11/23/2024 4:58:18 PM
Do you make boring music in old age?

11/23/2024 4:58:18 PM ---- Updated 11/23/2024 5:04:35 PM

Do you make boring music in old age?
Dear musicians

I'm listening to the music I wrote and played with my band over 10 years ago.
Now I have 2 children and have taken care of my family a lot. I stopped playing with the band. I work as a teacher.
I used to be wild, I experimented, I was spontaneous and didn't think much about it.

One example:
https://indiemusicpeople.com/songs.aspx?SongID=122525&ArtistID=153344

Today I study words, weigh them up, compare them. I like my music, but I have the feeling that it attracts much less attention. I've become calmer and actually feel good about it. And yet I sometimes miss something.

Here my first recording:
https://indiemusicpeople.com/songs.aspx?SongID=122472&ArtistID=153344

Do you feel the same way? I'll soon be 44 years old....

Greetings from Switzerland!
Stefan

11/24/2024 10:12:06 AM

Great Subject Stefan, I am sure you will get some excellent responses. For me I am mostly an instrumentalist so not sure if I can really be one to comment yes or no.
Bryon

11/24/2024 11:23:56 AM ---- Updated 11/24/2024 12:20:09 PM

Sometimes as a songwriter ages, he or she may be more drawn towards slower tempos and more mature subject matter but that is not necessarily boring. Boredom is a very subjective thing. What one person finds boring, another person finds thrilling. The important question is do you see your own music as boring? Do others? If you’re happy with your writing then stick with it! Also: don’t let other people define you or your music.

Some people think Leonard Cohen is boring but many think he’s brilliant. I’m sure he doesn’t care one way or the other. He writes what pleases him! As far as aging is concerned, remember what Janus Joplin said: “the older the grape, the sweeter the wine.”

11/24/2024 2:30:33 PM

Hello you two

Thank you very much for your answers. Sometimes you need some good coaxing and comforting when you feel a bit lost. I guess that's part of life.

You are right. Times gone by are over. You get older, maybe you don't have as much energy anymore. But more experience and, in the best case, wisdom. You no longer need to compare yourself with others. Everyone goes their own way and the less you stray from it, the more you are with yourself.
And that's where you should feel most comfortable :-)

I will continue on my path and look around kindly, not only backwards but also to the left, right and above all forwards.

Best wishes from Switzerland!
Stefan

11/24/2024 4:08:22 PM

I personally feel I've been making great music in my old age, but you sorta have to be youthful to do rock songs. I am that.

11/24/2024 6:56:02 PM

Good post there...

Like climbing a mountain, I'd say...each decade a new plateau...

Or Beckett said, if I recall (to paraphrase), when I was younger the darkness rides me, now I ride the darkness...

11/25/2024 1:33:22 PM

Thank you both very much for your answers. It's good to get different, reflective points of view here that put a stop to my concerns.

I also think that, unlike sport, for example, you can continue to play music at a high level into old age.

11/26/2024 3:09:35 AM

Your heading "Do you make boring music in old age?" interested me because I AM old - then I saw your age 44, really! I didn't start making songs until I was that age.

11/26/2024 8:49:04 AM

Thank you very much for your reply.
Yes, you could also discuss what is old.
I felt somehow old when I listened to my earlier songs, with so much energy and spontaneous realizations. But you're never too old for anything as long as the will is still there, I agree!
I felt a lot of anger towards life and the world.
Today I feel a kind of dismay, which I meet with compassion and realize that sometimes I simply don't have the words when I see what's happening in the world. Perhaps I can approach this better through music.
all the best, Stefan

11/26/2024 10:50:11 AM ---- Updated 11/26/2024 10:51:26 AM

The World doesn't feel like a good place right now. The news is brutal. War, Pollution, natural disasters, violent crime, scams, scandals, injustice and so on.

If you want to express your troubled thoughts through music this is the time to do it. However if you need to escape all the horror for a short while then good, innocent, loving music is the perfect remedy.

11/28/2024 11:51:11 AM

thx for your comment:

"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

i can't find better words at the moment.
all the best.

11/29/2024 4:24:55 PM

44? Well, junior, I'm pushing 70 and I try to keep my music fresh and exciting.

You can do it! Keep rockin'!

11/30/2024 8:48:37 AM ---- Updated 11/30/2024 9:12:00 AM

Please yourself. Be honest to yourself. If someone else likes it or not does not matter.
Otherwise you're better off just doing covers with proven mass appeal. Two different things entirely. Shared songwriting between multiple people creates compromises that usually end up in divorce as well. It boils down to figuring out yourself what you really want and what you're willing to give up in order to achieve it. Stay happy! You can have all the "success" in the world and be miserable for it otherwise.Each persons life are the consequences of the choices we make along the way. Well being is my first priority! You can't be lazy about it no matter what choices you make along the way either. Travel. You will discover the happiest people have next to nothing, but retain what is most important. That gets lost in societal BS and the trap we find ourselves in within Western "Culture" and the con game we have to live under.Damn the torpedoes and please yourself with the stuff you write!

11/30/2024 9:59:24 AM

Lance, you hit the truth of it all and what life is all about. Beautiful

11/30/2024 7:56:22 PM ---- Updated 12/1/2024 3:16:05 AM

There's a feeling a person gets when they hit the jackpot, like in a movie where the guy swings the hammer and all the way to the top, DING DING DING, music does that for me, basically.

Experience helps tho, I found I was forced to alternate working years, when I got no energy for music at all, with years circumstances permitted time, and a liberated energy, to put my shoulder to the wheel.

Everybody's different...

12/1/2024 10:33:51 AM

Thank you very much for your words and for taking the time to listen to my concerns. You're right, Lastchancelance. It's all inside us that needs to come out. Far too often we allow ourselves to be distracted by unimportant things that are made important to us.
Maybe I'm also a bit frustrated at the moment because I don't have much time for my music at the moment and that used to be different. But other times will come.
Thanks to you too Steve. Music is not an assembly line job that you can always do.
All the best!

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