Music & Making

I always have a soundtrack for my work, even if only I can hear it.

It used to be psytrance way back when. Those long, hypnotic builds somehow got my hands moving before my brain even caught up. I’d put on a set and just paint, and the collectors started grabbing those pieces. I liked how the painting built up, layer by layer, it felt like things unfolding. Patterns, but the good kind.

My tastes have moved on. Now it’s melodic techno, lots of house, and still some psytrance when I need to really dig in. But the core thing hasn’t changed. I’m not trying to be a certain genre, I just want a good melody with a story. A build that feels significant, beautiful, mostly ethereal vocals that add to the music.

Dance music gets seen as just background for people who don’t want to think. But the tracks that actually stick with me do the opposite. Nice tunes over a solid rhythm.

A voice that sounds like it’s confessing something. That combo of rhythm and mood. That’s where I get a lot of ideas for my own art.

And then there’s the other end of it. Sade, and music like her. There’s no need for a drop or build, only her voice that already knows exactly what it wants to say and says it slow. Yet precise.

I go back to that when the dance stuff has done its job and I need to sit in the after. Soothing isn’t the opposite of moving, it’s really just a different tempo of the same honesty.

Making art is kind of like building a playlist. The music isn’t just background. It moves with the brush. It understands when to get into the rough stuff, when to just go with the flow, and when to chill out.

So, let’s find more melodies that mean something, made by people who get why that’s important. And letting that music influence my art and my life.