The sound of mistakes (chill song by Prisoner)

(English is not my first language so probably this text contains some grammar mistakes)

I used to practice guitar everyday for hours, but as I have grown older, I have reduced both the amount and the quality of my playing. By quality, I mean that when you don’t practice daily you become more prone to make mistakes, especially while jamming, and a part of me feels a deep psychological pain whenever I make a mistake. If I make a small mistake in a song, like missing a note or hitting a string inaccurately with my guitar pick and thus making a metallic sound, I feel like that shouldn’t happen or the music would be ruined.

I have tried to avoid thinking like that, I prefer to record and share whatever I feel like sharing without caring about having to record multiple takes until the song is perfectly executed.

Perfectionism isn’t something I like in music, most stuff I love is raw recordings, like most of the 2000s John frusciante stuff, songs like Low Birds, Feel My Nights, Dying Song, all those songs are full of mistakes and I love them, and on the opposite side of the spectrum I don’t like it when a song is overly produced to the point the voice sounds more like a synth with perfect pitch.

In that sense I prefer quantity over quality. As long as the quantity of the songs comes from a place of honest creative will to share all the things that the artist feels like sharing. One thing I’ve noticed in music production forums (like some subreddits where people share their beats) is that a lot of people over there struggle with having 20+ songs stored in their hard drive but being unable to share them because they feel the mixing or equalization is not perfect, they are so focused on doing some high quality professional audio quality that they can’t share the songs. That is something that happens to a lot of us to an extent in different parts of our lives, I suppose writers, painters, animators, academics, they all go through the same fear of “I can’t share my creation until it’s perfect”. I think that happens more because of fearing other’s opinions, that is why I feel like we should just share everything.

I remember in a movie named "Inside Llewyn Davis” by the Conen brothers, there was this scene were the main character, a wanna be folk rock singer, discovers someone going through his old demos he had stored in some discs in his basement, and the guy, I mean the musician, becomes very angry because it seems he is kind of ashamed of someone hearing the early non-perfect stages of his songs. That made me feel really bad, how someone could be ashamed of something they made, and probably the desire of this musician to be famous nd cool was what made him being ashamed of anyone discovering his earlier music, because that music was raw and imperfect, he wanted to be seen as a cool musician. I suppose it all happens because of our egos, we are afraid of people hearing those early stages of our songs and feeling like we are cringy.

Problem is I want to be cool, I want people to like me so bad, and if someone doesn’t like me because of having an erroneous idea of me it hurts me a lot and I really need to go talk to that person and explain them why I might seem unlikeable or tell them I am sorry in case I made a mistake and hurt them. So this feeling of being afraid of not being liked I think is related to the desire of making perfect songs, having people hearing your music and say “wow he sounds like a pro” instead of hearing some mistakes here and there and think “wow pretty cool music for a non professional”. I want to avoid this feeling and trying to be ok with not being perfect or not being liked by everyone, I want to be liked because of who I am and not because of who I pretend to be in order to be liked.

[Prisoner]

you can find my spotify, apple music, etc... on my instagram's description:

[Prisoner]

I used to practice guitar everyday for hours, but as I have grown older, I have reduced both the amount and the quality of my playing. By quality, I mean that when you don’t practice daily you become more prone to make mistakes, especially while jamming, and a part of me feels a deep psychological pain whenever I make a mistake. If I make a small mistake in a song, like missing a note or hitting a string inaccurately with my guitar pick and thus making a metallic sound, I feel like that shouldn’t happen or the music would be ruined.

I have tried to avoid thinking like that, I prefer to record and share whatever I feel like sharing without caring about having to record multiple takes until the song is perfectly executed.

Perfectionism isn’t something I like in music, most stuff I love is raw recordings, like most of the 2000s John frusciante stuff, songs like Low Birds, Feel My Nights, Dying Song, all those songs are full of mistakes and I love them, and on the opposite side of the spectrum I don’t like it when a song is overly produced to the point the voice sounds more like a synth with perfect pitch.

In that sense I prefer quantity over quality. As long as the quantity of the songs comes from a place of honest creative will to share all the things that the artist feels like sharing. One thing I’ve noticed in music production forums (like some subreddits where people share their beats) is that a lot of people over there struggle with having 20+ songs stored in their hard drive but being unable to share them because they feel the mixing or equalization is not perfect, they are so focused on doing some high quality professional audio quality that they can’t share the songs. That is something that happens to a lot of us to an extent in different parts of our lives, I suppose writers, painters, animators, academics, they all go through the same fear of “I can’t share my creation until it’s perfect”. I think that happens more because of fearing other’s opinions, that is why I feel like we should just share everything.

I remember in a movie named "Inside Llewyn Davis” by the Conen brothers, there was this scene were the main character, a wanna be folk rock singer, discovers someone going through his old demos he had stored in some discs in his basement, and the guy, I mean the musician, becomes very angry because it seems he is kind of ashamed of someone hearing the early non-perfect stages of his songs. That made me feel really bad, how someone could be ashamed of something they made, and probably the desire of this musician to be famous nd cool was what made him being ashamed of anyone discovering his earlier music, because that music was raw and imperfect, he wanted to be seen as a cool musician. I suppose it all happens because of our egos, we are afraid of people hearing those early stages of our songs and feeling like we are cringy.

Problem is I want to be cool, I want people to like me so bad, and if someone doesn’t like me because of having an erroneous idea of me it hurts me a lot and I really need to go talk to that person and explain them why I might seem unlikeable or tell them I am sorry in case I made a mistake and hurt them. So this feeling of being afraid of not being liked I think is related to the desire of making perfect songs, having people hearing your music and say “wow he sounds like a pro” instead of hearing some mistakes here and there and think “wow pretty cool music for a non professional”. I want to avoid this feeling and trying to be ok with not being perfect or not being liked by everyone, I want to be liked because of who I am and not because of who I pretend to be in order to be liked.

[michael-kupd]

"I want people to like me so bad" I used to be the same bro but life really started changing when I changed my point of view, instead of wanting people to like you, become the version of yourself that YOU like. Go to what's positive and negative and make changes to your life based on yourself, and attract people because you're authentic, not because you wanna chase other's attraction. The best advice I think I've gotten in my life is that we as humans are not meant to chase, we're meant to attract. What we put out comes back, and if we put out the best of ourselves, the best will come back.

[dustinhuffman]

Cool song for new years day to bring it all together

[patinsley]

Your music is great. I don't mind hearing imperfections. It makes the music that much more real. Keep up the great work doing what you love. It was always be fully appreciated

[SOAPRR]

Nice guitar! I love the happy, yet the hint of dispair this song gives! 10/10

Best regards!
-Kevin

[adrianbr]

I get a similar feeling with the rawness (no idea if this is a word) of photos, every time I start editing a photo I end up leaving it as it is or with minimum changes. Thats why I love using film cameras. Also your music has made me want to start playing too

[max_not]

you are perfect in being prisoner and that's what i love about your music :)

[rubenterwesten]

what a nice and chilled soundtrack very calming

[lolnaniwow]

This is really good man it gives the music an alive feeling its just music from the soul imperfect but perfect ❤❤

[DJ_illusions]

Hey Prisoner ❤ Another Banger yet again, imperfections make us human and leaving them in leaves a trail of authenticity, and that is what people strive for nowadays in the wasteland of overproduced tracks so keep going and release everything as is. Judgement comes down to others perecptions of the world and hold no to little value in respect of ones self!

Happy New Year! and look forward to seeing what 2025 brings you! Much love Peace
✌

[myopicmycelium]

God damn, that's a beautiful song! You killed it!

If you get a chance, you should check out my jamuary stuff!

[DJGra-jy]

Im a vocalist and lyricst... I can definitely vibe to this song .. hit me up if need of my interests.