Issue #13 - Gospel Drums
Just watched like 40 minutes of ?uestlove's RedBull Music Academy video, that's where the title comes from. Specifically, he references the huge drum fills that gospel drummers would do and how his approach is... pretty much antithetical to that. He wanted to be specifically cold, in the back, alone, mechanical. I thought: isn't there some middle ground?
Previously in my life I have been interested in "competitive" things, things with a skill ceiling, but I think what makes music so interesting to me (and also what may potential lead me to pursue it for the rest of my life) is the fact that there isn't necessarily any correct answers. I'm pretty much convinced that there's no such thing as a bad sound, there is only bad context.
I worked like 10 hours on my tracks today. I guess it was interspersed with a lot of bullshit, but I completed finished 2 high-quality tracks. I'm happy with that. Last night, too, I went to a local show and met some people. Pretty interesting to hear hip-hop filtered through the local culture. I've almost forgot that that NY hat has anything to do with baseball.
I'm still on this not "really thinking" type wave. I don't really know what happened to me. It's just like I'm just not particularly having thoughts anymore. I would explain more than that but if I could, then it wouldn't be a problem (see, Gregory Bateson's double-bind theory). Stuck there a lot. Happened sometime during the summer, or maybe shortly after my move. Dunno.
The music is speaking something for me though. I am facing the visceral fact that there may very well be no redemption. There very well not be accolades. There very will not be worldliness. That is what I want... isn't it? Is this not the award now? (Rhetorical). I'm only this age now, and if I die tomorrow, I have lived. Even to ride my bicycle to the sound of soul music I've found at a record store... I don't have words to describe the gratitude I have for the sun on my skin. It will never be now again.