Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
These loops are a daily exploration of where sounds and samples and bass lines can transport my mind. Sitting down to make this I was in a sour mood, but bit by bit, literally – bits and bytes of computer processing and circuits – this came to life, and my heart is happy.
“At what point do we say that we cant do this anymore? i feel like im basically reaching that point,” @_pem_pem
Video by Oleg Magni from Pexels
Ever have one of those nights where you’re just like, shit, there is so much music I haven’t listened to yet?
So how’d I get to watching an interview with DJ Muggs? Well, as I’ve been getting back into actually making some music again, I’ve been going back to some of the music in the mid 90s that formed my musical taste today. That includes Cypress Hill’s ‘Black Sunday,’ of course, so I had to dig a bit!
And if you watch the video above, he talks about Led Zeppelin, and Kraftwerk, like… fuck, I’m a “rock guy” and I still haven’t submersed myself into any of their records. Which is why I stay up too late on Monday nights, wondering if I could just make a pot of coffee and listen to music until the sun comes up. I mean, I won’t, but at least my frenzied brain will take 45 minutes to slow the fuck down to fall asleep.
“Strictly only ever want to be having a good time from here on out,” and “don’t be in a toxic relationship with urself,” @chipzel
“I don’t want a future where only people good at the internet get to make music,” @kazzmlaidlaw
Video by Ruvim Miksanskiy from Pexels
This from a recent Twitter exchange, in response to the wonderful “Algorithm is Gonna’ Get You” article, written by Danielle Evans.
“Been thinking of dropping off IG for awhile. I gotta build up my own art sites and creator spaces. Just wish there was a positive online pool of people that congregate outside of algorithms and ads. That fosters connection and drives people to my art and projects. Maybe ello?”
@shootbydaylight
I just feel like leaving everything up to that “community pool” is a rough these days. It’s too centralized. Remember DIGG? StumbleUpon? Is the answer sites like Dribble, or Vimeo, or Flickr?
My dream is we get back to our websites, and letting the whimsy and awe of links do their thing. That happened for me recently with one of my daily loops. I noticed one video got a few more plays than the others, and discovered it was linked from another website – neato!
There was a time when we didn’t drink from the “content firehose” for hours everyday, bombarding our eyeballs with fear and dread mixed in with “oooh, a pretty picture of a sunset!” I think for our own health and sanity we need to back away from cramming everything into one site, one network, one silo.
The first day of February, 2021. Hoping got a little less drama this month than last, but I won’t be holding my breath. It’s not the first time I write a number in the the title of these without it being the actual day of a month. Welcome to day #32 of 2021.
Below are some more of the things I like from Twitter and Instagram, about the only reason I stay on either site at this point. They’re not posted here as embeds, as I don’t trust either social network will be around in five years, and then five years from now you’d see nothing below.
Also doing my best to link to the actual persons website, when available. Websites are pretty great.
Photo: Lyndsey Hansen Sunderland from Twitter
Each day on social media a 400 page magazine shows up on your doorstep, bursting at the seams.
And everyday, the previous day of wonder and delight has begun its walk into obscurity.
This is why I added the LIKES section to my Daily Loops videos. I know from doing the “blog thing” over several years that there are times when I’ll go back through my archive and find something I forgot about.
In that moment in the past something grabbed me, it was enough for me to hold onto it, to put it on this site, my little corner of the internet. Even if I don’t have hoards of readers, I have me, and I want to re-live and re-experience some of that magic.
So my LIKES section is a collection of things that catch my eye, or my ear. For a bit I was embedding the Tweets or Instagram posts, but I fear that one day they could disappear.
And to think some people aren’t even on Twitter or Instagram, and they can’t see that magic, those bright colors, the rich hues of music and noise.
So now I’m adding those things to my site, adding a link to the source (of course), and looking forward to 2025 when I can come back here and see the magic that got me through the pandemic, this moment in time that people will talk about 100 years from now.
There was a time when we didn’t spray a firehose of images, videos, and words into our eyeballs for multiple hours, every day. Around the clock.
During that time we still made albums, published magazines, made videos, and everything else.
The thing I hear a lot, if we abandon social media, is how will we be found? How will our music get heard? How will our videos get watched?
Look, they will.
Back in the day you’d hand out flyers for the show you were playing that night. Put the flyers in the local music shop. Hand them to anyone wearing Chuck Taylors or a nose ring.
Social media is where you hand out flyers, but at a certain point you gotta head back to the venue and play a show.
We’ve all bought into the 24/7 social media marketing life style, heading both directions; both as the consumer and the advertiser.
But there comes a time when you gotta put the phone down and work. You’re going to have to miss that meme, or that person who did the thing, or that random video.
Trust that the wonderful people in your life will send you some of the highlights. Also be okay with missing shit.
Like, how many memes have you missed when they first came out? Then you discovered it three months later. Still funny, right? Great. What’d you lose? Nothing.
Get into your studio, your space, put on your headphones and make your art. That’s the thing that people will discover three months from now. That clever Tweet or funny IG story is nice and all, but it’s gone in a day. Poof.
Put your top stuff on a site. Your writing, your photos, your music, your whatever. Give it a home where people can find it. And keeping filling it up. Keep adding. Make it your home.
People will find you when they find you, and it’ll probably be for your art, the magic you bring to the world.
Photo by Mick Haupt from Pexels
A month of loops (you can see them all here). My goal was to make music each day, even if “just” a loop that I liked, and I hit that mark. I’ve enjoyed the process. It got me out of bed in the morning, instead of scrolling through Instagram, so with that alone I’ve spent my time creating, learning, and crafting something, which I’m happy about.
Today’s loop is noisy, and dark, and off rhythm in a way I can’t explain, but it’s done. Not everything will be perfect, and that’s okay.
Just putting this out there – if anyone would like to join in – say with a melody, or a beat, or a video – please get in touch! I have no idea of that whole “musical collaboration over the internet” thing, but I’d love to dive in.
“Creators talk about Instagram as a game, a conversation forever circling “gaming the algorithm.” But the game is less like monopoly and more like poker. The house always wins,” Danielle Evans from ‘Algorithm is Gonna’ Get You: How Instagram Failed the Creative Class.”
Video by Pat Whelen from Pexels
I never know which way a loop is going to go. This one actually started off with some real bass, but I settled on synth bass instead, along with loops of dialogue chopped up into random bits.
There’s actually another version of this loop on my desktop, which vocals. It’s a radical departure from my other material with vocals, so I’m sitting on it. It’s odd to consider where some of these loops could go, without the “daily” limitation, but that’s something I’ll figure out eventually.
LIKES
“Just another reminder that in Welsh if you want to say ‘to calm my mind’ the traditional phrase directly translates to ‘to return to my trees,'” @_meggybread
Video by Kelly Lacy from Pexels
More loops, more beeps, more reverb. Remember, it’s not on / off, black or white. You don’t have to be in a recording studio or on an expensive set shooting a video. Start where you’re at, put it out there.
LIKES
“A lot of the “creator economy” is basically mainstreaming what bloggers have been doing for years now. Own your platform (WordPress + email list), sell products (PDFs, eBooks), build a community (FB groups). It’s like watching history repeat itself, but with different software,” @monicalent
“Stop calling yourself an “aspiring” writer. If you’re putting effort into writing, no matter how financially successful or big an audience, guess what, you’re already a writer. Stop selling your own passion and achievements short,” @mattmillswrites
Video by Pressmaster from Pexels
The fantastic Andy J Pizza gives some solid, practical advice in this podcast, talking all about using social media for your benefit while being mindful of the cost.
One of the biggest take-aways – stop focusing on new followers and instead put effort into engagement. People who follow you are the fans at your show, the friends at your gallery show, the people who bought a print.
Keep putting out killer work so you’re top of mind for the people who already raised their hand and said, “I want more of this.”
