Name: Fred Abong
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, bass player, drummer
Current release: Fred Abong's Fear Pageant is out via Disc Drive.

If you enjoyed this Fred Abong interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit them on Instagram, and twitter.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

For me, the impulse to create is just that – an impulse, or sudden urge to document the arising of something new. Any and all of the things listed above can contribute to that impulse, but it's far too complex, at least for me, to pin it down to any single one of them. Nevertheless, the sense that something is being born is the important point.

In a way, it's actually less an 'inspired' moment, and more of an 'expired' moment. What I mean is that the moment something breaks through suggests to me that the time of gestation is over, or has expired. It's time for whatever it is to be be born to start breathing, or taking in air.

It's then my job to see it through to its full growth or development.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

No. Ideas are anathema to actual life. Ideas are usually saturated with our egoic preferences, and are therefore inevetiably somewhat fascisitic and anti-life.

A 'visualisation', on the other hand, if that is understood as a kind of intuitive grasp of the essence of something, is just a recognition of the thing itself, as it is 'naturally'. For each of my projects and/or songs, I usually have some visualisation or 'sense' of what the final product will be, sometimes even before I've written a single song or voice memoed a single musical figure.

My only 'plan' is to not die before it's (to the best of my abilities) finished.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I definitely need the instrument or instruments ready to hand. I generally don't write lyrics until I have something musical to respond to. I have written non-musical poetry … but I don't find that I'm very successful at it. I can't engage the heart without music.

My non-music poetry is too 'thinky', usually subconsciously arguing some point or another. These kinds of poems might be 'interesting', hitting your mind in a new way, but they definitely won't be 'captivating', or arresting you so that everything else drops off, incuding and especially your thinking.

Captivation is the domain of music. I strive to live in that domain.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

The only ritual of any consequence is continuing to breathe.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

Most of my songs begin with some musical passage … doesn't matter the instrument.

The first line comes when it's ready. It might be difficult for me to wait for it, but that's my problem, not the song's.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

A good lyric is one that seems as if it couldn't be otherwise. That is my only ambition / challenge regarding lyrics.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?
 
Both. Because 'you' are both.

From your experience, are there things you're doing differently than most or many other artists when it comes to writing music?

Yes and no. That's a dangerous question. No self-respecting musician or songwriter is going to say, 'Nah. I'm doing nothing special. Just the same old shit.' But, of course, the subjective viewpoint is unreliable.

In some sense, my experience, as vivid and convincing as it may seem to me, is only important to me. It is up to others to decide where I fit in the grand scheme of things, even if I vehemently disagree with them.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I would like to keep strict control, but my needs are ignored.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

The notion of a 'direction', musically speaking, has never made any sense to me. Again, having a 'direction' implies premeditation of some kind. I don't live my life that way (often to my detriment) and I certainly don't write songs that way.

Good or bad, I tend towards response or reaction musically … even though what I'm responding or reacting to something that came from or originated in me. The direction, in other words, of a song isn't clear until the destination has been touched.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Yes, but not just 'an element of spirituality.' Spirituality is the whole thing. Otherwise, you're playing chess.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

Good question. For me, there are different stages of 'finished'.

The first, and most important, stage is getting the song written. This means the song can stand on its own, never mind the production, arrangement, etc. Do not move forward until this step has been fully satisfied.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

Well, much to my chagrin production, mixing, and mastering are essential if you want to present the work to others. These activities are in the realm of 'presentation'. Now the question is or becomes, 'Presentation for whom?' We take it for granted that music will enter the marketplace, and therefore we need, or are urged, to consider the tastes of the marketplace when preparing music for presentation.

My problem has always been, and continues to be, that I don't have any market or audience 'in mind' when presenting / finalizing the work via production, mixing, and mastering. I only know what I think it needs to sound like, given my engagement with it throughout the process. In other words, I can't escape my own subjectivity at this point in the process.

And as it stands now, I am the one producing and mixing (and somtimes mastering) the final product. This is where my technical limitations are truly visible, at least to me. I often know what I want something to sound like, but am unable to manipulate the technology to fully achieve it.

I do my best.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Yeah. I can relate. But I think anyone, whatever their line of work, can relate to the 'fullness' or 'high' of being in a flow state as well as to the disappointing 'ordinariness' that settles in once the flow state has passed. It seems like we are more in touch with the essence of life during those flow periods.

By comparison, the releasing of the work into the world puts one in the role of an anxious parent, believing fully in the worthiness of his 'child', but also knowing fully that the world is rife with other anxious parents and their children, all of whom are trying to 'thrive' in what seems like a tremendously competitive, self-interested, and unscrupulous domain.

I may find my child's lisp endearing and indicicative of character and an unself-conscious positive self-regard, but will anyone else?

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I know I'm not the first to notice that music, like thoughts, can't be measured by any instruments we currently possess. We only know them by their effects on the world. They are ethereal by nature.

But I think the 'greatness' of a great cup of coffee isn't entirely different from a great piece of music or a great idea. Your question is more about this very distinction: the mundane vs. the great.

'Music' isn't inherently great. Nor are ideas, or anything else. When we invoke the concept of 'great' we enter into the realm of something like Plato's Forms, where things like Truth, Beauty, and Justice exist.

These things are not seperate from the mundane, but they require a fully aware consciousness to enliven their presence in the realm of the mundane. That means that anything at all can achieve or reveal 'greatness'.

Music happens to animate the greatness of the heart and spirit. That is its domain.