A few months ago, out of panic and frustration, a floodgate of creativity came out of nowhere and allowed me to make a whole album of songs based on what I was feeling during a very difficult time period.
It started out with a real funky drum beat on my laptop from an old outdated software I had installed while on a one-hour plane trip. I finished the song and decided: “hey this is cool, let me make another one!”
What came out was somewhat a really trippy Rock — Hip Hop opera and probably my best, and quite possibly the most inspired set of work I did as a creative individual. I know how silly that sounds, but I am proud of what I made and accomplished, and would just want to share my thoughts about it.
Admittedly, I am not the most exceptional individual, but I just love creating stuff and sometimes, creating stories. There are times when I feel like I always wanted to be a character in an alternative comic book world.
So a little background…
Slackerman is a digital art concept series that combines bedroom produced electronic music and videos. The music mixes elements of Hip Hop, Rock, and Psychedelia. The project is highly influenced by a lot of different creations from a wide range of media. It mainly draws inspiration from music like Lemonjelly, Nightmares on Wax, White Zombie, Gorillaz, Tricky. Comic books, animation, and movies like Cowboy Bebop, Venture Bros, and Clerks and even True Crime Podcasts. All mixed in a very nice and balanced blend, framed in some graphic and animation work.
I am just a really big fan of comic books, animation and music. I thought it would just be right to combine all those three and make something from it.
I initially thought of actually doing some production work of the music videos, but realized that I don’t really have the time and resources to do that. I was worried it would take me at least a year to complete everything if I did that. So I just went ahead and made the music videos with Public Domain movies. I liked how they turned out and was really proud of what I made. Although at some point I might take them down and change them to something even better.
My takeaway from this was It was cathartic and it was very exciting for me to complete the work. (The music album at least...). I really feel that at some point, I may have completed a novel of some sort. Sure it is not an instant classic, sure it may not become as big as I hope it would be. But the whole creative process from conceptualizing the songs to actually completing it, to coming up with the visuals in my head for it, was actually, very, very, satisfying. It made me feel like there was something I wanted to say for a very, very long time, and was finally been given a chance to do so.
You also need to be honest with yourself. Just do what you want to do. There are no set rules and for this kind of stuff and you can build an entire universe in your head. Also stop pleasing “the entire damn crowd.” just embrace the fact that what you may have devoted your time to something that may not be understood or liked by a wider audience. Not even your mom. Friends and families are actually the worse when it comes to this kind of stuff… but also surprisingly, they will also be there for you.
At some point, I hope I could:
A. Make real music videos for some songs.
B. Make a whole comic book about the story. (Currently ongoing... check my Instagram!)
C. Just make a short animated feature about it. In the style of another music video. (in progress...)
D. Perform these songs with a live audience and with real instruments.
The story of me creating music didn’t end there though. I was still able to create another album of tracks, and I feel that the next set of tracks are actually better than this set.
If you have reached this point, I thank you so much for your time and, I really hope you enjoyed what you read.
The only unfortunate thing about this is, this can be seen as a childish work of a very delusional individual. But hey, no one was harmed in the making of this thing. (Mostly just my ego...) :-D
#comics #blog #slackerman #ideas
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