Just because they’re nearly identical doesn’t mean I like both

I have a friend who likes to recommend music to me. I often like his recommendations, but some times he misses my preferences completely, followed by comments such as “What? But I was sure this is your kind of music!”. Similarly, I often find myself loving the original track, but disliking every single remix.

My friend has a point with his comment; stylistically, recommendation A and B are similar. Still, it’s not the same story, storyteller, understanding or intent that lies behind. Similarly, two persons might seem similar at first glance through their outward appearance, but have significantly different personalities, actions and responses.

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Why are you sticking to one genre?

Lately, “128 bpm progressive house” has become a culprit of mine on the blog, a symbol of really boring and predictable music. To be honest, it’s a little unfair, since I could have written any genre name in electronic music like that, and it would sound boring. Ideally, genre names would include a huge variety of music, but the majority often seems to simply stick to what’s popular.

Our sense of purpose seems to have gotten a little lost during the transition to digital compsing, leaving fantastic tools like pen and paper behind. I mean, rock music is about rockin’, jazz is about challenging norms, pop is about catchiness – but what on earth is the purpose of 128 bpm prog house? What’s the purpose of your music? Is your purpose decided by you, or is it decided/amplified/held back by sticking to a certain genre?
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Pen and paper (turn off your computer)

Turn off your computer I’m starting to wonder if the best creativity booster of all, is to turn off your computer. I have long ago realised how easily and heavily I get addicted to web browsing, and even without an internet connection, I still think the computer is problematic for a number of reasons: Everything [...]

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Why, rather than how or what: Have a higher purpose

From mundane to epic If there’s one important thing I wish to accomplish with this blog, it’s to transform people’s imaginations from useless couch potatoes to superheroes. Sitting around mindlessly adjusting parameters and calling it music, is like riding a horse when you can fly on a unicorn creating wonderful friendship magic! The reason I’m [...]

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Body language in music production

“I prefer real music” Why does rock music rock? Why is jazz music so smooth? Why does everyone say they prefer «real music, with actual people playing»? I could understand the argument, it’s easier to relate to music played by humans on tangible instruments, rather than a programmed series of 0s and 1s. Still, I [...]

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Variety is the spice of life

Specialization is for insects It seems like many producers have a very narrow approach to their music. They make nothing but 128 bpm progressive house, listen to nothing but 128 bpm progressive house, think about nothing but 128 bpm progressive house. Yawn! Let me say that again: YAWN! It’s a perfect strategy if you’re deliberately [...]

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Every sound is a citizen

The small sounds you don’t notice The percussion in my tracks tends to be quite elaborate. In some of my larger tracks, I’ve counted 20 drum samples playing simultaneously, in various self-made loops. Surely I could narrow it down a bit? The lead synth in the last part of «Dududududu» consists of 4 layers; surely [...]

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30 day experiment: Making creativity a habit

I’m lazy Well, maybe not lazy, but certainly very relaxed. I don’t view this as a bad thing – many people nowadays are constantly stressed out over trivial matters. I’m saving my stress and anger for situations in which they’re actually useful. Even though my life benefits from my attitude, it some times gets slightly [...]

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I’m glad I wasn’t accepted into music production studies at university

High school, now what? In 2008 when I had to figure out what to study after high school, my mind went blank. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and pretty much all the things I checked out seemed very bland and uninteresting, even more so than the general studies in high school. [...]

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I want more futuristic, cool and nerdy videos for electronic music!

Modern day electronic music videos: meh. Come on, seriously. Here we have electronic music – one of the finest abstract storytelling mediums ever. Sounds that don’t exist naturally in our world, meticulously combined to paint a sequence of surrealistic mind images, to unlock the awesome asset that is the human imagination! And what do the [...]

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