How to make Musical Flamethrowers Furby Organ + Strategic Procrastination | Sam Battle | TEDxOdense

[Music] [Music] hello are you doing my name's Sam I'm a musician I write songs you know I'm talking about I write songs for me I write songs for other people that's kind of like what I do on a day-to-day basis near enough you know you can imagine that you're sitting there playing guitar I don't want to play guitar today I'm gonna put that down I'm gonna play on a keyboard but the problem is I'm a massive procrastinator all right I don't know do you know what procrastination is here right across the nation but you end up if you think you're a procrastinator well that's some of you people aren't honest well that's the thing some people aren't honesty because I mean unless you've got your discipline down to a tee procrastination can sometimes take over your life but it's how you work with this procrastination okay but let's place our scenario so like oh that's the first third that's my logo but I didn't procrastinate from that but you just sit down you're on a keyboard you like I'm gonna write this song you know it's gonna be good I'm gonna write it for like try and try and get it to share you know but you like you know what this keyboard could do with hmm I know why don't we give it some Furbys I don't know I just say like my mind went off on a tangent and then I ended up making a Furby organ this is it sounds like what it looks like basically yeah so so hair for charity it's like but like basic alright the problem is is I just can't stop myself when I've got this idea and I've got this really important thing that I've got to do like I'm just not gonna do that I'm gonna do that like let's just get to another scenario here you jump on a keyboard you like I'm gonna write a song I'm gonna make it Beatles style you know it's gonna be like a Beatles meets beat Beethoven you know but like you like you know what this keyboard needs flamethrowers that's right I've made a flame from an organ it's another keyboard but instead of so imagine like you've got a church organ yeah but instead of gas going through the pipes below you've got flammable gas and then at the end of the flammable gas it gets ignited and it goes up it kind of sounds like Henry not Henry the Hoover what's that what's that Thomas the Tank Engine sort of sounds like Thomas the Tank Engine it looks better than it sounds I could promise you that but the thing is with that one actually is like I had the idea and I'd never work with gas or anything like that fire was something that I'd never done I was quite nervous at trying it but there was just I had a tunnel vision I was like I don't need to do this and then mmm I found out that my mum and dad were going on holiday yeah and their house was completely free like for two whole weeks two whole weeks so I I got in my car with a load of tools I just drove over to where they live which is about two or three hours away stopped didn't tell them I was like how you doing is everything okay you were right I was like yeah I've had a great time in my home just chilling but no no I was not chilling I was on their driveway kind of doing tests and I had them organ pipes yeah and the problem with organ pipes is they're like a tin led composite don't eat it you'll get lead poisoning it's dangerous stuff but like the problem with it is I found you put putt you put you put gas through it it works for a couple of seconds ago but then it starts melting and it goes like and it's just like they went blue look really sad and it was like a sad church organ poor thing so like so then I decided I needed to think of another plan Plan B that that's the wrong way be round it doesn't matter I'm going off on a tangent but like so I decided to go to the local plumbing shop and just get loaded copper pipe it wasn't very cheap but I needed to do it and you know it just had to happen but basically that was made from everything from my local plumbers shop so if you want to make a flame for our organ and you have no knowledge in gas or anything it's fine just look it up on YouTube and you find just just just be careful though be very safe take precautions and don't blame me please god I know like for instance I've made all this is itchy spinners like I remember I was posting the package in the earth in the post office know as ice you know I'm gonna do there was next to me there was a load of fitted spinners you know the new craze of the kids you know they love these fidget spinners yeah okay I'll get one I'm gonna make a musical instruments it's just that I love it I just made a little thing but this is one of many I kind of make a youtube video every week on like an idea of plenty of I a big list and it's just whatever the folk whatever the fudge you know I want to do next oh there we go this one is called the flames in-your-face 5000 see all that stuff they're like so this is a module if you can't tell after I learn how to do the flame throwing thing I kind of decided to do it a bit more it's like really fun but like all of that stuff around it is a modular synthesizer that I've built over the last three or four years this is the kind of thing that I use and I tall with so instead of using a computer to make electronic sort of electronic music I decided to spend a long time learning how to make it how it used to be made like analog synthesizers and then drive it around Europe in my van and play gigs with it it's totally totally you like it's you could just using the computer but you know it's just not fun and this sounds a lot better I think but I take that on tour I don't take the flamethrower because it's the flames in your face on I like my eyebrows you know then and then oh is another flame one this one isn't musical but that's the Hoover hey he's a friend from you never noticed that so instead of Henry the Hoover sucking up all of the dust it's just gonna blitter a the house hold chores down to a fine black dust on the floor that's it but you know so not everything just whatever my tangents take me I just like let's try this and then I've also built sit a lot of these this is a synthesizer bike a synth bike and basically what it is is you ride around and it's got everything you need to make a song on it like a drum machine a synthesizer Galba do it it's even got a foghorn it's like in in between the wheels you're pedaling along and how quick you dry how quick your pedal is how quick the song goes it's pretty cool but I've built a few of those that is just um one that's simple since bike two out of four or five now but like um yeah and then so that's just a little bit of what I do it's a lot of many I do a lot of machines I just think it's fun to be able to do things but like I mean I by the way I've got my note somewhere I'm I'm just double checking but the thing is is like the let's get back to the thing I'm supposed to be writing songs here and like I was like I need to write songs why have I ended up just doing all of this stuff and I was like I'm not very prude I wasn't a very productive person and then I found out that if I had a really important job that I needed to do and I was by myself I would do I would just for some reason my brain would just do something else but loads like tunnel vision on this certain thing and I call it something now because I'm turning into something and if anybody is stuck with this issue think of put this in the back of your head strategic procrastination yeah think about that for a second yeah you can make it work you can make it work for you you can make this lovely procrastinating that you have as long as it's productive in some way shape or form just don't stop yourself from doing it you know if it's you if you have an essay to do screw that I say if you really want to do this thing and you think it's gonna do well and you you're just gonna just do it whatever but don't listen to me if it'll guys but I can but the thing is is it worked for me because I my mind this this thing in this noggin I've got a dreadful brain it's really crap I got to say it's like I've been gifted with a fuzzy noisy absolutely useless thing inside this you know calcium box of calcium stuff but like I just I can't focus on anything I wake up and I'm like what am I gonna do today it's like is anybody got that like am I the only one please say everybody else has but everybody's brain is different right and like I need to I feel that everybody needs to kind of mother the last like five years of my life was spent was trying to figure out how to make my brain and how it's rubbish this how I can make it work in my favor how does this noisy stuff work well luckily I found like and there's little in the noise there's like you kind of tune in and you get these really focus little chunks dislike weird like obsessive parts inside your brain even like I need to use those I've got no choice but to go down there or I'm just gonna be dancing around like a like a noise thing that's my as far as a ballerina up probably yeah I wouldn't be a very good one but but like you just gotta focus in and hone in on this and just let your brain go crazy by the way I've procrastinated so much that I started writing this talk on the train here I was trying to but there was another aspect to holding off these large things these jobs that were still creative and I still needed to do these regardless like write these songs and stuff that I need to write and these things like creative and it's like I was trying to work out why I was trying to hold them off so much why am I trying to hold off creative endeavors it's like ah that's it it is the fear of it being crap like that is it like the reason why I'm not going into play that's right that song is I'm scared it's not going to be very good well I'm not gonna do anything because of the fear of failure which is and the fear of the unknown which is really dangerous and annoying trait to like cycle to get into instead of putting so much importance on to it that it's the important job and you're anxious about it you do the bit that you're not anxious about which is probably just as creative but you're not thinking of it is such an important entity really so you like but that's but now I've like got this mantra for my youtube channel it's at the end of the videos it says don't be scared to try it and so out of context I have context it sounds a bit weird but in context it's like it's it's it really works because like you if you want to do something and you want to do something creative are you just sitting there like this is - no aunty Mindy she's like I'm gonna so one day I'm gonna sew a really really really flamboyant scarf this is our armchair by the way and I am I'm gonna saw a really flamboyant scarf but don't do it a subject's objective reasoning inside a brain it's like oh no you could just put it off you could just put off but she's scared that she's gonna be rubbish I that's the fact so she needs to dive in and be like I'm not scared to try this and I'm gonna make this flamboyant stuff and I'm gonna give it to my nephew and for Christmas and they're gonna wear it and then never wear it again you know but it's like the mantra of don't be scared to try it even if you want to make a really flamboyant staff and your name's Mindy is it oh my god of be procrastinating I didn't realize I was talking for so long and I've even started to do my thing basically I was supposed to be you know I was supposed to be making these tin full pair of pants but I've been mumbling for so long so basically what I was going to do is that right here I've got this machine they're built and it's called a fart box basically this is a very complicated piece of equipment that I spent and designed and it's devoted to making fart noises listen to that that is pure 1960s design and you know analog circuitry design completely put into oh it's got like sayings like vindaloo mode for a second I know I know vindaloo mode doesn't work like it depends how dry if you've got dry diet or a really wet tire it's a shame I can do that because I run out of time but this is why you should not procrastinate but I'll tell you why I don't know know what so I said the thing is I was progressing in from that but this is where it all boils down to ladies and gentlemen is I was procrastinating from this talk I planned to write this talk about two weeks ago and I was like I'm gonna pulled it off all the time allocated I decided to make something and this was my procrastination in this box so I'll show you it yeah it's a portable photo it's a portable Furby organ right so this thing has taken up all the time and like literally I like it was like I'm gonna it took a lot longer than I was expecting I literally finished this yesterday and the paint was still wet when I was getting on the plane it kind of rubbed the paint off on the plane seat but if I turn them on and I'm gonna turn it up oh is he coming out oh no I haven't put them in sorry [Music] I got plugging in one sec Arun II I'm gonna wake him up again [Music] [Applause] [Music] the thing is that these burpees there will be modified to actually talk a note each so they're freezing like their vocabularies going crazy so [Music] ah that's what Fabio Gurgel stay passive thing [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] if you want to play [Applause] [Music] [Applause] what [Applause] and the fact that you really did get all of this onto a real airplane is just amazing they didn't even ask us security they will open up new [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 87,408

Rating: 4.9524994 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Art, Creativity, Humor, Music (performance), Music (topic), Productivity

Id: 4SAGYo-B8Ws

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2019