Bing & Ruth get Meta

A conversation with myself about nothing ...

David (1): OK David we’re sitting at the airport and have an hour to kill so I think it’s time we had a conversation about something you generally try to avoid.
David (2): That year in high school I was really into the band Phish?

David (1): No no, I mean, I’d like to ask you to tell me about anything that’s inspiring you these days.
David (2): Why?

David (1): Well there is this website called The Line of Best Fit and they have this feature called ‘Reference Points' where they want you to talk about something that inspires you.
David (2): Gotcha

David (1): Well?
David (2): Like musically?

David (1): Anything really
David (2): Well, I’m not really listening to much music these days, so that’s probably out

David (1): Fair enough
David (2): I generally try to avoid being out in public too, so tough to say if any cultural inspiration has wormed its way in. Probably not.

David (1): Nothing?
David (2): I’ll put it like this, I’d say 90% of the time I spend thinking about “culture” I just spend trying to decide if I like that Cardi B song

David (1): Bodak Yellow?
David (2): Yea

David (1): Any conclusions?
David (2): I’m sitting at a firm yes right now, but that seems to fluctuate week to week

David (1): What about non-musical things? Any acts or rituals that you find inspiring your work? Movies? Video games? Food?
David (2): My work?

David (1): Yea, like, what you do when you sit at the piano.
David (2): Nothing comes to mind

David (1): So you don’t have any inspiration? That’s bullshit.
David (2): What I mean by that is that literally nothing comes to mind when I sit to play. I try to clear my head of any and all thoughts. If I can manage to do that then I know I’m in a good place to do a show or write a song

David (1): So like a meditation?
David (2): I guess, if you want to call it that

David (1): So your inspiration is nothing. As in, the absence of anything.
David (2): Exactly. If music is a language, and I really believe that it is, it’s very difficult to perform in one language and think in another simultaneously. So I generally find it necessary to fall completely into the playing. To turn off any conscious thought that may fly by. That emptiness is what inspires me the most.

David (1): Sounds like some kind of zen thing
David (2): I prefer to think of it more as a trance

David (1): Honestly it kind of sounds like you’re avoiding the question
David (2): Does it?

David (1): Yea
David (2): How so?

David (1): Well, “nothing” is nothing really. It’s not an inspiration. It’s nothing.
David (2): Maybe this whole thing is meta

David (1): You always pull this shit
David (2): ...