Inspiration sources for spec tracks
Stories
Obviously for me stories are a main source of inspiration. I rarely make music without a story to inspire it. So where do I find these stories?
1. History
History is one my favorite sources of inspiration. It is filled with unbelievable stories. The only thing one really has to do with history is choose. And this is where the inspiration part comes in. I try to avoid making the obivous choice of a big heroic story and try to dig in deeper to find those events and stories that happened outside the limelight of victorious glory. Did I mention that for me inspiration is as much detective work as it is something mystical that can't be described?
2. Myths
After history myths are my biggest source of inspiration. I find it interesting to see how the mythologies of different cultures vary from each other but are still some much alike. You can find new perspectives to familiar stories by looking into a different mythology.
3. Books in general
This is one of those duh-things. Books are stories. A good book can inspire you to many things. Simple as that. Books you can easily tackle, since there's a whole a lot more in them to work with. Often some obscure side line can be the most interesting part. For example a single line "the final flight of the Luftwaffe"from a book spawned an eight minute action packed track.
4. Newspapers
Newspapers are full of interesting stuff. Usually there's a lot of stuff that can tickle the imagination and bring new ideas to your head. Most of the time you just have to dig deeper into the subject. And who knows, you might end up finding a different story that way.
5. People
Listening to old people is often really inspiring. They can have a lot of increbidle stories to tell and they can give you the human side of them. You don't find these stories in the history books, but they are more tangible than all the above.
Other sources
Not all of my tracks have stories behind them. Ok, this happens rarely, but it does happen (sometimes). Then I need to dig my ideas from somewhere else.
1. New instruments
I tend to collect instrument libraries and almost always when I get something new on my hard drive I get inspired by it. Ok, at first I'm baffled by how to use them, but then I get inspired. The new sounds just bring new worlds to mind and open new doors for you to explore. Usually getting new instruments gets me out of my normal tracks and shift me into different styles of music. Which is always a good thing.
2. Old instruments
I really have to mention this as well, since I get this often. As I'm always buying new libraries I tend to forget somethings that my old libraries have and then "discover" them. And get inspired.
3. Art
I find a lot of ideas from different kinds of art work. Sometimes a beautiful photograph, an unfinished painting or a sketch is all that is needed to get my mind running. The only problem I find with art as an inspiration source is that you might have go through a really large amount of stuff to find the pieces that inspire you. But like I said before, the detective work is one of the best parts of working with new ideas.
4. Travelling
Getting stuck in your normal circles is a pretty bad thing when your trying to be creative. Travelling is probably the best way to break your routines. Plus going to someplace that is really cool can give you extra vibes and ideas.
5. Nature
It's no surprise that nature has inspired so much art in the course of time. It is just full of marvelous sights from small to large. You just have stop and see them.
6. Design
This one crosses paths with art (and sometimes with nature) as well designed objects, places, whatnot, are pieces of art. But I feel this still needs it's own little tab here. Let's take an example: a Ferrari sports car. No one will says it's not a piece of art but there can be so much more to it. I have seen a group of Italian Carabinieri (the police for those not familiar with Italy) just stare at a starting Ferrari and watch it speed away well over the speed limit right before them and not one of them gave chase. They just took in the beauty and power or the car and then went on with their business. So design can give you quite alot of stuff to work with.
These are some of the things I've found inspiration for and this is by no means a complete list. I will write more about my working with spec tracks in time, but there's still one thing that this post needs. A little piece of advice.
Keep an idea book. Write down things you hear, see, read, experience. Don't let them escape.
