Back in the late 90′s I bought a Line6 DL-4 and was promptly introduced to the wonderful world of looping. The idea of recording loops on the fly and using them to accompany myself seemed very enticing, especially since I was band-less at the time.

Soon, ideas came to life and I started to work on what would eventually become my first album, Wood. At the same time, I was starting to run into limitations within looping: I was constantly having to compromise my muse in order to be able to play the music with a looper.

At first, I thought the answer was to get a bigger device with more options and buttons, and thus, I bought the now defunct Electrix Repeater. I could now have many loops at the same time, and mangle them in all sorts of fun ways. But eventually I ran into the same wall: the device was limiting my compositional choices.

So I got tired of the whole thing, sold my Repeater, and finished Wood without worrying about being able to play it live. I then entered a renassaince of unbridled creativity…sort of.

Fast-forward seven years later, and a funny thing happened. I was working on a tune for solo guitar, and I was trying to play a melody over a repeating riff. It proved way too difficult to play, so the obvious solution was to loop the riff.

So I plugged my Boss Giga-Delay and did just that. And soon, other uses for it where popping up in other songs. The difference now, is that instead of turning on the looper and seeing what I come up with, I’m letting the music dictate when and where I should use the looper. The results are way more integrated and organic, and I don’t feel like I am compromising anything.

Now, the Giga-Delay is a very basic looper, and when you stop the loop, it’s gone. Forever. So I naturally started thinking about upgrading, and all the cool things I could do with a better looper.

But I stopped myself, because if there’s something I’ve learned from all this, it’s that I shouldn’t buy a toy based on what I could do with all its new features. Rather, I should get it because the music is asking for something, and that toy does exactly what is needed. (Maybe I should’ve called this piece “How I Beat G.A.S.“)

So my Giga-Delay is doing just fine. I’m actually having fun finding how much I can squeeze out of it. I imagine I’ll eventually buy a bigger and badder looper, but if I do, It’ll only be because the music asks for it.

Case in point, I have a little tune called “Mountain Song.” Not that I don’t like it, but let’s just say I never thought it to be much of a stand-out.

Well, in the last year or so, it’s been one of the most listened tunes of mine on Last.fm. And just now, it won the #1 spot in its category at Ourstage.

This really caught me by surprise and I started listening to the song with new ears. Like I said, it’s not that I didn’t like it, I just thought it wasn’t my best work. Now I realize it actually has a really good melody and is in fact quite catchy. It’s also straight-to-the-point with no filler; something I appreciate a lot more now than I did back when I wrote it.

So in the end, all we can do as composers is try our best and get the music out there. After that, it’s up to the audience to decide what they like and what they don’t like.