I have had amazing experiences playing with creativity on psychedelics, without actually intending to compose music or write songs.
I once spent an afternoon on acid basically meditating upon the nature and quality of the sound i could produce from my very nice guitar and amplifier.
I sat a few inches away from the speakers, just playing the same chord or series of notes repetitively.
It was daytime, in my tiny apartment - so my amp, a quadbox combo - was turned right down low, but was still emitting some really beautiful fuzzy, naturally overdriven sounds.
All totally 'organic' - not a digital effect in sight.
Some of the harmonics of the chords, as well as the warm sound of the valve amplifer and resonance of the guitar gave me clear 1 and extremely beautiful - synaesthetic visions.
I began messing around with this technique where i would play a barre chord, and in the split second after i had struck the strings, push the volume knob level down - then back up to full volume again, before the chord had even started ringing out.
It produced a really interesting effect (i no longer use stomp boxes or any other kinds of effects to manipulate the sound of my guitar - but when i got the timing right, it sounded really psychedelic).
The words that came to mind to describe this sound was that it was like "golden fleece" or "dripping golden light". Sort of shimmery, warm and...golden.
It sounds like a hallucination - which the synaesthesia undoubtedly was - but the effect was really interesting, and something i have been able to recreate and incorporate into my playing since.
The music i made that day was nothing much i would want to listen back to - it was repetitive and exploratory, rather than musically experimental.
It was like taking a microscope to the nature of the sound i create, and how i can use my guitar playing more expressively and evocatively.
Another sound i played with extensively that day was to create a tone that i felt perfectly evoked the feeling - and colour - of sunshine; specifically, sunshine late in the afternoon of a summer's day, as the light takes on a certain (again) golden quality.
It is actually a sound i have compared to sunshine before - certain notes harmonising in an overdriven, overheated valve amp, and rung out with a certain amount of subtle, controlled feedback.
I was far too disoriented to concentrate on composing music that day, but i had some really profound revelations about the nature - and feeling one can create with an instrument.
All the while, my friend sat on the floor next to my amp, occasionally meeting my eyes with a wide grin, or a "...wow" and a laugh.
It was an entertaining experience for both of us, i think - i love sonic experimentation and seeing what sort of bizarre sounds i can get out of my instruments - like "can i make this sound like a saxophone? Or a synthesizer?"
Definitely very trippy, and a really fun way to explore both the psychedelic mindset and the heightened senses of the LSD state, but not something i would ever find interesting to perform for other people who weren't (unlike me) tripping so hard that verbal communication was a waste of time.
But i learned some fascinating things about how to get my electric guitar to create unique sounds through my amplifier.
It is so much fun to play around with really nice musical equipment on acid - just like it is a euphoric experience for me to listen and dance to sounds being emitted from a large soundsystem on acid.
The sound is so heightened, it is simply divine!
