are albums a dying language?

late last year i began writing about my life before and after becoming a D.I.Y artist…this is a continuation.
please understand i’m not telling others how to live their lives…
i am only occasionally sharing with you how i perceive and approach mine.

the mixed blessing of technology is now anyone can run their trinkets up the flagpole.
don’t get me wrong..
it’s great that folk can now readily cultivate and show their artistic side..it’s things like that which drag us above our animal state.
after all..learning to paint or write a song has the potential to fine tune the worst of societies bruts.

y’see the trouble starts with the attention…
there’s a honeymoon period where the bedroom artist is full of unconditional love…
this is a fine mode,cause intentions are pure,and the relationship between artist and audience is as it should be.
but then all that sweet attention allows self importance to seep like bad gas through the floorboards …
and before you know it,the little beast thinks he can make money by scaffolding a mediocre album together…
the toxicity reaches its peak level when he or she starts licking the arse of every tom dick and harry on the internet to listen or buy,or worse still…PAY to have their album of underdeveloped songs rendered professional n’all, in a luxy mastering studio…
and then there’s the non biodegradable oil based cd’s he’ll insist on making, that’ll inevitably get left sitting in some garage somewhere.
it’s so small minded… he just wants to hold a round disc in his hand with artwork to make himself feel like an artiste.
but for me this very essay is my artwork and liner notes.

the really sad thing about the tired album process is there will be some genuinely talented ones who’ll engage in this dying business mode.
they’ll go the full hog and spend money to employ some hustler/publicist to help set themselves with their album on fire.
but the trouble with setting yourself on fire is, fires go out , and are very hard to relight.
you run the risk of ending up at an end, on one of those best of the year lists,as a new year itself dawns.
in these days i’d bet maintaining below the radar stealth is way more effective in the long run,than any old school in yer face promotional campaign.
making music without making albums keeps things nicely open ended.

so … this old dog of a thing called *the album*
y’know the only reason they ever existed in the first place was the then technology and commerce suggested it.
albums were not born out of artistic intent…
sure we have sgt peppers, and dark side of the moon popularising the format,
but for the best part…lets face it,it was just a way for record labels to bring in all that extra lolly.
mostly it was the gorgeous and sacred single that gave albums their oxygen.
but now the very environment we live in is at odds with the album.

not that bedroom artists ever figured too much on the environment around them.
brian eno,who i’m forever quoting said an interesting thing about musicians…
“they focus too heavily on the inside of the music..tech…gear…musical chops…
strangely unaware of the work they need to do outside the music”.
they’re all about technology,or figuring being a D.I.Y artist is about being your own business man…
for me it’s not that at all….being a D.I.Y artist is about cutting loose so you’re free to actually say something.
saying something in music was always the main thing..and the artists who do that, do much work outside the music…
they assess the mood of their times,and then bring that back inside of the music.
but most just allow themselves to be dull and duped by technology…
the computer gets the drums tight by itself,and the dweeb sits there nodding his head, feeling like a sodding record producer…
but turn down the volume,and stand back,and there’s usually very little there…only the cliches thrown up by the very technology itself.
this is the stuff of many a bedroom music maker….*head honcho of rusty nuts records*

for nearly two decades i was signed to a very big music publisher..they had everyone from tom petty to the stax catalogue..micheal jacksons writers…all these geese laying golden eggs…
i came into their office one day,and the mainman was wading through this big rubbish pile of songs i’d just written,
he told me about one of his best songwriters,and how he’s maybe only deliver two songs a year!…
…and both of those songs would end up as huge hits..
i have never forgotten that….anyone can assemble twelve shyte songs…but try writing just one fabulous hit!…
in decades i still haven’t done it.

the good news….
if an artist accepts that albums are indeed dead language,it means he or she can gently raise their own bar by focusing on one track at a time,
instead of taking on this mountainous task of making albums, and spreading themselves thin,he or she could aim for greatness…
by just homing in on one song at a time,
humbly given away for free,to keep the relationship between artist and audience pure,
that way you might gain rise, born out of stealth and love for what you do.
and there’s another thing.. calling an audience *fans*..it’s such a patronising term…
so much dead language that musicians could unlearn…
but musicians are terrible with change…
you’ve only got to watch soundcloud or youtube update their websites,and the musicians are crying like babies..they don’t like change.
true artists relish change.they’re perverse enough to enjoy the chaos of it

i don’t care if this post makes me unpopular with some musicians or artists or music producers or whatever they call themselves…
my intention is pure…i’m wayyy more brutal on myself than i am on those i’m observing.
i’ve thought about this for a long time,and in my heart i feel generous sharing it.
i hope it’s useful to someone.

i will leave you with a song i recorded 25 years ago….i usually only fly by my newer material,
but this old dear seems somehow apt in its title.
naturally it failed…
a piece of music making comment on music is pretty much bound to short circuit itself.
don’t read me wrong,it’s better than a lot of the tripe that finds its way on to the internet,
but good,beyond the bedroom is of little consequence in this day and age…the only thing of any consequence is greatness..
as i type,there are folk only a plane ride away ducking bullets…so for me it’s simply a privilege in this life to make music.

with love as always

mary of the wilderness.