Doodling, because. And 50.
When packing for our move (and looooong drive) to Seattle this summer, I came across the boxes of ephemera I’d saved up from my childhood… abandoned games, puzzles, badges, patches, medals, projects, photos, all that. I’ve apparently saved more than some, or most? No idea. I just know I had attachments to some bits of my past that to this point I’d not been willing to revisit or let go.
It was fascinating to explore anew the creations of my teenage brain, as I’d filled notebook after notebook and countless drawing pads and graph paper binders with all manner of dungeon designs, architecture ideas, control panels, maps, military vehicle sketches, doodles, typography and, of course, a thousand horrible lyrics and potential band names.
It seems the simple act of creation was a significant part of my process of growing up and interpreting the world around me. Reflecting on the piles of miscellany in front of me in a whole bunch of open boxes and exploded folders, I realized that somewhere along the way I’d forgotten about the inherent and simple joy in making things without regard for commerce or paying bills.
Done a lot since my teenage years. And today I turn 50.
The past few decades have been filled with creative acts, to be sure, and I’m proud of all the work I’ve done in my studio and on various labels and catalogs and with the artists and songwriters who have entrusted their work to my ears in one way or another.
But to realize that there was a time in my life where I could spend the entire afternoon just sitting alone in my room, making up… whatever… out of thin air, putting it down on paper or cassette… with no critic, no care given toward acceptance or coolness… that was eye opening to me, a significant reminder about the why I’d begun doing anything creative as a career in the first place.
On the drive out to Washington I had lots of time to think, obviously. I longed to make again, to draw and play and mess around without knowing the outcome or having a marketing plan.
So once I got my audio workshop set up at our new place in Seattle, I spent a few days experimenting… for an audience of one. Sketching with sounds and recordings and playing with noise and tape loops and pedals that had managed to frustrate and intrigue me since acquiring them. Trying things out, making crap, finding a thread of inspiration and pulling on it until it snapped.
The result of these explorations can be found on this odd collection of drones that I’m calling Charts. It’s over an hour of dystopian ambient soundscapes, created in my new idea space at our new home, and I’m consciously not editing or tweaking for months on end and, instead, choosing to put it into the world as a document of this time of rediscovered creative spark.
I plan on more to come. The ideas never stop, I just paused the sharing of them. Samples and loops, sounds and whatnot.
So, come what may, I’m making doodles again. And that’s already seeped into the work I get paid for.
I’m genuinely happy on my birthday, and am looking forward to the second half of my life being filled with audio mazes, synthetic jungles, rhythmic explorations, and sound discoveries. Thanks for reading, thanks for listening if you do, and I hope you’ll check out the charity to which any Bandcamp revenue generated by Charts is being donated.