Psychadelic?

[Davvda]

Lately I've found alot of great bands and most comments on those bands are about drugs and whether they use it as an enhancement for their imagination or not. In my opinion these artists are musical geniuses but according to others they're just writing about their hallucinations during acid-trips and such.

It sort of bugs me... I'm sure many good musicians and artists have been under the influence of drugs *cough* Jimi Hendrix *cough* but that hasn't stopped them from writing good music and as a matter of fact, in Hendrix' case his music was better during his "happy days".

Anyway, I need opinions and discussions whether drugs and such matter for musicians. Keep the discussion to music and try not to go too offtopic.

PS
Here's the latest musician I found, named Shpongle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qt2WbfotkU

Discussion starts here!

 

[Julianking93]

Plenty of musicians are still great yet don't do drugs.

Though a lot of the reeeaaaallly good ones do.

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[DragonsAteMyMarbles]

I remember reading about Charlie Parker's method of "composition" - he'd play something while completely out of his skull on something or other, appear at a friend's house in the early hours of the morning raving about what he'd come up with, and get said friend to write it down for him.
However, Miles Davis is on record as having said that Parker's best material was what came out of his sax when he was sober.

 

[Davvda]

Depends on who you ask.

Tool: yes, they are very important.
Maximum the Hormone: Naw. They're just Japanese

Tool don't do drugs.
Anymore.

They did in their early years but maybe those years still influence them.

I'm a stoner metal fan, myself. For example my favorite band is Tool and they're well known for being... high. I still believe Maynard is a genius without the drugs since he made the best music in his later years, not under influence of DMT or whatever.

 

[II2]

If a musician is good, generally their music will be good.

Lots of musicians use drugs, and have written both good and bad music during drug use.

What's the discussion?

 

[pelopelopelo]

Well a lot of musicians 'just' write about their romantic experiences.

Same sort of thing?

Drugs give a different perspective, which can be greatly useful for creativity. Sometimes you can be high as a kite, having the time of your life, and still suffer from writers' block.

 

[Davvda]

If a musician is good, generally their music will be good.

Lots of musicians use drugs, and have written both good and bad music during drug use.

What's the discussion?

The discussion is basically the connection between hallucinogenic drugs (mostly) and musicians. Also a possible discussion might be why the drugs are most famous in some genres like for example Jazz (the early years) and metal.

@Lebynthos

True. The drugs enhances the experiences and making it a much more meaningful thing to write about, atleast that's the perspective I look at it from.

 

[BonsaiK]

Lately I've found alot of great bands and most comments on those bands are about drugs and whether they use it as an enhancement for their imagination or not. In my opinion these artists are musical geniuses but according to others they're just writing about their hallucinations during acid-trips and such.

It sort of bugs me... I'm sure many good musicians and artists have been under the influence of drugs *cough* Jimi Hendrix *cough* but that hasn't stopped them from writing good music and as a matter of fact, in Hendrix' case his music was better during his "happy days".

Anyway, I need opinions and discussions whether drugs and such matter for musicians. Keep the discussion to music and try not to go too offtopic.

PS
Here's the latest musician I found, named Shpongle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qt2WbfotkU

Discussion starts here!

It's fairly common for creative artists to use drugs. The reason is obvious - people who are interested in creatively expanding the boundaries of music are often also interested in expanding other boundaries, such as the ones inside their own head. There's also certainly a correlation between unlocking creativity in general and unlocking parts of your brain that might be under-utilised in order to access that creativity or new ideas.

Having said that, I've never touched drugs, and many of the better and more successful creative artists often don't. The reason for this is equally obvious - music, when it boils right down to it, is a business, and drugs always represent a negative business transaction. People whom you might reasonably think were whacked out of their fucking minds while writing their shit (such as Frank Zappa) actually never (or very rarely) used illicit drugs. The industry does its very best to promote the idea that drugs make up some kind of formula for success, by deifying the musicians who stupidly killed themselves with it, but the trade secret of the industry is that behind every artist that ever got anywhere, there was always someone who was completely straight and sober, picking up their shit and nudging them along in the right direction, often in the face of howls of protest from the actual artist themselves!

Oh, and god I hate Shpongle. People link me to their stuff all the time because they think I'll find it "challenging" or something but it always just sounds to me like some bored guy with Garageband, a bunch of "free rhythm tracks" CDs from the 1990s and too much LSD. I'm sure it sounds good if you're tripping, though.

 

[Cockney Weasel]

If a musician is good, generally their music will be good.

Lots of musicians use drugs, and have written both good and bad music during drug use.

What's the discussion?

The discussion is basically the connection between hallucinogenic drugs (mostly) and musicians. Also a possible discussion might be why the drugs are most famous in some genres like for example Jazz (the early years) and metal.

They answered your question though. Sometimes hallucinogenic drug use, or any drug use for that matter, is in inspiration for decent music. Sometimes it holds the musicians back. Sometimes it starts out good and goes badly or vice/versa. The connection isn't really the drug use itself so much as the people using the drugs.

Try as you might, you cannot convince a lot of people that taking a shitload of acid and knowing three chords will make you the next Hendrix. Similarly Frank Zappa made some of the best druggy music ever and didn't even drink that much.

I love drugs, especially psychadelics, but I don't think that they're the one and only key to making decent music of any genre. Nor do I believe that they're a substitute for real talent. Except in the early days of Hawkwind, where they were all so fucked that it really shouldn't have worked and yet it did. It worked so fucking well. Seriously, Space Ritual, man!

 

[Davvda]

@BonsaiK, thanks for your thoughts. I agree at pretty much everything except some of the criticism against Shpongle. I know different people have different tastes and opinions for everything but I believe Shpongle is one of that "bands" that stepped over the musical boundaries and I can't really say I love their music but I do find it quite facinating and somewhat frightening. Although I should defend myself by also stating that I've never touched a drug either.

As you did mention, many creative musicians stay away from drugs because of different reasons which I guess have something to do with their personalities and boundaries and because they are as creative as they are they neither have the "need" for hallucinations to improve their writing even more.

In many cases I believe some artists start off as being sober but as the time goes they need to, as you say, take it to another level. This is where the drugs come into the picture but there are also cases where they start writing music under influence of acids but after that realize that their creativity is already enough to make the best music on earth (yeah I'm a fanboy). The case I described was actually Tool. During their album Undertow and Opiate they were probably higher than ever and most of their fans believe those were their worst albums.

Kudos!