When making music, do you block reality out or do you use it?

[Mac of BIOnighT]

Does reality (meaning the environment around you, your personal problems, the experiences you are going through etc) always influence what you are recording or can you block it out and record music as if you were in another world? Or perhaps you even use reality and turn it into music?

[MetaDronos]

My tracks are created "beyond reality" and sometimes even against it.
Except tracks for One Sample Dare Challenge, when sometimes I'm forced to use sound samples from physical world ;)

[Thought Experiment]

I suppose it's impossible not to be subconciously affected by whatever's going on around you, but apart from that the last time I made a track in direct response to reality was two years ago!! This was when Hubert Sumlin died - he was one of the true trailblazers of electric guitar, he played like nobody else played, and it just seemed like the end of an era. Like most guitarists of a certain age, the blues is close to my heart. I picked up a guitar, and the main riff just came from ...somewhere... so I clicked 'Record' and just played this piece, once, warts and all...
I won't put a link but if anyone's interested it's on my Soundcloud page and it's called 'That Train's Gone'

[Zach Zinn]

I try to focus, which usually isn't too hard, but I figure whatever is going on makes it's way into what i'm doing, I'd rather use it as material than try to block it out.

[GaryG]

I'd rather use it as material than try to block it out.

Same here.

I've tried to make... 'escapist'(?) music but it always seems kind of hollow and plastic. I'm only ever happy with music that feels like something of me is in there (however abstract that may be).

[Guest]

can't say I'm that good at blocking out the world around me - but musically I normally make stuff from the starting point of a strong and distinct idea or reason that is often formal (eg think of a real landscape horizon and play a single pitch on guitar, bending it to follow the horizon line. Repeat multiple times starting at random places on the guitar, trying to follow the previous take. That led to https://soundcloud.com/greghooper/horizon Now how that fits into a 'block or not ' I really don't know)

[seismic1]

I like to think that I am independent of the events/environment surrounding me when I compose a new piece of music, but I know it isn't so. All sorts of influence seepage takes place, much of it subconscious/automatic. I can usually recognise it later on, (sometimes much later).

When my father passed away at the beginning of the year, I was working on a piece of upbeat electro (Critical Mass). I was having trouble getting the right sound/feel from the track. A few weeks later, I broke the track in half and inserted a downtempo near-ambient section. The new addition was a direct reaction to recent events, and I knew it even as I was putting the section together. I also knew that what I was adding to the track was a complete style clash with existing parts and flew in the face of common sense. Strangely, it seemed to work out quite well.

[Kyoga]

Reality is something I try and look at but then recreate in my own image and my own view of how it all works. The soundscapes I create are typically with the intent to be like a window into my mind and what I tend to feel and aspire to as a producer. It's all emotional stuff, usually...