A while ago a project I started more than 7 years ago came to an end. It's also heavily related to my music.
In 2014 I realized something that probably many people before me realized, and may sound banal at first. Which is that while we humans live in and experience the real world, we also have our imagination. At any point in our lifes, no matter how shitty our reality is, we can daydream and imagine ourselves to be a rich person, or a king, or a space adventurer, or, or...
So there is no need to be sad ever in our lives, because we can always imagine ourselves to be in a lucky situation.
When I realized this, I decided to live two lives from now on. I would keep living my real life in reality, but when I have time to daydream, also live a different live in my fantasy and imagination.
Now, could you imagine which role I did choose for my imaginary life? Can you guess it? Well, of course to be a genius artist with lots of fans!
Now you might, that's kind of arrogant and self-centered. But it's not. Is it arrogant if you watch a sci-fi movie and think, I wish I was Luke Skywalker or Neo? No, because you know it's not real, it's just your imagimation.
I didn't really believe to be a genius or famous, because I knew that, in the end, it was just a game in my mind - a hazy fantasy.
Now, you might think, this is all not very interesting, as there are doubtless lots of people who slip into fantasy now and then apart from living a real life, and imagine themselves to be the next hero in a computer game or their favorite anime.
But, if you followed my music, and listen to my music, there is a little twist. Because at that moment in 2014, I completely and totally stopped doing music for the real world. I began writing tracks for an imagined audience, to be performed at huge, imaginary parties with large crowds that never existed. I no longer wrote music for humans of flesh and bone, or labels that existed in the real world.
To just give one example, I used a lot of Oldschool 909 sounds, because in my imagination, that sound was still popular at these parties.
In the real world, I got a lot of negative feedback and criticism for my music, but that left me cold, as my music was not written for a real audience anyway.
I created whole stories and timelines in my mine, for example, about which sound and techniques - even equipment and software - were popular amongst the Hardcore music community in my mind.
But, you might ask, you released a lot of music from 2014 on - in the real world?
Yes, but that was all stuff I produced for imaginery parties and crowds. It was a fallout of that period. I put 100s of tracks by me into large archives, that I sent to labels - finally in the real world. And they chose to release some of them. But that was not my objective when I actually made these tracks. I didn't write these tracks to be released - in reality. It was enough for me that they entertained hypothetical dancers.
After a while, some interesting things happened. My imagination began to seep into my nightly dreams, not just daydresms anymore. I dreamed I was really playing huge raves with my tracks. Some of these dream venues were awe-inspiring, with a metallic and sci-fi set up. I remember one dream when I played a party, an outdoor festival with huge glass domes and giant artificial trees, that left an impression in my mind
To add another twist, at some of these dreams I played tracks I hadn't produced yet, but that seemed quite good to me. I tried to memorize these tracks as good as I could, and then really produce them - in reality.
And oddly enough, my music really began to attract an audience after a while - in reality!
The years 2010-2013 were a bit of a low point for me, when only few people listened to my music, but after 2014, it all went very good.
Sometimes, in the real world, DJs even dropped tracks by me at huge raves - a bit like in the dreams I mentioned before.
So, anyway, it went like this for a while, but when Covid and the lockdown happened, I began to think about it. Now that, due to the lockdown, a lot of my real life was gone, I felt there would be an imbalance if I would continue to live another life in my imagination, so I put an end to it. I also thought that maybe, just maybe, I had taken that whole fantasy/daydream business wayyy to far.
Since then, I produce for real people, real labels, the real world and real life again. And this feels nice, too.
In 2014 I realized something that probably many people before me realized, and may sound banal at first. Which is that while we humans live in and experience the real world, we also have our imagination. At any point in our lifes, no matter how shitty our reality is, we can daydream and imagine ourselves to be a rich person, or a king, or a space adventurer, or, or...
So there is no need to be sad ever in our lives, because we can always imagine ourselves to be in a lucky situation.
When I realized this, I decided to live two lives from now on. I would keep living my real life in reality, but when I have time to daydream, also live a different live in my fantasy and imagination.
Now, could you imagine which role I did choose for my imaginary life? Can you guess it? Well, of course to be a genius artist with lots of fans!
Now you might, that's kind of arrogant and self-centered. But it's not. Is it arrogant if you watch a sci-fi movie and think, I wish I was Luke Skywalker or Neo? No, because you know it's not real, it's just your imagimation.
I didn't really believe to be a genius or famous, because I knew that, in the end, it was just a game in my mind - a hazy fantasy.
Now, you might think, this is all not very interesting, as there are doubtless lots of people who slip into fantasy now and then apart from living a real life, and imagine themselves to be the next hero in a computer game or their favorite anime.
But, if you followed my music, and listen to my music, there is a little twist. Because at that moment in 2014, I completely and totally stopped doing music for the real world. I began writing tracks for an imagined audience, to be performed at huge, imaginary parties with large crowds that never existed. I no longer wrote music for humans of flesh and bone, or labels that existed in the real world.
To just give one example, I used a lot of Oldschool 909 sounds, because in my imagination, that sound was still popular at these parties.
In the real world, I got a lot of negative feedback and criticism for my music, but that left me cold, as my music was not written for a real audience anyway.
I created whole stories and timelines in my mine, for example, about which sound and techniques - even equipment and software - were popular amongst the Hardcore music community in my mind.
But, you might ask, you released a lot of music from 2014 on - in the real world?
Yes, but that was all stuff I produced for imaginery parties and crowds. It was a fallout of that period. I put 100s of tracks by me into large archives, that I sent to labels - finally in the real world. And they chose to release some of them. But that was not my objective when I actually made these tracks. I didn't write these tracks to be released - in reality. It was enough for me that they entertained hypothetical dancers.
After a while, some interesting things happened. My imagination began to seep into my nightly dreams, not just daydresms anymore. I dreamed I was really playing huge raves with my tracks. Some of these dream venues were awe-inspiring, with a metallic and sci-fi set up. I remember one dream when I played a party, an outdoor festival with huge glass domes and giant artificial trees, that left an impression in my mind
To add another twist, at some of these dreams I played tracks I hadn't produced yet, but that seemed quite good to me. I tried to memorize these tracks as good as I could, and then really produce them - in reality.
And oddly enough, my music really began to attract an audience after a while - in reality!
The years 2010-2013 were a bit of a low point for me, when only few people listened to my music, but after 2014, it all went very good.
Sometimes, in the real world, DJs even dropped tracks by me at huge raves - a bit like in the dreams I mentioned before.
So, anyway, it went like this for a while, but when Covid and the lockdown happened, I began to think about it. Now that, due to the lockdown, a lot of my real life was gone, I felt there would be an imbalance if I would continue to live another life in my imagination, so I put an end to it. I also thought that maybe, just maybe, I had taken that whole fantasy/daydream business wayyy to far.
Since then, I produce for real people, real labels, the real world and real life again. And this feels nice, too.
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