Inside a Dark-Fantasy World (& what it taught me)

Every time I sit down with my buddy Zach Heyde, it's easy for us to talk for hours about our music, our businesses, our lives, what inspires us...

So what started off as a chat about his latest album: The Call of Raven's Hollow, quickly became a deeper conversation on why we make music at all and what it really means to create a musical world we want to live in.

In my latest video, I broke down my conversation with Zach and go to the core of what it means to truly develop a world of your own through music!

Side note: Composer Odyssey Members can check out the full hour and a half conversation as one of the bonus resources!

Somewhere in our conversation, Zach said something that stuck...

Let the ideas come freely; don't question them. When something resonates, find a way to justify it being part of the story.

I've talked to a bunch of composers over the last few years who pretty much all have a similar problem. It's this feeling that the music isn't "good enough" or "ready" quite yet.

It’s so easy to double down on the correct way of doing things and when we're not there just yet, we fall back on new libraries, new templates, more tutorials, what's "right" vs "wrong" in our mockups & music theory, etc. We hope one of these outlets might be the solution for feeling like a real composer.

For such a long time, I thought I was the only one with such a severe case of "second guessing every single music decision I can make" (totally the official name for it!!).

I just didn't realize how many people go through it as well! It's like you can feel your artistic, creative world getting smaller the more you try to "fix" what's "wrong" with your music or workflow.

Personally, I forgot why I fell in love with composing in the first place...to be a storyteller! 

During our conversation, Zach shared the deeper process it took for him to create this entire dark fantasy world! Instead of finishing tracks in isolation, he let them inform each other. Instruments, textures, and small motifs would flow across pieces; he created characters and lore and an overarching story!

He didn't just compose something that he thought would typically fit the mold of "fantasy music". Instead he completely saturated himself in the "dark fantasy" feeling he was chasing... with images on the wall, a dark wooden book shelf and desk, a fog machine, creating stories on a typewriter. 

The word that keeps coming up for me is enjoyment.

I found so much more enjoyment in the creative process once I let go of perfect voicings, or the technical theory terminology or getting the perfect mockup/mix. I can't even begin to describe how freeing it is to just...not really care about that stuff as much anymore!

It feels good knowing that after all these years of trying to prove myself as a composer, my priorities have finally shifted towards actually enjoying my creative process!

• I'm reminded of the kid who fell in love with storytelling, the kid who would create world maps and comic books (sorry mom for using all our printer paper!)
• I'm reminded of the kid who wanted to be a director because of the Special Features on those 2-disc DVDs. 
• The kid who created a literal fantasy storybook as a 6th grade project and later an intricate board game for his senior project.
• The college kid who fell in love with the research and performance aspect of his "Storytelling & Culture" class when everyone else treated it like a joke.

Once I remembered to put story first, to get in the minds and hearts of these characters, musical ideas actually came more freely and more frequently.

It's like creativity through different mediums fuels more creativity for all mediums. 

I feel so attuned to all of my ideas again: music, story, visuals, characters. I feel like I have all the right puzzle pieces in front of me!

This entire reconnection process has been so cathartic that I spent the past few weeks slowly putting together a new Storytelling Through Music e-book. It's the conversation I wish I’d had with myself from the start: write for the kid who loved stories first, think like a filmmaker, nurture and let those small ideas grow.

(Incredibly grateful for how many people signed up for the waitlist of this thing! It made me way more confident in sharing, knowing how many people were interested!!)

So if you’re feeling stuck or disconnected from the music, here’s one thing that helped me reconnect: step away from the DAW and surround yourself with the movies, the music, the stories that inspired you in the first place!