I just posted a new demo on my facebook page’s music player. It’s a first sketch of a song called Still Walking. Strange feelings abound.
There’s a big part of me that thinks I’m nuts for having shared something so publicly so early on in its development. Surely you should wait, the voice says, hold off until it’s perfect, or at least more ready.
Yeah right, whenever that is, I reply.
I’m excited about having taken this step for a number of reasons. For starters, this is the first new song in a long time to be added to the cadre of musical numbers that make up the amorphous creative project that I’ve for the past ten years been calling States of Matter.
States of Matter, for those who aren’t familiar with it, started off innocuously enough as a musical revue, the first working draft of which was produced in the spring of 2000. It has since become a ten-year study in cognitive flexibility for me, a project that can’t seem to be contained (is it a revue? a book musical? a concert piece? heck, a movie?!), yet a project whose manifestation as a finished work has remained painfully elusive, time and time again, for the better part of a decade.
So, I’m excited about this breakthrough; ten years on and finally some new blood has arrived that might shake things up and shed some light on how to raise this project to its next level.
But there is another thing that’s getting me stoked, and that’s the exploration of this new relationship with the idea of process. That doubting-Thomas in my mind, that voice telling me to hold off, to wait until things reach that impossible moment of ultimate readiness, has had me blind to the idea that when it comes to creative projects there might in fact be stages of ripeness. And at each of these stages, there are components that can be shared without dissipating the energy of the project as a whole. That’s about as much as I have for now, I’m still feeling this out. So there we have it, another grand experiment! :)
Still Walking is very much in early-draft mode, in fact I’ve already changed a lyric (as you might spot in this latest version that I’ve included)! But sharing it now feels right somehow, despite the warts, the nakedness, that an early-stage demo such as this cannot help but exhibit. I hope you enjoy it. As for States of Matter, yes, the gears are turning again, and my intention is another round of exploration, whatever the process yields. Ten years on, in honor of the work, I’m going to give it another try. This new song might only be a small step. But I’m still walking.
Travel safe, and talk soon.
-AF
There’s a big part of me that thinks I’m nuts for having shared something so publicly so early on in its development. Surely you should wait, the voice says, hold off until it’s perfect, or at least more ready.
Yeah right, whenever that is, I reply.
I’m excited about having taken this step for a number of reasons. For starters, this is the first new song in a long time to be added to the cadre of musical numbers that make up the amorphous creative project that I’ve for the past ten years been calling States of Matter.
States of Matter, for those who aren’t familiar with it, started off innocuously enough as a musical revue, the first working draft of which was produced in the spring of 2000. It has since become a ten-year study in cognitive flexibility for me, a project that can’t seem to be contained (is it a revue? a book musical? a concert piece? heck, a movie?!), yet a project whose manifestation as a finished work has remained painfully elusive, time and time again, for the better part of a decade.
So, I’m excited about this breakthrough; ten years on and finally some new blood has arrived that might shake things up and shed some light on how to raise this project to its next level.
But there is another thing that’s getting me stoked, and that’s the exploration of this new relationship with the idea of process. That doubting-Thomas in my mind, that voice telling me to hold off, to wait until things reach that impossible moment of ultimate readiness, has had me blind to the idea that when it comes to creative projects there might in fact be stages of ripeness. And at each of these stages, there are components that can be shared without dissipating the energy of the project as a whole. That’s about as much as I have for now, I’m still feeling this out. So there we have it, another grand experiment! :)
Still Walking is very much in early-draft mode, in fact I’ve already changed a lyric (as you might spot in this latest version that I’ve included)! But sharing it now feels right somehow, despite the warts, the nakedness, that an early-stage demo such as this cannot help but exhibit. I hope you enjoy it. As for States of Matter, yes, the gears are turning again, and my intention is another round of exploration, whatever the process yields. Ten years on, in honor of the work, I’m going to give it another try. This new song might only be a small step. But I’m still walking.
Travel safe, and talk soon.
-AF
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