Creation vs Channeling

[Lew Bear]

I wrote a new song last night, among my best (in this discussion I'm talking relative to myself, not to anyone else) and it happened after a couple of days struggling through creating a song that turned out mostly shit. This song went from nothing, to finished in less than half an hour, it felt channelled - whether it be channelled from my subconscious, or spirits and angels or whatever I guess depends on your beliefs, but it was channelled nonetheless

This is a recurring pattern - whenever I channel a song, it is loads better than those I spend hours carving out.

I do have some good songs that I've spent time on creating, but it probably works out at an average of 1 in 10 that I've written that way, whereas channelled ones are all among my best

Anyone else get this?

[Djay Buddha]

Yeah Definitely Lew
When I sit down to write poetry it is the same for me I can spend hours days on a poem and it is shit, but on the ocassions that a poem just flows from me they are undoubtedly the best an example being the Rock Salt Kid written in 5 mins while on Loom
Try not to over analyse and just thank whatever or whoever channelled the song through you..

[John Holliday]

All the time Lew...and like yourself, songs I consider to be good are definitely relative to me. That made me think.... to a Buddhist chanting Om would be the same as a Disco Deva singin Yes Sir I can Boogie.....I digress as usual....Actually writing something is not a problem, I like the process, I think my problem comes when I actually try to sing and play it.....I always seem to falter, make mistakes, whereas when you use stream of conciousness you can use the mistakes as part of the flow...the reason being that they are not mistakes, they cant be mistakes because they didnt exist until I sang them....PS I sometimes adhere to the Clear as Mud school when explaining things..............

[Lew Bear]

Rick - I never try to over-analyse when it starts happening and I'm always grateful for it happening. The only annoying thing is its completely out of my control. If I could decide to connect to whatever it is anytime, then I'd have a hell of a lot more good songs than I do now

Chris - interesting. I like the fact in you're theory you're putting the onus of creation down to me, which I'd hope is right. The one problem with these songs is that any praise I receive for them doesnt boost me in the way praise for one I've carved out does because they seem so effortless that it almost feels unfair to be praised for them

John - I fucking love it - can you post some of whatever you've got down to me? ;-) heehee

[John Holliday]

Yep will do Lew, Lew Im also trying to get up the bottle to actually sing when there are more than just me and the dog in the room. My method well Im recording my self on video and actually plan to unleash more of these on the world...well on AFC and Myspace. Last night had a good session tried to tune an electric guitar, gave in after 30 mins...dont ask :-) Found what seems to be an adequate of way recording so that you can not only see me but hear what I m singing about, its an eye toy for playstation, so actually sat and played for about 15 mins making it all up.......turned around to look at the video..and wait for it, nothing ? The eye toy is USB so when the computer went into standby the power didnt flow so no video...got it sorted now though.........Ps do want a really weird song or just a fairly weird one ?
Ps was checkin out your vids....:-) we should do one together...make it up as we go along, in fact, we could do a surrealist Dadaist film......totally MMMmmmmmmm got me thinkin later LEW

[Gil]

That is pretty much how it happens for me.
Problem for me is capturing the songs. When they hit me I'm not always in a position to stop and write it down. Then I end up losing it. I love when I can capture a channeled idea for a song and make a song of it in short order. My method dictates that I write it, run through it once, make the music then record it as soon as I can. All my original songs are done that way.
Just the way I like to work.

I know some friends who never finish songs because they work on them to long or are too afraid others will not like it or try and be too perfect about it. Not me. I don't write songs to please other people. I write them to please myself. If others like what I do then that's a good coincidence!

[John Holliday]

Hi Gil
Im kind of lo tech make do with what Ive got, but Ive got a couple of voice recorders ( the kind you record meetings on ?) very portable but not great quality...which sort of suits me...although I get many complaints that no one can hear me singing...I then gets complaints when they can hear me ?....The digital recorder I picked up dirt cheap, I did have a Mini Disc recorder which was pretty good and portable but that ceased to operate, although you can pick them up pretty cheaply on ebay...ps still gettin used to these discussions probably end up replyin to those Im not in and then miss the ones I am in...John

Gil said:

That is pretty much how it happens for me.
Problem for me is capturing the songs. When they hit me I'm not always in a position to stop and write it down. Then I end up losing it. I love when I can capture a channeled idea for a song and make a song of it in short order. My method dictates that I write it, run through it once, make the music then record it as soon as I can. All my original songs are done that way.
Just the way I like to work.

I know some friends who never finish songs because they work on them to long or are too afraid others will not like it or try and be too perfect about it. Not me. I don't write songs to please other people. I write them to please myself. If others like what I do then that's a good coincidence!