Emptying your brain

When I was supposed to be revising for my a-levels I spent quite a lot of time writing and recording loads and loads of music. I think I convinced myself that it was sort of preparation for doing music tech at uni but…I think it was probably just procrastination and displacement activity on a grand scale.

Ever since then I’ve tended to write and record stuff in bursts, and then do nothing for ages. Inevitably this usually leads to me buying and selling music equipment on a weird, perpetual 2-year cycle that switches between boundless enthusiasm and a combination of regret and ennui. Another problem is that I never really finish anything, which probably hints at some sort of deep-seated personality flaw, but I like to think is more linked to the fact that I enjoy having ideas and fleshing them out a bit more than I do actually completing a song.

Anyway, I’m not entirely sure why I’m writing this. I think that it may be as a sort of bookmark so that I can look back and remember that in the summer of 2014 I was really enthusiastic about writing music for the first time in a long time. I think it helps that being in London has meant I’ve reconnected with some of my old, music-making friends, so there is some sort of external motivation to getting things done. I also find the whole thing incredibly relaxing, although it is an amazingly effective way of losing entire evenings or even whole days.

Who knows, maybe I’ll even finish something.