I am not only a music producer, but here are some other ventures into art and other things I did or do:
Journalist
Author (of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry books)
Visual Artist
Video Director
Label owner
Party promoter
Music producer (hah, mentioned this one already)
Music "teacher" (just online and one on one, not in a university)
Hobbyist cook
Anarchist / Activist
Traveler (hiking / biking)
Code writer
And likely a few other things as well.
And, no, I do not write this list to boost my ego (well, maybe a little bit), and I make no claim that I am good in all, or even any of these disciplines.
But let's just say that I got good feedback in every one of these "fields", and, now and then, even received "official accolades", like being featured in an established magazine or other cool stuff, for all of them.
Well, maybe not for the cooking and hiking. Not yet, at least (ironic smile).
Also, this list seems a bit disjointed and disconnected (video director and hobby cook?) which brings me to the point I *actually* want to make:
I think all of these "art forms", hobbies, or activities, are not very different and apart from each other, but instead they are very similar.
For example, by studying movie directors, reading up on movies, movie techniques etc. I learned a lot of things, that do not just relate to the world of movies, but can quite well be used in music production, too.
(Just one random example, related to this example: the structure of movies, the segmentation of movies can be used in song structures, too. Why not make a cool song or track, with a prologue, first act, second act, third act, and epilogue, too?).
The same goes for writing computer code and music production. I was one of the computer kids of past decades (yeah, i was quite the nerd, sorry) and when i got into music production, DAWs, tracker programs as a teen, my first thought was actually "these programs work just like writing code! glad that i already learned how to do this."
I won't tell how cooking influences my music production (at least not right now), and I agree this might be a claim that is a bit more on the bizarre side. But, hey, cooking is about combining different ingredients, too? Just like songwriting!
Part 2
From my own experience, it is one of these big "collective secrets" kept by successful artists (and a few not-so-successful artists, too). that *art* must not be segmented and cut up into lots and lots of tiny genres, topics, fields, realms. But that art is art itself and stays art.
No matter if it manifests as music, as movies, as poetry... or if it merely manifests as taking a walk in nature and watching a beautiful sunset.
Art is made up by your very own and unique thoughts, emotions, views of the world, sentiments, grievances, and hopes.
And it might not be very important whether you channel these and manifest them as music... as poetry... as movies... or merely go for a walk and enjoy a beautiful sunrise.
And if you think about it, the best artists are usually the ones that worked in more than one field. Like musicians that did soundtracks for movies. Or even music video producers that became real movie directors.
Part 3
So, I think there is a core of art, and this "core" is the same for *any* form of art. No matter what kind of art you do.
And this "core" is not (only) a vague, emotional, intuition thing, but there are very real, accurately explainable techniques to be found inside this core.
and if you know these, you can apply these to every art, in music production just as much as in visual art or poetry.
These techniques and key points stay the same, all the time.
Now to the next point, which brings us full circle:
At the same time, there are indeed differences between the arts, and I think you can only understand and use some of these techniques if you learn another discipline of art.
For example, by reading up on movie directing and on the mindset behind movie production, i learned techniques that i could use (and do use) in music production, that i would never have learned if i just stayed within my own realm of... music.
so, all ego and other undue silliness aside: if you are an artist, it will do you (very) good if you try to learn (and to create) a different kind of art, too!
for example, if you do visual art - try to write a book too.
if you are a musician, shoot your own no budget diy short movie
if you are a poet - write a script for a theatre play! (even if it never gets made)
and you do not even need to be good at it, or excel at it, or get praise for it...
by doing a different mode of art, you will learn things that will come in very handy and useful for your "main" art, too!
Example Links:
Music:
https://doomcorerecords.bandcamp.com/track/frequency-whales"Movie"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-IMaRJDzrYBook:
https://archive.org/details/pcp-legends-in-their-life-the-unofficial-planet-core-productions-book/Journalism:
https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/
