I was in the van Gogh room and I had this realization that our industry, the music industry is totally fucked up. totally anti-art. The way the painters would do hundreds of paintings a year. just let themselves go free do whatever they wanted to in the moment – freely express themselves as artists and how in the music industry we aren’t even supposed to make more than one album a year for fear of wasting it because the “fans” don’t want to buy more than one album a year from the same artist… all these rules. Have to just break the whole fucking thing wide open. and let the pieces crumble down around us. MTV and the radio has murdered the art form of music. just obliterated it.
When I got home tonight from the museum – great chili by the way at this restaurant that sells nothing but soup, that’s another story, only in New York, is there a better place in the world? maybe not — I sat and watched videos with this twelve year old kid who lives upstairs, Tyler. We get along great. Hang out a bit on the rare occasion that I am home. we jam on our guitars and listen to music and watch videos. I’m up in his room watching videos… I wonder what his parents think.. they always thank me for hanging out with him, so that’s cool. I guess they don’t mind. so yeah we’re sitting there watching videos and I was horrified by how bad the music was in most of these really popular songs… just couldn’t believe it. they all sound the same. Very generic and formulaic. I’m sitting there swigging red wine from the bottle and Tyler is asking me for some. Man I need some wine. This music is so bad, he tells me. Bro you’re twelve. You don’t drink wine. Drown your sorrows in Coke. As a twelve year old he even hears it. he has posters of bob Dylan and Bruce springsteen and the Beatles and the stones and zeppelin all over his walls in his bedroom. NOT the modern music of today. and this is a twelve year old. Even he hears how crappy today’s POPular music is compared to the older music. (not that there isn’t great music being made right now, because there is, lots of it. its just not popular.) and the kid is fucking twelve. So its not just me and the guys in the band. the labels tell us that we have to listen to more of the music of today and try to make our next album more like that. that our sound is too left of center, that it doesn’t sound like anything out today. after watching MTV tonight with Tyler I am glad about that. no wonder we don’t sound like the music of today. how the fuck are we supposed to do that? we are fucking creative for gods sake. We are creators. Not craftsmen. Nuts. Totally fucking nuts.
I’ve decided to form another band or two. And continue on in recording more than one album at the same time. I would like to work on all three at the same time right now. with three different themes and three different producers. The rules say you don’t do that. on all accounts according to industry standards I am totally off base. But from this point forward I am saying goodbye to all the rules of the business. just saying fuck it to everything that anyone has ever told me about the music business and what you are supposed to do and not do. its all just hype and crap anyway. The only thing that matters is the art itself at this point.
Being in the museum reminded me how inspirational painting can be for music making. Endless hours of inspiration. New ideas and new possibilities abound.
Current spin: Morrocco, sands of time. this is totally out there, off the dial stuff. non-pop. Brilliant. I could listen to it forever.
Last screening: earth girls are easy. o.k. I think I have now finally seen the worst movie of all time.