What is NoiseTheorem?  This is a question I probably should have had an answer for by now.  I started using the name a long time ago as a catch all for anything I did outside of my band and my online presence…but it’s never had a statement of purpose or definition.  Here in this blog post, I am going to lay it out and, hopefully, find my purpose again.

NoiseTheorem is my Therapy

Making music has always been a sort of self medication for me.  Taking even just a short period of time every day to just sit and play even if its not in the structure of a studio session with tasks and goals is very restorative to my brain.  It quiets the mind in a way nothing else does for me.  It puts all the rabid weasels in my brain to sleep for a while and gives me peace and focus.  I need it and I can’t imagine this will ever change.

NoiseTheorem is for Me

Do I write NoiseTheorem for an audience?  Yes, and that audience is me.  I hope to make things that please me and make me feel good.  This is the primary person that I am making NoiseTheorem for.

NoiseTheorem is for Others

When it happens that someone else DOES appreciate my work, I am just thrilled and extremely grateful.  Everyone has trouble seeing the value in their own work, and any time that cha-Ching e-mail comes in from BandCamp I feel a little shot of validation and a whole lot of gratitude. 

NoiseTheorem is not about the gear, but it is.

A significant part of my interest in music is my interest in gear.  I’m a collector as well as a player.  I enjoy the culture of gear as much as the music making.  It’s one of the few ways I really connect with others socially.  There is no shame in being a collector.

NoiseTheorem is about performance

If I had a dime for every time a song sounded good when I performed it for myself in the studio but that I could then never get that energy out of it when I recorded I would have a mega-fuck-ton of dimes.  I think that, going forward, I need to accept that recording and mixing are less in my wheelhouse than doing improvised structure and tweak to two track that I frankly find the most fun and I think sounds the most compelling.  Albums are difficult to come together and make, but dumping out these performances onto BandCamp at $1.00 a pop may be a better way going forward. 

So that’s kind of it.  That is how I define NoiseTheorem today.  That definition may evolve, but I’ll always have this to come back to as a sort of mission statement for myself.  As I get older, I think I need the occasional reminder of what it is I’m trying to do.  I hope a few of you will come along for the ride.