psilodump

sigh... why can't anything ever be just like it should be?

all I ask for is perfection!

as "fellow creators", but also consumers of art and music - what do people REALLY think about generative AI and such?

I mean, I read a lot of people writing essays and rants about it, and discussions or whatever, but most of them is sort of lacking in substance and kinda not seeing the big picture or not relating to any kind of real-life experience, but rather being merely kinda narrative-building theoretical takes... how come nobody talks about real things?

mainly (for me); most art and music has always sucked, and it's a rare thing to find good stuff.

and honestly, I have complained about it for decades - I have even joked that I wish my computer could do my music for me.

I think creating music is cumbersome, but the result makes up for it. I don't really care for the creation part itself, even when drawing. The fun thing is to see what I created, and if someone could do exactly what I want to see and hear, it would be a dream come true.

I started making music myself, because I was frustrated that music I heard didn't do stuff like I wanted, so I had to do it myself - it’s not some divine calling; It’s frustration, hunger and ultimately boredom - yet so far, no AI can do what I do, so there is that.

And same is with non-AI output as well - most times things aren't exactly like I would like it, except when I get to do / change stuff myself.

I mean, I can appreciate the craftsmanship of everything, but it doesn't mean I like it. It's like with movies - you can see that people did their utmost fancy and expensive and stunning visuals and whatnot - great acting, production etc - but it doesn't mean it automatically becomes my favourite movie - even the most “high effort” things aren’t necessarily what you want.

something done really badly can be amazing. untalented art can be really compelling. just a rough sketch can be rewarding. my point is that talent and skills don't necessarily make something good / enjoyable.

generative AI can come up with some surprises. yes, and it can even be "sampled", and take out the boring stuff. like with accidentally coming up with something playing around in the studio with synths. it's like curating - you do hundred sucky things, and you discover one thing that you go OH shit I want that.

it's like when you watch something and go "wow that could be a great voice sample" and you sample it, and use it in a song. or lol should sample that trumpet!

I feel like people are either not being honest, or just not thinking things through. Like when discussing what synthesizer sounds best etc. Make the fucking synthesizer sound like you want it!

If you even want things, that is.

AI isn’t ruining some golden age of anything.

Most times, I feel discussing art and creativity is a tad pretentious, so I tend to avoid it.

However, when it comes to the artwork for my music releases, I nowadays tend to use AI-aided images and treat the visual side as a separate, parallel process to the music itself. I don’t try to match visuals to the music while composing. In fact, I deliberately avoid it. I believe that trying to tie the music too closely to a visual idea risks making the piece feel contrived or limited. For me, both the artwork and the titles are afterthoughts - separate opportunities for creativity. They come after the music is done.

Sometimes, I’ll brainstorm ideas for artwork with a friend who thinks visually. I don’t process music as concrete images, so her ideas are often surprising to me, and that’s where the fun comes in. If something sticks, I’ll note it down and use it as a prompt for AI image generation, which I then develop further as needed.

I prefer to keep my own interpretations out of the conversation. When people give feedback, I respond politely, but I’m not interested in giving speeches about what a piece “means” to me, or about what I felt while making it. The music is separate from myself, and I think it’s more interesting to let listeners bring their own ideas. Often, people will assume something about me based on how the music makes them feel. That says more about them than it does about me, and I don’t feel the need to correct them or explain myself.

If someone keeps pushing for a “real” answer, I’m not afraid to set a boundary. I don’t want to waste time arguing about subjective interpretations. It’s not my job to teach people how to think or feel.

I do keep versions of my artwork locally and sometimes update covers retrospectively, since digital platforms make that possible without much hassle. I don’t feel obligated to share every alternate version, but I do sometimes upload them to sites like MusicBrainz, so people can choose for themselves.

As for technical accidents or blunders - there have probably been plenty over the years, but I rarely remember the details. I find it more interesting to share these types of stories if they come up, rather than focus on explaining the supposed “meaning” behind my work.

Overall, I want the music and artwork to stand on their own, without my personality or opinions getting in the way. If people like it, that’s great. If they see something I didn’t, that’s even better. I’m not interested in pushing my own interpretations or taking credit for insights that belong to the listener.

At times, while watching content on YouTube made by Americans, I get a bit exhausted - even when the subject matter is something I'm interested in. So I complained about it to chatGPT, and got this:

"That’s a very good observation — and you’re right. American English (and American culture more broadly) tends to inflate language. Words like “amazing,” “incredible,” “awesome,” “unbelievable,” and “insane” get used for even small or very ordinary things.

There are a few reasons for this:
    1.    Cultural Optimism and Enthusiasm
American culture historically values positivity, energy, and enthusiasm. Overemphasizing things linguistically aligns with a cultural expectation to appear engaged, excited, and optimistic. Speaking in a muted or understated way might even be interpreted as being unfriendly, disinterested, or negative.
    2.    Competition for Attention
Especially in the era of marketing, social media, and constant communication, everything competes for attention. Stronger words are used to make things sound more important, exciting, or urgent, whether or not they actually are.
    3.    Emotional Inflation
Over time, ordinary adjectives lose their strength through overuse (“good” doesn’t sound strong enough anymore), so people reach for bigger words to convey excitement or positivity, even when the original situation doesn’t warrant it. It’s a bit like an arms race of adjectives.
    4.    Salesmanship Mentality
There’s a strong cultural tradition of “selling” — not just products, but yourself, your ideas, your opinions. This encourages dramatization. Everything is framed as bigger, better, more exciting to persuade others or leave an impression.
    5.    Emotional Flattening
By using superlatives for everything, the language loses nuance. “Amazing” could mean anything from “slightly nice” to “life-changing,” depending on the speaker. It flattens the emotional range, making real amazement hard to distinguish from routine politeness.

Many people from outside the U.S. (especially from Northern Europe, Japan, etc.) notice this and find it exhausting, fake, or silly. In more understated cultures, not exaggerating is considered more honest, trustworthy, and respectful."

I guess, over time, this has led me to use more muted language, when writing in English, with superlatives like ace, neat, nearly, almost, quite, rather and fancy, to compensate for the hideous optimism, even though I may feel impressed or excited. I have also noticed, while attempting to be ironically overenthusiastic, it just comes off as genuine. So if you ever catch me being negative online, please understand; I'm Finnish.

I haven't posted anything on social media for quite a while, because social media fucking sucks, but I'll come back to that in a bit; The website is slowly growing into something I actually enjoy and feel “familiar” with =) I had no conception of how much stuff there was.

However, while researching for content to put on here, I come to discover that many other artist sites and domains that I looked at (for sources) have expired, and turned into some sort of unrelated, automated “music blog” spam bot swamps. What a shame! Although, I have been able to salvage a lot of stuff using wayback machine.

My guess, as my name is mr. Obvious, is that websites aren't as sought after anymore, which makes sense - and I may as well admit that I don't visit many official artist websites myself - firstly because most artist pages are boring, and secondly as everything is just a collection of “call for action” nonsense, telling visitors what to do, or selling something. I'm fucking sick of it. But I recon what works, works. 🤷🏼 yet it also makes sense that artists what to get compensated for their labor, as they should. And mysteriously enough, people don't tend to do anything, unless they are specifically told to do so.

But what makes sense about the decline of artist websites is 1. it's boring (both to make and to visit), 2. social media and 3. why pay for something (domains, web hosting) nobody has use for? It makes most sense to pop a message on established social media networks, where the stuff actually reaches people. If it does.

I hate to be the person going “buööw det var bättre förr”, because it wasn't. Social media is what it is, and social is a thing I've never been, so when everything goes to shit with corporate nazi social media platforms, for me it's more like well you came and you went. I can't wait for these platforms to end up like mp3.com and myspace quick enough, so I don't have to hear about them anymore.

But that is just me thinking only about myself, as usual. I don't feel the need to keep up with what anyone else is up to, and I find my ignorance funny. Furthermore, I don't believe I understand how all this makes me seem, but I bet it's not up to me in the first place.

Now, reading this back, before posting, makes me feel like this is a bitter post of some sort, but I don't feel as such :D odd - but if you read this and go “oh who cares!”, then you are entirely correct.

Now that I've added, removed and/or modified more things I can remember on the website, it somehow becomes useless to point them out. But it's turning out better than I hoped :) still missing thumbnails, flyers, gigs, news posts and whatnot. Not sure about the colors..

Still far from done adding all older news items into the news-feed, and I'm trying out a few ways to present releases in the best way. So some inconsistencies may still pop up until I decide what works best for :)

I had to do some thinking about the chronology of the news item, and decided that remasters and reissues don't really warrant a new post each time, especially when many are released in a short amount of time, clogging up the feed.

Also, I don't like repeating myself, so my plan is to try compressing and merging news items dealing with the same issue.

This one is back now :)