Dominic DiGesu 

5/6/20

Critical Reflection #4:Connect to outside sources (article/book/podcast/ted talk/blog/website/etc)

 

My senior project is about making music. My essential question is how can I tell a compelling narrative/tell a story through music in a time of quarantine. For as long I can remember, I have always listened to music. I can’t remember when I started picking my own music, instead of listening to what my parents liked. It’s funny, now I introduce them to artists I like. In preparing for and putting together this project, I found myself listening to a lot of different types of music. I gravitated a lot to Tame Impala. Kevin Parker is the person behind this group. He writes, records all instruments, including vocals, and produces Tame Impala’s music. He is a one man band in the studio and tours with another well established back up band because he can’t do it all himself on stage. I also listened to some Bob Dylan because he is a true storytelling musician. I have seen Bob Dylan perform. He will play a song so different than the way it is on the album so that it takes a while to realize the song he is playing. I have heard his folk music re-arranged as rockabilly, as well as electrified. Maybe he does this to bring new life to the old lyrics/stories so people rethink their meanings as the times have changed. 

 

In trying to create my own music, I have concentrated on the sound, rythum and images the lyrics create in the listeners minds. People attach their own experience and emotion to song and it may not be what the artist intended. 

 

Most of what musicians do is done in some version of quarantine – writing, practicing as a soloist to add the most value to the group, recording often alone, one track at a time in the booth and piecing it together in production.