Don't worry, it's all good! Happy to answer your burning questions~
As of right now, the stuff that's inspired me the most to make stuff outside of metal has been the soundtracks for the Tokyo Ghoul anime, and the soundtrack for Nier: Automata. If it's not obvious by now, I really vibe with somber reverb-heavy soundscapes that utilize both electronic and orchestral elements. Couldn't tell ya why, but there's a satisfying feeling attached to these for me.. it's like all the pieces click together in such a way that I can't help but feel happy for the composers. They had a feeling they wanted to evoke and they did it successfully! Makes me wish I could successfully do that for my own stuff
So, first things first, I try to find a mood and general tempo I wanna go with. My default is usually "sad, 100-130 bpm" and from there, I try to write melodies and basic chord progressions on keyboard. Sort of like a pencil sketch, just a rough idea to work around. I approach melodies by means of writing them as if they were questions and answers. Beats and effects usually follow to make stuff sound more whole. For dynamics, I tend to go simple and minimal if it's meant to be quiet, heavily layered if meant to be loud. Narrative never crosses my mind unless it's for a story I'm writing. So, if a song comes across feeling like there's a story I had in my head, chances are.. I felt like the song was leaning too much in one way while writing it. I needed to change up the flow somehow lol
As for my story.. Well, it's sorta in the air rn lol idk if I wanna continue it rn, I can already see the comments calling it a Chainsaw Man ripoff, I swear Anyways- I have written music for it! Kurogane Project Demos and a separate project, WDD Demos. And almost none of it lives up to my standards anymore lmao I've been wanting to remake these demos for a while now.. if this comic idea actually gets off the ground, a soundtrack will be made for it, best believe that
As far as I'm aware of.. nope. No one's really in it for the fun of engaging with a community unless they're interacting a Youtuber's community event, but even then.. Everyone seems to wanna just selfishly improve their craft and promote their music wherever possible. Like I get it, music serious, only want money and an audience but if I had to make a guess.. I'd assume that sort of community you're asking about exists somewhere on TikTok?? People there seem to be unhinged enough to not care too deeply about it lmao
For now.. nay. I- I wouldn't know where to begin lmao 12-TET is all I know, and microtones scare me. Lord knows I'm bad enough with regular music theory as is but thanks for the compliments! I've been wanting to start doing commission work for the longest time now but damn, I've been so caught up in a lot of other stuff this past year, it felt like I wouldn't be able to deliver on time or make anything good under time constraints soon as I get my life under control, I'll be offering up my services wherever I can lol
Happy to show, yes! I just finished writing up the lyrics for a recent project I had, an entire redo of my Seasonal EP. So, here's the songs and their lyrics!
It's funny you mention it, I've been getting back into writing lyrics after such a long time. I remember at a certain point it felt like I was sort of repeating myself on how I felt about life and whatever, so I made a deliberate choice to come up with stories for each finished song. Back then, the Seasonal EP was where that idea shined the most, each song focused on separate characters dealing with their own personal struggles while briefly relating to the scenery surrounding them. I lost the file for it a long time ago, so I've been rewriting it lol and it turned way better than the old lyrics I managed to remember so yayyy hopefully this translates well for more remade music of mine
And that's that! Thanks for questions! It was fun answering these