Mark's first ever techno record thread really has me thinking, and this is something ive toyed with in my mind for a few years now....

can influence be a bad thing? of course everyone needs a starting point, something that sparks a fire inside and pushes you to strive to create the sounds you want, but can too much influence be a bad thing? Can wishing to be part of something so much, or to be up there alongside those you admire, blind you from your ultimate goals?

i personally think so. I think over the past say 7, 8 years this has become more and more apparent, with more and more *insert fave artists name here* a-likes appearing all the time. Dont get me wrong, im not saying this is a bad thing, because some people do go on to find a sound they can genuinely call their own, and use this as a spring board to carving their own niche in the scene, but obviously, alot dont.

i make a point of listening to not much techno at all at home, depending on my mood too, because i find myself getting so excited by my fave artists, and sometimes i find my output that week or day or whatever is affected by this, albeit subconciously, and sometimes its not apparent until ive wasted a few hours on something that whilst technically stands up, artistically comes too close to the line of sounding like people i admire

on the flipside, i find that when i havent listened to techno or electronic music as a whole in a while at home, and im in the studio, i feel this great sense of freedom, because im not thinking of such and such a record or artist and my subconcious is, seemingly, free to do as it pleases, and this is when i find i do my most original and personally gratifiying work, and these have (with the exception of one release) gone on to be my best records and personally the records that i am most proud off

im rambling on here a bit i guess but im just looking for some opinions on this, as im guessing some of you must have had this same experience at some point or another