A Little Spark...

Well, that was fun, but let’s move along. Places to go, things to see, songs to write.

One thing I’ve noticed about myself specifically is that I can demonstrably (“repeatable,” as we say when describing errors during the beta testing process) trigger my own creative juices by playing video games. It doesn’t work with all games, and I can point to a year-long creative black hole courtesy of the fine folks at Blizzard Entertainment as proof of that. For me, a specific type of game, the platformer w/ puzzles, is what triggers it.

I can cite two specific examples, Abe’s Oddysee and LittleBigPlanet. For some reason that I can’t explain, the little neurons in charge of thinking up interesting melodies and lyrics are kicked in to gear after an hour or two with either game. It also happens sometimes with Gran Turismo, but more reliably with the other two.

Am I unique in this regard? I doubt it. Like most musicians that have been professional for a long time, I don’t look at writing music as relaxation, but rather as a job, and I kind of have to force myself to do it. Luckily, I can just put in an hour playing LittleBigPlanet and I’m good to go for the rest of the day. I’m curious as to whether this phenomenon happens to anyone else. Or more specifically, what triggers your little Creations to do their thing?