Timing Is Everything
Who knew?
As we’re going through the promotion and marketing for The Pretty Flowers upcoming third record, “Never Felt Bitter” I’ve been reflecting on and being curious about my experience finishing records in the past and how timelines can vary, either becoming a detriment or benefit to the outcome.
This makes me think of a famous Duke Ellington quote in which he says “I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline.” I wonder if he means that without a finish line, there’s no real start, or that a deadline is an invisible goal that allows for focus and clarity to come to light so the thing can get made, whatever it is. Perhaps The Duke himself was a procrastinator and realized without deadlines from record labels, promoters, etc, he wouldn’t be able to fulfill the job, write the songs or gather a band in time. Cynically, I can see this as a mantra for marketing types and upper management to get their staff motivated to do more; however, I also see it another way. This idea of a goal post can be a way to get the creative demons in our mind out if you will, and perhaps the pressure of a deadline allows the work to speak of the moment and not let it stew in the mind forever, because according to science, artists tend to ruminate.
Personally, I feel any creative endeavor is generally better served by fear, spontaneity and urgency, which can stem from a hard deadline. My two favorite forms of music, jazz and punk rock, are all about being in and seizing the moment and capturing it in a bottle. There can be a purity and spirited essence that helps to serve the expediency in which the work is created in both genres. However, there are also brilliant records that took a long time to make. For example, The Who recorded the songs for Who’s Next twice in two different studios in full until they got the right feel that helped the songs really soar. Listening to the original versions does feel lesser than, so they made the right call and even though it cost them money and time, they created one of the great rock LP’s of all time and a personal favorite of mine. And then there’s Smile by The Beach Boys. Brian Wilson never actually finished what he started, and the songs all ended up on other records until he rerecorded it with his band many decades later. The point is, there is no absolute right or wrong answer, but there is a balance to be had. I’m reminded of the times in which my intended goal was to get a record done and out as quickly as possible, much to the chagrin of bandmates, as well as the times in which time and care was the intention.
In 2004, my band at the time, E>K>U>K was working on our first official release, a split CD with our friends band The Noise. Conceptually, it was a Godzilla versus Mothra type of conceit in which the songs play out in a back and forth fashion, as a sort of face off battle royale for the most noisy and yell-y and the album art dictated that vibe. Who won? Doesn’t matter…Our singer, guitarist and songwriter Jonathan was honing his home recording skills at the time, and I was working on making Otik Records more of a thing. We were about 20 or 21, and we had the privilege of recording, producing and releasing our own stuff, in true DIY punk fashion but of course since my pre frontal cortex was not fully developed my rational mind was not very rational.
It was the fourth release on Otik Records and one big bugaboo that Jonathan and I always had to work through was that I tended to want to rush things to get them out and he wanted to spend more time with them to get them in as best shape as they can be. I wasn’t really thinking about how this could be better or how this could be looked at through a different lens, it was just this inherent need to rush to get it out. The argument about the timeline didn’t necessarily get heated between him and I, but there is a lyric in the song “I’ve Had Enough” in which he alludes to being rushed to “finish this song” which was inspired by his frustration with me as he admitted it later on. Even the art and the printing of the CD itself was a bit compromised, coming out more pixelated than we would have liked but I had set a timeline and we had to obey it, so the quality was compromised. For what it’s worth, I do think the recordings sound great and I think the band is on fire and it does represent what we sounded like at that moment, but again, the process of creating the CD itself and the rush and the inevitable outcome left a little bit to be desired and my need to rush it out did compromise the effort, but my intentions were arbitrary so there were no clear intentions to communicate. The purpose was nothing more than “getting it done.”
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the experts there are few.”
The above is a Buddhist adage that encourages openness in life and those who don’t know everything, tend to try harder, be more curious and aim for whatever works in the moment. For that release, I was a beginner and I was experimenting with intent and what it took to release an album.
About a decade later, I had started a band called The Do-Its with my ex wife and good friends. The intention of that band was to literally “do it” and do it as quickly but also as efficiently as possible. The mission statement was a reaction to a previous band in which things seemed to move slower than we liked so we capitalized on our impatience, and the intent was to be spontaneous and of the moment, which is vastly different that rushing just to rush like I had done before with E>K>U>K. In the three years of existence, that band, keeping with the intended goal of doing a release each year, produced three releases in three years. That goal was met and I’m still proud of the work we did, but sure enough going back and listening to it now I ask myself “could this have sounded better?” The answer is maybe, but if we had agonized over these songs or the artwork or whatever we did, it would have taken away that intention that was communicated from day one. What was left was raw, simple and fun, but not perfect set of albums and EP’s.
Being curious and reflecting on these two experiences a decade apart, I am able to see that there is no right or wrong timeline in the way of creating because great things have been made in haste, agonized over, and somewhere in the middle. What I find to be the most important is that the intention and purpose are clear for all involved.
What are we saying?
How do we want it conveyed to the world?
What does it sound and look like?
Perhaps it’s literally a practical reason like a deadline, or money based, but when doing something yourself, with no monetary or timeline barriers, the timeline then must be part of that internal intention or that purpose. Is it checking all of the boxes and is it something you’d be proud to share with the world, even 20 years later?
Duke Ellington’s deadline was likely fiscal, but for a band like The Pretty Flowers, to bring it back home, there was nothing to lose so we took our time because that’s what made sense for the album. I may have gotten frustrated, but I eventually accepted it and I trusted the process, our process, not mine. Realizing that made me more present, more thoughtful and frankly more creative than I would have otherwise been, so I am grateful that I did allow it to take the. time it needed and the outcome couldn’t be better.
I’ll always be impatient from time to time, but I’d like to think I am growing and adapting as my intentions evolve and my patience grows. Carl Jung thought the idea of individuation was not just something that happened in adolescence, but a lifelong psychological process of becoming your true, authentic self.
I can’t wait for the world to hear this record and even though I may have at times annoyed my bandmates to get the thing rushed and put out when I thought I wanted it to, I think we made the right decisions in the end. I fear that because everything in society is happening at a whiplash-inducing speed, we may be forgotten or lost in the sauce, but that’s just a personal existential projection. What if instead of worrying about that, considering that if most things in the world seemed rushed, couldn’t there be space for something to NOT be rushed? Gee, what a concept.
Thanks for reading!
I got to get back to doing homework.
ETC:
Lots of stuff for The Pretty Flowers, including a new single/video
…and album release show announcement.
https://healingforcerecords.com/events/the-pretty-flowers-never-felt-bitter-release-show
Digging the drums on the new tune!