AMP

Jack Goldstein – “A Suite of Nine 7-inch Records with sound effects,” 1976

I’ve been bouncing back and forth between the roles of artist and musician for some time now, and the bouncing always leads to doubts about unfocused talent, spreading oneself too thin, and simply not having enough energy to commit to such both activities. For me, these anxieties subside when I realize that there are different goals for each activity, and each practice has a different, yet equal, outcome.

Here’s my for-instance:

As an artist, I often begin working cerebrally. I’ll think about an idea or a concept and brainstorm how I would manifest it materially. I then work with those materials, sometimes drunk, sometimes with loud music playing, always enjoying it, until I feel like I’m getting somewhere. I then try to recreate it, refine it, and perfect it. Because the end result of an art object is often the exhibition of it in a sterile gallery setting, my choices and actions must be determined and focused on the success of communicating my message and/or experience. In short, the success of my own art is often how well I can defend the choices and decisions that go into it’s creation. This results in a big difference between the creation of the work and the reception of the work.

As a musician, I almost always begin working materially. I’ll get together with friends, talk, drink, and play on our respective instruments. We’ll figure out song structures, cobble together lyrics, and rehearse it until we can play it a couple times in a row, and it still sounds like the same song. Then we’ll commit it to tape. Then we play it live, in front of friends, drinking, and enjoying the company. For some reason the space between the creation and reception of the music seems to be smaller.

A few possible reasons for the difference:

* Some people may argue that with the advent of recording technology, the final reception for music is now the recorded product, and not the live performance. I understand that point, but I still stand to disagree.
* Even still, my music recording experience has never been stressful or serious–I’ve often approached it with a ‘good enough’ attitude.
* This could very well be a material issue. For the musician choosing to work with samples and sequencers, programming can be a very repetitive and focused commitment. Very different from a musician who bleeds ‘feeling’.

Other artist/musicians: thoughts?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 4:15 pm and is filed under Art, Music, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.