you still think that thinking is all you thought it was?
when it comes to creativity your brain is a double-agent and its best to just ignore it.
putting the new in normal
On the FODR EP there’s a song called ‘New Normal’. Every-time that song is rehearsed, performed, or even when that song was recorded - i’m making the lyrics up on the spot. Every-time.
It has become my favourite part of the set - freeing, exhilarating and fulfilling. Each night I trust that when I lean into the microphone it will all be ok.
Spoiler: it’s always ok. Because your brain is really not helping you as much as you would like to believe.
For example here is the unreleased / unheard version that didn’t make it on to the EP FODR - New Normal (Timothée Chalamet Version)
D.O.T.S (don’t over think shit) by K.B (kenneth beats)
It’s tempting to write it off as some kind of retrospective justification of his own success - but in this case I really think Kenny is on to something.
Pouring over lyrics, fine-tuning, obsessing over the details, pre-judging the quality - these are things I was (and occasionally still am) trapped in. Lost in the weeds until Im so frustrated I start something new before finishing the old.
Maybe you think that your attention to detail or time spent on your work is where the quality comes from. Wrong.
Research shows our sub-conscious drives almost all of our decisions, creative or otherwise. Our brains, our thinking minds - our consciousness - is really just an excellent sense maker and justification machine - allowing us to think we are in control of our actions when we kind of aren’t.
We are closer to a tiny rider on a gigantic elephant - the elephant wanders this way and that and we tell ourselves that we are choosing the direction when in reality we mere passengers with an ego.
Creative decisions flow within you - your brain is just taking the credit!
If you haven’t watched Kenny’s series The Cave you’ve missed out on some truly entertaining and at times unhinged music content that is truly worth a watch - I love this episode featuring Denzel Curry. They also made this wicked collab album together.
tasty art: ingredients = idea(s) method = try not to fuck up.
Acting instinctively is its own practice. Speed, openness, creativity - these are the things that get you to the finishing line quicker. And finishing is the real practice.
(Over)thinking puts the horse before the cart.
Let’s say the initial set of ideas - the core - is already there. Thats probably 80% (or more) of the song is done. Does it make sense to spend precious time, draining your energy and enthusiasm on things that are adding just 5% here and 3% there?
The answer is it might make sense to spend 30 mins. It might not make sense to spend 3 months.
Finishing creative work is a race. You’ve got to get everything you need done in whatever time it takes you to get bored / frustrated with the work itself - lest you risk killing your enthusiasm and murdering all chances of the work getting finished dead.
I both wrote and edited this newsletter to HÖR sets which I’m currently obsessed with and for some reason Im totally fine with big energy dance tracks blasting no matter the hour.
fear is the mind killer
It’s scary to trust your creative instinct, to commit publicly to the first thing that comes out. But what is actually scary about it? Fear of judgement.
That fear is most commonly an internalised pressure from external sources. Peers, streaming numbers, social status, managers.
I haven’t seen much evidence for the advantage of considering reception / external judgement at any point in the creative process. I have however seen it fuck the process over time and time again.
Art thrives with positive spaces for each part of your creative process and the experience to know when to move on from one to the other.
That practice can only be put in place with doing - a lot of doing. This will result in fuck-ups and yes - you may make and put out some questionable shit. But at least you finished it and actually figured out what doesn’t work.
This will get you closer to what does work much quicker.
Another one of my favourite music content series online is ‘Show Us Your Junk’ made by guitar pedal company Earthquaker Devices. Each episode follows a producer / musician through their studio exploring all their gear and giving insights on their music making progress - this one featuring The Beths is absolute gold!
keep it simple [name redacted]
Start an anonymous side project and just create and dump everything there. It doesn’t matter where it ends up as long as it’s finished and shared.
Art is about trust - trusting that your instinctive ideas ARE GOOD and building that trust by proving it over and over to yourself.
That is the way forward in practice - stop overthinking. Just do!