Not anti-gear, just anti-friction
Over the years I have mellowed a lot about different ways of making music. My first love will always be guitar music, and I still use guitars constantly. What changed was my attitude toward how music should be created.
If I am against anything, it is the idea that music must fit neatly into a box. Rock, pop, punk, metal, hip hop, or any other label. I no longer feel any need to sound like my favourite artists. These days I am comfortable sounding like myself, and that is enough.
In that sense, my real opposition is to masking. I do not want to hide my musical identity to fit in with expectations about how things are supposed to be done.
What friction used to look like
For a long time friction came from trying to do music properly. I worried about theory first. I tried to stick to the instruments and sounds of the people around me. I focused on whether others would like what I was creating.
Fauhn changed that completely. Now I write by my own rules, or sometimes by no rules at all. I am happy to program drums, to use MIDI, to sing, to speak, or to do whatever feels right for the song. Letting go of the idea that I must be able to perform everything live has been especially freeing.
I may find a way to present this music on stage one day, but I refuse to let that question limit the songwriting. The project is too personal for compromise, and I prefer to keep it that way.
The advantages of staying in the box
Working mostly inside the computer lets me get my feelings down quickly and without interference. Ideas can stay open and unfiltered. The process keeps moving, and songs actually reach completion.
It also allows me to explore directions that might be awkward or impractical in a traditional band setting. Writing a piece in nineteen eight time feels perfectly reasonable when I am not worried about how another musician might react to it.
That sense of liberation is one of the main reasons Fauhn exists in the form it does.
The hardware I still love
None of this means I have abandoned physical tools. My Helix Stomp XL and my Maschine Mikro are both central to how I work. They contribute hugely to songwriting and sound design, and the whole process would be much harder without them.
Keeping things inside the computer does not mean avoiding gear. It simply means choosing tools that reduce resistance instead of increasing it.
Freedom from outside pressure
Writing alone in this way also helps me manage rejection sensitivity. I am not trying to please bandmates, audiences, or anyone else while the song is being created. The music only has to satisfy me.
If other people enjoy it, that is wonderful. If they do not, I can accept that more easily because the goal was never to win approval. In previous bands I always felt the weight of needing to impress others. With Fauhn that weight has disappeared.
Working at my own pace is another gift of this approach. I can set my own deadlines and decide when a project is complete. That control makes the entire creative experience healthier and more sustainable.
Technology as a doorway
Keeping things inside the computer is simply the most direct route from emotion to finished song. It removes unnecessary steps and protects the personal nature of the project.
The tools serve the ideas, and the ideas are allowed to be exactly what they need to be. For me, that is the best environment in which music can grow.
Previous writing: Writing in stolen hours.
Next writing: When a track stalls.