FEED YOUR HEAD

Feb 1, 2006 12:00 PM, Remix Editor, Kylee Swenson

There's an episode of The Simpsons where Homer discovers weight lifting. He gets so into it that he gets these enormously buff, rippling muscles. But there's a problem: The only thing he works out on his body is his right arm. So while all his other muscles remain flabby, the one arm is gigantic. He begins suckering people into arm-wrestling matches by hiding his huge Popeye arm behind his back and wearing nerdy Poindexter glasses to appear like a harmless wimp. And then he proceeds to beat the crap out of everyone in town.

Cunning scam aside, nobody is so dim-witted that they only work out one arm. Then why is it that we sometimes allow our daily lives to get so off-kilter? As Jesuit priests will tell you, people need to spend a fair share of time addressing each facet of their lives. In my case, after thinking, writing and editing articles about music performance and production each day, I leave the Remix offices to practice and record my own music. And then I've run out of time in the day for anything else.

The problem with focusing so much on one thing is that after a while, it almost becomes a parody of itself. There's no outside influence to feed your creativity, so it becomes myopic. It's like when rock stars have been writing songs for a long time, and they start writing about what it's like being a rock star: fending off groupies, trashing hotel rooms, etc. (This excludes the great “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson.) It's also annoying when songwriters write songs about writing songs. It's this narrow-minded scope that loses the universal appeal of music, from which so many people can relate and derive their own meanings.

When we get to the point where our only inspiration is recycled from past inspirations, and we can hardly see two feet in front of us, it's really time to do something totally different to recharge the ol' batteries. You can tell when your cup of inspiration is down to its last drop: You're making the same beat over and over or writing the same lyrics or rhymes. You don't do yourself any favors working in the studio for 10 hours straight when it gets to that point, even — actually, especially — when you have a deadline looming. Something as simple as a change of scenery or reading five pages of a new book can refill the cup a bit and help your efficiency and creativity.

I, for one, have a really hard time taking my own advice. I used to play tennis, go snowboarding, barbecue shish kebobs, yell in the stands at live roller-derby events, watch the grass grow, etc. Now I stare at a computer 43 million hours of the day. (Please, somebody pull me away from this thing.)

What makes music so beautiful and cathartic is when it culls from various experiences, good and bad. There is no better musical inspiration than real life, unplugged. And as my grandmother recently reminded me, “Life is a flash.” So, don't forget to fully participate in it.

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