Creativity Quote by Daisy Berkowitz

Berkowitz is warning against a very specific kind of sonic cosplay: the moment an effect stops being an expansion of the instrument and becomes an impersonation of something else. Her phrasing is blunt on purpose. “Too much like a synth” isn’t a compliment here; it’s the line where experimentation turns into ventriloquism. The punch is in the repetition of “sound like” - a subtle jab at players who chase texture so hard they forget identity. You’re not discovering a new voice; you’re outsourcing your part to a different instrument’s stereotype.

The subtext is about authenticity, but not in the corny “real instruments” sense. It’s about authorship. A guitar part played on a synth implies the underlying idea is still guitar-centric: chord shapes, phrasing, attack, predictable voicings. You can change the timbre all you want, but if the musical thinking doesn’t shift, the result reads as a costume. In a culture where gear can be a personality and presets can be a shortcut to “modern,” Berkowitz is basically saying: the ear can tell when you’re borrowing a future you didn’t earn.

Contextually, this lands in the long post-’80s shadow where guitars have alternated between fighting synths and trying to absorb them - from grunge’s backlash to shoegaze’s pedalboard-as-orchestra arms race. Berkowitz’s intent is practical and aesthetic: let the guitar be transformed, not replaced. The best hybrid tones don’t mimic; they mutate.