tsunamidaily

maybe the way out really is in. i cannot sing for six months, doctor's orders. so, this site is stalled for a bit, and i will rotate up stuff that i have already recorded, i guess. i'm beginning another instrumental site which i will slowly introduce people to, but i have removed my former stalwart of a banner "experimental music mutating toward the masses" because this site has mutated toward a decidedly song-oriented direction now. i have no qualms about dropping the experimentalism in favor of song-- i'm writing far more true songs of late as opposed to what i have always termed "pieces," and my songwriting has become more and more direct, even wandering into blues and country, both of which are unforgivingly direct media. but i am more determined than ever not to be pigeonholed by myself or by musical partners, etc. the deathknell of any artist is to think they have arrived at a consistent style, to believe that they should fall into a certain genre. which is why junior brown will always be a better artist than alan jackson, even with a quarter of the latter's sales-- because of junior brown's restless experimentalism. and i am not slagging alan jackson-- just singling him out versus junior brown-- a comparison no artist would welcome. which is why the smiths should be required listening for anyone who thinks they want to write songs-- no matter how fey morrissey's voice might get, no matter how much irony might drip from his lyrics, no-one then and almost no-one now can express in three to five minutes what the smiths did in three to five minutes. if i myself put out something that i'm not pleased with, i'll kick my own ass. i welcome people's opinions on my suff, for good or for ill, but really, it's me i gotta live with at the end of the day-- so far, i have no problems going to sleep at night, though i wish i wasn't alone quite so often then. try as you might, you cannot always be original-- to quote someone who is rarely quotable--"there's only 2 or 3 songs-- and adam wrote 'em."-- keith richards. the difference is whether you make it your own, or whether you fall into fawning worship and cheap imitation. to quote someone who is almost always quotable-- "bad artists copy. good artists steal."-- pablo picasso. and that about sums it up. so i hope that i steal from the best here on this page, and may every song be one you think you have heard before, some slice of the collective unconscious. now, i think i'll go find a friend or two and we'll become collectively unconscious. what else does a good artiste do, anyway? lead an exemplary life? yes, i'm sure many a forgotten artist has trodden the unsodden path of sobriety and reigned-in impulses before. me, i'm letting my hair down before it tightens my scalp into a gale-force migraine. gotta go trudge through the snow, now-- it's about waistdeep, and i'm loving every white minute of it. "the only difference between a madman and myself is i am not mad." salvador dali. but only in moderation, said the caterpillar...