Every artist is intimately involved with her medium. An oil painter will create vastly different work than a sculptor or a pianist simply due to the nature of the tools at her disposal. In the most concrete of ways, art is defined, limited and inspired by its tools of communication.
When musicians make recordings, it is easy to get caught up in the wonders of the medium - I can pan this hard left for a cool effect...what if I distort this?...I can layer twenty violins to make a haunting pseudo-orchestra...etc.
This is a classic example of not seeing the forest for the trees. We can get intoxicated by the capabilities of our immediate medium and lose track of the bigger picture. Am I communicating effectively? Is my message clear? And most importantly - is my message worth paying attention to?
Every medium has its own quirks, limitations and opportunities, but it remains only a medium of expression. We must transcend our media by communicating messages that are gripping. When we create a compelling work, the audience sees the work and not the medium.
