Rob Swire (1/2 of Knife Party) took to twitter today to announce that at the end of the year he would be taking six months off of touring to just write music. Swire goes into describing how artists are pushed to tour constantly after releasing a single while the hype and buzz around their name is good. Writing music comes when the buzz dies.
Not only are too many DJs are forced into the spotlight before they’re ready, but the result is terrible track selection and poor mixing. The problem is that these things are rarely noticed from the mainstream audience we find at a lot of shows today. Not every set can be life changing.
Yet the speculation on the dance music bubble bursting pushes management and agents to get the bookings now while the money is good. It’s no secret that DJs in American can get anywhere from 3-5x what they would get paid in Europe, so why not continue to tour until the public demands new music?
When you’re Knife Party, you can afford to take that kind of time off. Most artists simply can’t. They might tour for 2-3 months non-stop in order to afford a month or two off just to work on music and spend time with family. We as fans look at so many of the artists and see this grandeur to their lifestyle, while many are hustling just as hard to try and achieve any level of success or their dreams.
So if Rob Swire wants to take time off to touring to write music, I’m not just excited by it but I encourage it as well. Downtime is where innovation comes from. Like Excision forming Destroid, the time off allows Swire to focus on creative projects like writing music. Artists are best when they’re free to be creative, the only problem is few can afford the luxury.
Share On
