i listen to my own music a pretty good deal.
sometimes i think this is weird, sometimes i think it's an important part of the learning curve. Particularly live shows which i almost always listen to all the way through the next day.

i've heard artist say they never listen to their own music, and i've heard of one artist ONLY listening to his own music for months (prince?)


anyway, what do you do?

Masturbation feels good.
I listen.
Because I like it.

I listen to it after it has been recorded. Since I tend to fund my own recordings I play along with it to come up with other parts, guitar or vocal. But, I hate listening to it for "pleasure". I compare it to trying to hear your own accent. I tend to be so judgmental of my music that I cannot tell how it is perceived by other people.

It is like this twisted cycle. I can't tell what it sounds like. I am so nitpicky with the mixing and the vocal quality that I am often turned off when people tell me that the music is good. I feel like they're just being polite, even if I don't know them.

I have to listen to it though. I can't just act like I didn't record it. It seems kind of arrogant to be like, "I don't listen to my stuff". It just seems really full of ones self. I have to listen so I can try to make it better.

i record lots of freestyle songs. When i listen to those it's a little more like listening to someone elses music because i have no idea what i'm going to be singing next.

I really enjoy listening to new material after it's been recorded for a few weeks. It's like when you build a cabinet or a bookcase or something. You keep coming back into the room to admire it (and torment yourself with things you would have done differently).

I bet Stephen Merritt only listens to his own stuff.

i listen on random (some of my stuff's recorded & in my mp3 dir). when it comes on at work i usually skip out of embarassment.

Just for a little bit. But after playing the songs over and over, the records sound tenative to me and kinda disappoint in a self-loathing perfectionist kind of way.

I listen to my own stuff all the time. I always find it fascinating to listen to something and think that I created it. It's a guilty pleasure in a way becuase I listen to it all the time. The interesting thing is that on some of my stuff I have no Idea what i'm playing either becuase I recorded it so long ago or becuase most of it was made up on the spot. Plus listening to my own stuff is an ego trip becuase it all sounds really good to me.

Also, hearing stuff for a long time on pro studio speakers and then moving to regular mortal stereo equpiment is always a letdown.

audio dudes will probably argue with me, but i think expensive studio monitors are a waste of money for that very reason.

Depends on the monitors. If they hide things that become apparent on other "lesser" stereos, it doesn't do you any good.

If they give an even response to let you make your recording sound as good as possible on any stereo, than you really can't afford to not have them and use them.

That's what expensive monitors should do, give you an honest playback of your performances and mixes.

And there's no way to answer this thread without looking like a jackass douchebag, regardless of whether you listen or don't listen to your own stuff.

Yes, but it freaks me out. Every time.

If it comes up on my iPod, I immediately skip it.

Blah. It's worse if you can't sing, though.

Sometimes, I stare at my poo in the toilet for longer than 30 seconds.

I never really recorded anything proper while I actually sang with people during college, but I always felt weird about hearing my voice on demo stuff we recorded at my friend's house.
I think I could handle being more critical of myself rather than when a friend has asked me to listen to their album or demo. I always feel like a real dick when it isn't that good or when it isn't really my style.

I stopped making it, but I still really enjoy listening to that which.

I listen to my own stuff all the time, especially recently.

i look at my own art.
its a means of attempting to make myself like it.

I don't know about you, but I would be mighty upset if I couldn't listen to "Freaky" on a every-few-days basis...

Rock the boat, don't sink the ship...

Yeah...I dunno. Sometimes I'm delighted to find that I still like something that inspired me and actually worked, but most of the time, I listen with a very critical ear. So listening to the Bon Savs album is torture for me.

But I really like listening back to demos. That's a fun process. It's like, one of the only times I can be creative about music when I'm not near any musical instruments.

Not a musician but with my old college radio shows I did, they are great to listen to in retrospect, but I hated to when I was actually doing them.

It is hard to listen to my own stuff, I am overly analytical and tend to focus on bass as opposed to how it fits into a song. And it is also where I can see where I need improvement.