the pod
in the most part, the music created for ‘this occasional society’ manifests in ‘the pod’ - a space carved out at home where the gear all lives (and also where working from home is based on the rare days that needs to happen).
the name is taken from the album by ween - which, if memory serves, was itself named after the home recording setup they used.
currently despite it’s (entirely unnecessary) acoustic paneling on the walls, it is very much a space / spare room rather than a ‘home recording studio.’ maybe in time it will grow into more of a fledged recording space - certainly that and it being a space where rehearsals for live shows could happen are both on the long term road map, but for now, those are all in it’s future potentiality.
nevertheless, it is slowly changing and evolving - which seemed worth making note of here.
if you can picture a large standing desk along one wall that holds a full size keyboard, a monitor and a couple of analogue instruments, a mixer and a lot of plugs and wires. the plan was that this would be the creative heart - all that was required would be at hand, ready to go etc.
that hasn’t happened. what seems to happen is that the laptop that powers all these things, can’t cope with everything being connected, so any attempts to use this ‘mothership’ usually entail losing a lot of time to trying to get it working properly, cursing glitches and wishing for more expensive equipment to get the current equipment to work better.
however, what has emerged instead, driven by the self imposed time constraints of the daily sketches, is that the laptop and a little akai apc key25 now sit on a writing desk facing the window that looks out onto the trees. this much more constrained approach has, perhaps paradoxically, lent itself to far more productivity.
there are plans afoot to have a bit of a clear-out of the space, so no doubt, new configurations and layouts will emerge - the desire for experimentation means this will probably relatively frequently, but it’s good to know that a simple system that works has been established.
the other relatively recent change that has occurred and seems worth sharing, is that the space around the window has become much more personalised. whilst still avoiding clutter a collection of inspiring images on postcards (the cover of loula yorke’s most recent album, a photo of a piece from JHG, a rough trade post card, a cartoon of john cooper clarke, the image that’s the cover of smplr…) has started to build up in the line of sight around the window. a few other things that raise a smile have been added to the window sill. this feels small but also important. 1) any time my eyes rest idly on those items, it raises a smile and provides a microdose of inspiration 2) it’s slowly building into a ‘shrine to creativity’. maybe those two things overlap or are even the same thing, but perhaps what i’m edging towards is a sense of giving thanks and paying tribute to creativity and recognising the link between that gratitude and the creativity itself.
the thinking around this is still emerging from the fog in my head and is not fully formed yet, but it’s interesting to me and i feel it might be important and worth sharing, so it’s here now.