Stop Doing What Makes You Great

“We decided, that with this new album, we’re going to yell more, because we’re an alternative rock band, and that’s what we do, we yell!”

We hear it all the time, when an artist or band is out to make their second album, there are always those artists that want to focus on something that makes them great.  How about, “You know, this time around, I want to get back to the basics.  I want to get back to what made us different,” or “I want this album to feature a more darker atmosphere.” Artists always find themselves in a realm of exploring more or less with their art.  They end up lost in this new different world, questioning whether they should come back to the beginning; their basics.  However, when they do, those basics and that origin turns out to be smothered with the noise of their newly “fresh” ideas, making it impossible to turn into their earlier versions.  The legends become students of themselves, as they try to relearn who they are.

Damien Rice said something along the lines of, music is a lot like vomiting.  He was describing how music is like this down pour of raw emotion.  Serj Takian, the lead singer to System of a Down said, if you want to say something, say it.  You know who says, today we’re going to focus on something different.  People who are lost say, today we’re going to focus on something different. People who don’t know who they are.  People who just want to please other people.  Those people really have no idea what they’re doing.  They know it works because they’re filling up stadiums, but they don’t know why.

No one should tell someone what they should want to do with their art.

Picasso drew ugly things.  Ugly ugly things.  They don’t look like people!  They’re square faces with creepy eyes and unfortunately placed noses.  If someone gave me Picasso’s sketches or the sketches from any artist who worked on Pixar movies and asked me who draws better, “Gee, I don’t know, the rectangular shaped face or the futuristic robot.”  Yet, for some reason Picasso is one of the most historically acclaimed artists.  It’s probably because he never forgot his passion.  He didn’t draw to please the masses of people.  He painted the things he wanted to paint.  He painted the things he felt passionate about.  Most importantly, he painted the things he wanted to say.

People are selling out everywhere.

The art of the artist is falling apart everywhere because other people are telling them what to do.  Their work has become tainted by every single living person’s ideas; moving their passion in a certain direction to appease fans, agents, record labels.  Legendary artists dumbing their music down to reach more people, to fill more seats at stadiums, suppressing their message so people will like them.  Imagine if Picasso didn’t draw his unusual characters, what if he confined himself to only draw artwork influenced by religion and the church.  Where would Picasso’s message be if it were quieted?

All our peers are pulling us in every direction.

Most of the time, record labels who are paying musicians to make music can’t make music any better.  They especially can’t make that specific musician’s music better than they can, that’d be preposterous.  However, rich people have been telling artists to entertain them, and they do.  They do it all the time.  Ever since the time of kings and queens, and jesters.  Artists aren’t slaves to an audience. The audience chases the message of the artist.

Passion needs to roam freely.

In Embarcadero, a popular street in San Francisco, there are cartoonists, portrait drawers, and every artist with a different medium from charcoal to oil pastels.  You could find these people anywhere, sitting on city corners, sketching out strangers.  However, before they became everyone’s personal artist, there’s a good chance they’d rather be drawing other things, bigger things, certain people in their lives.  Unfortunately, they won’t be able to afford studios and large canvases, or building corners to draw eloquent murals.  We as an audience will never know their message.

Us, bloggers, we need to stay true to ourselves, to our art.  Before The Titan Project became a lifestyle design blog, it was a personal blog, then it evolved into a relationship blog.  I’d write long inspirational essays like The Girl All The Guys Want, and surreal moments describing how my girlfriend and I met.  I almost thought I would stay there.  People liked my work and were interested in more of what I had to say about the subject.  The day I wrote about toxic families, I was weary.  However, people still enjoyed it.  I’m sure it was because I felt like it needed to be said.  It’s probably because it was a genuine part of me I wanted share.

Your message will forever evolve, but never should it be restricted.