When I Hear Music, I See Places

I've always imagined spaces when I listen to music.

It's actually one of the reasons I love creating visuals.

When I hear a new song, I'm not only listening to the melody or the lyrics. I'm listening to the instruments and the way the sounds move.

The instruments being used can immediately create a picture in my mind.

For example, if I hear a lot of synthesizers and the music has an open-space feeling to it, my mind might immediately go somewhere completely different.

Maybe I'm standing in a huge open world.

Maybe I'm somewhere in space.

Maybe I'm looking across a landscape that doesn't even exist.

And then the way the sounds move starts creating movement in the vision too.

Am I standing still and taking in the scenery?

Am I watching somebody dance through the space?

Does the music feel like it's carrying me upward into the sky?

Does it feel otherworldly enough that I'm suddenly somewhere completely different?

That's how I hear music.

Does This Look Like Somewhere I Want to Be?

When I start looking for visuals to use with a track, I have another question I ask myself:

Does this look like a place I'd want to be while listening to this song?

If the answer is yes, then I might have something.

Maybe the image isn't exactly what I originally imagined.

That's okay.

Sometimes finding something that is close to what I had in my head gives me an entirely new idea.

And sometimes it tells me exactly what I don't want.

That's still useful.

Creating visuals isn't always about finding the perfect image immediately.

Sometimes the search itself becomes part of the creative process.

I Usually Know Pretty Quickly

I'm also extremely picky about music.

When I hear a new demo, I can usually put it into one of three categories pretty quickly:

Yep. That's a hit.

Nope. Not quite there.

Or...

Yeah, no.

😂

I know that probably sounds cold.

But when you're listening to a lot of music, especially when you're thinking about what kind of visual world you could build around it, you start noticing whether something actually speaks to you.

And that's not something I can really teach someone how to do.

I've been imagining spaces my entire life.

There isn't necessarily a class you can take in school or college that gives you an "ear" for music in that way.

You either seem to have that kind of instinct or you don't.

And interestingly, being a musician doesn't automatically mean you have it either.

Someone can absolutely have the technical ability to make music.

They can know how to play.

They can understand production.

They can have incredible musical skills.

But making something technically correct and making something that actually speaks to someone aren't always the same thing.

I Want the Music to Take Me Somewhere

That's probably why I find myself drawn to underground music, experimental sounds, lo-fi, and music from open-world games.

Those kinds of sounds can create an entirely different type of experience.

The music doesn't always feel like it's simply there to accompany something else.

Sometimes it feels like the music itself is creating the environment.

That's what interests me.

I don't just want to hear somebody plunking away on a piano.

I want the sound to take me somewhere.

Give me an atmosphere.

Give me a feeling.

Give me a world I can imagine.

And once I can imagine that world, I can start thinking about what it looks like.

The Visual Is Sometimes Already There

That's probably the biggest thing I've learned from creating visualizers.

Sometimes the visual is already hiding inside the music.

You just have to listen for it.

The sound might suggest the environment.

The rhythm might suggest the movement.

The instruments might suggest the color or atmosphere.

The way the song builds might suggest that the visual needs to expand with it.

And suddenly you're not just putting a picture behind a song.

You're creating an experience around the song.

That's the part I love.

And Yes, My Imagination Is Usually Better Than My Final Visual

I'll admit something, though.

The visuals I create don't always measure up to what I actually see in my head.

Sometimes what's in my imagination is ridiculously difficult to recreate.

😂

But I still give it my best shot.

That's part of being a creative.

You have an idea in your head that feels incredible, and then you have to figure out how to translate that idea into something another person can actually see.

Sometimes you get close.

Sometimes you surprise yourself.

Sometimes you completely miss it.

And sometimes you accidentally create something different that works even better.

That's the fun of it.

Because for me, music isn't just something I hear.

Sometimes music gives me a place to go.

And when I can see that place, I want to bring someone else there too.