If you’re a Bristol area raised musician you are probably more than aware of that constant bombardment (more often than not from people outside of the area) about it’s prosperous music scene. There are plenty of buzz words describing the deal between Bristol and upcoming music genres floating around, intentionally attempting to create a sense that you are in fact caught in some kind of music vortex where its all hitting off.
I have bore witness to the “Bristol music scene” endowment echoed repeatedly from growing up near by (It’s now straining to bring up the assets time after time: Portishead, Goldfrapp, Chris Clark, Massive Attack, Roni blablahblahshootme…) however I found it hard to relate those Bristol artists to my lowly self in the past as reasonable expectation, the exotic fame of the artist and the major labels encapsulating them seemed huge at the age of 15, hell even now.
Having moved away from the area for a while and then returning almost definitely gave me a better sense of an outside perspective of Bristol especially as it stands today, things are evidently very different now, the major labels seem to be missing tricks, with artists whoring themselves to multiple independents instead of getting picked up by the major labels like warp and mute.
I think its fair to conclude as far as Bristol folk are concerned, Dubstep is the new Trip-Hop but for the underground peoples. With this in mind perhaps it’s time to embrace the new breed as was done before and adhere my production style to it in order to progress. By following this agenda theres likely more chance to progress club wise, as a result increasing appeal and success as the genre continues to grow and gain in momentum.
This seems like an oddly familiar situation to me, maybe it is just growing up. Like when in your first year of secondary school you look up at the older kids they appear incomparable, successful (socially at least) and almost in a different league. Now you can realise that wasnt necessarily the case and those older kids when you reached that projected age were most likely just as insecure and suffering from life anxiety as the rest of us (or i could just be foolishly admitting my own foibles), see how they struggle now and find the derived comfort it brings!
Thats kind of how I personally feel at the moment with the developing music scene and in particular Bristol is turning out. For the most part I have always looked up to various semi/major label music producers as something thats totally out of reach and on another plain. However with the dawn of all these new, twenty-something and local producers names being thrown around, getting air time and small label eps theres a slight realisation again that they are after all just other people, not super beings, and if I’m honest a lot of the time i do think they suck. Especially when its in your home city it makes it seem like less of an achievement and far more obtainable.
These are the tings I have been occasionally pondering anyway, though this is largely due to my elitist music nazism refusing to believe that these producers are all that special or talented and that older production was just better.
Unfounded and bitterly ill conceived rambles?
Almost definitely, but it is the only way to carry on if you’re not winning.
Anyway i have completely digressed away from the point of this blog, its not about the state the music industry is in, the zeal is infact pretty vain!
For me this is once again year zero, this is going to be foremost my honest diary on my experiences musically (and generally), trying to find projects to get involved with, working out what I want to do, how I’m going to get there, experimenting and generally trying to find purpose (and income) in my life doing something I enjoy without the aid of the degree I passed up on last year.
It’s an entirely selfish endeavour, the main purpose of posting these diary rants and information online is blatantly to scare myself with possible mild social embarrassment given by this being a public blog (if i can convince myself that it will actually be read that is) but also so i can pool together all the things going on around me and judge, with any luck, progress.
On the subject of infos if you do gain an interest in the blog keep check of the links and media pages as they will hopefully be updated with relevant articles, some lovely examples of local artists, music/video/media/stuff which could actually be interesting and hopefully some of my own projects and achievements.
Exercise your right to tell me how wrong I am in the comments if you feel compelled to do so, I understand and I wont mind.
Pelican out.
