Music videos, Media mogul assholes, and the Right of a private artist to express himself in untested ways.

Should I ever find myself in a band or playing the part of a discovered solo artist that was given the opportunity to make MTV-style videos, I wouldn't. I don't care how much money they threw at me. Unless it was a lot.

I might make short films, if I found I had the talent for it, or collaborate with equally idealistic and monetarily bereft directors who did have that talent, and whose tastes meshed with mine. In essence the 'film' accompanying my music, be it a single track, an ambient or merged concerto-like smudged out thing, or a series of discrete creations, would have to be a work of art on its own. It would not change what it needed to be to fit the mores of the music industry, and would thus almost certainly never be played on any sane television station. Artists have of course done this - Pink Floyd and Sigur Ros to name but two - but it's still a rare thing. I think Thom Yorke, Nick Cave, Tom Waits - people like these, they tend to reach for that sort of additional expression. Some have made full-fledged films or at least scores or screenplays.

A good sense to have as an artist is having the good sense to know when you're no good at something. So far I'm good at everything. Well, except for most things in life that actually keep you alive and serve your primal functions. Logistical things. And artistic things I'm nearly never the 'best' at, I merely see a path where I could work at it and be considered amongst that crowd. It's all so rubbish anyway, it's like pillowtalking after the alarm has erupted and deciding who had the more valid dream. Art isn't a sport where they hold up cards that range strangely from 9 to 10 in increment of 0.1.

I guess my point is that many musicians I am inspired by don't have crowd-pleasing videos. Maybe just some old studio footage later exploited as lost or rare and benefiting someone unworthy, like a person. I would never make a visual work of art tied explicitly to a musical one, nor the other way round, unless for some strange reason it made sense to me and could be done with the same passion, attention, and skill given to both objects and I felt compelled to marry the two. The disciplines don't necessarily seem related to one another in any pressing way, at least not in my view. It's a bonus I suppose when one can support the other, but for anyone to expect this pair to grow together on the same tree...