"While I'm quite happy and love doing the atmospheric and quirky stuff, the melodic stuff, I've done quite a lot of. It's also another reason why I try not to do two or three at the same time"
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Rabin is quietly revealing the producer-brain behind the guitarist reputation: range is fun, but brand management is survival. He frames “atmospheric and quirky” as a genuine appetite, not a midlife detour, then immediately admits the gravitational pull of what he’s already known for: “the melodic stuff, I’ve done quite a lot of.” That split is the modern musician’s dilemma in miniature. The public wants both familiarity and growth, but it tends to punish artists who deliver them simultaneously, reading versatility as indecision.
The key move is the practical restraint at the end: he tries not to do “two or three at the same time.” On the surface it’s workflow advice, the kind any composer gives when juggling cues or albums. Underneath, it’s about protecting the listener’s narrative. Rabin’s career (Yes, film scoring, session work) sits at the crossroads where music becomes identity: melodic guitar hero on one axis, texture-and-mood craftsman on the other. Doing multiple modes at once risks diluting the signal, confusing collaborators, and inviting critics to call a coherent palette “scattershot.”
There’s also a subtle resistance to the culture of constant output. The industry rewards multitasking, but Rabin suggests that aesthetic integrity requires sequencing: let one language finish its sentence before starting another. It’s not a plea to be boxed in; it’s an argument that switching dialects too fast can make even good ideas sound like demos.
The key move is the practical restraint at the end: he tries not to do “two or three at the same time.” On the surface it’s workflow advice, the kind any composer gives when juggling cues or albums. Underneath, it’s about protecting the listener’s narrative. Rabin’s career (Yes, film scoring, session work) sits at the crossroads where music becomes identity: melodic guitar hero on one axis, texture-and-mood craftsman on the other. Doing multiple modes at once risks diluting the signal, confusing collaborators, and inviting critics to call a coherent palette “scattershot.”
There’s also a subtle resistance to the culture of constant output. The industry rewards multitasking, but Rabin suggests that aesthetic integrity requires sequencing: let one language finish its sentence before starting another. It’s not a plea to be boxed in; it’s an argument that switching dialects too fast can make even good ideas sound like demos.
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| Topic | Music |
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