michaelangelo
there is a season, turn turn turn
I mentioned it last week, but I’ve been in a bit of a slower phase with music as I deal with life stuff. I’d been feeling a bit guilty about it, but then today I read that apparently Michaelangelo didn’t pick up his chisel for about 4 years whilst dealing with a lawsuit, so my few months off don’t seem so tragic in comparison! Poor Michaelangelo.
Writer Austin Kleon made a blog post about being ‘dormant’ and it really registered with me and how I feel every so often:
you’re not totally burned out, but you’re not full steam, either.
Over the years I’ve come to accept that my creativity is seasonal, not on a yearly scale but some smaller scale which I don’t fully understand. I go through phases where I can write four great songs in a few weeks, and then months of nothing. In music’s absence, I become more drawn to producing other things, like collages or newsletters or silly little drawings.
One time I went a whole two years without wanting to do much music and ended up starting a stationery-focussed Instagram and built it up to 8,000 followers… and then I abandoned it once the muse came back.
When I can’t write songs I’ll take photographs, write poems, doodle, bake, learn something new… or just find a new TV show to watch. It all helps me fill my brain with things and see stuff from a new angle, so that when I do get back to writing songs, I have a fresher perspective.
But in my season of not-writing there’s a lot of boring, un-artistic things I do as an artist. One of them is apply for grants! Currently, I’m applying for UK New Artists’ Artist Collective (I don’t know if mentioning this will jinx it, but we shall see) and also to the Help Musicians Open Fund to try and get some money in the bank to record the Missed Connections album.
I always forget that this kind of (boring) work is also useful to me, as it enables me to create more fun work in the long run.
But seasons change and I start to shake things off and get back on my horse. I feel like that is happening right now, slowly but surely. I feel little sparks at my fingertips and ideas flitting around my head like hummingbirds. There is something about autumn which instils a feeling of beginning again.
I have an autumn playlist which I put on sometimes when the nights get darker, so here it is for you to listen to, as well.
things i liked
✶ I made this apple cake the other day and I genuinely think it made my brain short-circuit with how good it is.
✶ I am entering a prog rock phase right now thanks Yes slowly creeping into my psyche and this song 🎷 that I wish I could sing at a karaoke night:
✶ this trombone game restores my hope in humanity:
A special “things I DIDN’T like” mention to the David Bowie Moonage Daydream film which came out last weekend. As a big Bowie fan I was salivating at the trailer, which was brilliant and bright and exciting.
As for the film itself, we didn’t make it all the way through. Between the editing which almost gave my eyes whiplash and the sound design which just wanted everyone to suffer as much as possible by layering breaking glass, sirens and helicopters over too-loud Bowie songs and static-filled interview snippets about God and aliens, I genuinely felt like the movie was trying to kill me. The five-star reviews are everywhere and I feel like I’m having one of those ‘Emperor Has No Clothes’ moments… well, that’s my two cents. If anyone actually goes to see it please let me know if you survive.
I’ve managed to cleanse my mind by listening to one of my favourite Bowie albums which I always think is underrated, Heathen. And this song makes me happy and think about when I lived in Canada.
(the best part is when he sings 🎶 and your big fat dog 🎶 )
Anyway, another week another newsletter! Hope you are all doing well and are getting into the autumnal mood by putting on your cardigans or burning your mouth on grilled cheese sandwiches.
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Olivia 🐹
Talking Parrot Calypso Star Band - didn't make the 'things I liked' cut????