An Indie Musician's Diary Volume 4: Album two in the making

The Current Atmosphere Blocking Your Creativity

Jan 14th 2022

Thinking of Billie Eilish and the recent emo wave I guess it is trendy to be depressed and negative so allow me to rant on a darker note than usual. But I hope to offer you a way out of this indie musician black hole towards the end of this chapter so stick with me.

There are many things presently blocking my creativity and they are probably blocking yours as well. Here are a few:

#1 SMOG

One of the biggest is the present tone of the information smog that it is coming at us from all angles at every one of us. This infected group-pressure think is dividing us and chopping us into niched, arrogant semi-cultures and name calling idiots. The effect is that we songwriters take cover and wait for the verbal atmosphere to brighten. Let me tell you - it ain't gonna happen anytime soon!

I ask you, "Who wants to write songs when you have to weigh your every word and lose sleep over-editing for fear of being misunderstood and mislabeled as an evil person with ill intent when all you wanted to do was ask some honest questions or sing a sarcastic truth for a few laughs?" It's not allowed anymore.

So, we are left doing the next thing on the blocking list:

#2 TIP TOEING - "Gosh what did I just say?"

These days, we songwriters are forced to write "safe stuff" so we don't get kicked off of platforms. We are forced to keep our keep within the box of a certain genre for fear that we won't be understood. We have to check with our manager, mate and children if our videos are o.k. and what is left is not exactly what we wanted to say. We have to adjust our next album to what the stats the old release pointed to. We have to make sure that our song is its loudest and has the right arrangement .....

I can't even mention the positive effects of knowing Jesus without being laughed at and dissed. Christians are also divided and attacking one another. (Satan is leaping for joy.) Sad but true.

And, we are not allowed to hear all the information there is because there is someone behind every tree sitting there filtering it for fear that we might think for ourselves and do something harmful, (i.e. would rock their boat or ruin their investments. The news platforms tip toe too. Perhaps they are afraid of stakeholders? That brings me to my next point of what is blocking me. Fear!

#3 FEAR - "Keep your distance..."

The recent demic fears have caused venues to shut down meaning no live concerts and no income for us musicians. Everyone and hens mother is fearing either the sickness or the possible effects of the magical drug that is supposed to protect you from it. People fear facts. People fear everything. No one trust in God, science, politics, government, the justice system or global companies AND, especially, no one trusts their own parents anymore. Why ask mom or dad when you can Google it or simply ask your likeminded friends? That leads me to #4:

#4 MOBBING: The you and me syndrome

Age discrimination. I'm angry at young folks that put all of us older folks in a basket and call us "out of touch" with what younger folks feel. (We've been there done that by the way.) It's nothing new but they aren't even hiding their disdain for their parents today. I just heard a podcast where some young adults were trashing my generation and laughing at us. It used to be bad manners, now it is accepted and encouraged.  As far as I can tell they are more impressed with China launching an artificial sun than what their parent taught them.

The name calling doesn't stop there. Society is divided like never before and the news media encourages us to hate one another. When I was a kid in new York. I didn't even think about the colour of people's skin or question the pronouns I use to address people. I just liked everyone no matter who they were or where they came from or what they were into.

So?

All of this makes me want to give up and maybe I will. We'll see...at least I'm done trying to wrap my head around all this.

It is supposed to be fun to do music.

And then my husband says, "You can't stop now". So I have to continue doing song after song that he wants me to do? Not gonna happen. I MUST WANT TO CONTINUE FOR MY OWN SAKE. And you need to too. For you, only you.

The only way out of this mess is to be honest and bold. Stand up for the music you are making and be yourself. You can't wait for people to be nicer - they never will be.

You can't wait for people to like you. Maybe they will. maybe they won't.

Just make sure to love yourself and enjoy what you are doing as much as you can in this crazy, mixed up world and let the haters hate.

New release next week - I'm forcing myself.

It's Friday and I am going to get work on releasing another  song. (yawn).I have to change the ISRC code because it will be on an album later and they year is wrong, (thought I'd release it last year). Also, I need to check how to release a song as a single that will also be on an album later. So, I'll try to get back to you on that next week. 

In any case, after the release of a few songs in the works, I plan on scaling down to acoustic for a while using a common template for all the coming songs with robot (Landr) mastering because it just isn't worth the work to me any more to do everything amazingly at least as long as there is smog....

Sorry for the rant. Have a great weekend!

Until next time!

- Liz

www.featherheadmedia.com