I have too many, WAY too many unfinished ideas. For a while, I was happy making film music, because at least I could channel ideas into that, and work on them there, but now, now that I’m not doing that so much anymore, I have something like a waterfall inside my head that is always going strong. Worst part is, though… I don’t think my bucket is without holes.
I’ll have an idea, fall in love with it, hum it, keep it going for as long as possible…. and then drop it later. Or, I’ll start on something, and then never go back to it. I’m determined to continue work on ‘Carruthers’ (I don’t think that’ll be the final name, though) because I honestly really like the sound of it, although I’ll need better rhythm guitar, and more, different parts to the whole thing, rather than just the back-and-forth of what I have there now.
I don’t usually trust myself to come out with something good. I’ll have a quick idea, I’ll get it down, listen to it a bunch, and end up being somewhat happy with it because I’m too afraid of ruining the feeling I made it with, you know? Like, if I put too much work into it, it doesn’t feel natural, and then I don’t feel that it means anything, and then I end up feeling like I might as well write a three-and-a-half for the local radio station, singing about how “the girl, she makes me cray-zay.” No! I don’t want that! I like the “off the top of my head”-ness of it all. Carruthers took 20-30 minutes, altogether. Yes, it sounds like it did too, but I don’t mind.
I guess I should focus more on making my stuff sound more ‘organic’. Bottom line is that I should finish what I start, but keep the fire going the whole time. That’s quite the trick most of the time.
