Ship/Member: Woozi-centric Major Tags: N/A Additional Tags: mitski geyser dot mp3; one-sided interview-style; author agonizes with subject Permission to remix: please ask
after Hanif Abdurraqib...ish. Title from Mitski on "Geyser": "I will be whatever it needs me to be. I will do whatever it needs me to do in order for me to continue to be able to make music."
***
What kind of questions do you ask yourself before sitting down to write a song? What questions do you think you answered with this one?
Are there particular beats, moments that you wish you could foster and harness?
What is in the in-between for you? How do you pull a song from stasis and into a product worth shaping?
And is that where a story begins?
For me, some stories come together non-linear, sure. But at the end, it's about the cohesion for everyone else, but for me, it is about how it comes together. The journey and process rather than the end product.
I suppose asking is a chicken or the egg type question.
Are you still working on trying to capture what you feel in this moment?
And is that source still running out, or do you think that you've found a new source to pull from?
How does it compare, writing with your primary collaborator versus sourced producers?
Different approach and process can widen horizons, sure.
Do those shift your ideas on what you would consider to be a SEVENTEEN song? Or, more ambitiously, a WOOZI song?
For others can feel daunting, but for yourself can be worse. Like a blogger with an iPhone waiting for you to fuck up.
Stifling scrutiny, yeah.
Is there a song out that you wish that you'd written?
Can we expect to see more of that then—that wistfulness? The wanting to reach out without actually touching?
So we should not be on the lookout for, say, New Jack Swing anytime soon? [laughs]
But you're right. Art is that thing, you know? Always there, always taking the shape of the thing you need, but it's not so readily obvious each time. Like you said: If you’re concentrating too hard on making it, though, you won’t be able to tell if it’s going like you first imagined it.
But are you losing the love if you're still putting in work?
All of it is a labor of love, yeah. There is no such thing as labor without value, to me, and everything means something to someone. The littlest thing can touch the most hearts, somehow.
Right, right. And it's about finding a balance.
Would you call that your fallback then? When all else fails, you'll always at least have this?
I suppose it does help you clear your head.
I crochet when I can't, I cook when I'm really in it, but at the end, I come back to the blinking screen because it has to be done. I have to do it because if I don't say it, who will?
Creatives are their own worst enemies.
And that's just it, is it not? It's a cycle and it feels endless. But it's temporary. And we power through and build something bigger, and on the other side, we think. Huh. Why didn't I just do that in the first place?
But it will come back, even if you think it won't.
See, that is the best thing about losing your shape. You always have the ability to come back to form.
FILL: whatever it needs me to be
Major Tags: N/A
Additional Tags: mitski geyser dot mp3; one-sided interview-style; author agonizes with subject
Permission to remix: please ask
after Hanif Abdurraqib...ish. Title from Mitski on "Geyser": "I will be whatever it needs me to be. I will do whatever it needs me to do in order for me to continue to be able to make music."
***
What kind of questions do you ask yourself before sitting down to write a song? What questions do you think you answered with this one?
Are there particular beats, moments that you wish you could foster and harness?
What is in the in-between for you? How do you pull a song from stasis and into a product worth shaping?
And is that where a story begins?
For me, some stories come together non-linear, sure. But at the end, it's about the cohesion for everyone else, but for me, it is about how it comes together. The journey and process rather than the end product.
I suppose asking is a chicken or the egg type question.
Are you still working on trying to capture what you feel in this moment?
And is that source still running out, or do you think that you've found a new source to pull from?
How does it compare, writing with your primary collaborator versus sourced producers?
Different approach and process can widen horizons, sure.
Do those shift your ideas on what you would consider to be a SEVENTEEN song? Or, more ambitiously, a WOOZI song?
For others can feel daunting, but for yourself can be worse. Like a blogger with an iPhone waiting for you to fuck up.
Stifling scrutiny, yeah.
Is there a song out that you wish that you'd written?
Can we expect to see more of that then—that wistfulness? The wanting to reach out without actually touching?
So we should not be on the lookout for, say, New Jack Swing anytime soon? [laughs]
But you're right. Art is that thing, you know? Always there, always taking the shape of the thing you need, but it's not so readily obvious each time. Like you said: If you’re concentrating too hard on making it, though, you won’t be able to tell if it’s going like you first imagined it.
But are you losing the love if you're still putting in work?
All of it is a labor of love, yeah. There is no such thing as labor without value, to me, and everything means something to someone. The littlest thing can touch the most hearts, somehow.
Right, right. And it's about finding a balance.
Would you call that your fallback then? When all else fails, you'll always at least have this?
I suppose it does help you clear your head.
I crochet when I can't, I cook when I'm really in it, but at the end, I come back to the blinking screen because it has to be done. I have to do it because if I don't say it, who will?
Creatives are their own worst enemies.
And that's just it, is it not? It's a cycle and it feels endless. But it's temporary. And we power through and build something bigger, and on the other side, we think. Huh. Why didn't I just do that in the first place?
But it will come back, even if you think it won't.
See, that is the best thing about losing your shape. You always have the ability to come back to form.