Are You Listening?
It’s hard work listening to music like that. It’s the same with avant garde classical music, like the concert I went to a few weeks ago by Krzysztof Penderecki. Music like that puts you on edge. You can’t relax into it, like with Bossa Nova or a nice warm waltz. It wrestles with something inside of you.
It’s hard to listen.
So after talking about the boundaries that free jazz challenged, and what we found so hard about it to appreciate, we were asked the question, “what is listening?”
At first I thought it was a silly question. What’s listening? Well, of course it’s... it’s... but I couldn’t think of a coherent, succinct answer that could really sum up what listening means.
Actually, it is one of the most passive, sometimes even involuntary acts that we can do as humans. Don’t wish that you could just turn your ears off sometimes and not have to listen?
But even though it is such an automatic part of our lives, the act of listening is a complex process. It is, in it’s most basic form, turning our attention to the sound waves that are hitting our eardrums. If I listen now, I hear the steady hum of my air conditioning unit, I hear my fingers typing on the keyboard, I hear a muted wave of traffic 20 storeys below me, and occasionally I hear the call of a bird or the beep of a horn.
Listening reminds me of where I am. It places me squarely in my surroundings.
But listening to music can have the total opposite effect. When you really listen to music, you can be transported to other universes: lost in a sea of sound or emotion or memories.
When you actively listen to music, that is; when you give it your full attention (yes that means turning off all of your other devices...) you allow yourself to fully appreciate all that the artist has layered and placed into their work. There is a difference between hearing and listening.
For example, a lot of people have heard The Police’s song “Every Breath You Take”. In fact, it’s the world’s most played song on radio. But a lot of people have never really listened to it. Most people think it’s a nice, happy love song about being committed to each other.
But when you listen to the song, you will discover that it is about something much darker, much more sinister. It’s about control, about fear and losing love. It’s a little bit creepy, when you really think about it!
When we don’t listen, we miss the point. We don’t fully comprehend.
This is true for music, but also for so many other aspects of our lives. Who are we not properly hearing in our lives? Whose voice is being drowned out? Do we ever just listen to one singular voice? Do we ever make time for silence?
Are you listening? You might just hear something that will shake you up.
Small
The first glance of the great crack in the earth’s crust stole a beat from my heart and the air from my lungs.
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Do You Know Who You Are?
This question sums up the struggle that we as artists face constantly, daily even, in creating authentic art for ourselves and our audiences.
And it was the question that I was asked by a music producer during our first meeting. It took me by surprise; perhaps I was hoping for some concrete advice, like “you need to work on this...” or “have you tried that...” or even “let me introduce you to...”.
But he simply asked me if I knew who I was.
I was surprised to find myself answering that Yes, I know who I am, and I think I could say with some clarity and conviction. In fact, I wouldn’t have been sitting in front of him if I didn’t know who I was. It is precisely because I know who I am that I have chosen to come on this journey and pursue music full time.
But on the other hand, my authenticity has not been really tested or tried yet. I am sure that plenty of artists start out full of high ideals and unwavering commitment to the purity of their art form, but as time and opportunity and influence and responsibility and practicality keep pounding upon them, they are slowly worn down to just produce what sells, what is safe, what is expected.
Where does compromising your value as an artist start? If I change the structure of a song I write to make it more listenable by adding a chorus, is that compromising my value? If I adjust the melody to create a better hook, is that selling out? If I water down the lyrics to make it more acceptable, is that hiding my identity?
It is a fine line. And I hope it is one that tI walk for the rest of my life. Because it actually shows a deep commitment to making art that people want to access, as well as making art that rings true with my soul.
Creating requires that we look inside ourselves and examine what we find. I read a beautiful article that says “Creation requires us to dig deep within ourselves, to face the things we’d rather ignore, to confront our inner brokenness as well as the beauty stored up within.” And it necessitates knowing what we actually want to say through our work. Art without purpose is just form.
Art, like just about everything in life, is compromise.
But when you know who you are, you know the lines that you will not cross.