“Never in 4/4”
A recurring source of joy that’s come back to me across my life is the act of making things. I don’t think highly enough of what I do to call myself an ‘artist’, perhaps that’s the remnants of my rock-and-roll/punk rock upbringing talking, but what goes into a piece of art, what it says, how it feels, and how it reflects who made it, has always been both deeply personal, and fascinating to me. Writing and Music are how I express myself, they are how not only I create, but how I express myself; I have always believed that art is at its best when it is unrestrained and almost unaccommodating. You will alienate people more easily sure, but those who resonate with it will feel even stronger about it. In fact it is both music and writing that hold the key influences to my process.
The above quote comes from a 2013 interview with the band, Nine Inch Nails, my favorite band. In it, their drummer at the time mentioned that while the songs are quite often written in standard 4/4 timing, often they will use elements, such as drum machines, that naturally do not operate in this standard time scheme. That always stuck with me for some reason that even now I am not fully sure why, but it has become something of a motivation for me, to ‘never be in 4/4’. It is a little misleading however- it is not to say don’t be conventional, even routine, but rather to do it in a unique way; always push to challenge the standards and norms and innovate on them. Don’t be stock and boring.
Writing has influenced me mostly through works like House of Leaves, and the works of voices like Hideo Kojima, the creator of the video game series’ Metal Gear and Death Stranding; pieces of art created that are unapologetically themselves and don’t surrender to the traps of irony and insincerity, and instead revel in themselves. Works that can pointedly be identified in my interests as a person, in politics and philosophy, and drive me to never settle, always try something new, and even speak on what I believe important enough to fight for. These are just some of the stories I take influences from that have many things to say about life, reality, and our perceptions of all of these things and more inspire me to create honestly and genuinely, even at the risk of scrutiny.
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