Throw darts 🎯 🎶

Music takes time to create. We shouldn’t take that privilege lightly.

In fact, the best artists are the ones who pour as much of themselves into their work as possible. The connection between the artist and their medium (whether music, sculpture, writing, etc.) should feel like a direct, wired link, free from any obstacle or filter. And the work should reflect that artist’s unique voice as much as possible.

But does that mean it needs to feel like pulling teeth? Does that mean our art needs to be perfect?

Absolutely not.

I work almost exclusively with fresh, independent artists making their transition from passion to career. And one thing that I’ve noticed that tends to be a common thread with these creatives is the conflation of energy expenditure and quality of work.

Let me explain: when we start to consider that our art could have any sort of monetary value in a marketplace, the imposter syndrome kicks in. “What makes me so special that I think I deserve to put a number value on my work?”

It can be terrifying and can trigger so many self-worth questions. Not because we don’t believe that artists should be able to make money (although there may be some purists who would make that argument), but because it’s so easy to undervalue ourselves and our creative instincts.

The sensitivity that has allowed us to refine our respective crafts over the years can start to work against us, especially when we know we have so much to learn still.

So how do I see people in this position respond?

The same way I did: by attempting to seize the reins of the artistic process and control every possible outcome. By perpetually editing or refining their work. By obsessing over one work to “perfect” it, while neglecting new ideas for new works as they present themselves.

This is why so many sophomore albums struggle to be as compelling as the debut project. All of a sudden, suits get involved. Money comes in. The artist builds a team. People are depending on them to show up and re-conjure the magic. There’s a new pressure to make the lightning strike twice.

This also can happen before success comes for an artist, and it often shows up when creatives feel any type of added pressure that they’re not used to. Perhaps it’s working with an established producer for the first time, or being booked for a big show.

Pressure is a part of any creative’s path, but I view it as a sign of growth and opportunity. On the producer side of things, I’ve felt this pressure quite a bit when working on my first label projects, or when trying to write the rest of an album after feeling really great about the first song I had written with a particular artist.

Our brains tell us that we’re gonna mess this up - that we’ve run out of good ideas, or that we need to pretend to be something we’re not in order to be accepted or do good work. We’ll start to achieve so that we can earn the satisfaction of a finished product, and we leave behind the parts of our brain that generate divergent thinking, which is a key necessity to being creative at all.

We think, “Maybe if I can make this ‘technically’ as good as possible, then no one will notice that I’m having a hard time getting into my flow state and generating fresh ideas.”

This is soooo easy to slip into as a producer, since there are so many technical sides to the craft. If I can’t seem to come up with a fresh chord progression or drum-bass relationship, I’ll start to fall back on patterns and structures that have given me success before. That’s not a bad thing in and of itself - sometimes we have a responsibility to just keep the ball rolling and lean on other creatives in the room who are having a more inspired day. But giving into this way of thinking can be a slippery slope, and I can easily start to neglect important parts of the process as a result.

What does this look like for me?

• Over-editing (pocketing, etc.)

• Mixing too deeply at early stages of the production

• Obsessing over sounds rather than parts/arrangement

• Asking everyone else in the room what to do next

What does this look like for artists?

• Re-writing or re-singing over and over again

• Adding more and more layers to a song without a clear intention of the song needing more

• Procrastinating release, or neglecting to set deadlines

• Incredibly low volume of finished, released work

Just like earlier, these are not always negative things in and of themselves, but they do pop up as symptoms of perfectionism every now and then. Everyone is different and will therefore have different reactions to pressure.

This can create a cycle of fear, self-doubt, less inspired work, and more fear. It can turn into a positive feedback loop that just starts eating its own tail.

How do we break the cycle?

We take action. We create with no destination in mind. We suspend our consideration for any audience. We throw darts. And as my good friend Michael Gilbride says, whenever we’re experiencing any sort of creative block, it just means that we’re avoiding honesty. It shows us that we’re trying to change something about our process to adapt it to somebody else.

Becoming too precious with our work is a great way to shut off our flow. I encourage the people I work with to be reckless.

Lean into what you have at your fingertips. Release the song you’re not sure about. Leave in the mistakes, especially if they make you feel something. Don’t dial in settings, throw them around. There’s a time and place to be nuanced, but your first instinct should be to caricaturize. Release a demo if it captured magic. Set time limits for yourself and accept the results. Release music that’s completely live - Chris Stapleton and Dijon are testaments to this. Too much polish or refinement on those records would have squeezed all of the life out of them.

Especially as fear mounts around AI, the recklessness of human nature will only become more and more of a commodity. Hot take: the only people who will be replaced by AI are the ones who are making replaceable shit.

There are countless stories of an artist’s biggest hit coming from a song that almost didn’t make the album. Just put it all out there and let everyone else decide. It’s not up to us.

Whether it’s a song or a social media post/article, I see so many people completely debilitated by their indecision. (But hey - if people don’t like it, the algorithm will make sure no one sees it)

Perfect is the enemy of good, and it’s not our job to be perfect. All we can do is show up - the rest is out of our control.