Quality or Quantity?

The part of me that ultimately answers the question is The Editor. He sits there and judges, thumbs up or down, and is probably right. But he's also a boring drag who who can't write (too busy judging), so The Editor doesn't get to play, doesn't get to have fun, doesn't get to mess around and create. He has to wait. He only gets to come in when it's time to alter, arrange, re-record, edit, mix and master.

The part of me that creates just wants to play. It wants to fly. It wants to paint things, reveal things, shout about things and make you feel it. It's like a force, an energy being channeled, and when I'm in this mode it's all the same quality to me, at this point anyway—it's all just stone being chiseled, paint being squeezed, stuff pouring out.

For me, quantity has to do with how often I get to create—I don't write any faster or slower than I ever do, I just write at the speed of writing. Some ideas strike like lightning, some slowly percolate to the surface, some are methodically constructed. If this were my sole profession, I'd be at it 80 hours a week minimum, kicking out boatloads. As it is, I have maybe ten hours a week to make music, so I don't need to load any boats. Whatever the pace, I only play what interests me, and I try to make whatever I'm making as well as I can.

So with me the speed of output doesn't change the quality of the output—I don't have an Awesome Mode and a Suck Mode. I just have this insufferable armchair quarterback of an Editor, judging it all after the fact.

http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman