Inspiration can come from the most unlikely sources. And the train of thought that leads from one idea to the next is usually not linear. Today's burst of inspiration came from a conversation and a song. A dear friend of mine sent me a funny clip of a tiny dog choosing to jump in a hedge rather than descend the daunting looking stairs. I said, "That is an innovation dog if ever I saw one!" and she remarked that the dog was likely thinking "maybe that will work..."
I laughed. A lot. Because the dog was hilarious but also because...
My entire career is built on "maybe that will work..."
Later in the day while working on a presentation, a song came up on my playlist that made me take notice. It was Decepticon by Le Tigre. This is one of the happiest, high energy, pop influenced, synth beat tunes ever, fronted by a woman who used to be the poster child for the rrriot girl movement. As you can imagine, that caused a lot of dissent amongst die hard rrriot girl fans and critics. She took a big left turn, and they just did not get it.
There it was again. That idea. "Maybe this will work..."
In Le Tigre's case it did work. They churned out 3 albums and had a relative hit with 2004's TKO. They inspired me and countless others to try something different. I've always been particularly inspired by how they re-purposed instruments to suit their ideas, their sound. In the video below Johanna Fateman talks about using a drum machine typically used for hip hop tracks to make their pop punk classic. Enjoy!
WARNING: Inspiration and spontaneous dancing may occur while watching this video. Also, there may be swearing.