A pep talk for doing it yourself

A pep talk from Ziemba’s René Kladzyk for musicians planning to self release, and others who suffer from separation anxiety when releasing their creative work into the world.

"Quarantine Supercut" Assembled and produced by Drew Daniel Mastered by Jeff Carey Created in conjunction with The Creative Independent and Kickstarter “Quarantine Supercut” was built from the submissions of many people who responded to a public call for field recordings of the sounds of life under quarantine. The first week there were forty sounds sent to the Creative Independent, the second week sixty more, the third week another eighty more. On top of that, as word spread about the project even more people began to email me directly with their sounds, and many people sent multiple files; by the deadline, roughly two hundred participants had sent me about three hundred sounds total. There are submissions from across the United States (New York to Kentucky, California to the Carolinas), and from across the planet: there were submissions from Italy, Germany, Mexico, Czech Republic, India, Kenya and many anonymous and untitled submissions of unknown origin. Though I eliminated submissions that were recordings of music, I tried to use as many submissions as I could. I used EQ to try to clean up and focus each sound, but I did not otherwise process or manipulate these sounds. Sometimes, a single sound is heard in isolation. At other times, I decided to cluster and overlay the sounds into distinct areas (at its densest there are twelve separate layers playing simultaneously). The piece is divided into an indoor section and an outdoor section, with subthemes (cooking, pets, childcare, working from home, online learning, wildlife/birds, coughs, public announcements). Sometimes the threat of the coronavirus is front and center; sometimes it’s far in the background. The emotional response to sound is subjective and varies from listener to listener, but I hear many different attitudes towards quarantine within these recordings; domestic calm, annoyance, dread, humor, and the sound of making do. I’m grateful to The Creative Independent for asking me to do this, and to everyone who took part in the project and trusted me with their sounds. While creating the piece, I struggled with the conclusion: how long will this go on? How will it end? Ultimately, I chose recordings of a passing train, and of neighbors talking to each other across the distance of a balcony. I wanted to remind us of the fragile social links that persist even in the midst of isolation. Assembled at home in Baltimore under quarantine, 2020; mastering by Jeff Carey

"Quarantine Supercut" Assembled and produced by Drew Daniel Mastered by Jeff Carey Created in conjunction with The Creative Independent and Kickstarter “Quarantine Supercut” was built from the submissions of many people who responded to a public call for field recordings of the sounds of life under quarantine. The first week there were forty sounds sent to the Creative Independent, the second week sixty more, the third week another eighty more. On top of that, as word spread about the project even more people began to email me directly with their sounds, and many people sent multiple files; by the deadline, roughly two hundred participants had sent me about three hundred sounds total. There are submissions from across the United States (New York to Kentucky, California to the Carolinas), and from across the planet: there were submissions from Italy, Germany, Mexico, Czech Republic, India, Kenya and many anonymous and untitled submissions of unknown origin. Though I eliminated submissions that were recordings of music, I tried to use as many submissions as I could. I used EQ to try to clean up and focus each sound, but I did not otherwise process or manipulate these sounds. Sometimes, a single sound is heard in isolation. At other times, I decided to cluster and overlay the sounds into distinct areas (at its densest there are twelve separate layers playing simultaneously). The piece is divided into an indoor section and an outdoor section, with subthemes (cooking, pets, childcare, working from home, online learning, wildlife/birds, coughs, public announcements). Sometimes the threat of the coronavirus is front and center; sometimes it’s far in the background. The emotional response to sound is subjective and varies from listener to listener, but I hear many different attitudes towards quarantine within these recordings; domestic calm, annoyance, dread, humor, and the sound of making do. I’m grateful to The Creative Independent for asking me to do this, and to everyone who took part in the project and trusted me with their sounds. While creating the piece, I struggled with the conclusion: how long will this go on? How will it end? Ultimately, I chose recordings of a passing train, and of neighbors talking to each other across the distance of a balcony. I wanted to remind us of the fragile social links that persist even in the midst of isolation. Assembled at home in Baltimore under quarantine, 2020; mastering by Jeff Carey

This episode came out of a conversation inspired by our study on the financial state of artists today, and was produced by Rachel James and The Organist (a podcast created by McSweeney’s and KCRW) in collaboration with TCI. You can also find it on The Organist’s website.

This Transmissions episode features an experimental mixtape created by visual artist, writer and podcaster, Sean J Patrick Carney. It is designed for the studio artist who feels trapped in a cycle of producing the same work over and over again. Find track titles for each soundscape and timestamps at https://thecreativeindependent.com/archive/#filter=.sort-transmission.

This episode features a guided meditation for re-centering your sense of self with curator Jacqueline Mabey, and is part of our new series called Conditions. This meditation is accompanied by an essay, written by Jacqueline, called “The Spiritual Hunt,” which you can read at thecreativeindependent.com.

This episode features excerpts of a longer interview by Michelle Lhooq with Lonnie Holley. Lonnie is an African-American visual artist and musician. He was born on February 10, 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama and has devoted his life to the practice of improvisational creativity. Visit thecreativeindependent.com for a full transcript.