producing full time??

[machina]

Well, from a certain point-of-view, the problem is that you're potentially perpetuating stupidity and mediocrity. I think this is a different issue though - there's nothing wrong with making money from music - i just think that it can and often does lead to shit when it is a NECESSITY to make music, rather than something you do when you are feeling it.

I dunno man - aren't there plenty of people out there doing a good job of work they hate? Even creative work?

What about someone who likes techno, but hates the process of producing it, and does so anyway? What about someone who's a good producer, but hates the result, but knows that others like it?

It seems to me that people are very fast to couple the act of creation and the reasons for it with the result. Sure it's a huge advantage if you're into what you're making, but I don't think stupidity and mediocrity are necessarily the result if you're not, either...nor if you're just doing it for the money. Doing a good job regardless of those factors has a name; "professionalism".

I understand what you're saying and i agree to some extent - but i'm very much a perfectionist when it comes to any form of art and i think i can tell the difference between something that someone has put 110% passion, feeling and skill into, and something that is lacking in those areas. It's often the difference between a masterpiece and something which doesn't quite make it, and i'm not interested in stuff that doesn't quite make it... i know that that's a bit of an elitist point-of-view and not every track has to be the greatest thing ever done etc... i just think if you're gonna do it, ****ing do it right! :)

machina

[shpongled]

yeah, I've been thinking about this lately, and I've come to the conclusion that I would be totally *creatively* happy working for some tv or film or games. Think about it, if you write whatever form of electronic music it is you love, and they're asking you to write for them...you should still feel like you're creatively writing music that inspires you, but that it is just meant to be heard in a different way, as an 'accessory' to other mediums. People like Photek, Amon Tobin etc have done stuff for movies and games, and look at games like Midnight club 1 and 2 which licensed big techno, house, dnb and trance tunes to their games, that's pretty f'in cool in my opinion.

[FILTERZ]

There is porobably more honesty in making music for games , films and tv than if you are employing and trying to have a *hit*.
I THINK THATS JUST UGLY

[holotropik]

This is a tricky subject. Do what you must....but make sure you enjoy it :)

[acidsaturation]

I don't reckon that making music that you're not keen on the pay the bills is any different to any other shitty job - so long as it doesn't drain you for what you want to do. Didn't the guy who played Keyboards for the spice girls get it in his contract that thy shipped his mobile studio round the world on the spiceowrld tour. And doesn't robert miles always contend that that dreadful dreamtrance business was a calculated business venture..?

For me though I guess I prefer to keep it as relaxaation... ..at the moment

[BloodStar]

nice topic, ,.. i f we§re talking about making music for movies,,games,and so on,.would like to know, how many people here has the most important thing,,contatcs to people who are choosing the music for these games,,movies.
if you dont have some good contacts or friends on the right positions.,.,or you're not steve stoll,,amon tobin,,or someone like that,., i think,,there's no chance .,but would ilke to be wrong,.

[StoQ]

i think its rather way of life (full time producer) for hardcore mother****ers that like risk and they are smart enough to see many evants and changes in music. fast enough to be fresh with style and go forward.

[Mindful]

I quit my job a few month ago so I could get stuck into making some music in the way that I felt I needed to.
Dont get me wrong there is no way that I am thinking that im going to make any money out of it it was just a fact that between my other half,music and my job somthing had to give as none were getting my energy and focus the way that i wanted them to so I got rid of the thing that was least important too me(the job and good money)
Its only for about a year.
Im happy and managing moneywise plus I have a very understanding girlfriend.

As for making other forms of music for a way of paying the bills, to me thats the perfect dream.
Be it computer games, tv, film, whatever, You can still be innovative in the way you do it you dont have to "sell out" you can still do these things your way.
;)

[fresh_an_funky_design]

selling your soul to pay your bills is ok in my book.

I strongly disagree. Making (shitty) music to pay the bills takes fun and passion out of it and will only burn you out - the last thing that you wanna do after making crap for days on end is go BACK to the studio, it's the last place you'll want to be. Plus, you can't tell me that you're music doesn't get compromised by HAVING to do it to make money - this is precisely the reason that there are so many shitty releases - especially by bigger names - they release 2nd rate shit because they have to in order to eat and they know idiots will buy it.

machina

with any job there shit things that have to be done. Even if your a music producer doing the shitty stuff has to be done. Thats why they can produce music full time. I'd make a cheesy euro trance tune once a week if it ment i didnt have to work the rest of the week!

[machina]

I'd make a cheesy euro trance tune once a week if it ment i didnt have to work the rest of the week!

i wouldn't. can't think of anything worse to do with my time really.

machina

[AcidTrash]

I gave up everything to make music for about two years and I don't regret a single day of it. However, I do regret every single day I go into work to pay for those two years instead of being able to get on with my current affairs. It will take a full 12 months to fully pay for the time I spent producing all the time. Mind you, it's a bargain considering how long some graduates have to work to pay off their three years at uni.

One thing I will say though... Producing full time is pointless. Music must be a soundtrack to life and not the whole of it. If you're not getting out there being hurt and angered and annoyed or pleased and enthused about stufff then it will reflect in the music you make and you and your music will be boring.

Now I'm working I make fewer tracks but the track I do make ar far better than I could ever have imagined making a year ago adn the opportunity to listen to my old stuff having had a break has allowed me to view my works objectivly and through this I have learned to perfect some of them. Something you simply cannot do if you're playing with techno all the time.

Those long quiet bus journeys to work have given me the headspace to consider what I truly want from music. Sometimes listening to silence gives you more insight into what sounds should be like.

Producing full time left me broke, very ill, socially inept (more so than now) and jealous of just about everyone who had a life and the ability to do simple things like pay into a club or go for a curry.

Eventually you hit rock bottom if you're not workiing and sometime you get yourself so deep in a hole you just can't climb out. I was lucky that a very kind lady reached out to me and pulled me out of that rut. I was falling to bits and I'd lost sight of the simple things in life you're supposed to enjoy. Even good bread and nice cheese seemed like something only rich folks could have.

My roof was leaking and I kept running out of electricity on the meter and there was nothing I could do and no-one I could borrow from and my clothes were threadbare. It's the closest I've been to poverty and was only ojne step up from homeless for a long time. I didn't like it one bit.

I now have a responsibility to myself to make sure I never get that lonely, depressed, skint or ill again. In hindsight I admire my former self for dedication to the cause and the blind faith that it would be rewarded and it was rewarded to some small extent but the people who did well out of my efforts were the least deserving of them.

Successful living is about balance. Excesses of anything is the road to ruin.

In terms of techno, it's a well being thing. It requires much thought and much effort and if you're not looking after yourself there no way in hell you can expect your music to reflect well on you. A tired clouded mind produces tired clouded music.

[machina]

brilliant post :clap: couldn't agree more.

machina

[danielmarshall]

Ditto. A really inspiring read.

I've actually found that I play guitar allot better now than I used to because ironically I haven't been practicing. Before hand I'd play scales, practice arpegios and do fnger exercises for 2 hours a day, and you know what? I got completely bored of playing guitar. Now I've reached the same point with techno. Time for a break.

[Mindful]

Decent post from you for a change that Pedro.
Its a shame that you didnt use your time in this deep hole to make some decent depression inspired techno.
Hehe I am of course pulling yer leg.

Is a good read that.

[Komplex]

100% agree with Machina

[dirty_bass]

Yeah, I`ve done my time on poverty row for my music.
I`m lucky to now have a very well paying job, in which I can work as many hours as I choose.
But I`m looking to move more full time in the studio, as I don`t just make techno, there is a lot I can do with the other music.
So if you want to go full time into the studio, do something other than techno, variety is the spice of life, and making the same type of music all the time will lead you to repeated methods etc anyway.
As for selling your soul? why, you can make very commercial music and still put your heart and soul into it without compromising your integrity.

[AcidTrash]

"So if you want to go full time into the studio, do something other than techno"

It's still sitting in a room in front of shiny boxes and never going out whther you're making avant garde hip hop jaz or acid gabba tho.

[dirty_bass]

I'd make a cheesy euro trance tune once a week if it ment i didnt have to work the rest of the week!

i wouldn't. can't think of anything worse to do with my time really.

machina

Yeah, I have to agree, you can be commercial without being derivative and damaging.

Making stuff that actually has a negative effect, say for dance mousic, by cheapning it, and skewing peoples perspective of it, ie making cheap, thoughtless pop dance, is ugly.

If you make something commercial, in the fact that it gives a wider scope of people enjoyment, yet you still do it with passion and emotion, there is a big difference. You can make a big commercial dance tune, that just explodes (for example) yet isn`t about repeating a format, or pandering to the norm.

not everything that becomes commercial or a hit, is necessarily bad or mindless.

But you can tell the stuff that is made to formula and format, ie Westlife, from the more genuine.

[Jay Pace]

I'd love to quit and produce.

But I'm not very good, and it would be the equivalent of quitting to concentrate on professional sumo wrestling.

I'd settle for having much, much more free time and not working 50 hours a week. A day off a week would be amazing. But in my industry that is never, ever going to happen.

grumble grumble