Minimalist Musician | JS Ohlander

New Song – JS Music Update 18 – 020

Posted on January 11, 2012 by JS • 0 Comments

It’s been an interesting year for Heidi and I. Amazing changes, grueling heartbreak. Despite all the sorrow, we are stronger and more excited about life than ever.

While I have worked on music here and there for the last year or so, I haven’t had the time post any new material. Now that I’ve finally made the time for creating music again, I can get back into publishing it.

NEW EQUIPMENT, NEW BEGINNINGS

I’ve extensively and effectively changed almost 90% of my audio setup this year, with the exclusion being Renoise and bass. Almost all of my other tools have been built from the ground up, including my basic computing platform (I switched from 21 years of PC to Mac). I’ve basically had to learn new systems and create an entirely new workflow, which I’m only now just getting down.

Partly I did this on purpose, as there is nothing better than swimming in Awkwardness to really get your creative juices flowing in a brand new way. I can literally feel the new brain pathways and neurons connecting and building, giving me access to new ideas that without changing my setup, I may have never seen.

The time was right to publish another piece, so here it is:

020

SoundCloud version (will change as I update the song):

020 by jsohlander
Version as I posted this (will remain constant as long as this site exists):

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This piece came out of my current in-depth study of virtual synths, something that’s been on my music to do list for years. Particularly, I’m diving deeply into NI’s Massive, which in itself is a purely incredible synth powerhouse.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to publish this piece, but after I laid down the synth, the rest of it flowed pretty quickly. A whole new path to create.

I’ve also recently acquired some new bass effects equipment which helped me anchor in cleaner and fuller sounds than I had been able to before. I will delve into some specifics in a future JS Music Update post.

Suffice to say, it’s nice to be back publishing music to the web again. In addition to writing more articles, I plan on publishing music much more frequently as I re-ramp myself into a new music path/career.

Performance is not far behind at this point.

Filed Under: JS Music

Producing vs Consuming

Posted on January 4, 2012 by JS • 0 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot about the benefits and drawbacks of being a consumer vs a producer after reading a very thought-provoking article from Tynan called Be a Producer.

For many years I was almost in a constant state of inspiration. I had an insatiable desire to create and share, mostly through music.

I’ve always been bent more towards the producer end and less of the consumer end of things anyway, but I’ve noticed it slipping more as time goes on.

How and why does this happen?

CONSUMPTION IS RESISTANCE

In times of stress, a lot of us tend to end up consuming a lot more: movies, video games, TV…anything to take our minds off of what we really want to do. This is just Resistance.

With too much consumption, we get rusty and it gets harder each day to get to back to our real work.

With too much production, we stagnate. We also need to be fed a steady stream of inspiration in order to create; this comes from learning Conscious Consumption.

In my experience, a good ratio that works for me is 80% producing to 20% consuming. This ensures that I am putting out a steady stream of work while giving myself plenty of room for inspiration from Conscious Consumption.

My new experiment for the coming next few months is to post something every day on my site. I’m looking to see what quality of work I can produce, what kind of people it attracts, and just to add significantly to my body of work.

WHY BE SO CONCERNED?

Some people who read this are going to wonder why am I so concerned with my ratios of producing vs consuming. Whether you choose to produce or consume is a conscious choice, but I’d wager that these people are probably very content being mostly consumers and only producing for other people when told to (i.e. a job). After graduating from some school, they never really developed the discipline of producing just because they want to. As Tynan said in his post, whether you produce or whether you consume is mostly a matter of preference.

QUALITY OF CONSUMPTION

From past experience, I’ve discovered that I can ramp up my production with very little consumption. For instance, from being inspired by a particular piece of art I can ride a large wave of quality production for quite a long time. An example is when I first heard “Mustaches Wild” from KARP, particularly the first song ‘Dueling Banshees‘ in ’94. Not only did it completely changed the way I thought about and interacted with music, it was the impetus for basically my next three bands before the effect wore off.

Now that is quality consumption.

PRODUCING FORCES YOU TO INTERACT WITH OTHERS

As a solid bonus, producing helps you grow as a person by forcing you to interact with others. Consumption is safe, and often lonely. Spend a few bucks, get a blip of enjoyment and no one but you has to know. You can be in a black hole and consume till the end of time, but with production there is no follow through unless you publish (share) your work in some way.

I can’t even count the amount of people Heidi and I met and the things we learned when we randomly started a health food blog that ran from 2006-2010. We made a business out of it, met so many amazing people, changed our lives and taught ourselves how to write for an audience. Now there are hundreds and possibly thousands of people out there that know my work but I don’t know who they are.

That’s a weird feeling if you’ve never had it.

In the end, producing is not only way more fulfilling than consuming, but it gives you a body of work that continues to grow as you grow, leaving you a legacy and giving you something you can exchange for money to make a career out of for life.

Of course, I could’ve spent all that time just reading blogs instead of creating one…and gotten close to nothing out of it. But I digress…

#####

Heidi has written an awesome piece on fighting for your right to Produce. It certainly was a kick in my ass and got me to write this post tonight even though it’s 3 AM, and even though I’m tired from writing music for the last 2 hours and I have to get up early to take someone to an appointment. Now that’s a love for producing.

Filed Under: Getting Things Done

Momentum

Posted on January 3, 2012 by JS • 0 Comments

It’s much easier to keep a boulder rolling once you push it. But it’s very difficult to push the boulder and get it going. Often it’s painful. When you start, the difficulty can be so painful that it seems fruitless to even start.

For the last few days (as I’m ramping up my desires for 2012), I’ve been experimenting with writing a blog draft every night, regardless of how late it is, or how little I want to do it. Especially not important is whether or not I have an idea.

Momentum will eventually happen to you, whether you like it or not. The question is, once it happens, are you going to keep it going, or let it waver to perhaps never pick it up again?

For example, in the last year or so a series of events has forced Heidi and I into a pattern of momentum. This was Unwanted Momentum. At first. But once I had it I knew that if I didn’t keep it up, I would lose it again. So I bridged that negative momentum into positive outlets. Like writing these blog drafts. Like cleaning up the space around me. Like preparing for another round of music writing, etc.

Bridging Negative Momentum

You can either be pro-active and start your own momentum (even if it’s painful at first) or you can wait and let life throw some shit your way first. I prefer the former, but sometimes get dealt the latter.

The trick that most people don’t understand is that once you are pushed into momentum by a negative event, you need to take that momentum and bridge it into something positive before the boulder bulldozes you into a collapsed and exhaustive stupor of inaction.

The act of bridging is taking that energy and rolling into something positive by your own volition. Don’t let the world steamroll you into momentum from only negative events, because it will if you don’t take the boulder and run first.

Take the opportunity right now to get back on top of your life.

Once you do, don’t break the chain. If you do, it’s so much easier to justify stopping the next day.

So whether there is some crazy stuff happening in your life right now or everything is calm and boring, you have the opportunity to create and cultivate momentum right now.

Learn to live your life with momentum as a constant companion and see what happens.

As Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World said: “Do it now.”

“Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!”

~Og Mandino

Filed Under: Getting Things Done