turn me up in the headphones

I'd love to have access to a recording studio in a way

that was like it was in my house.

but i also find myself disliking albums that have a "studio sound"

clean, eq'd well, everything under control, or tastefully askew

to me it feels like it's floating in a void,

there's less room noise, hiss, character in general,

and the studio itself is a sort of very "serious" environment

which I think discourages a lot of fun and exciting things but

also if I think about it maybe some people are too fun,

and maybe need to be reigned in,

you know what i mean

but yeah I think of elliott smith in particular. I find that I was drawn to his music initially because he drew character out his lo fi aesthetic in a way that feels impossible with a studio and larger budget, i still like his later albums but they are in a different league from roman candle, the s/t, and either/or to me

studio's goals are to standardize sound in the same way music theory does

and in the same way "music theory" evokes the "western cannon"

and implies an aesthetic viewpoint so does the use and construction of a studio

not that you can't make a good album in a studio

I think this is one variable among many in the making of an album

but soundproofing, eq setups, even the way knobs and controls divide and segment sound

these all have aesthetic viewpoints, i won't lay out all three

but take soundproofing. room noise is a choice

sometimes intentionally pursued but the idea that recordings should only reverberate in certain ways

and that some of those ways are more "the default"

than others

i think that illustrates it

and honestly it just strips shit of soul

of the quirks that make up your room and life

other stuff too, more intangible

but I've been thinking of stuff that is "too studio sounding" to me as floating in a void

there are ways to bridge that void and add soul

but by default the studio puts you in an aesthetic vacuum

where you're making emotional choices

with cold calculations if that makes sense

and it just completely unmoors it from your humanity

a la, the void

anyways stan elliott smith