Music can trigger associations of learned cultural patterns, elements, and ideas, and our brains are finetuned to detect these patterns. Music & auditory perception itself is rooted in our brains predictive systems and pattern recognition abilities. It is in our nature to categorize our environment, to differentiate danger and sources of comfort. I like to be as aware as possible of these patterns so I can manipulate them and thus create a balance of known and unknown, of familiarity and strangeness. In this sense my artistic process is very analytical, involving the study of historical and emerging genres, tracing geneologies of musical patterns, and taking note of the broad spectrum of musical thought and history.
When it comes to writing music after research and analysis (which mostly follows whatever I happen to be interested) I like to rely on intuition to guide decisions and improvise ideas with keyboard, following these associations and patterns in my head or otherwise subverting them. I believe that interesting contrasts and subversions can create powerful emotional affects, and colliding disparate genres, moods, soundscapes, etc. can yield inspiring ideas. It is a process rooted in experimentation, exploration, and extremes.
I think a very helpful tool is learning how to improvise on an instrument like piano. It allows you to explore ideas efficiently but also internalize these melodic manifestations of culture. Learning your favorite melodies & chord progressions helps you internalize those ideas that resonate with you, and if it resonates with you, it will resonate with others. It all emerges from the patterns we grow and live in, and we all contribute to the development of culture by our daily interactions, what we choose to consume, what we buy, what we talk about, how we talk about it- our daily lives are creation and remixing.
Emotionally, I think what I generally want to invoke is the feeling of living in this 'information age', and the urge I have to want to make sense of the relentless onslaught of data, ideas, experiences, to try to find some meaning within the chaos and unpredictability of life. I think I find some comfort in exploring/learning how human thought converges on these cultural patterns and aesthetic experiences, and I start to feel much more connected to the living process and seaseless activity of humanity.