I enjoy watching/listening to other creatives talk about their process. It’s always encouraging and inspirational, which is never a bad thing – unless you need to finish the project you’re working on before starting a new one – but I digress.
Christian Henson is a media composer, one of the founders of Spitfire Audio (a now The Crow Hill Company) and one of the most amazing free sample instrument libraries PianoBook.
About 9 months ago I consumed a lot of Christian’s video content over the period of a few weeks. Boy did it cost me, $700 to be exact, because I purchased the Strymon NightSky because of one of his videos – I don’t regret that one bit.
Creating Unique Sounding Songs
In the course of listening to Christian talk about composing, production, synths, sampling etc. he shared something he had heard another composer say and it was fascinating. The gist is, if you want your music to sound “different” but still accessible, combine elements from 3 different composers and you’ll end up with a “new” sound.
What a fun and interesting idea to go to town with.
For me, with a penchant for 80s-esque synth soundtrack music, spaghetti westerns and alternative rock, I could really put together something unique sounding (working on this).
It doesn’t even need to the extreme of mashing genres, sometimes it can be adding in an instrumental idea or sound that is outside the “normal” for the style you’re working in. Say dance music with an unusual world instrument as a core element. Or a rock track with a high-hat idea borrowed from funk.
Disco Drumming Inspiring Grunge?
A fun one that blew my mind (and Pharrell Williams it seems) was Dave Grohl borrowing drum chops from disco drummers in bands like the Gap Band, Cameo and from Tony Thompson for his fills in the eponymous grunge album “Nevermind”. The video below paints the connection vividly in “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and I think you’ll agree that those borrowed ideas are key elements to what makes that song unique.
The Takeaway
You can see where I’m going with this. Borrowing and repurposing ideas that are outside of the predominant genre of your song can give you plenty of fresh musical inspiration. If you’re stuck creatively this can be a great way to trigger new ideas. If you’re working on a song that is lacking that je n’ais ce quoi this might be a concept to explore.
In the end, like a banana and Vegemite sandwich, it can just be downright fun to mash things up.
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