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Zone


Mark L

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I'm mixing some songs that we've been working on for the last year, and there's one or two guitar parts that I don't remember ever playing or working out, so I must have just done it off the cuff, "in the zone". I recognize my tone and style and everything, but don't ever remember anything else about it. Almost like elves slipped in, threw down some parts with my guitar rig, and I came back and thought, "Hey, that's pretty good!"

 

I'll keep creating, mixing, overdubbing, whatever, and I'll sometimes forget to eat and then after a while, wonder why I feel funny and have to stop to eat. I'll just go at it for hours and hours otherwise.

 

I do feel really blessed and lucky because I always feel creative. If I can just work uninterrupted for a while, I feel like I can always get in some sort of creative zone, and I feel really fortunate for that.

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I just threw down a bunch of guitar parts last night, and listening back to them with fresh ears earlier today, was really happy with the ideas and even the execution even though it took me about fifteen, twenty minutes to kick the rust off my guitar playing. But they parts, tone, recording, performance, everything was cool because I had about 5 hours of uninterrupted time yesterday, so it was easy to throw on my creative hat and go at it.

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My brain is always running on some topic at a tangent to what I'm actually supposed to be doing...so losing track of what I've just done has always been just part of life for me.

 

Lately I've been on a song-writing binge that is kind of beyond anything I've experienced before. I'll be, say, at the gym on the exercise thingy and 4-5 song ideas will start running through my head in a 20 minute span. Or I'll be about to jump up from my desk to run off to a meeting and some phrase will pop into my head and I have to stop and start jotting down line after line after line that just pour out. In the car, trying to listen to someone's conversation, my mind starts adding verses to this or that tune, tweaking a turn-around, or coming up with a brand new phrase that has possibilities as a seed for a new tune.

 

Sometimes I just want it to stop for a bit, give me a breather. Well, on the other hand, I'll take it - it can't last forever, of that there is no doubt.

 

Don't know how exactly fabulous all this production is, but it's definitely a zone of some sort....

 

nat whilk ii

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Unfortunately I haven't been in the zone in YEARS, I hit a SERIOUS creative roadblock a while ago and am still stuck in it, it really {censored}ing sucks!!!

 

There definitely were times where yeah I'd come up with an idea and I'd be in the zone, I'd knock out (what I considered to be anyways LOL) some epic tracks and thought of stuff that fit perfectly or had really unique ideas and would run with it, that happened pretty frequently back in the day, especially those times when I'd be playing writnga dn recording 8 hours a day LOL

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Salty,

 

I don`t remember writing most of the good stuff... its usually the stuff that I labor over that leaves a lasting memory... something about humans remembering painful experiences more than pleasant ones that rings true for songwriting too.

 

I was thinking about this the other day after listening to some vocals I recorded... I could not recall for the life of me recording this one particular song but I remembered recording most of the other ones. I do remember recording sessions quite well. I can`t tell you the mic or pre used but I do recall why certain decisions were made. I even remember conversations during those sessions.

 

Of course, memory is a complicated thing and we don`t store everything in one place, heck, I don`t think we`re quite sure just exactly where anything is stored but obviously from what we`ve experienced as songwriters, getting into the zone does somehow interfere with recalling those events.

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I enjoy the teeter totter of the purge state and refinement state. The purge requires the "zone". Live performance, studio tracking, rough mixes, writing 1st drafts, they're all the purge state for me. Mixing, punching in, rewriting, practicing, they are all the refinement stage for me. Having realized this teeter totter, the zone is almost effortless to enter. Knowing there is always the ability to refine later allows me a worry free environment. In the case of live performance, there is always next time. Letting go has never really been an issue for me.

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