaneous projects will tend to provoke a backfire in which in my opinion they are absolutely right.

This is the briefcase of musical things in my mind right now, maybe in the future it can change, but this is what I got to present right now, and I tell you folks, I really don’t know how to begin, right now I’m writing and composing under the “Skies Of Mars” name, which it may be my main musical project right now. And I am throwing everything there.

But the thing is, that right now I’m taking my “songwriter hat” and taking this songwriter thing more and more seriously, I'm getting very inspired by artist like Nick Harper, Bernhoft, Ari Hest etc. you know forgetting about fancy riffs, Dorian licks, crazy unisons, big lengthy tunes and just be able to write a 4 chords songs you know.

Later

Iros RR