I frequently stumble upon music, books, movies, generally stuff that seriously impress me. But sometimes when I've had a persistent creative block (I paint, draw, compose, write, think alot of shit that will never be of use to me) and I experience something, a 15-year old fanboy wakes up in me, and makes me do awkward stuff. It's kinda like from a Radiohead interview I vaguely remember, when they said that they were influenced by Dj Shadow and tried to make music alike his (could have been planet Telex), however the final outcome of that song was in their style, not Shadow's. Ã, Luckily I have grown old and lazy, so I escaped the alternate universe where I have a 200 page Star Wars fan-fiction on my computer (actually used to know a dude who had written one). The stuff I make nowadays gets scrapped/discontinued in half an hour if it's unoriginal (= fanboy stuff or just crap), but sometimes it evolves into something better.
The thing that i'm interested in is: WHICH SONGS/ BOOKS/ MOVIES etc have made you want to create something of your own (who/what inspired you and what did you create)?
Some recent things (that made me feel creative/awestruck/inspired):
(song) The Go! Team - Get It Together : The drums reminded me of giant explodingdog.com robots stomping the ground, so, I started making a animation with enormous robots (which got scrapped after I thought that it's retarded to draw a animation to someone else's song).
(movie) Primer: A time-travel movie, shot with something that looks like it could have been a dv-cam. It made excellent use of the viewer's imagination (practically no special effects or fancy stuff, kinda like the film Stalker by that russian dead guy). Primer made me want to film a movie of my own (made shorts in the past), but it made me think that it could be actually possible (to make a decent film that isn't neccesarily a B-splatter), without shoveling in loads of cash.
The first paragraph is indeed a little weird, but there you go:
Music: Stravinksy, Prokofiev, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, dEUS, KoRn, NIN, Melina Kana (Greek artist)
Movies: Ran Lola Ran, Clean shave, Pic nic at hanging rock (197something)
I won't sit down now explaining all of this, but just add that everything I wrote, I find immensly interesting, thus interesting to get things from (in comparison to Britney Spears, for example, where I dont' feel the need to 'borrow' anything...)
My brother's odd with these things. He has a habit of listening one band for 2 weeks, and then start composing inspired by it. Mostly turns out pretty damn good. I myself had this thing say, a month ago, when I listenend the whole collection of Renaissance albums that I have through many times and started composing music quite different to theirs, but still inspired by their music.
i'm pretty much inspired by everything i come across and every new thing i see, game i play or piece of music i listen to gives me ideas for other stuff.
sometimes if i want to do a background or character art i'll listen to a certain style of music for inspiration.
whenever i play a game i'm always looking at the architecture for ideas to use in my own maps, an example of this would be a map i did for Unreal Tournament which was based on Soul Reaver 2.
and whenever i play BaSS or watch Blade Runner i'm inspired to do something similar, and the scene in the recent Time Machine movie in which the moon was breaking up has inspired an entire game idea, as have some of the topics for various competitions on the forums.
the thing to remember is that the sub-conscious picks up on everything so i think sometimes you're unaware that you're being inspired by things you've seen or heard, there was an interesting experiment on a show Derren Brown did a while ago where he got two people in the adveristing business to come along to a studio to work on something, on the way to the place he was the two guys were taken past certain buildings in their taxi, posters, banners and lots of other stuff like that were put up along the route too which was all planned.
before they had arrived Derren had already drawn a poster for the same subject (which if i remember right was some kind of funeral home or some place for peoples' pets to live on...), he gave them a few hours to work on a design and their finished result was very similar to his, i think they had come up with the exact same slogan.
the show then went back and showed you what they had been taken past that had influenced them, it was very interesting.
so i'd say that everything influences everyone in one way or another.
but really the only things to have seemingly actively inspired me are Soul Reaver 2 (level design) and that one scene from the Time Machine, and quite possibly all the music i've listened to inspires the music i make (Crystal Method, Daft Punk and Goldfrapp seem to be my main influences right now), and the game i'm working passively working on now is inspired by all the nintendo games i've played (right down to me using the nintendo colour palette).
i think this is a very interesting topic of conversation and has definitely got me thinking...
Musically I'm inspired and influenced by: Fates Warning, Confessor, Watchtower, Weakling, Psychotic Waltz, Skepticism, J.S. Bach, Anglagard, Unholy, maudlin of the Well, Cirith Ungol, Candlemass, Gyorgy Ligeti, Demilich, Pelican (early), Sieges Even, Bela Bartok, Venetian Snares, King Crimson, Ioannis Xenakis, In the Woods... and through periods, other bands or artists I get fixated on for a time.
I usually start music by naming the Sonar session after whatever I've decided to rip off at a time. So www.locustleaves.com/music/hellokitty.ogg was originally named 'weakling in the woods' for the opening bit that kinda reminds them, but as usual it degenerates to UGH UGH THRASH METAL with a few zany leads here and there, or slow doom metal, which is the music I'm most comfortable playing.
hellokitty is interesting because it rips off, in succession: in the woods..., weakling, pelican, explosions in the sky, at the gates, shape of despair. Nice going, Helm.
I have no literary aspirations, therefore no inspirations as well.
In comics, I look up to, and occasionally try to rip off Barry W. Smith, A. Pazienza, Yukito Kishiro, Munoz, Breccia, Chris Ware... that sort of thing.
I have to state though, that my influencies don't come in my mind, until much much later I've finished composing.
Veyr rarely I have started writting a work in something in my mind like: "I'm going to write something like Ligety, or like Trevor Resnor...". But almost always when I finish and have let this idea go away (after a couple of months), I sit down listen to it (by chance usually, because I should be working on something new by then...), only to find out that it bears ressemblence to something. And then I feel a little miserable... :-\
Kelly Clarkson, "Since U Been Gone".
It inspired me to make the adventure game I'm still working on, "Since You've Been Gone."
It's like the song, but, better grammar.
People inspire me. They do so much weird stuff that I feel I have to go around with a notepad in my pocket. Nature also inspires me sometimes: The way the the sun is shining in a particular way through the clouds, with the hills in the background hanging in such a specificly misty way over an open field with frosty grass...etc.
In music, the only thing that so far has inspired me into doing some ACTION is 2pac. The music resulted in some surprisingly non-violently freaky sketches.
A game that also inspired me into doing some sketches was Diablo 2. Having half a gazillion enemies all clawing at you while you battle mechanically has some element of craziness that cannot be ignored.
It's usually very specific things that hit me with inspiration. For example, not a whole song, but 2 lines from a song, or a short bit of the music from it that sticks out for me. It's not the whole "Grim Fandango is such an awesome game, it's inspired me to do something similar!!11!", but "That Chepito character is great! I especially like this and this action of his!". For people it's like when they are in a specific position, or reacting in a specific way, etc.
Musically I'd love to make music like Nirvana or Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Offspring.
I'd also love to write like Stephen King and sing like James Blunt.
A metal James Blunt? Hmmmm...
Anyway why would you want to sound whiney for?
I love his voice. He sings with such passion and he's really talented.
Quote from: Zor on Tue 21/02/2006 19:53:26
I love his voice. He sings with such passion and he's really talented.
Why? Because of his voice? That cannot be considered a talent... At least for me...
with the right hardware anyone can sing
Quote from: BOYD1981 on Tue 21/02/2006 20:04:57
with the right hardware anyone can sing
Surely they'd at least need to be in key?
I know what you're getting at though, although I suspect Mr Blunt can sing without computer aids.
I myself have started using vocal effects on my latest work, as my voice is a tad flat. Now I sound really cool! I just add things that make me sound electronic kinda like gary numan and combined that with an effect I've applied where I've made my voice sound raw and gritty. I wouldn't say that made me talentless, after all I'm writing the music and lyrics myself.
Plain obvious:
Since the Spice Girls made more than one record, this simply means that you don't have to be able to sing, in order to make a record! And it also means that the producers, busted their arses in editing... :-\
Oooh! Cool! I want that hardware, heh
If you use a vocoder, you can practically ignore singing in key. Else use autotune or some other plugin. I woul'dnt be surprised if almost all of the pop music on radio had some minor tweaking applied to it.
i'd say pretty much all of it does with the possible exception of live music that is actually sung live and not mimed.
and most songs are recorded seperately from the music, the vocals are then edited and mixed.
machines have replaced the need for talent.
Funny you should mention this. I've never heard people singing as well as I heard on friday at a cruise. Though it was clear that there was some hardware mixing with the voice, we sat so close we could hear the originar voice, and the one coming from the speakers, and it was completely different. Uh oh, what's the topic again?
EDIT: though I admit it'd be hell to have to listen to music like this from the radio http://www.keskiespoo.net/~salonn/mp3/Karate-Pekka/ so maybe manipulation isn't such a bad idea.
Quote from: Nikolas on Tue 21/02/2006 20:02:34
Why? Because of his voice? That cannot be considered a talent... At least for me...
How is that not a talent? Besides I was reffering to his music.
Music: All these anonymous house tracks I hear at local radio "Energy FM" while I drive to work. There's no DJ to announce the names so I never know what is playing, but their simplicity that somehow sounds too cool for so easy thing--- always creates urge to open up Fruityloops and get tracking. What sucks though, is that I have no chance to do this at work, so I have to wait 10 hours until I get home, and the inspiration is gone by then. :(
Books: WWII books. I love to read war stories by Russian writers. Though they are - as laws, KGB and censor demanded at writing time - stuffed with praising to socialism and communism, it's still much more edible than same fake-brainwash-patriotism in US literacy, for example. And these stories feel so damn real. Actually, any warfare themed historical literature will make my brain cells creative. And lifelike spy stories. Total opposite - murder stories.
Movies: Like? Yes. Inspiring? No. Most of watchable movies are Hollywood movies. But they kill even a singlest idea spark at the very start and offer explosions instead. Also, producers themselves are awfully out of ideas. Remember Matrix? One really good sci-fi idea over a long time. And it was ruined faster than light of speed...
There's some creative pieces of entertainment left yet. Stories of Sherlock holmes or episodes of MacGyver feel like they're created for becoming an adventure game one day. And though both are ancient, there's still very little of games available yet about them.
Quote from: biothlebop on Wed 22/02/2006 12:19:47
If you use a vocoder, you can practically ignore singing in key. Else use autotune or some other plugin. I woul'dnt be surprised if almost all of the pop music on radio had some minor tweaking applied to it.
Dang! So people have no way of knowing if I really did hit THAT note or I got a program to do it for me? (And I can't stand that gerenic vocoder voice effect)
Figured one thing out today, namely where this picture
http://koti.mbnet.fi/el_tonic/kuvat/dreamtwo.jpg
came from. Made it a couple days ago from part of a dream I had. The influence was Zladislav Beksinski, either 023, 026 or some other crucifix painting of his. Guess his crusifixes are so tall that they resemble telephone masts. The pictures in question are at the following link. http://www.twilightsite.com/Fantasy/Old/Beksinski/Beksinski.html
Oh yeah. Other than that, Franz Marc's painting foxes is amazing. Drew a stylized fox curled up like a dog (dont know if they do that) on paper when I saw it.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/marc/foxes.jpg
I have been a fanboy of a band called Dream Theater for the past 12 years, inspired me to become the best musician I could be.
Quote from: Xenogia on Fri 24/02/2006 04:21:40
I have been a fanboy of a band called Dream Theater for the past 12 years, inspired me to become the best musician I could be.
DT \o/... although they're new albums suck. BringÃ, Derek Sherinian back to keyboards and they'll be back to Scenes from a memory type great progressive metal. Oh, and Portnoy sucks, I'm surprised you'd like him, as a drummmer.
portnoy has his own unique sounds, hes not crap. yeah derek is the shit, i love him :D
I don't care for theater much, but Portnoy sucks? What the hell? One thing to not like someone's style one thing to discredit him completely.
Personally I liked When Dream and Day Unite, and the Majesty demos.
People have constantly insulted Dream Theater members ("Mark Portnoy sucks, he tries to copy too much from other drummers" or "The singer from DT sucks, he can't sing." is something I hear every day at other music forums).
I think that they are great and probably one of the most technically skilled bands around nowadays. None of them suck, they are all great at what they do...
I myself, being a guitarplayer, learned a lot from them (John Petrucci mostly) and think that they are the most underrated band ever.
Hehe, I prefer the Images & Words / Awake days. Portnoy is influential to a lot of people. Winning modern drummer prog metal drummer consecutively for so long must mean something if people are voting for him.
Musicians copy each other, they all influence each other to some degree. Mostly, I think people insult Dream Theater is because they can't play it (jealous factor). I love lots of other progressive metal acts also. Everything from Pain of Salvation, King Crimson, Spastic Ink, Andromeda, Meshuggah. A whole range of prog ... OKAY IM A PROG FANBOY .. hehe. It's out, my secret is out there for everyone to read.
Dream Theater are underrated? Okay now you've gone on the other end. EVERYBODY knows, listens and appreciates theater, lots of non-metal people and stuff. They're very visible and respected.
The progressive metal (not prog metal) I listen to is of a different school: Psychotic Waltz, Watchtower, Sieges Even, Deathrow, Megace, Confessor... the technothrash variety.
Ok, I don't really mean he sucks that bad, just I don't like his style. He just builds his playing on random hits in fast tempo, and makes it sound cool, yes, but in those slow songs they have, and when he needs to do plain rythm, he's not very good. And I don't think he'd fit many other bands, at least other styles. I know he played in OSI and Transatlantic, but those are so like DT.
Quote from: Helm on Fri 24/02/2006 14:04:53
Dream Theater are underrated? Okay now you've gone on the other end.
You are partly right, "some" people know DT, but maybe that's a regional difference. Here in Germany, nobody knows them except progressive metal fans like me. ;) They are NEVER played on any kind of radio station and I bet that not even 1% of people here know their name.
Quote from: Tuomas on Fri 24/02/2006 14:38:37
He just builds his playing on random hits in fast tempo, and makes it sound cool, yes, but in those slow songs they have, and when he needs to do plain rythm, he's not very good.
That's probably a matter of taste. I personally think that he does not hit random notes at high speed and I think that he's a great drummer for slow songs as well. Take any slow song by DT as example.
Tuomas, I see nothing 'random' in the way Portnoy plays, and his style can handle any tempo. I basically cannot follow your line of thinking at all since you even say OSI are like Theater. If there's one progressive project Portnoy has been involved in that was a total departure from his main band, OSI are it. It's much, much more a Jim Matheos (of Fates Warning non-fame, now here's a shame) thing than it is a Theater clone. And his playing there even I had to appreciate, who was initially grumbling because Mark Zonder didn't play instead. He's a very solid drummer with great chops and a good sense of accompaniament. He gets overbearing in some Theater releases, true, but then again, all of Theater get their change to get overbearing. I get bored of his drum solos, but hey, drum solos.
NP: Anna Lee (5:51)... Let's take over this thread. I talked to our drummer and another friend of mine who's drummer, and they both say Portnoy doesn't play for the band but for himself. And to take this even further, in the last 3 albums, the worst songs have been composed by Portnoy... But I guess it's just what you look from a band. The best drummer is Neil Peart, absolutely, the Bill Bruford and then Phil Collins.
Quote from: dkh on Fri 24/02/2006 14:52:20
Here in Germany, nobody knows them except progressive metal fans like me. ;) They are NEVER played on any kind of radio station and I bet that not even 1% of people here know their name.
At least they've played Pull Me Under and that new U2 like song, I walk Beside You here... So, I reckon you all progmetal-heads there listen to Vanden Plas or something like that?
Oh, and I, being the happy owner of many records, still find it odd that, most people count King Crimson as a Prog metal band. Sure they have some heavy material on their new albums.
Quote from: Helm on Fri 24/02/2006 15:10:23
Tuomas, I see nothing 'random' in the way Portnoy plays, and his style can handle any tempo. I basically cannot follow your line of thinking at all since you even say OSI are like Theater.
What I mean is, that Mike Portnoy makes it as Dream Theater as possible, granted that it's more like Chroma Key, but the drumming. I still say he doesn't play for the band. One of those who are great teachers and players, but could easily be replaced in a band. In a band that is not DT which is what Portnoy plays.
Anna Lee? I hear you prefer it orally.
You talk to your drummers and the drummers tell you what goes on in Portnoy's mind when he plays, right? I have no interest in judging Portnoy's intention when he overplays. It's progressive metal, everybody who can, overplays. I haven't listened to much of Theater's 3 last albums because I don't like Theater much, so I'll give you that he might have radically overtaken the sound of the rest of the band, but I don't think that would really be the case.
Vanden Plas are very much unknown compared to Theater.
King Crimson are a Progressive Rock band. They can as you say get pretty hard, but I don't think the aesthetics of heavy metal have anything to do with the Frippian mindset.
OSI are not at all like Chroma Key. Kevin Moore singing is Kevin Moore singing, but they don't sound anything like Chroma Key's three releases. As I said, modern Fates Warning is the closest parallel. What does 'play for the band' mean, Tuomas? All I hear is 'whine whine Portnoy's very fast and overloads'. So what? You don't like his playing, you don't like his playing, that's fine. Let's not judge his intentions and his reasons to play like that. You don't know the man and neither do I.
Anyways, in the end it all comes down to taste...
So, let's stop cluttering up this thread with music-related questions the thread wasn't made for... :)
Sorry it was my fault, I started all this :P Good to know some hardcore prog fans. But it is the point of complaining over Portnoy and the band anyway. Everyone likes something different being music, art, games, hobbies. Oh quickly the best drummer I have seen that kick anyones asses are as followings:
1. Virgil Donati
2. Mike Mangini
3. Vinnie Colaluita
4. Thomas Lang
5. Terry Bozzio
These guys are brilliant, Virgil Donati (freelance session muso from oz), Mike Mangini (steve vai drummer), Vinnie Colauita (what can I say Frank Zappa), Thomas Lang (this guy is insane, just look him up) and Terry Bozzio (he was the one who first played the Black Page by Frank Zappa)
I just want to point out that I've never, ever heard of Dream Theatre.
As for my inspiration, I have plenty. Of course, my answer is that everything I see/hear inspires me in tiny ways, but I know what you mean... some things have really kicked me in the guts nad made me go, "Whoa, I need paper to write some ideas down".
I'll tell you my most recent one - Iron Feather. It's a DS game I bought awhile back and started playing recently. It gave me lots of ideas for tiny things to add to Gift of Aldora. Not copying, but inspiration to work harder on the guis and interfaces. Ideas of places I can place sounds or images I hadn't thought of previously.
Quote from: Kinoko on Sat 25/02/2006 08:14:21
I just want to point out that I've never, ever heard of Dream Theatre.
Who?
Kinoko, ManicMatt: http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp?band_id=378 there's some awesome stream mp3s there too \o/
Anyway, I have this habit of listening to music and getting ideas, as I earlier said. Then it popped into my mind that the best songs that I've made are done so, that I ask one of my friends for a subject or a name for the song, and then for the key signature, and then I start composing on that. Somehow all my own ideas tend to die at some point, but these ones are so much different. This is why I'll be composing a song called "colors of the traffic lights" in A-minor tonight if I have time :D, I think I'll make it something DT like as that has been the official off-topic subject lately ;)
I am constantly influenced by music, movies, life and just about everything that impresses me. Then I express my influences through making music, writing stuff, drawing or creating stuff in AGS. I hope that I can influence others with what I do, just as I was influenced by stuff that others did.
When it comes to music, I usually look up the notes for a song that I thought is great from listening to it. Then I play it on guitar and learn it and I think about the theory behind the second and how it was composed. Sometimes I would even copy a whole sequence and start to modify it (transpose, change the rhythm/time signature) and start to build up new ideas based upon this sequence. And then - BAM! - what used to be a simple idea from a song I liked turned into - to quote Mark Portnoy - "a 12-minute epic".
I find myself subcounsiously influenced. Aftwe watching many episodes of the Mighty Boosh I find a Boosh-like cadence dropping into my normal talkings. I don't really like that though, it's weird.
As for my influences: The Coen Brothers, Terry Gilliam, Bob Dylan.
Basically anyone from around Minnesota, apparently.
Scenes From A Memory Metropolis Part II's album cover looks familiar to me, and the band's logo I've seen before too, perhaps in a magazine or something?
They sound alright yeah! Some sweet guitar riffs going on in there.
EDIT: Some of the synths sound out of date/cheesy? (I'm looking at you "stream of conciousness")
QuoteSome of the synths sound out of date/cheesy?
Could you explain? How does an instrument sound out of date?
Zor, if you like James Blunt, I suggest checking out Jeff Buckley's music.
In the same way i think those midi computer songs sound out of date.
The synth that comes in around one minute into the song, not the very first synth you hear. It sounds like something you'd expect to hear in an old amiga game. But the rest of the music is fine.
Organic instruments never age.
My parents have a old Klingmann piano, which does sound aged. It's not the same thing as a detuned instrument, I'd say it has a softer, ambient sound than new pianos. Guess that wasn't exactly what you meant though.
By the way, have you heard the Flecktones? This guy created his own drum machine/guitar/midi thing from the future. That can't sound old, after all it hasn't been invented yet.
http://www.flecktones.com/the_guys/futch.asp
I checked the website out, and some of the pictures... Isn't the bassist the same guy as in this video? http://media.putfile.com/thumpoff
I wouldn't know, but at least they are in tune, rather than some of the guitars from the song available in the flecktones website.
But hey! Flecktones don't sound aged, no.
We are living in the afterfuture. (Multi-touch screen video)
mpeg
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/multitouchreel.mpg
or
quicktime
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/multitouchreel.mp4
That video was kool! :D
DKH it's Mike Portnoy not Mark Portnoy .. :)