Your record label asks you...

[visa tapani]

Asking about musical influences does not really ask about one's current feelings / emotions, no?

music (and all art) is about reflecting and/or recalling a particular emotion at a particular moment then yes it IS surely ???

Well, musical influences cumulate. I might hear today something which sounds very fresh and suddenly I'm all influenced by it. But if I keep on composing for years to come, certainly some influences remain for longer periods of time. That is, apart from all these daily influences that might, in a sense, flutter, I can hopefully pinpoint some influences that have influenced my output deeper, the very groundwork of my technique.

And these influences do not, should not and cannot change on a day-to-day basis. And usually when asked for musical influences, the enquirer is referring to influences of this particular type, not the sort of momentary influences that might be altogether different on a different istance.

For instance, if a song directly influences me to try to write a similar song, this influence would remain as a fact no matter how I'd feel after a year or what type of music I'd be producing at the time.

surely not ... it would still depend on your mood at the moment you try to write that track as to whether you were able to 'correctly' interpret the intention of your influence or not ...

I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but let me elucidate my point: It will doubtlessly remain as a fact that at the moment of writing that particular song, I was influenced by the whatever song it was. This will never change.

But if you have been writing music for any lenght of time and/or if you have formed what might be called 'your sound', the influences shouldn't flutter wildly on a day to day basis.

why ever not ??? ...

Read the first 2 paragraphs of this post. I'm making the rather sound assertion here that any reasonable succesfull artist (or a musical project - an artist might have a wide range of influences, but it is then commonplace to divide these to different projects) will develop some kind of boundaries between which he/she/it operates. An artist will probably have momentary sources of inspiration, but these are imo too evanescent to be called significant influences.

... surely if the SAME things influence you ALL the time then you are nothing more than stuck in a rut to some extent ???

To no extent. Let's entertain ourselves with a hypothetical example.

As a young child, I saw an old blues-pa playing around my neighborhood and was deeply affected by his music. I was impressed by the expressive power of blues and thus immersed myself in the study of it for decades to come. I would become a blues musician. I could and should list this old man as an influence pretty much for the rest of my life. Now, how would this influence encumber or chain me?

what if 'my' sound is based on the concept of continually shifting points of reference ??? ...

Then it seems you haven't developed a "your sound".


Oh, and please edit your post - those quotes are a nauseating mess

[Lunch Money]

Hrm....

Not that I was invited into the debate or anything, but seeing as it's a public forum:

Visa, the kind of life-long influence you refer to is possibly just a different way of approaching the question. In communication, part of what is asked is to read between the lines; in this case, the original question was likely (hey, my reading is as subjective as the next) asking which accessible artists have had an influence on you. You're just trying to be a bit more clever and profound by (consciously, I believe) re-interpreting the question.

If I was answering the question YOU are arguing has been posed, I would have answered:

1. My dad
2. My best friend Scott
3. Laurie Strang (the girl who convinced me that if I picked up a guitar, it would be easier than I anticipated... she was wrong, but I play now!)
4. My junior high school band teacher, who helped me understand theory and gave me a vocabulary about which I can now communicate music through
5. The various editors of Guitar Player magazine
6. Mel Bay
7. Stevie Ray Vaughan (should have mentioned him in my first list... drat!)

And then I'd pretty much run out and not even make it to a top-10.

As it stands, I think I answered the question as it was meant to be answered. Those influences are certainly important, and whether or not they are transient, their effect becomes permanent. And THAT is why we're having a hard time listing a top-10 anyhow... even if I stop listening to Aimee Mann, I'll continue to have a piece of her in my songwriting. Therefore, the list continues to grow with EACH artist who strikes a resonant note with me.

Now, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I DO think you were being a bit... self-consciously obscure... by simply putting "and shouldn't" without an initial explanation.

Greg

[edited simply to remove a double-signature... I must have thought I was done, written a signature, went back and added more, and signed again!]

[tetraplan]

My influences:

1. The moment I was sitting in a library, next to a construction site. After a while, all the sounds from the site became something I could describe as "an orchestra sounding like Slowdive, only noisier".
2. The moment I was cleaning in a Steelworks and the cutting-machines sounded like a guy yelling "waaaah" at the top of his lungs.
3. The moment I saw a clip on MTV's Alternative Nation and knew how it would go after the first few bars. It was the moment I figured out there was no such thing as Alternative Rock anymore. Around 1994.
4. The moment I found out that nature abhors stagnation. The only way is forward.
5. The moment I walked past a store on a stormy autumn-night and heard how the wind made the store whistle. It was an actual tune.
5b. The same night, I saw how a half-empty beercan was blown up and down a gutter in the middle of the street. A gust of wind would blow it up one side, and then it would roll down again. The inertia of the beer made it roll up the other side. And back again. It made a beautiful noise.
6. The moment I read a story about the "singing sand". Sanddunes make pretty noises as they move. There is a CD with Singing Sand, to my frustration I haven't managed to track it down yet.
6b. The moment I heard a recording of sounds from the oceans. Not the sounds of waves breaking at the beach, but the low-frequency sounds of the ocean itself. Slightly scary.
7. Crickets. Frogs, noon sharp, in a pool in april, two years ago. The first Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) in spring. Brood X (1).
8. The moment I read an article about listening to Shoemaker-Levi crashing into Jupiter. When you make a circle out of wire, 60 cm across, you can tune into the frequency of Jupiter's radio-emissions. Nothing special, just white noise. A short break meant that a chunk of S-L had just crashed.
8b. Beginning to read up on astrology when I was really young.
9. The moment I discovered how people are using techniques like Van Eck Prhreaking to make art.
10. The Eternal Tao.

//edit: this will never fit on the sleeve of a 3" CDR. Never mind.

Groet, Erik

(1) I've never been to the US, so I never had the opportunity to meet this infamous Brood X (2). A friend of mine has, she was in Washington in may. She said the chicades were really, really noisy.
There's tons of cool samples online, though.
(2) if that isn't a name from a 50 b-horror I'll eat my hat.

[visa tapani]

Now, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I DO think you were being a bit... self-consciously obscure... by simply putting "and shouldn't" without an initial explanation.

Great expression that "self-consciously obscure" Well, I didn't actually interpret that original question in as "profound" way as you made it seem in your newly formulated list. I was mainly considering "accessible artists" as well, not so much friends or pets. I was just thinking out loud on the issue of whether or not the list of major influences would actually be radically different in a different mood etc. Actually, I'm not too certain of my viewpoint either, even though my post might have seemed quite assured.

It is getting more and more evident how the question of musical influences is ambiguous. For instance, if an artist has had a decades long career with tens of releases, one could ask either about his current influences or about the artists having the most significant influence when looking back at his career. That is why I pointed out this:

For instance, if a song directly influences me to try to write a similar song, this influence would remain as a fact no matter how I'd feel after a year or what type of music I'd be producing at the time.

let me elucidate my point: It will doubtlessly remain as a fact that at the moment of writing that particular song, I was influenced by the whatever song it was. This will never change.

[CypherOne]

gravity and time are two big influences on me.

[kritikon]

My musical influences.............hmmmmmmmm, difficult one that - there have been so many, but here goes.


OK, I have been under the influence of:
Alcohol
Cannabis
MDMA
Amphetamines
Ketamine
Valium
Cocaine
Ativan
LSD
Caffeine.

Of course these influences change regularly.
Mostly alcohol and caffeine at the moment.


I think Valium has had the most influence on my music, but unfortunately most of that influence has been to make me sit there with a silly grin on my face, stick my finger on G2 and slump face forwards into my keyboard.
MDMA influenced me to keep banging my finger up and down furiously on G2 for 6 hours
LSD influenced me 2 finger my G bang silly.

[Equilibrium]

Interesting stuff.

Keep it coming...

[EJo]

(removed)

[kilroy]

My musical influences.............hmmmmmmmm, difficult one that - there have been so many, but here goes.


OK, I have been under the influence of:
Alcohol
Cannabis
MDMA
Amphetamines
Ketamine
Valium
Cocaine
Ativan
LSD
Caffeine.

Kritikon, mate... you'll be wanting to baby those brain cells...once they're gone, well...

Anyroad, one of my biggest influences ever was my dear old Gran. She had a scrappy, indominatable spirit that never failed to inspire me, and she was a woman of resolute moral fibre and chararcter.

A very sad day when she passed on. She was just the grandest lass ever...and a bonny one at that.





Blimey...she sure hated to lose at crib though.

[spaceman]

hmmm.. ketamine

[kilroy]

You guys who listed a bunch of classical composers really need to get some imagination. Is digging out 200 year old greatest hits-albums the best you guys can do?

Erm...yer just having us on here, right mate.

[Wopelka]

My favorite answer to the old "influences" question was the answer either Ben Sidran (jazz keyboardist, formerly of the original Steve Miller Band) or Roy Bittan (Springsteen's piano player) ....(damn, I can't remember who now! ) gave in a magazine quicky-interview years ago:

"Influences: everything I've every heard that I liked, and also everything I've ever heard that I didn't like."

Pretty true when you think about it: you can be easily influenced by things you really hate too...negative influence: stuff that gives you an idea of what you'd like to avoid.

as he said.

[King of Snake]

Underworld
The Chemical Brothers
Fluke
Junkie XL
New Order
Way Out West
Lemon 8
Laurent Garnier
Bedrock
All the DJ's playing great tunes by artists I've never heard of

Some of these artists have had direct influence on the sound of my music, others are more "inspirational influence".

and I can certainly agree with the "Influences: everything I've every heard that I liked, and also everything I've ever heard that I didn't like." statement too

[stefancrs]

_not_ in any particular order
right here, right now:

The Knife
Hard techhouse played by the guy I share room with at work
Covenant (the futurepop/ebm band, not the metal one)
Funker Vogt
Plenty of radio-shit (dragostea din tea owns!)
Kaizers Orchestra
Marc Almond
Neuroticfish
Nitzer Ebb
Neophyte & The Viper

[Sonicseven]

As others have said this is only one of my lists. I have had lots of influences over the years, these are the ones that influence stuff I do now.

Beatles - their psychedelic albums
Jimi Hendrix - for what you could do to a guitar and sound musical
Terry Riley - My first exposure to electronic sounds
Brian Eno - For giving Ambient music a name
Tangerine Dream - Rubicon and Phaedra are the best of the berlin school
Los Lobos - for making me love rock music again
Banco de Gaia - His non dance oriented music has alot of Prog influences
Peter Gabriel - Love his songs
King Crimson - My all time favorite band
Bill Nelson - for his exceptional guitar playing.