why are you making music?

I also do it just for fun, and I love it :)

but I also wouldn’t say no to a record deal I think…

Insatiable desire to figure things out, addiction to complexity with strong appreciation for beauty, it’s my lifeblood. Music is the very essence of time and how it flows and paints a unique picture for each one of us. Self mastery is another reason, the desire to be a guru of your craft, as Bruce Lee says you never really stop improving, you actually have reached a plateau, you need to climb higher.

because I like to hear IRL what I imagine mentally (even if, most of the time, the result is a bit disapointing)

I second a lot of the sentiments here, I do it as a creative outlet and to an extent an emotional outlet. I’ve tracked since the 90’s but I’ve “given up” on any kind of financial sustainability of my music.

The reason I continue to make music and have stepped up the amount of time dedicated to it in recent years is that it’s fun to see progression and try to push my skills and style forward.

It’s also highly motivating when the music one releases into the wild connects with someone, doesn’t really matter the size of the audience for me as long as it’s sincere.

People say whats the point in making amateur music, you cant even afford decent mastering, but I would say “whats the point in sudoku or crosswords, watching movies or reading books?”. Making music is a serious challenge which can keep unfolding infinitely throughout one liftetime. Its just as great an endevour as writing a book or painting or sculpture. They all have the power to improve someones day when they are done right. Music is like primordial speech coming from the canopy of the early jungle by the beautiful river with little dinosaur birds all around. You cant try to say thats not actual and factual. Ive seen people make a synth gobble like a herd of turkey and swoosh like fireballs, sudoku and crossword people arent up to the challenge. Cheaper high quality mastering would improve the whole experience though, most of us cant even use proper monitors because it would upset the fuddy duddys and the destroy creativity and naturality crowd.

I started out on the Commodore 64 way back in the early 80s and I was fascinated by what that home computer could achieve in synthesis. I wrote my own music driver in assembly and tried hard to push the limits of its sound chip. I wasn’t (and still aint) much of a musician but I really got wound into the technical challenge of it all. I guess I could’ve chosen to focus my technical on graphics or other things (and I did at times) but I always came back to sound production so I suppose it has some affinity with me or me it.

I then moved beyond the technical compulsion and poured myself into the creative side as time moved on. Looking back now, even the technical programming has a creative element to it inasmuch you look for novel or innovative ways to solve a problem. Creativity is really the fundamental element at play. I’m a self taught musician and I love discovering new techniques in sound production and musical theory.

Now I think of how I write and arrange music more as how a sculptor starts with a block and carves away until there’s a statue. That’s a total reversal of how I use to write music. Previously I would start small and build the piece up. Now I think big and etch parts away to give it texture and contour. That’s just become part of my creative evolution.

In a nutshell, it’s not about money, publishers, fame - it’s a personal growth and learning where expression is allowed to flourish. Yeah, it’s nice when my music gets a like on Youtube or Soundcloud or someone buys a song on iTunes/Google Play but even if no one listened, I would still put my music out there. I do share my music mostly for my own existential meaning in life. It’s something that will be left to survive me when my time on this world is over; So, it’s a legacy manifest in some trivial manner.

It’s my tiny little mark in the archives of mankind. It’s my graffiti that says “Gavin was here” but mostly I just love doing it.

This place is not the representative of the what we know is the Demoscene. There are many Demoscene dudes who are having highly successful careers
doing music.

Most of you are getting old. Young ones can’t so much of code or much of music (formal education) either.

Like a small coffee shop, I came here for the coffee, stayed for the pub rock band and some casual chit chat, got into a brawl after that…going back to Starbucks in sometime. This whole mom and pop operations can be dangerous for health sometimes. Lol.

Actually @Gavin, I really appreciate your perspective and answer in particular in addition to others in this thread. I like the purity and innocence and good will of your experience and I feel that many can benefit from this point of view and in fact many have the same feelings about things.