Outer Walls

My stepmom comments "You're not a little kid anymore. You need to eat healthier. Your body is telling you it needs more." The best place to find food while at the supermarket is along the outer walls of the store. There you will find the fresh food, not the packaged, fake, processed, canned plastic food in the regular aisles. You've got good and bad products. The aspect of product within the food industry is relatively simple. Stick to the outside, not the inside. Bang, you've got it!

With any other sort of product you've got more intricate aspects to deal with. With music you need to say something new while staying within a relatively recognizable sound. Actually, I think that goes for any sort of art. You can't have a completely new format. People won't know what to think. You'll fail as an artist. No one will seek you out.

This is product and marketbility. These are words that most artists fear. I also happen to think that this is why most artists fail.

Product, commercial, marketing -- mention these words around artists and it's like you've said the most offensive raunchy swear word around their children. Honestly. Get it out of your thick headed skulls that these words pertain to selling and money!!! Think of them as "Winning an Audience Over".

People ask "What's your process in writing music?" I honestly write an outline, then record, finding sounds and thinking of how I feel as the song progresses. I close my eyes and feel my heart rate, my attention. If I even once start to think of something else I need to work on the song. Or video. Or anything.

I'm putting myself in the place of an outside listener. I make believe I am somebody else listening to my music. I delve into the side of my brain from my theater training, becoming different personas. I become a personal trainer, a female PR rep, a peer musician, a hipster, an Animal Collective fan, an art framer, a car enthusiast. I try to imagine how all of these people would feel listening to my music. Some I can't imagine liking my music in the slightest. That's okay. But in the end, I feel like I keep the outside world involved by going through this process. If I like it, and I feel like at least five people from different walks of life would give it the time of day, then I save the work and put it in concrete for all to see.

I don't think a lot of artists do this. If they are doing their art for personal reasons, to get feelings out, that's one thing. But if you want to be a full fledged artist you can't forget about who you're selling your stuff to. If you don't give a shit about your audience, guess what? Your audience won't give a shit about you, either. End of story.

Think: How marketable is your art? Will people get it? If you can't describe your art, you're done for. If you say "It's beyond words. You decide for yourself," you're toast. Even if the work is abstract, you need to know what colors are aesthetically pleasing, that arouse chemicals to interact within the brains of onlookers. The message is up for grabs, anyone can interpret two lines going vertically down in the middle of your canvas, but if you don't choose the right colors or right kind of paint (oil, tempura, hell, fucking magic markers) you've rendered your art pointless and a waste of time.

Your finished piece of art is a product. There's no price tag on it. It's done, it's a product of hard work, integrity, creativity. A product is something that is finished. It's not a scary term. Marketability is the notion of how vital it is within the societal schema. Will people care? Will your work get noticed? Do you have a shot at becoming a full time artist, doing what you love?

Today, we had a small cookout. After our burgers, brats, and Grain Belt, we sat around and looked at awkward family photos. For some reason, one person started mentioning how in the 50's there was a commercial for a refrigerator brand. In the commercial, a fridge was opened, but it was never shut. The cameras never filmed it. Apparently, that brand hardly sold their product because women were uncomfortable with the notion that the fridge wasn't being shut. It created mild distress within the brain. It ultimately led to people passing that particular brand over for other, less distressing brands. The company heard about this, made new commercials in which the fridge doors were being shut somewhere in the spot, and they started selling more fridges.

Little things like that. You need to know how people feel. If there's a scraping sound within a song I write that causes people to skip the track I need to go back and change that sound. I want people to listen to that track, whether or not I loved that sound. It that's all it takes, sure, I'll compromise. If a record company says "Only come out with this type of sound. It seems to suit you the best. I want to hear more "Switch" songs." I'll say "Alright, but they're going to all be a little different, and I'm going to make albums with other songs, too. I know 'Switch" is the most accessible, but it doesn't mean that's going to be my one defining sound. I'll work with you as long as I get to do 75% of what I want to do."

That's my opinion on how to make a career in art. It's not the most thought out, and some of you might disagree. But if you want to know where Patch came from, a lot of it came from this style of thinking. I don't think it makes Patch any less potent or pure. I think it's honest art. As honest as I can possibly get.

The Whigs -- "Right Hand On My Heart"