By a Mr. Niklas Lukassen
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How can this blog be more valuable
While I’m writing a series of posts about how I can make my music less self-serving, I need to ask how I can make this blog less self-serving.
I think people land here and immediately read it as something akin to a friend’s flyer for their own show. It’s an ad for their self-serving creative life. If you’re going to their show, it’s a favor. They’re not helping you, you’re helping them, no different than helping them move or giving them a ride.
I have tried to make this blog more valuable by incorporating other people’s music, but those posts get no more interest than posts for my own music.
I despair.
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Anesthetic
What is my music FOR? How can I make a contribution? One answer is balm. Solace. Painkiller. Healing.
Dreams heal too. You have a bad experience, or you’re afraid of something, and your dream reflects it in a way that lets you process. Music is not just metaphorically similar to dreaming, it works the same way in your life.
A ChatGPT session:
Here are some band name ideas related to anesthetic:
- Sedation Station
- Numb Rhythms
- Ether Echoes
- Twilight Tunes
- Morphine Melodies
- Anesthetic Ambience
- Dreamland Dose
- Novocaine Notes
- Faint Frequencies
- Insensate Serenade
- Opiate Orchestra
- Hypno Harmony
- Chloroform Chords
- Lidocaine Lullaby
- Benzodream Beats
These names play on the idea of anesthesia, sedation, and the dreamlike state it induces.
–ChatGPT
Prompt: What is the saddest music by Scott Joplin?
Scott Joplin, known as the “King of Ragtime,” is renowned for his lively and infectious compositions rather than for creating sad music. However, one piece that might be considered among his more melancholic works is “Solace: A Mexican Serenade.” While it retains some of the syncopated rhythms characteristic of Joplin’s ragtime style, it has a slower tempo and a more introspective mood compared to his other compositions. Though not overtly sad, it carries a certain wistfulness that some listeners interpret as melancholic.
ChatGPT prompt number two: “bands with names related to anesthesia”
While there may not be bands directly named after anesthesia, some bands have names that evoke a sense of numbness, altered states, or dreamlike qualities, which could be indirectly related. Here are a few examples:
- Sleep – While not directly related to anesthesia, the name evokes a sense of altered consciousness and relaxation.
- Dead Meadow – The name suggests a dreamlike or altered state, akin to being under anesthesia.
- Morphine – This band’s name directly references a powerful pain-relieving drug, which is sometimes used in anesthesia.
- The Flaming Lips – While not directly related to anesthesia, the name conjures up surreal and dreamy imagery.
- The Velvet Underground – Again, not directly related, but the name suggests a state of altered consciousness or dreaminess.
These bands may not have names explicitly related to anesthesia, but their names evoke feelings or concepts that could be tangentially related.
–ChatGPT
No, I’m wrong about “Solace” being about the death of Scott Joplin’s wife.
Bethena: A Concert Waltz was the first piece Joplin wrote after his wife, Freddie, tragically died of pneumonia in September 1904, 10 weeks after their wedding.
—Classic.fmStill not that sad. Not that real. It feels forced. He was trying to find redemption already, too soon.
This blog is about my own music, and in a way this post is inward looking, but it is written to connect emotionally, to serve a purpose, to entertain, to give people who stop by a satisfying moment. Despite the vanity of making music, I wrenched my gaze away from the mirror and tried to be of use.
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I won’t fear the big questions about my own music
Ask yourself what is your music for. There is plenty already. Why make more?
What is the good reason to exist? Why disturb the silence? What makes it better than ambient sound?
Commit to making a contribution to the world.
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Patch Notes: Hélène Vogelsinger
As part of the practice behind Hélène Vogelsinger’s modular synthesizer compositions, she explores abandoned places, connecting with their energies to create immersive moments.
For her Patch Notes performance, she serendipitously stumbled across an abandoned castle in the French countryside.
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Paranoid Friend
I like these words as a potential band name or album title:
Paranoid Friend
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Retreat not defeat
The name “there is only” does not work and did not work. I have retreated to my given name.
The hierarchy of band names:
- Unacceptable: an invented name that is bad
- Non-harmful: a person’s name
- Helpful: an invented name that is excellent
I will have to re-issue the Bandcamp/streaming release.
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Shout out to Frank Wakefield
The excellent – raw, messy, soulful, but whip smart – mandolin player Frank Wakefield has died. It was a musical life well lived.
The NY Times has a warm obituary. Frank Wakefield, Who Expanded the Mandolin’s Range, Dies at 89: “an innovative bluegrass mandolinist whose sweeping musicality led to collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and Jerry Garcia, and whose unique voicings and technique expanded the parameters of his instrument”
I think they miss the mark, though. His playing was awkward and red hot, more like the blues mandolinist Yank Rachel than next-gen newgrass virtuosos like David Grisman. He DID a sharp mind and wasn’t afraid to go highbrow, like with his Bach recordings, but his touch was always earthy.