Find the Ugliest, Most Lovable Tree Possible
In another life, I should have studied comparative religions.
There is an amazing (and short) book by Kosuke Koyama called Three Mile an Hour God. He touches on materialism a lot, and as it relates to whatever religion you are—God, Buddha—and he talks about nirvana.
He says:
"Nirvana is the highest good of Buddhism. It is the state of absolute tranquility that comes to one who is completely cooled."
And he describes materialism as heat.
So if you buy something, it's a hot thing until you buy it, and then things/ you eventually cool. And I think a theme that's always talked about here on the blog is musical consumerism and materialism, and the old, old hag of, "If I just had this, then I could do this."
Instrument-wise, really, if you have a computer, you can do it. There's some way to do it. If you don't have a MIDI keyboard, you can use your QWERTY keyboard to get it done. So those arguments are off the table.
But he says:
"Distance from heat is distance from the paralyzing effects of time, namely old age, sickness, and death."
And I do believe this.
If you look into it, and you're thinking about ultimately what is the goal of music, I think the goal is to play it. Yes, you want people to listen. Yes, you want to make it. But when you're playing and you're in the flow state, you're just there.
And what are the tools that remove boundaries and get you there easiest?
I think that's why the acoustic guitar is so popular, because you just sit down and you play. And you see what happens.
So maybe you think, okay, well, I'm going to record this. What's the easiest way to record it?
Well, you have a phone in your pocket.
I saw somebody describing how much easier it is to have [insert piece of gear they are selling] than your phone. It's like-- total bullshit, right?
The phone is so easy vilify, but it also makes things very easy. I record voice dictation on these phones and then turn them into the blog, and here we are.
Ultimately, he says—and he's Japanese, and they have a tradition where you walk to work and you touch a tree (or something like it).
I have one of these trees on my walk through the trails around my house.
I think it's a mesquite tree. It was a little tree next to the trail, and it's just kind of, super ugly by tree standards. If there were a scale of tree beauty, it's not high up there.
But I don't know. I just love it.
And I touch it every time I pass it. I think about it when I'm getting to it. And I kind of look forward to getting to this tree.
It's about 30 minutes into the walk, which is typically two hours, so it's at the right point. I've already settled in.
Anyway, he says:
"Touching my tree day after day reminds me of time. It tells me that I can only wait for time. I cannot push it or hold it. Between today and tomorrow, when I touch my tree again, I can accept only those opportunities that come to create a new, non-thirsting, less greedy relationship with others and with things."
It's just an amazing way to look at creativity and things.
And the things are not creativity, and creativity is not the things.
And when he talks about the heat, it just removes you.
So when I am going deep with my MPC Key 37, which is an instrument I have actually totally connected with, and using the MPC Bible and going through that page by page, it's only made this grow. The depth at which you can negotiate and change samples and the like is just amazing.
For my workflow, it is enough.
And as a person who is trying to keep it simple for what I do—for Daphne Falls, which is drums, maybe a synth, bass, and then a lead line that I can play over it—just getting those perfectly right and mastered is a huge job.
And if I'm performing with them, or we're writing, or we're playing, or we're out doing a gig, and people don't think I'm doing much, or haven't done much, but it feels awesome, that's 100% success.
And so now I'm thinking about these things as, like, am I cool, or am I hot?
Is there heat being produced, or is this cool?
Because I believe you will hear it in the music. You will feel it in the room. The other musicians around you will pick up on what you're doing.
And ultimately, that's the goal.
So framing this in cool or hot, as it relates to music and materialism, has really opened my mind.
And I'm not thinking about it directly when I'm doing my music thing, but it's now back there, and it's kind of in the bank--there all the time now.
I can't recommend the book enough.