Artistic Differences
Ok, this post should not have upset me. But it did.
Because it states patent untruths about me and my motivations that I cannot comment in reply because I don't "do" MySpace.
I really hoped that all the Kissing Time stuff was in the past, and that there were no hard feelings, and that the parting had been a friendly one. I mean, we still talk (I thought), and go to each others' gigs and stuff.
For the record, Darren was *not* the primary reason that I left. There was a very obvious personality conflict, but it wasn't with Darren - and that wasn't even the main reason that I left.
The primary reason was, actually, that I felt like a fifth wheel. Quite literally. First off, being in a band with two couples, it's hard not to feel a bit left out. Second, all the things that I do - they already had one. What do I do in bands? I play guitar. They already had two guitarists. I play bass. They already had a bassist. I play a bit of keyboards. They already had a keyboardist. I sing. There were already three singers. What else was left for me to do? Play drums? the one instrument I don't know how to play? I really felt like there was nowhere left for me to really do anything - or to make my musical influence felt.
And that brought me to the secondary reason. Plain old fashioned artistic differences. Even reading the list of influences on their website, it's just like... I feel very little connection. There are a few overlaps, but not in the music they REALLY love and the music *I* REALLY love.
I love two things - dronerock/spacerock and sugary girlpop. My idea bands (that I would want to sound like) are Stereolab and Lush. I don't *mind*, in fact I quite *like* jangly indiepop, but it's just not what I want to do. When Darren started slagging off The Smiths, it wasn't even so much that I'm a huge Smiths fanatic (I do love them, but I'm not fanatical about them) - but, to me, they epitomise what I think jangly-pop should be about. Smart, clever, knowing, gorgeous and wistful but also ferociously catchy. If one is going to make jangly-pop, I feel like *that* is what one should aspire to.
It wasn't just the comment, it was just realising that we were *never* going to see eye to eye.
Plus... so I dissed one of Darren's songs. Tara McCrack. I said it was boring smack-rock. You know what? Several members of TKT said that one of my songs sounded "like Bon Jovi". If I can handle disses like that, then Darren can just grow up and handle some criticism.
4 Comments:
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You're right. That post should not have upset you. Because besides the obvious -- which is that I wouldn't write something to intentionally upset you -- it isn't meant to slag you off or criticise your work or contribution or dredge up anything. The post is about the song, and it wasn't made in anger. You weren't the only one who disliked the song. Darren's attitude to his work is totally motivated by praise (we just now figured this out). Anything that is dissed he abandons. You dissed the song, Arthur dissed the song, therefore, Darren wanted to abandon it. But I don't want to let it go. That's all the post is about.
Artistic Differences sounds like such a cliche but I think we can all agree it is true here. You weren't happy and it wasn't the kind of music you wanted to make. We decided to not waste each other's time. There isn't really anything to be hurt or angry about, that's just The Way It Is and I'm not going to not talk about it like you were never (t)here. That seems far more rude and disrespectful than saying "Yeah, Kate and Darren once got into a fight over the Smiths." 'Cause that's almost funny.
Well, I'm sorry but I *was* upset by the post. And it's a bit rich of you to tell me "blah blah, you have no right to be upset by some stupid thing posted on a message board" when you have spent the past week going on at length about some webfeud you've been having.
What upset me was that it contained some patent untruths - and left me no way of countering what was said.
You didn't say that I left the band because of "artistic differences" - you stated explicitly that I left the band because I couldn't get on with Darren. Which is just patently untrue and I felt very unfair to me.
Okay, maybe I misunderstood your reasons for leaving. You handed in your notice after the Smiths issue, as you said on ILX, and that always seemed like the Last Straw to me. I felt this was all fairly irrelevant now and felt okay lightheartedly talking about it. If you don't feel that way, then I'll apologise again and never bring it up in the future.
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