Inspiration.

I struck a correspondence up with Assemblage 23's Tom Shear over the past year and a half or so, and today got a plug for my blog on his blog:  "Waveformless".  Very cool.

Which leads me to talk about who and what inspires me in my art and music. 

Although Tom and Assemblage 23 was the veritable grain of sand that makes a pile, and certainly my current all time favorite, I also think of Moby, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, my cousins Steve and Jeff (rest in peace Steve), Jary Hudson, Johnny Cash, Christian Onken, and others that I can't remember right now.  I hope they aren't pissed for me forgetting. 

These people are inspiring to me in their tenacity to work on their art every day, the fact that they produce pretty well from their bedrooms (Moby got his start there), and/or the fact that they are one man bands so to speak -- Reznor, Cash, Shear, and Oncken with their singular personal visions.

Other things that inspire me are religion(s), lack of religion, authors, travel, and of course food. *grin*.

On religion, or lack thereof.  The choice of the name:  The Crucifixion Machine for a band came from two basic sources -- 1)  The Kid's in the Hall sketch called the Doctor Seuss Bible.  I recall seeing it, and when Dave Foley exclaimed, "Sam Ziddles Crucifixion Machine!!!"  I fell over laughing, then thought it would make a great name for a band.  I simply shortened it to The Crucifixion Machine.  2) Being a person who waffles between atheism and agnosticism, I thought what better name than something a little blasphemous.

I am also inspired by books.  Authors include William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling, Lewis Carroll and, well, pretty much any science fiction.  I think of these authors as being on the forefront of their genre.  In fact their genres were on the forefront of all fiction as well as the science that they were writing about.  Hence the "Machine" part of the Crucifixion Machine. 

I also need to mention the technology involved in creating the music.  I am a tech head.  I must confess, I can barely thump a bass and am about three weeks into learning how to play guitar.  I have just a little muscle memory for tickling the keys as it stands right now, although I do know where each note is, and have a decent grasp of scales.  See, the computer is my instrument.  I compose directly into a DAW -- Ableton Live 8.  play it, listen, wash, rinse, repeat.  I do understand the value of playing directly on an instrument in that some of the patterns that are developed in muscle memory are things that don't translate exactly well to the visual/mind/brain nature of a DAW.

Being primarily a visual artist breaking into the realm of music, travel and the visual stimulation that comes with it is an inspiration to me as well.  I think of my trip to the desert southwest or my trip to the urban sprawl of Philadelphia, or any travel that I can do.  The stark nature of the desert, and the grunge of the urban landscape translates well into music.

Food.  Heh, I need to eat.  I hope to make some money doing this music and art thing so that I can feed myself.  Nuff said about that.

Thanks for the plug Tom,

David
HMM/TCM