A Tale of Old Japan, Told Through Drum & Bass

How (Not) to Develop a Creative Idea

This week I finally finished producing my first full length Drum & Bass track.

I want to tell you about the story behind this track and how it inspired and informed my musical decisions. Please read to the end. I don’t want to foreshadow too much, but there will be a bit of a plot twist and a lesson about the creative process in there.

The title Dorobō means “thief” in Japanese. The track has some quite distinct Japanese influences, using a Koto (a traditional Japanese string instrument) as one of the lead instruments, as well as some Taiko drums in the background.

I imagine a sleepy Japanese port town in the early morning hours. It’s a quiet and peaceful morning. But something ominous is in the air.

In the intro, somewhere in the distance, we gradually hear a koto fade in. This koto will come to represent the titular dorobō. It gradually grows louder and becomes more defined, but it keeps hovering in the background.

Then the first drop happens (~0:43). The crime has been discovered and a wild chase begins. Our thief (the koto) manages to keep hidden, always one step ahead of the pursuers, almost toying with them.

Finally things slow down a bit and we get to the first interlude (~1:05). The thief has mixed into the crowd at the bustling street market. He even gets a bit cocky, the koto growing louder and more distinct.

At the second drop (~1:27) the pursuers are at it again. The dorobō has at this point completely escaped them, the koto being totally absent. But by now a group of local law enforcers, the piano, has been alerted and is deliberating how to continue the chase of the fugitive.

The breakdown (~1:49) marks the mounting preparation for a full blown hunt. Our pursuers have again found the trace of the thief, the koto being present in the background once more. The law enforcers are preparing their troops. The Taiko drums which come in here for the first time are reminiscent of the tension and preparations just before a battle.

The hunt begins in full at the third drop (~2:12). The thief has been spotted once more, but manages to always keep just slightly out of sight of the pursuers, hidden in the shadows and once again almost teasing them.

The second interlude (~2:35) has the law enforcers (the piano) combing the market. The thief has again disappeared entirely, but they are on his tail. His earlier cockiness has made him suspicious and allowed his pursuers to track him down.

He is spotted once again at the fourth drop (~2:56). The final showdown begins. This time the enforcers are directly behind him, the piano closely shadowing the koto. The taikos are now played on the rim, a sound that’s reminiscent of the hyōshigi wood clappers used to underline dramatic moments in traditional Japanese theater.

The tension builds, until finally… Well, I’ll leave that up to your imagination.

This was the story I had in mind as I set out to produce this track. The grand vision guided every musical decision I made. Everything was planned perfectly in order to convey this story.

Except that what I just said is complete bullshit.

I had absolutely no clue what I was going to make when I started, other than a drum & bass track. I certainly didn’t have a story in mind I wanted to tell, or even a theme.

I just created a new project in Native Instrument’s Maschine, my production environment of choice, set the BPM to 174, and got creating.

I started recording a simple drum pattern, and layered some breakbeats over it. No plan whatsoever, just playing with some samples I came across and seeing what sounded good.

Next was the bass. Again I found a bunch of samples I liked and played in a bass line. Imagine a bass like the one from the Seinfeld intro playing some wacky tune that would fit an old black and white comedy. It didn’t make it through the production, but for now it stayed.

One of my favourite drum & bass producers is Etherwood. I love his use of piano and string instruments to create incredible soundscapes. So I thought let’s add some strings to my track.

Looking through my library for string instruments I randomly noticed that I had a koto there. I never intended to actually use it, but I thought it was kind of cool and wanted to mess around with it for a while before continuing my search for some suitable strings. But as I played with the Koto, I kind of liked it and recorded some melody over my drums and the bass line.

Things kept growing from there, the initial 4 bar segment turned into a 16 bar template for all my drops, I kept layering other instruments, refining my percussions, switching in another bass, then adding the interludes and intro, and so slowly a full track was taking shape.

Still, the thought of a story or coherent vision influencing my decision never crossed my mind. I just tried random stuff. And if I liked it I kept and expanded on it.

I didn’t even consider that there was some Japanese influence. Sure there was a koto, but so what? Only towards the very end when I was adding sweeps and other effects, as well as some final touches to the percussion to make things more interesting, I again by chance came across some taiko samples I had and they actually worked really well with the rest. That’s the first time I thought that there is some kind of “Japanese theme”.

Finally some mastering (which I realized I’m terrible at) and the track was done.

Okay, what should I call my first track? Hmm, no clue.

That’s the first time the thought (or need) of a story occured to me.

I listened to it over and over again and tried to figure out what kind of pictures it brings to mind. There was clearly some chase going on, that was the first thing I noticed. And yeah, somehow the intro and interludes/breakdown reminded me of a small port town of Japan in a bygone era. And there was that Koto.

Some of my first ideas were “Morning Mist”, “Temple Chase”, “Stolen Koto” and a bunch of other equally crappy titles. I actually can’t remember how or when Dorobō crossed my mind, but when it did I kind of liked it. So I kept it.

And only after that I made up this elaborate story which seems to explain so well how my creative process unfolded.

I wish I could take a fully formed idea and turn it into music. But my production and musical skills are nowhere near that good. Even if I had a good idea for a track, I’d struggle translating that idea into music.

But that didn’t stop me from making a track that I’m fairly happy with (especially considering it’s my first full track), and that actually seems like it was planned from the beginning.

I feel like there is a lesson in this.

As creatives of any kind, be it music producers, writers, or even coders, we often struggle to find that one brilliant idea that will guide us in our creative process. We long for this grand vision that will inform all our creative decisions. Only once we have this vision can we start creating.

Just that that’s rarely how it works in reality.

Plans usually don’t come fully formed, and even if they do we often realize that they suck once we start executing them, so we readjust along the way.

Or maybe we don’t have any plan at all. And that’s fine too. It doesn’t have to stop us from getting started.

If you have a great vision and know how to execute it, awesome! Go for it!

But if not, who cares? Write, create, produce, code, paint, build, whatever! Just get started. The vision will reveal itself somewhere along the way.

And you can always find that perfect story that was guiding your every decision after all the decisions have been made.

No one needs to know that it’s all a big lie when they enjoy your creation. ;)

I’d be extremely curious to hear from you. Did you believe my story? Have you had similar experiences of making up a guiding explanation after your creation was complete?

I’m really happy that since uploading Dorobō I got some very positive feedback from friends I shared it with.

I also really have to thank SHK, Smoke Thief, and Makoto for their tips and suggestions. When I finished the track I knew that my mix was pretty awful, the low frequencies a complete mess with kick drum and bass competing for space. But I didn’t really know how to improve on it. They reminded/taught me about such basics as spectral analysis, side chain compression, and even just the basic structure of a drum & bass track. My next track will hopefully be better thanks to their advice!

This is another lesson: Get your stuff out there!

That doesn’t mean creating low quality content or sharing half finished and rushed ideas though. Make something to the level of your current ability, polish it as much as you can, but then share it and be proud of it.

And use the feedback to get your skill to the next level so that your following creation can be that little bit better. Then repeat.