A signature sound vs a songwriting rut

[louderthangod]

I've been writing my own songs since I picked up a guitar. I spent a lot of years spinning my wheels in bands going through a million drummers and only having a handful of songs to show for it. Lately though I've been doing a solo ambient/drone/doom project that is heavily improvised. I've been recording my own stuff and trying to release it but sometimes I feel like I'm not making different enough material. To some other musician friends whose opinion I trust they see it more as a signature sound. There are a lot of bands I really like that don't release albums that are wildly different from each other and yet I find them compelling and I get really into the details and nuance. How have you guys managed these issues? I know a million and one ways to inspire new ideas but I can't tell if I'm being redundant or developing a unique and personal sound unto myself. Thoughts?

[repoman]

The largest jumps in creativity and playing ability for me always seem to happen immediately after a long break. At least a couple weeks. Sometimes putting it away for a couple months or longer. I think it can help you forget the garbage aspects of what you're doing and when you come back you remember what you like, or have a bit more focus on what aspects you really like. Its easy to get distracted by little cool things in influences but you lose sight of a bigger picture when playing a lot or concentrating too much trying to achieve something.

[louderthangod]

I've noticed that too. Overplaying definitely gets me stuck in things. I looking for how do you personally tell the difference between if you're really writing stuff that's too similar or if you just have a certain sound.

[Blackened Soul]

hmm.. my go to is to always be looking for and listening to music from other parts of the world. This helps you think in different modes and scales but also and even more important different way timing is interpreted because a lot of the way people talk filters into how their music fits together. As for over playing, that is something I battle with all the time, with my stuff I am always trying to get to the bones of whatever it is, it sometimes takes hours of playing the same thing over and over until I get a improvisation of the theme with least amount of fucking around with notes that get in the way of themselves and clutters things, find it a lot more of a challenge than playing complex scales. I get in the chucking it in mood about every 6 months so I stop trying to write stuff which usually ends up in writing more stuff The difference with the opinions of others though is usually "wow that's not just noise there is actual music in there"

[louderthangod]

I can't even tell if I'm being redundant though. AC/DC doesn't seem to worry about writing the same song over and over again and neither do their fans. The reasoning being that if they started doing a techno album it probably go over well. I'm not saying I want to be locked into something but I wonder if I'm being overly picky. I've used a bunch of different tricks to come up with new songs but no amount of new pedals, instruments or musical styles will prevent me from eventually coming back around to something familiar. The common denominator is that it's still me and the way I think and I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that. Being me feels like I'm standing still but High on Fire have evolved over the years but it still sounds like them. Boris have been all over the place but there's still something about the drone and the moody and the j-pop stuff still has a Boris vibe to it. How much do you feel like you have to reinvent yourself with each new thing? I'm at a point where I can't tell if I'm in a rut or if I'm actually just getting down to sounding like me. I think that's a lot trickier than fixing an actual rut.

[D.o.S.]

AC/DC have/had their own set of honest criteria for their music for most of their tenure, though. Likewise with Motorhead. Likewise with High on Fire and Boris, etc. Pushing the envelope is only part of that if you set up your project.

[louderthangod]

Did Picasso ever say to himself "what are you doing man? You've already done the two eyes on the same side of the face thing" or "really? Another blue painting?!?" I can't tell if I'm in my own blue period of certain sounds or I'm a one trick pony or if this really is a variation on a certain theme.

[popvulture]

I think no matter how hard you try, you'll always sound like yourself to some degree. If, however, you've gotten super comfortable with the tools you have at hand, then the recipes you crank out might indeed start seeming too similar.

This directly relates to Jwar's boredom thread. Sometimes it's a matter of identifying some of your signatures and trying not to use them in future songs. Wouldn't it be nice, say, if the Black Angels didn't throw that 1 to minor 3rd (bend) riff into every fucking song? To me, that's an example of how a "signature sound" reads more as boring and uncreative.

Sometimes all you need are just some little rules to push yourself out of your habits. I don't think it requires a reinvention, more just keeping ahead of your tendencies and managing them.