ESSIE QUOI

The Noise Decay is an experimental sound lab and I call it that because it truly is a space where you can come and experiment with sound…and experiment with your own potential and completely disregard and let go of the concepts of right and wrong.  

I think that we’ve been conditioned to be so attached to a final product, to the output of all of the work we put into something. Whether it’s a song or essay or poem…whether it’s a motorcycle… 

To me, the real power is being able to freely make the decisions that result in a final product. I have complete power over where a particular piece of music goes and these are all my choices. And I can be weird…I can be scary…I can be aggressive or I can be completely, and entirely passive and that’s my decision and that’s my work. The final product is beautiful - it’s wonderful to be able to have this tangible piece of music or final work that I can refer to to relive all of those moments which led to its creation, but it’s so final, right? I create the work and then it’s done and it’s frozen in time. And yes of course it can live on through listeners or readers. People who enjoy art also give it life and story and it keeps living on in that way. But from a creative standpoint, my work is done and the only control I really have after that point is my perspective on that piece of work. The creation process is timeless, eternal, and dynamic. In this stage, the work is ever changing. The way I perceive it is always changing. Therefore it, entirely, is always changing. And that is powerful. And there’s a lot of space and opportunity for us to really play and experiment with that. And to experiment with our mindset, states of mind, how we perceive music.  

So the experimental sound lab is more than just a place where you come and create music. It’s a place where you come and essentially work to change your state of mind. I’m really excited - I’ve been practicing this work for quite a while. I read a book called ‘Effortless Mastery’ by Kenny Werner and I recommend it; it really did change the way that I perceive music and how I work when creating.  

A little more concretely, what you can expect when you come to The Noise Decay is a workshop-like environment in which you’re given complete freedom, with some loose guidance from me of course, to create whatever you want to create and you’re encouraged to abandon those preconceived notions of right and wrong. I work with you a little bit to lower the veil and to shift your perspective about sound. It’s part education, part interactive, and there’s music you get to go back and continue experimenting with.  

It’s The Noise Decay because, I think we are conditioned pretty early on to classify things, to label them and compartmentalize them. You have right and wrong, good and bad, music and noise. I think we can all agree that it’s all sound - noise and music. I want to challenge those of us who believe that noise and music are two distinct things in saying that they can absolutely be the same thing. I think the noise, it really is just music with a lot of chatter. We have all these voices inside of us, and outside of us, telling us “this is good, this is bad. this is right, this is wrong. you could do this better. you should sound more like this person. this should sound more like this song.” That’s the noise. If you can minimize that, let that decay, and witness that decaying, eventually all you’re left with is music. You can no longer hear any of that other stuff. It’s not real. It doesn’t exist.  

I just want to encourage people to let go. It’s not an easy thing to do. It happens rarely for me, but when it does happen, it’s a feeling I wouldn’t dare to attempt to describe.