Are Ghost Collaborators for Real?

First of all,

You don't need a collaborator

• Did John Lennon need to collaborate with Paul McCartney?
• Did Jimmy Page need John Bonham to create Stairway to Heaven?
• Did Michael Jackson need Quincy Jones to create the beats?

I'm sure, with enough practice, all of these people could have written, recorded, and produced every part, on every track without a collaborator.

If that's true, then why didn't they just do it alone?

Because when you collaborate, you

Get better results . . . faster

It's hard collaborating with other people (especially other artists) and being an introvert makes it even harder.

That's why a lot of musicians work alone.

If that's true, then why didn't you use a collaborator?

I didn't want a collaborator

When I created Intergalactic Highway I did everything myself.

It took me over 25 years of hard work to build the skills to do everything.

But let's be honest here. I didn't really do everything.

• I didn't write the music software (DAW)
• I tweaked the patches but I didn't create the synths from scratch
• I didn't record the drum samples, I purchased them and built my own midi kit
• I didn't create the planet graphic on the album cover
• I didn't create the fonts from scratch
• I didn't manufacture the compact discs, or the cases
• I didn't build the guitars, the guitar strings, the keyboards, etc.

I think you get the picture, but have I gone too far?

Because I have a question for you:

Where do You draw the line?

For me it was all the things I listed above. But does that make me better than anyone else?

Does that make me better than Jimmy Page?

Elton John didn't write his lyrics. Does that mean he's not great? Does it really matter? If the results are great does it really matter if Elton wrote the lyrics?

Because I've got news for you (and it took me a long time to learn this):

Nobody cares if you did it all yourself or not.

This is where a lot of people say, "But I would care". Then good, go do it all yourself, like I did.

But it doesn't matter how you create your art, only the result matters. Is it good or not? That's the only thing anybody cares about (even you).

We all love music and I think you would agree that we are in a musical dark-age right now. I want better music. The fact is we're all in this together. The way to make better music is to have more patterns either in your head, or available in tools for composers to have access to, because everyone is using the same chord progression (IV, etc), the same scales, the same beats, etc. We need more variety and that's what I'm working towards, giving you more variety.