Music for Creating

I’ve been in an inspirational rut this spring. Empty notebooks lying everywhere, unused film stored away in a closet, an embarrassing amount of art materials left unsorted.

It’s unsightly, really.

The only thing that seems to kick my ass out of the ditch during a creative crisis is music. I, like some of you, thrive on being surrounded by other’s creativity. Here’s a rundown of music that helps me along.

1. The Decemberists

My go-to band when I need to get pen-on-paper. With a reputation for lyrics full of historical allusions and folkloric storytelling, The Decemberists by their very nature invite even the most dictionary-challenged to entertain the possibility of becoming a ~famous novelist. Okay, yeah – that’s mostly hyperbolic bullshit, but my point is this: whenever I find myself floundering on character development, I put on a little Picaresque.

2. Ryan Bingham

You might know him as “that dude who won an Oscar for Crazy Heart“.  I know him as “that dude who was the soundtrack to Texas summers”. I spent a lot of time in college on the road with a camera (much to the detriment of my Medieval Literature grade that one semester…), and Bingham proved to be a wonderful backing track to figuring out who I was as a photographer. I see his lyrics in the photo of an old gas station, or staring down the center line of an empty highway.

3. A Mess of ~Chill Music

And, by chill I mean a little “Natural One” by Folk Implosion, or Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs”, or Ataxia’s “Another”, or generally anything by Radiohead. I’m sometimes guilty of over-thinking and re-editing things to death (this is probably draft #4 – of a blog post), but slowing things down for a bit after hitting ‘undo’ for the umpteenth time in Illustrator clears my head.

4. 90′s Alternative

Yes, I went there and I am not ashamed.