Ah, music. Have you ever met a person who has not been moved by a particular song or arrangement? Even my current roommate, who says he is the most musically challenged person in all of New York, is moved by Chopin and Tchaikowsky.
I always find my writing process is hugely inspired by music. Being a musician, it is hard for me to listen to many things for fear of me being distracted by trying to take apart how the song is put together. “Oh, the bass player is doing something interesting here,” or “sounds like he’s using a combination of wah and delay pedal here.”
In no particular order then, these are the artists I’ve been listening to for the past couple of months while working on “Pyronic Technique.”
Sigur Ros. The Rolling Stones. Krishna Das (and all sorts of other Kirtan music). Thievery Corporation. Phish. Deadmau5. Kronos Quartet (especially the album they did for the Fountain soundtrack).
Not really much of a trend there. Some of the stuff you could categorize together, but really it’s just a random assortment of different styles, different genres. The only way you could really group these artists together that would make sense, at least in my head, is that they all drive me forward. They push my creative process forward, bringing it along for a ride. They turn something on inside of me which makes me aspire to create, which makes me want to write.
As I said before, not all bands or musicians do this to me. I listen to The Clash or Hendrix and I’m usually too distracted to focus too much on my writing. I want to be immersed in their respective lyrics or guitar virtuosity. Are there artists who drive you forward? Maybe it’s not music which does it for you, but paintings, or spoken word, or the smell of a loved one’s cooking.
Whatever it is, identify it, and make it work for you.
Jared Rinaldi 