I am the king of having 423 ideas and presenting at best a handful of them. This year has been the widest range of creative attempts for me. I've branched out to making and selling bigger paintings, I started a podcast, I've stepped out from behind the drums to front my own band on guitar/vocals, constantly changing and challenging my recording techniques, and I'm contentiously making short video clips to tie all of these creative avenues together.
As "cool" as that makes me sound - outside of recording bands, about 7% of these things will see the light of day. I still haven't escaped the whole day job thing and I have the attention span of a hotdog. So I have all of these unfinished projects that really could be something great if I just focused and did one at a time.
The visual aspect to accompany sounds has always been of such a monumental importance to me. I have always tried to be conscious of how the room is lit, how it smells - that has a big impact on seducing the sounds out of your head for me. If done correctly, you can really immerse yourself into an entire galaxy of emotions rather than just a room of them. Now obviously not everything requires something insane to go with it. Some songs and bands don't require anything "special" to add to their intent. For 98% of the the songs and ideas in my head - it's without question that without it, you are really only getting a glimpse of how much more I see.
In case I die before all of these ideas come out - here are some really great examples of things that inspired me in tremendous ways to do this.
Skinny Puppy - Live (2010)
This band is a perfect example of doing things in a strange, but very pleasing way. I have a more in depth blog on seeing them live here.
Moment Factory
Moment Factory is hands down the most challenging, creative, and ground breaking team of anyone doing visuals on this entire planet. They rewired my expectations for what is possible to see on stages, in public places, and even in outdoor environments forever. The best part about this mind blowing team of weirdos is that they consistently pushing brand new technology to challenge themselves and their audiences.
Any time I think I have a room lit cool or I have an idea I think would impress people - Moment Factory comes to mind and I realize just how far off from being even remotely cool I am. They make stages look like outer space, they can make forests look like other planets, and just when you think you've seen their coolest production - two months later they come out with something even more amazing.
Here are just a few examples of some productions that have change the way I view live shows/visuals:
-Novak