The focus of being a creative artist is mainly the creative process and it’s goal; the finished product. There are however alot of factors outside the creative process that affect you. It can be small things like never being satisfied with the thing you create or everyone’s worst nightmare – a full on creative block. As a creative artist you will know; the battle are often fought outside the actual creating. In this post, or rant rather, I will comment and share my thoughts about some of these.

Self-confidence or rather the lack there of. This is a tough one and the one I find hardest to write about, but I’ll try my best. Sometimes you have a great idea, but when you do get creative it doesn’t always turn out the way you wanted it. And this can happen because of lot of things. Maybe there’s a skillset you don’t have but need, maybe others don’t seem to fond of the idea, maybe you actually made it but it doesn’t make people respond the way you’d wanted. We could keep going, couldn’t we?

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Posted in art + design, photography, psychology, rants 1 Comment »

From NIN.com

Towards the beginning of my career in Nine Inch Nails, our biggest break came in the form of an invitation to perform a series of shows with Jane’s Addiction. These performances essentially created and defined the term “alternative” rock in the US, created an ongoing festival franchise that is still thriving (Lollapalooza), set the stage for Nirvana to shift popular taste a few months later, and were really fucking FUN to play and attend – truly the best times I’ve had. The shows were epic. So epic, they propelled NIN to the “next level” (whatever that means), but caused Jane’s to implode. The band broke up at the end of that tour.

Fast forward to the present. Corporate rock STILL sucks. A friend tells me they saw the original Jane’s lineup play a tiny show in LA that was unbelievable. I break out my Jane’s records and am amazed by how vital they sound. These guys were the real deal and in this current climate mostly dominated by poseurs and pussies it was refreshing to hear something that sounded dangerous, volatile, beautiful and SINCERE.
Emails were sent, phone calls were made, dinner was arranged, ideas were discussed and the next thing I know we’re in the studio experimenting. We laugh, we get to know each other, we cry, we yell, we almost quit, we record LOTS of guitar solos, we discuss, we actually begin to all communicate, we yell some more, we become FRIENDS, we laugh again and we do some great things. I get to see first hand why they broke up all those years ago but I also get the chance to see four distinct personalities that become an INCREDIBLE band when they’re in the same room.

In NIN world, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of our first releases. I’ve been thinking for some time now it’s time to make NIN disappear for a while. Last year’s “Lights in the Sky” tour was something I’m quite proud of and seems like the culmination of what I could pull off in terms of an elaborate production. It was also quite difficult to pull off technically and physically night after night and left us all a bit dazed. After some thought, we decided to book a last run of shows across the globe this year. The approach to these shows is quite different from last year – much more raw, spontaneous and less scripted. Fun for us and a different way for you to see us and wave goodbye. I reached out to Jane’s to see if they’d want to join us across the US and we all felt it could be a great thing. Will it work? Will it resonate in the marketplace? Who knows. Are there big record label marketing dollars to convince you to attend? Nope.
Does it feel right to us and does it seem like it will be fun for us and you? Yes it does.
Look for tour dates soon and I hope to see you out there.

Trent

What?!?!?!?! I hate when he goes subliminal on his messages. I don’t even know what the hell this means. I really hope that his “disappear for a while” is his message telling me that his new record won’t come out for another 5 years or something. I can deal with that. I’ve dealt with it before. But to think that NIN won’t go on during my life is just horrible. NIN has influenced me so much to the point that I believe a lot of the creative things I have done in the past won’t have surfaced without the existence of his music. Let’s think for a moment. Let’s back track. Let’s list the things that has been influenced in a core level with NIN:

Leaving hope movie: Wouldn’t have happened if this sound didn’t come out.
Deliverance 1 + 2: Wouldn’t have happened.
Alice: Nope
Infinite Synthesis //: Dawn: Won’t have surfaced
Execution 1 and 3: Wouldn’t have been ‘executed’.
etc.. etc..

To think that there won’t be any NIN music for me to do personal projects upon scares me. Like REALLY scares me. How will this change my creative charge? I listen to NIN all the time during my core production time of some of my personal work and I just don’t know what new thing will influence me. Ohhh… I am going to sleep. I’m a bit in disbelief.

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If you missed it:

Desktop wallpaper: Leviathan is now online. (I’m doing pretty good with releasing wallpaper in 2009 but it will slow down soon )

Anyways, its in the downloads section of the site. Print order and Desktop version is both there. Case study is there too. Thanks!

On a personal note, don’t ever do work without a contract. Even if it’s your friend of a friend. I am quite upset about my findings tonight…

PSD Source files for the following desktop and print designs have been put online. You can download it, mix it, recolor it, texture it, whatever you want however please respect the Creative Commons license distributed throughout this domain. To put it simply:

You can edit the file
You cannot use it for commercial purposes
You cannot claim it is yours
You cannot distribute the .PSD file on your site
I do not like going to court

On that note the following .PSD source was added:

Trance Minimum: Kasha
Stridence
Nocturnal Combustion
Leviathan

Thank you.

Posted in rants, site news 1 Comment »

Are you serious?!??!!

I live in a close minded state, but now they are seeking to screw over human rights even more. That’s like giving someone million dollars and asking for it back.

Screw the sponsors who proposed prop 8. I am not gay but I believe in equal rights and this just pisses me off. It makes me mad because it shows how close minded people can get due to religion or homophobia, and this ideology will not shape the world into a better place what so ever. Whatever, ultra-conservatives can go live in an island or something.

Posted in politics, rants No Comments »

Check out who this ignorant car dealership decide to lash out their anger based on their lack of sales:

American car dealer attacks Japanese cars.

Whoever decided to run the “ad” is an ignorant little prick. I am more American than he is. Don’t blame your piece of shit sales on other companies that can build better cars.

Posted in people of the world, rants No Comments »