So... yeah.

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:36:10 GMT

Howdy doody.

I've never really been into this whole blogging shenanigans, so this'll probably be updated sporadically, if ever. I prefer to bottle any problems I have up than write about them :P

To be honest, all I can really think about to write is to do with music. As I've neared the end of this holiday (now back in Sheffield) I've started to become ever so slightly concerned about my musical output vis-a-vis Northern Oak.

Now, the backstory is; for the past seven years that I've played guitar I've been quite a prolific composer. I wrote an entire album based on various aspects of Communism, both good and bad, several years ago, and for my band in college I wrote a shitload of songs. Long story short: I've never been one of those people who spends weeks or months on a particular song, I tend to get a creative buzz and just blast through a load at once. Hell, at the start of this holiday, I wrote about ten or so songs for a videogame project that myself and my friend Jonah conjured up, and I'm pretty damn happy with them; they're all orchestral and baroque, but also a bit death metal- downtuned and heavy. Think death (slightly doom) metal but done orchestrally with strings, choirs, timpani and shit. :D

However, recently I decided to sit down and write some Northern Oak stuff since I haven't done any for a while. And I seemed to just draw a blank, which is something I haven't really experienced before. Okay, I did manage to do another song which I'm pretty happy with (working title: Folk Metal Ceilidh :D) but overall, I was a bit taken aback by the fact that I couldn't think of anything whatsoever to write- I couldn't conjure up any melodies or any particularly interesting rhythms.

Meh, it's quite hard to write stuff that doesn't become generic. I find myself mentally treading the line between mixing up structures, trying to write more progressive songs, and just writing stuff that makes me tap my foot. 'Okay, so it repeats quite a few riffs, but they're fucking good riffs, so what's the problem?' is the mental question posed by the second approach. At the end of the day, I can obviously admire songs with very complex structures (Opeth, for example) but at the same time, I don't think I'm good enough to write stuff like that. Confidence in your compositional skills is a big part of being a musician, and while I'm confident that I can write pretty fucking melodic songs (counterpoint, anyone? God, I love counterpoint :D) I also like to stick to a handful of riffs; it makes the song easier to remember, and doesn't turn it into the kind of featureless stuff that, in all honesty, some Opeth songs become. Don't get me wrong, I love the band, but I do find it difficult to listen to some of their less well-known songs since there are relatively few points of reference.

(Lulz. Susan just ran over some kid in Neighbours. She's become a cold-hearted murderer! :P)

Anyway, yes. I'll probably get musically inspired again pretty soon and this'll no longer be a minor issue, but meh. If it doesn't, we might have a problem... I might have to leave most of the composing up to Elliot :D Argh, seven minute long keyboard odysseys that I have to try and memorise *bangs head against the wall* :D

Ciao for now!

I like guitars...

So... yeah.