How would you get back

I'm curious, guys.. as a rather serious question- let's say you had a particular sound or style a few years ago and you wanted to get back to that. How would you do it? Just listen to what you listened to back then? Take a break from songwriting?

Jeff Evans
(I think being in close proximity to Edgar Froese had a profound effect on me a bit. If you love this sort of music, you cannot help being moved by him in some way)

 
I know how he infused soaring guitar into all those synths inspired me. 

This is my first exposure to TD- they have a nice sound! Not so much what I consider to be a sort of 'corny 80's synth rock' sound but a lot more like a much better take on modern electronica.
 
Listening reminds me where my problem is- back to where I want to be, I was spending a lot of time listening to punk, alternative, and pop styles. More importantly though, I've lost any sort of spark I had; NOTHING inspires me at all, I have no desire to listen to anyone else's music (except jazz ._.) and I don't really want to/remember how to create my own stuff in my style. It' really hurts.
 
This past summer, I got heavily involved in jazz and big band, and since then I haven't been able to write ANYthing (except jazz)! I think listening to al that kind of music raised my needs for complexity or a certain sound to a point that I can't really tolerate anything else :'(
I'm thinking of just wiping my player of all the Miles Davis and Frank Sinatra and stuff and just putting some of my old favorites on there... TMBG, Bouncing Souls, Stelladeora, Owl City, Ben Folds
Or maybe just throw on Pandora radio!!

Hi David. Sorry for going off topic with Tangerine Dream. That is another thing although I appreciate you may be listening to and liking them too. They are a very classy form of electronic music. Interesting thing is they still are strong melody and chord wise. Their music is more complex than a lot of modern electronic music that is for sure.
 
I appreciate your Jazz situation too. Jazz can spoil you for melody over chords. It really is the ultimate art form in that regard. Way more complex than classical music even. If you listen to a lot of it then you tend to want to start writing that way.  I even studied a Jazz degree and immersed myself in it for 5 years and believe me I got into it. I studied it to learn the harmony not to be a Jazz musician at all.  My plan was to integrate Jazz and electronic music would you believe. Because these days most electronic music has zero harmony interest for me.  But many years later I am almost finding Jazz boring!! Hard to believe but true.
 
I think an important point here is really listen to what you like and really love and enjoy. No matter what that is. And pull it apart and work out why it is what it is. Become an expert on it. I have strayed a little myself and like I said in my first post, when I went to the Tangerine Dream concert it sort of hit me a bit thinking this is what I love and started doing back in 1980. Maybe I need to get back to it.  (or get back to the idea of bringing electronic music and Jazz harmony together)
 
If you are not sure what it is you love then you might have to listen to a lot of stuff until you get that internal emotional response. There is always some form of music that does something to us inside. This is hard to pin down now. Tangerine Dream certainly does it for me that is for sure.  They were seriously good live.
 

It's hard to say much after a brief exposure to Tangerine Dream.  You almost need to be exposed to each decade, or even each five years of their over 40+ years of playing.  They've changed their style SOOOOO much over that time and yet I like just about everything they've done. 

David I think you have done a great job incorporating things the way you have especially the Jazz big band groove thing you have got going in one of your songs. That is great.
 
In my second year I had to write a big band arrangement and they taught us for a year as to how to do it. I agonised for a year over the score and finally the parts. I can't believe people like Duke Ellington whipped this stuff out on the back of scrap paper in 5 minutes!  I locked myself away and listened to everything Duke Ellington had recorded.  I became a decent big band arranger very fast.  That is how you do it.  Any way I played drums in my own arrangement.  I nearly fell off my stool when they blasted into it.  I could not believe how loud they were!  It was pretty awesome hearing what I had written over a year in 5 minutes!  
 
But you could integrate something like that over a hip hop groove and even go into something like Tangerine Dream.  Drift into the Tangerine Dream sound with synths using Jazz harmony.  It is all about experimentation.
 
Craig I certainly don't know all of their albums. (Tangerine Dream of course) In fact I am a bit perplexed to the fact they have done over 135 and I am not sure if I am ever going to hear all of them.. I am reasonably knowledgeable over a long time and yes I agree they have changed.  But I am excited to say though that right now they are something else,.  I felt two styles in both gigs as well.  The first big gig had a definite feel to it musically.  Stunning actually.  Very busy, full on and different to previous things.  They did not do anything older music,  all new material.
 
The second gig though in the theatre was a bit different.  The movie soundtrack got into some very very cool drum feels and beats and things.  Slower too.  My son is a very serious Jazz drummer and very purist.  He is hanging with the best Jazz players here in Australia.  His gigs are something else too.  I took him to the second Tangerine Dream gig.  I was a little concerned as to what he was going to think of it all.  He had never heard the music before.  He loved the grooves and said they were very cool and very well orchestrated.  It was hard to believe they were doing it all live. 
 
They took longer to get into things, you heard much less for way longer.  The Japanese girl was very close and I could see how she was using TR8's and Novation Push to control stuff.  She had all the grooves programmed.  She was dropping stuff in and out in the grooves as well.  She dances against odd subdivisions while she does it too.  (meaning she liked to drop stuff in against odd sub divisions as well)  What was interesting was you often heard TR808 sounds but in a very unusual way rhythmically.  So they did not sound like TR808 sounds at all.  Their playing against all this rhythm was incredible and very interesting to watch.   Edgar had many roles.  Taking melodies,  sequenced riffs and pads as well.  The synths were fat!
No matter what synths they were using, the sounds all had a Tangerine Dream quality to them.  Edgar overpowers the synth with his own programming.  I could hear it all the time in the patches.