MOUTHGUARD

Approaches for writing about live music

If you are reading this, you are either interested in writing about music, or considering writing for the first issue of Mouthguard...

What is Mouthguard?

Mouthguard is a print publication based in Perth Australia, aiming to publish weird and adventurous writing on live music performance.

Our first issue will focus on covering this year's Audible Edge festival, however, future issues may cover anything from a whistling man at the laundromat the big ticket spectacles. Mostly, we are concerned with experimental and aberrant music.

For anyone somehow reading in other cities or countries, you are welcome to submit your writing too!!

(Note: as of now we can only score complementary tickets to grassroots events in Perth)

As for medium specifics, Mouthguard is open to many kinds of writing, from reviews, articles, recounts, short stories, poetry, prose-poems. I am open to visual media responses but, for print, greyscale only... I ain’t got no funding! Open to long or short, although 1200 words max.

I am excited to read peoples articles and will suggest any edits, but please first read the information below for the general tone:

STYLE GUIDE / APPROACHES TO LIVE MUSIC WRITING

For all intents and purposes, I call any creative written response a review.

Here are some bits of advice I have for approaching live music reviews. They are not prescriptive, but drawn from the kind of writing I like most, and have been helpful for me when writing. As always, read widely and decide on your own ideals.

The review as generative writing, or, ekphrasis

Rather than an evaluation or judgement, think of a live review as a creative response. You are not writing to sell anything. Unlike a film, book, album or play, a gig only happens once, and always in the past. You can be positive or critical, but think of a review as less a “review” and more of a piece of writing that could be worth reading regardless of any knowledge of the artist. With a notebook, see the performance as a way to generate ideas, descriptions, associations. You might yes-and and bounce off the artists ideas, or no-but, where you take a hostile stance (though be fair). Perhaps you might write something entirely parrallel to what is happening on the stage.

I personally find experimental music shows the most generative, where the musicians are either doing something really weird or really boring. As Walter Benjamin said: "Boredom is the dreambird that hatches the egg of experience".

When poets generate a poem in response to an artwork, its called ekphrasis. There is already a zine for this in Perth called the Artery which is worth checking out. As far as I know, there are no ekphrastic music publications, at least in Perth. This is hopefully something we can address.

The review as creative recount.

A more orthodox (but still potentially interesting) way to approach performance writing is through the creative recount.

What makes a recount interesting is two interlinked things: the level of description and the writer's subjectivity. This may involve creating a persona, or exaggerating aspects of ones own personality.

Who you are shapes what you notice and what you have to say about those things - there are some things that give us lots of things to say, and some, nothing. For the shows that give you nothing to say, eg a rock show that merely connotes 'rock music', a useful way to get out of the slump is to think (for lack of a better word) phenomenologically.

"How do we experience experiences?" is the main question of phenomenology, where you make yourself really really dumb in order to gain some insight into the affects of things.

As you sit and watch the music, ask: What is the mind doing? What is the body doing? What are the sense organs doing? How are they interlinked? How are they affected by the music and lights and other people around you? Is there anyone in the crowd making you feel something more than others? Look around: how are other people affected by this music? How come that guy is nodding his head and that other guy is still? How come the lights go all streaky when you squint? Asking these questions can be fruitful if you are not sure what to write.

Describing things

In any review, you are really trying to capture the spirit of the performance, which is always more than just sound. A performance is also movement, crowd, space, time, Natural Elements, and probably other things.

Describing movement

Focusing on a musician's movement is useful for description. How is the piano player playing the piano? What are her arms and shoulders and neck muscles doing? What facial expression is she making?

Idea if bored: focus on this person's hands and write as many verbs for their actions as possible. You might start with more common ones (eg. strike, hammer, pound) and end up with some good aberrant words that communicate more. Nothing too fancy!

Even more descriptive than verbs, adjectives and adverbs are similes and metaphors. Try surprise the reader with something ridiculous but exact. (I am sorry if I am mansplaining year 9 english class, but for many of us, it has been a long time since high school.)

BUT, sometimes the movements of the musicians are not very interesting; often the piano player will be stiff as a ladder, especially if their piano is a synthesizer, frowning into their keyboard as their out-of-view fingers twiddle at some knobs.. mentioning this kind of detail is unreasonable if the genre is something notoriously slothlike; if you end up reviewing an ambient, noise, doom or shoegaze band, just focus on the sounds.

Describing sounds:

Asking the basic questions can be useful...

Describing space and the natural elements

The venue space may be worth describing, particularly if it is unusual (an abandoned food court) or unpredictable (an event with children, animals or drunkards).

If it is say, a Default venue- the Astor, the Rosie or the Bird, only describe the space if you have something special to say.

Outside gigs are my favourite, as they allow you to talk about the Natural Elements: wind, rain, sun, moon, cloud, bird, light, shadow, sunrise, sunset, rainbow, rat, chicken, dog, bugs, neighbour, car, hoon, pedestrian. A bit of nature syncing up with some music is always Sublime. This is a trope that will probably get old, but for me if is usually a cool idea.

Voice and style

Developing a voice and style happens through practice; of trying things out and seeing if it feels right. A good way to feel in control of your voice is to always read aloud after you write, checking if it sounds like you (or your character/persona). Reading aloud is also good for proof-reading: if you stumble on words at any given time, this usually means that your sentence needs tweaking. Me or another editor will also proof read.

Technical knowledge OPTIONAL but welcome

Experimental performances are usually more interesting when you have some context about the musician's particular practice, their ideas and concerns, or the limitations of their instruments or musical traditions. The best way to learn about these things is to ask the musicians themselves, or the event organisers. Failing that, one hopes that the writing in the brochure is interesting.

Technical details and context helps with more critically-engaged writing BUT you can also go in entirely ignorant about what you're seeing and hearing, using the aforementioned mind and perception tricks.

And although I do encourage boneheadery and silliness, I don’t mean for Mouthguard to be an anti-intellectual publication. If you do know some music/art/critical theory which will be helpful for the writing, by all means discuss and apply.

Stylistically though, I believe that writing is best when it is approachable for the open-minded layman. A brief explanation of any tricky word is always helpful, as good critical writing should open doors, rather than leading you round a warehouse of closed ones.

Biggest advice: Bring a notebook to the gig!!!!

A notebook allows you to not just remember, but to have more ideas. Typing into a notes app is better than nothing, but you'll also look Disengaged, attracting the ire of the public.

AVOID:

There we have it! I hope this gives some ideas for writing. I look forward to reading any submissions and to working with you.

Have fun and write fun!

For any questions, my email is breadwinneryaxley@gmail.com