new to the public

I discovered a great playlist on YouTube recently that does interviews with some of my favorite musicians and bands. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE41A65C99CED0F89

Loved the ones with Do Make Say Think, Cerberus Shoal, and James Blackshaw. Music from all of those was in the playlist I wrote The Invisible Forest/The Impossible Life to. Also Six Organs is hilarious and not at all what I expected based on the music he makes. One of the most mind-boggling things I’ve observed in the past year or two is how little correlation there is between the style that someone produces in art/music/what have you and their personality/affect. It could seem like two completely different people. At other times it makes perfect sense (which seems to be the case more often with singer-songwriters… or maybe I’m getting ahead of myself without conducting enough field research).

Some of the most turbulent, jarring, and singular (read: not calm) personalities I’ve known produce some of the most balanced, harmonious works I’ve ever seen. Conversely, I come off pretty calm in person, but my stuff rarely conveys such a feel. I suppose it could be related to the phenomenon of not making the kind of music you yourself listen to. I mean you could certainly try to steer things in a stylistic direction you like, but if you let yourself go free you really don’t choose where it takes you. It happens on its own, and you’re as if merely a filter of personality that bends the rays.

Anyway, a lot of the music from the aforementioned bands here not only became associated with the book I’ve been writing for the past year but helped create it, too. Sort of like a fertile ground or clearing space for the ideas to crop up from. I think this is what good music does. It creates a space behind the mind. Which I *think* is what James Blackshaw was saying in his interview, too. Watch it, that was one good interview.