Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mystic Rhythms

A few blog entries ago, I mentioned the lack of a soundtrack in the medium. Yet, music is an integral part of my work. The most prevalent memory of my teens is me drawing at two in the morning on a school night with my stereo blasting some music. With very few exceptions, I always work with music playing in the background. Sometimes the music is just there, keeping me company; other times it becomes inspiration to what I write, draw, or paint. There are songs that have become so identifiable with my work, that I can’t hear them without remembering that particular art piece, or scene.

Bands like Portishead, Dead Can Dance, Bauhaus, and Pink Floyd (for some Gabriel scenes) became a sort of a soundtrack to Metasearch as I was working on the script and some of the pages. I find it curious that I associate a silent art form with so much sound. Maybe it's the armchair filmmaker in me, or perhaps it's my frustrated need to convey a fully immersive experience to the readers. I for one believe that life would be so much more interesting if we had our own soundtrack; and no, I don’t mean whatever we listen to our in mp3 players while we walk around.

Maybe there are people that listen to music when they read comic books (or web comics). I’m not one of them, but I’m sure there has to be someone who likes to make the experience just a little bit more personal by adding their own touch. Music is the language of the soul and we like to hear its rhetoric. I’ll see you in the page.

Oddman Out