Experiment

I tried an experiment the other day: I posted a letter to the Fairport Convention mailing list asking people to listen to the two traditional songs ("Killarney Boys Of Pleasure" and "The Water Is Wide") which I have posted at Soundclick. I was interested to see what people would make of the tracks and even asked for suggestions what other traditional songs I might record.

I was slightly disappointed to see that only two people bothered to write to me, and neither of those people found the music interesting. This was the more illuminating comment about Killarney Boys: "I hear a lot of music and this must fall into the category of New Age but due to its mechanical construction (I assume you did most of this via computer), it sounds highly elevator-like. Less melodic than multi-layered with simple themes, it doesn't grab this listener. I praise it for its simplicity but that, in effect, is also its downfall. (referring to Killarney Boys of Pleasure - the title of which set me up for something remotely Celtic or trad sounding...)"

The last phrase is the most telling: there was no way in which I was going to perform a traditional Irish tune in a traditional Irish manner. Obviously the cross-genre arrangement wasn't startling enough.

An interesting side effect of my post was that my Soundclick page received many hits on the following days, along with a good ratio of plays and even downloads. As a result of this, "Killarney" jumped about 100 places in the Soundclick Irish chart and was placed at #23. This way, many more people are going to hear the track, probably people who are more used to eletronically produced music.

I listened to some other electronic tracks on that chart, and it seems that I didn't go far enough in electronifying the music. I really should have done a trance version based on the tune!

But ... in the end, I make music primarily for myself. I have to love the finished product, as well as make it as good as I can. If I am not true to myself and the music does not reflect this, then how do I expect anyone else to like it?

The bottom line of the experiment is that my music is still waiting to find its audience. I won't hold my breath during the process.