Oblique Strategies (Breaking Through Creative Walls)

1:22 What's good?Everybody, Scoobert Doobert here.Welcome back to love music more.Today, I'm going to take a little break from the rock historypodcast and instead talk again about music productionand really just creativity strategies.There's a card tool that I just learned about calledoblique strategies by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt.And Brian Eno, you probably know his name.He is a producer, artist.

1:51 He has worked with talking heads, David Byrne,as well as like U2 Coldplay, Peter Gabriel.Very big in all things music, really.And the ambient space as well.I think he literally coined the term ambient musicwith his ambient one music for airports,record in 1978.But this isn't a Brian Eno podcast.This is a creativity podcast.So what is oblique strategies subtitledover 100 worthwhile dilemmas?

2:28 So it's a card based method of breakingthrough creative walls.And I want to talk about this more like conceptually.But before we get there, let's talkabout what this card game actually is.So a bunch of different cards in a black box.And their goals are to offer challenging constraints.And like think about that, challenging constraintsin order to inspire creativity.So on the last rock pod I was talking about,

2:55 the constraints that harmony might provide,the chord progressions, or the constraintsthat things like AM radio might provide,or mono versus stereo.In a world of digital music, high fidelity music,of lossless and limitless transmission of music,you lose some of the constraints inherent in the recordingprocess.As technology advances into this magic world,and now you can just kind of tell the computer like,

3:27 hey, make me some mariachi music, and it will.There's no longer this constraint between will and execution.But a lot of AI music is boring.And a lot of music just in general is kind of boring.And why is that?I think part of it is the lack of constraints.So finding some other constraints internallyor externally through a book or through a card gameis a nice oblique strategy towards good

3:58 and interesting creative output.And I use this a lot myself.I learned this when I was, I took songwriting lessons,which is a weird thing to take lessons in, right?But it's actually was a really beautiful thingof being guided by a Sherpa up the mountain top of music,where you write a song every week.You come in with that song, and then they tear it upor hype it up or say, hey, you've been writing a lot of songs

4:25 that use this kind of corporation,or you've been writing a lot of songsto talk about this or use the word love a lot.Why don't I challenge you to write a pop song that'sa love song that never says the word love?Interesting challenge.Something might come out of it.That's great.But in lieu of those one-on-one exerciseswhich I no longer have, I have to challenge myself on my own.And these cards have been fun.

4:53 I've been starting to use them where you can go throughand you'll just see what would really make this song successful.Or you'd see, change nothing and continuewith immaculate consistency.Or in a very large room, very quietly.Disconnect from desire.Strange, open-ended, but kind of brilliantin terms of like, hey, I have writer's block.Everyone does except for John Mellencamp.And when you have writer's block,

5:30 you need to find a way through that wallor around that wall or dig below the wall.Like you have to explore somethingthat's a great challenge.And sometimes constraints are the best wayto break through the blank page.Because the reason why the blank pageis the most terrifying or the empty pro-tools sessionor empty Ableton, because nobody uses pro-tools but me anymore.At least my age.

5:59 The biggest issue is you're just lookingat endless possibility.The second that you drop in anything,be it a little drum part or a few chordsor even just a title, things can start to coalesce.That's why I never name my sessions untitled or blank.I always give them something.And the fun thing is that sometimes it becomes the opposite.So I've got my song chew on this.And the title of the original demo session

6:31 as I was starting to play with somethingwas happy little song.It was not a happy little song.But that was the nugget that it came from.And it ended up being a song that was intention with itselfwhere there were these kind of happy versesand frustrated choruses.But I think that wouldn't have happenedwithout that silly little temp titleor like putting yourself in a time in a place.So for my song Daydreaming, I thought

7:01 I am sitting on the Pacific surf linerat sunset riding the train in between Los Angelesand San Diego.And then so because I had that,I was like, you know what, I'm gonna go ride that train.I got on the train, started working on the beat.I like this song.I don't think it would be the same if I didn't do that.And then when I was recording the vocals,I've pulled up a little video of that train.

7:25 So then while I was singing it,I was watching the train go by, you know,just like silly little things to mix it up.It takes your brain somewhere else.And so when you find that you are stuck,you might need to do something drastic.Like could be as simple as going for a walkor it could be, hey, it's time to organize the drawerthat you've been putting off.Time limit it so that you don't just procrastinate

7:58 and just disappear into drawer time.But like, do something different.Focus your energy somewhere elseor give yourself some constraint.Like, I'm only gonna use three chords.The best part is, is that you might go all the wayuntil the bridge and then be like,I can't do it anymore.And then the bridge is just this chaos,this beautiful cacophony of different chordsbecause ultimately you're in control.

8:23 You can decide when to tear off the training wheelsand just go down the road.It's not an actual assignment.But by taking a little bit of that ideaof the assignment of the constraintsor like a musician could write a song for AM radio.I haven't ever thought of doing that,but that'd be kind of fun to mix,to make all the choices in mono,to do something that is just for another time.But maybe the constraint is only that.

9:01 It's not, hey, write an old-timey songthat sounds like Buddy Holly.It's like, okay, it's fine,but we already had a Buddy Holly.It's, no, write your own music,but for that time period.Or switch the purpose of every instrument in your song.So like, the guitar is now the drum set.The bass is now the keyboards.Like, push things around so that now,like tune your bass drum so that your bass drum

9:33 is basically your bass guitar.Flip things around.So now you're only playing chords on the bass.The drum kit is now pitched and playing the low end.So you're basically gonna have a steady lowand the entire time that's not gonna change.So it'll just be like a drone note below everything.And then redefine the percussive nature of the guitaras instead of it being a lead instrument,you are now playing like a hi-hat,

10:00 which is something I do all the time.And maybe take one of these and do it yourself.But what I'm trying to paint that picture ofis as somebody that is relentlessly creative.That is my thing.I don't know why I chose to hang my hat on it,but that's what I'm doing.It's exhausting.And sometimes you're like,what am I gonna write next?What do I do?I've done all of these things.

10:22 I'm using the same core progression again or whatever.That's when you start to mix things upand maybe you'll find your best work in that.Because you've already explored all of these paths.Let's go explore another one.Or you could say,hey, I'm gonna try and write a songthat would fit really well on my second record.And guess what, it's gonna be differentbecause you're not that same person anymore.

10:44 It's like a ship of Theseus thing.But why not try?And with the knowledge that you will fail.But like setting out to hit some goal that's impossibleand finding out that you end upon some weird island in between.But it's a new and unexplored placeeven though you were trying to go somewhereyou'd been before.And then also having the grace and the understandingthroughout the entire process that it's going to change.

11:13 That no one's gonna hold you to it.It's for you, it's by you.And that ends up giving you the best of both worlds.Creative constraints and creative freedom.And you get to use like all the gear.Like sure, sometimes the idea is like,oh, I'm only gonna record on my iPhone speaker.Like, okay, cool.But like sometimes the idea is,I need to find something emotional to connect to.

11:41 And then I'm gonna capture it in the high-fi digital waythat we can today, that other people couldn't.And there's like a secret sauceand again, not everybody loves modern music, I do.But it is what it is.We are not going to make music that soundslike the past using modern tools.We can buy the past tools, but that's kind of boring.The cool stuff is using what we've got now

12:03 that no one else in the past ever had access to.The music that only we can makeand apply that to anything creatively.But then how do you pull something else out?Because the nicer the microphone, the more exposed you are.The more digital and transparent the gear,the more exposed you are.The bigger the possibilities,the bigger the risk, the bigger the fear,the more the paralysis.So use an oblique strategy.

12:33 Be it from the card game, or from your own head.Or maybe chat GPT could think of one for you.But I feel like that's actually a better way to use AIis instead to be like, hey, you know,you are writing me a card that is going to make meexplore something different creatively,what a blah, blah, blah, blah.Instead of saying, hey, you write the lyrics now.Instead of giving up your creative autonomy to the machine,

13:03 instead use the machine to challenge you, or as another voice,or as something that can prompt you in a differentand unexpected way.And then be ready to discard that the second it's no longer useful.And I think you'll find your creative outputand the interest, like the coolness of what you're makingwill go up by a pretty big factor if you startexploring those constraints, exploring yourself,

13:33 and playing with that tension, that tug of warin between freedom and restriction in your art.If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love to invite youto share it with a friend, rate it five stars,and subscribe to it on whatever you're usingfor your podcast, Spotify, Apple, something else.You can also check out my sub-stack at lovemusicmore.substack.com,where I share a bunch of great music on there,

14:02 music history, guest posts, things all to make you lovethis thing that we love.Music, a little bit more.And if you'd like to hear my music,you can go to scoobertdoobert.pizza,that's my website, it's actually.pizza.You can hear my stuff.Hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you next week.