squinty lifestyle

So?ing Machine

track 3 from the album “Une Histoire de DMs avec Bleu” — more info: https://saltbearer.dreamwidth.org/2992.html + https://soingmachine.bandcamp.com/album/une-histoire-de-dms-avec-bleu

though I’ve always prioritized myself as my audience, I’ve been thinking for a long time that I want to develop my visual art skills (a little myopically, perhaps) because I want to surprise people with gift art — an original character who fell out of me within the past year has made a habit of doing that, even going so far as to covertly return money from commissioners. I haven’t done a whole lot of it, unfortunately… practicing without a vision feels painfully empty, and the knowledge that a reasonable energy investment with my undeveloped skillset won’t get me what I want out of a vision needs to be actively ignored.

while discussing creative struggles with my friend, I brought up that the idea of making music for them was Unusually Motivating, and probably Exploitable — I’d probably finish any old WIP, or start on something in particular, if they just asked. and because others have tried that and failed, that makes it Funny if they’re uniquely successful, thus all the more compelling!

the center of the venn diagram of their and my interests highlights some interesting parallels, not only in regards to what said interests are, but how we approach them, and how we approach things we may not yet like. it’s a very natural center to lean into artistically, which helps a lot with moving actual muscles to reinforce a wish to help inspire them in particular.

I realized after sending the second track specifically intended for their ears that I’d already started Something, and immediately wanted to see where those rails would lead me.

perhaps in haste, riding in with a vague idea I had for something else I wanted to make for them, I opened SunVox, and started trying to force that idea out… without liking what I was ending up with for an annoying amount of time.

these tracks were presented to them as “current energy [date].(flac + sunvox)”. I said “to hell with it” and the current energy mostly became that of playfulness, in an attempt to get a few laughs while salvaging the work.

once the energy was delivered, I uploaded the first three tracks here with the first iteration of the cover art I felt motivated enough to open Sketchbook for.