What are your long term music goals?

Let's chat... aspirations.. career level? ... hobbyist? ... part time? ... ya i know i sound like a douchey idm guidance counselor but im truly curious...

 

have you already "reached" whatever your goal is / already happy where you are?

 

not sure?... seeing where it goes?... experimenting?.. none of the above?... fuck off, lane visitor?... none of my business?... stupid thread?... "this is the thread youve been waiting for all your liiiiife"?

 

It's clear we all breathe and live for music on this forum.. and that there are many aspiring and even already some established artists, producers and engineers that are members... what say you all? where are we going with all of this? is it something most of you are content with doing for a few hrs after coming home from a long day at the mainstream office job or just on weekends in between stuff, for as long as you live? or are you striving for / wanting to reach something more? that something more could be everything from getting released on youre fav underground net label or doing more local gigs / collabing with other artists over watmm all the way to becoming the next boards of canada, nin, or even justin beiber (no one should judge your goals and what they look like!) maybe you're fortunate enough not to need to have a 9-5 for whatever reason, and so you spend a lot of time making music because you can and are working toward taking that as far as you can, or maybe you're in that position, and youre just having fun and creating and seeing where it goes? im sure it's not black and white as we all have our own unique circumstances, outlooks and goals when it comes to doing what we love. (: im just fascinated by what other fellow musicians/artists/producers aspire toward, their current situations, and their outlook on what they do...

Edited February 7, 2015 by Lane Visitor

i'd like to pull my tascam & mics out of the boxes they've been in since 2005 and mic up my drums again.

i'm gonna do what i want & i'm gonna get paid

 

current year goal is to do a lot of albums in a lot of different genres. been playing live jams, learning to play piano again, etc etc. get more into the irl scene because i feel as if the internet is a vast & convoluted wilderness & posting trax on forums might not get a man to the big leagues any time soon. play shows etc (montreal watmmers let's jam yooo)

Fun topic.

My answer is simple though: to get better. It would be awesome to have some kind of job out of it someday, like sound design or scoring something or other.

 

love it... immediate goals that actually include recording instruments. can't get more real and present than that

Edited February 7, 2015 by Lane Visitor

Release my EP that I'm finishing up. start working on an LP. Best case scenario is people like my music and i get signed to a small internet label of like minded artists.

 

Trying not to go into it with any expectations so as not to come out disappointed.

 

Edit: Oh, also it'd be cool if a filmmaker used my music in their documentary.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Danny O Flannagin

I will make music for myself and release it on soundcloud... making an album or such is quite boring for me, but I'll try... Also I would like to play live and basically make music for my own projects (animations, etc.)

  On 2/7/2015 at 12:29 AM, logakght said:

making an album or such is quite boring for me, but I'll try

try it! sometimes albums feel like a dead medium to me, but then i go & make one and...i dunno, it's like my perception of those tracks has changed. It's like listening to an era of my life suddenly rip off from the eternal now & float up in the sky where I can see the overall shape of the thing. it's like i understand myself better...and as years go by & the album gets further away it's as if an entirely different person made it

 

it's not quite the same with tracks, especially ones that are less than an album old. they all still feel like connected bits of me that eventually will be sorted away

been thinking about this as i'm aproaching releasing my debut album. and i think i want a pat on the back and a 'good job'. i play in a popular local band on bass guitar and i just got back from a packed club where we played a show and being around so much people triggers every possible anxiety i have. so yeah. fame and fortune not really. but a friendly asurance i'm not wasting my time is good enough for me

  On 2/7/2015 at 12:33 AM, Cryptowen said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 12:29 AM, logakght said:

making an album or such is quite boring for me, but I'll try

try it! sometimes albums feel like a dead medium to me, but then i go & make one and...i dunno, it's like my perception of those tracks has changed. It's like listening to an era of my life suddenly rip off from the eternal now & float up in the sky where I can see the overall shape of the thing. it's like i understand myself better...and as years go by & the album gets further away it's as if an entirely different person made it

 

it's not quite the same with tracks, especially ones that are less than an album old. they all still feel like connected bits of me that eventually will be sorted away

 

 

my question is how do ppl pump out quality releases and albums so quickly?? i know i can be a hardcore ocd/perfectionist, but shit, ive released only 3 serious full albums (that i would even bother showing anyone) in my lifetime so far...and those were with bands/projects i was in - not solo stuff.

 

(of course this doesnt include the countless other collab tracks, eps, projects, my original vaporwave works, albums ive produced for other artists etc, crappy releases my old punk bands put out etc all in between my albums).

 

with all that said i have a GAZZILLIONNNN partial songs, incomplete tracks, tracks in the works, snippets, ideas etc that ive made throughout my life scattered through out various hard drives on my pc that will prob never see the light of day /: too bad, cuz some i think have potential to be amazing. ...

 

this is why, on weekends, id mostly rather work on my music than go to friends damn birthday parties lol

Edited February 7, 2015 by Lane Visitor

>Release a 12" people buy

>Play a gig

 

Not mind blowing, but then again I've no desire to be a career musician.

Edited February 7, 2015 by chassis

^ that would be dope to have a release on wax

I'm gonna make a track this weekend. After that, I think I'll improvise.

Have fun twiddling knobs and sliders. If I deem anything worth putting out there for anyone other than me hearing then it will somehow reach a few ears. If those ears like it then I'll be stoked, if not then I don't mind as I had fun making the stuff.

I have enough stuff for many releases but finding time and motivation to take them to a state of closure is hard for me but I would really like to put out an album, something with weight and cohesion. I really love the album concept.

I've come to realize that it does ring true for me that these bigger questions I analyze a lot can be more easily answered when the smaller things are addressed, like what some of the posts on here have said - "to release a track this weekend, to put out a vinyl release, to finish my album, to get better at piano, etc".. this line of thought is indeed more productive than the more abstract "where am i going with all of this", and the maddening part is that you really can't have full control over "where am i going with all of this in the future", whereas you can control "when am i going to edit those tracks i recorded for my next single", which are essential queries to getting closer to where those bigger questions are trying to reach...

 

sometimes, though, regardless of that truth, i can become consumed with the bigger question, what path am i on? where do i want to be?

 

personally, i think this stems from the fact that i become extremely fascinated with so many different styles, roles and visions, (artist / songwriter / producer / engineer) almost to the point where even though I know I could be more productive if I honed in on a role and a niche and stuck with that, I'd almost rather have the ability to jump from one aspect to the next and keep create different types of music. I'm honestly sick of the narrative in the music industry that goes "do one thing and be reeeally good at it... or... find a very specific niche and stick to that and be prolific and keep releasing stuff in that scene/sound in order to market yourself" i don't understand how to do that, it sometimes doesn't seem human to me. as humans, we're so varied and colorful and we change and we try new things and grow. But maybe that's just me.. i know that some people can make only dark minimal tribal techno for like 15 years and only that, and be fucking amazing at it with like 25 albums and eps under their belt. i definitely appreciate that level of commitment and refinery. I think that would kill my spirit.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Lane Visitor

  On 2/7/2015 at 12:39 AM, Lane Visitor said:

my question is how do ppl pump out quality releases and albums so quickly??

i'm inspired by the jandek/muslimgauze types in this regard - ie produce all the time if you want to, don't get caught up worrying if it's "good" because that's totally subjective. what's more important is feeling that sense of connection to your work. whether that means you're producing five tracks a day or one track every five years, it don't matter. do you get into the all-encompassing cashflow moneymind of the big now (i dunno man i don't even smoke weed much these days wtf was that last sentence)

 

as far as individual tracks go - i like to work quick, often do the track in one session (not always. but it's been rare i go more than a week). that's when the interesting ideas start coming - constant novelty. bang bang get it done, move along to the next one. always invested in the work but never in a projected result. oops that one was shit. too bad work files are deleted. oops that one had a messed up recording - hey wait actually that's kind of interesting. where did that come from?

 

and then after a year or so i have hundreds of these things lying around & some of them are really interesting to me & I have no recollection about the specific methods i used to produce them, because when i'm on my A Game it's a combination of following my built-up formulas & messing around. The little mistakes & unintended quirks - that's where the really striking elements of art emerge imo

  On 2/7/2015 at 1:08 AM, Cryptowen said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 12:39 AM, Lane Visitor said:

my question is how do ppl pump out quality releases and albums so quickly??

i'm inspired by the jandek/muslimgauze types in this regard - ie produce all the time if you want to, don't get caught up worrying if it's "good" because that's totally subjective. what's more important is feeling that sense of connection to your work. whether that means you're producing five tracks a day or one track every five years, it don't matter. do you get into the all-encompassing cashflow moneymind of the big now (i dunno man i don't even smoke weed much these days wtf was that last sentence)

 

as far as individual tracks go - i like to work quick, often do the track in one session (not always. but it's been rare i go more than a week). that's when the interesting ideas start coming - constant novelty. bang bang get it done, move along to the next one. always invested in the work but never in a projected result. oops that one was shit. too bad work files are deleted. oops that one had a messed up recording - hey wait actually that's kind of interesting. where did that come from?

 

and then after a year or so i have hundreds of these things lying around & some of them are really interesting to me & I have no recollection about the specific methods i used to produce them, because when i'm on my A Game it's a combination of following my built-up formulas & messing around. The little mistakes & unintended quirks - that's where the really striking elements of art emerge imo

 

 

nice.. yeah, i agree that working quick is key. i took 6/7 years on one album of 15 tracks once (although i put out releases in between then and was in and out of bands in that time too). God, that album... it was necessary to draw a line in my work and satisfy my spirit and mind by putting it out (i even turned down a proposal/opportunity to play live and do continued production work with a rising semi-successful indie act just to finish it ), still i have no regrets, but fuck was my music partner and i tired of those songs. i mean tired to the point of absurdity. that state of mind is never good to be working on music. ive learned that lesson for sure. but sometimes you just haave to put out certain releases no matter what lol, even if just for yourself. now, as i scramble with countless new projects and older things im trying to get out, im trying to get them done as fast as possible, but i often have fear that theyll either be too rushed and wasted potential or ill sit on them too long and theyll get stale and ill never release them.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Lane Visitor

fuck all.

Fuck a shitload of hot groupies.

  On 2/7/2015 at 12:33 AM, Cryptowen said:

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 12:29 AM, logakght said:

making an album or such is quite boring for me, but I'll try

try it! sometimes albums feel like a dead medium to me, but then i go & make one and...i dunno, it's like my perception of those tracks has changed. It's like listening to an era of my life suddenly rip off from the eternal now & float up in the sky where I can see the overall shape of the thing. it's like i understand myself better...and as years go by & the album gets further away it's as if an entirely different person made it

 

it's not quite the same with tracks, especially ones that are less than an album old. they all still feel like connected bits of me that eventually will be sorted away

 

 

yeah its cuz I would like to have a cohesive album, not only throw a bunch of tracks to it... When making an album I would like it to be kindof conceptual, like telling a story... That's why its somehow difficult to me... But I'll try it. :)

boats and hoes

work on music everyday. feel that passion that i used to feel from creation. learn everything i can about my hardware. release music that people enjoy. maybe release on a net label.

Good answers in here, hope i dont come across as a wanker but here i go.

 

Recently ive been thinking about this a lot. In the past year ive been so fucking lucky to have had a song released on wax on a compilation on a local label which was my first goal.. I then set my target to an international label and was really lucky to be approached by a somewhat reputable Canadian label to do a solo 12" which really was a dream come true, never thought id be able to work with a label i admire but it actually happened..

Since then i've had gigs, livesets and a huge amount of opportunity as ive been offered to do a whole lot of new work. Ive got 3 records in production, 2 more , (1 comp 1 solo 12") that are off for mastering before pressing and a c/s album in production. I also have labels who have asked if i would be interested in working with them which for new records which is insane to me but ill take it.

 

Its really been surreal and amazing, the feedback has been more then i ever could have expected but i honestly didnt get this satisfaction i thought I would. I dunno what i was expecting tbh but its created this desire to improve and get better in every way possible and continue to work on and release music that im happy with and do it all on my terms.. Its been unusual.

 

The more i think about it i think i want to start a label. I slowly have a growing network of very awesome friends i want to release music that i like. I like experimental music and i want to be involved doing something new and exiting and doing it the way i want to. And while i try and do that work on my music, grow to be better and better every time i sit down to work. I still feel even after like 9 years of production im still learning something new every track. Its really a great time for music imo.

 

in saying all this i have no idea if working in the music industry is something i would want to do for a fulltime job. seems stressful and full on for a lot of people ive spoken too. In this era its hard to be an artist and really do what you want. money is in gigs until you get picked up by a mega label i feel, its an odd one

To make good lore I enjoy listening to. Reached that goal a while ago so now I just do things. Actually, I guess that means I have no long-term goals. Nice!

Edited February 7, 2015 by Friendly Foil

  On 2/7/2015 at 12:12 AM, Lane Visitor said:

aspirations..

 

I like creating beautiful things.

Never. I can always make something better.

 

  On 2/7/2015 at 12:39 AM, Lane Visitor said:

my question is how do ppl pump out quality releases and albums so quickly?? i know i can be a hardcore ocd/perfectionist, but shit, ive released only 3 serious full albums (that i would even bother showing anyone) in my lifetime so far...and those were with bands/projects i was in - not solo stuff.

 

It's their full time job. It also helps to not be a perfectionist. I know a lot of people who create perfect things. I create imperfect things, release them, and move on to make more, better ones.