It's a Good Time to Do it Alone

I've been thinking a lot about the independency of what I do and how much of the process takes to create, polish and deploy to people that are interested. "It's a Good Time to do it Alone" is such a stiff statement to me, but a reality in how I approach my visions and such. I'm not called for collabs, not asked to be taught how to do X, Y & Z and not noted to be this role model people aspire to be. I'm simply someone who just lives in this world and tries to understand it by what I know.

The spaces that I grew up in has changed so much in the last 10 years and has gifted me much to think about: The way we dress, the way a camera looks around a persons neck vs the shoulder, why I need to use certain chords to match with this effects pedal... a sleuth of things that become unnecessary when all I needed to know was how I can take a picture and whats the best way to make my guitar sound like water.

The more and more people display their lives the less I get interested in knowing why these things exist on my phone. I've become more annoyed about it more than anything, but I have to have it just in case? It's electronic cancer. It's a cancer that just consumes me for no reason. And I keep going back to it everyday. I fucking hate it man.




This project just got released today. It's a project that I've been toying with for the last few months figuring out how I could deploy it, what would be the concept and how I would arrange it. I realized it was another stem of how I go about my work since I started this project. It's a diary. Not a polished one, but a diary entry that I wrote down kinda on a whim. I added some tape loop sounds, pieced it together and mastered it all by myself. And that's kinda it. Nothing more, nothing less.

It takes time to figure out all this shit unfortunately. I've only had studies in photography and even then I'd always wanted to find my voice in the medium rather be of what everyone expected to be. Finding a point in your creative space is certainly slow and most of the time people lose it or end up following what everyone else is doing. It's a big mess and I see it all the time with the young and older folks that are trying to get some clout or gains from it.

But what do I know right? I'm just some person who just doesn't really care honestly. If anyone likes what I do then it'll come around. Maybe it'll make sense to someone later on? Who knows.

I've been having a good time writing again and maybe I'll be posting more in the next couple of weeks. I just need to make time to be creative. Even at least 15 minutes.

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My Current Project

Over the last few years I've dedicated my time honing my craft onto the LST LVS project. A lofi photo/music diary sharing a bit of who I am through pictures and songs. And with the ability to combine both works together it's giving me purpose to look and listen to these pictures and songs differently.

I've noticed that I've been having fun making this work for the first time in years. All I do now is look forward to the next song or idea or picture or concept or whatever the fuck it is that involves me participating on this project. I've never thought i'd make a project that could involve both mediums together and it make sense. The images and songs somehow work together.

I know people don't really care about this project, but maybe one day the idea and approach will inspire someone to make work that may even be better than mine. Making art is exciting these days and I hope that it will help me keep alive as the years go by.

With that being said please check out the demo song if you haven't already!

- Arthur

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It's Awesome To Know I'm a Nobody

... and I mean that in a genuine sense that what I do artistically isn't noted by many people. There's a comfort of being normal and not having pressure to say and do things known artists have to adhere to often. It's taxing reading comments and scrolling over video thumbnails of think pieces of artists good or bad work. The analytical deep dives are so heavy that the artist isn't even a human anymore and just a piece of art.

Lately I've been thnking about artists lifestyles and what it takes for them to just make it into the world. What it takes to live off the work they create and live with what little they have. It's a bit mindboggling how unstable and unsupported this whole concept is. I commend the efforts of these people giving their all to make statements and create what they believe in, however, where does the line draw for the amount of consistent suffering and when is "enough" enough?

My daily gets engulfed by my job, but I at least take 15 minutes to either write drum tracks on my shitty computer, take pictures outside or write down ideas for future projects. I assemble most of what I've gathered during the weekends and follow a formula that enables me to organize an approach in songwriting or photo processing. This has been a constant thing for me for the last few years. And just this year I started realizing the workflow of the process. This is the best I can do and probably the best I'll ever be able to do. I'm not really looking for fame, but an opportunity to share to people what I see and feel. And much like this blog the body of work really identifies as a diary of some sort.

There was an interview with Julian Baker that I saw a month or so ago that had her brief on the idea of having some sort of teaching career with music being a side note. And for some reason it really struck something in me knowing an artist in her caliber has casual thoughts about making this art life a passion rather than a career. And I sometimes wonder the kind of relationship these people have with art as it get bigger and bigger. What does it succumb to and is it just commerce as the years go by? It's certainly an interesting thought. Makes me wonder if the path that I took was the right direction. Why would anyone want to resent the work they put so many hours into?

I'm having fun. I can almost say for sure I'm having fun making music and taking pictures. And I know that my work won't be for everyone to see or hear, but the fact that I get to do this without any consent or restrictions is freeing. Imagine having to worry about seeing if a product you create will either make or break you? I guess that's where professionals come in knowing what sells and what dies. I don't think I want that kind of pressure embedded in me, but I guess to some it's a way to breathe new things that they see succeed or fail. And you know me.. I'm the king of failures lol.

I'm a nobody. I'm not sure if I want to be a somebody, but I do want my work to have some sort of meaning to anyone who see my pictures and listens to my music. But I do it for me. And I do it because I love it as much as I can.


- Arthur

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