Exclamation!

I’ve had a difficult relationship with exclamation marks.

Whilst a lack of them made me come across dry and unenthusiastic..

The moment I employed them, I felt like whatever I had to say felt cheap.

But when people recognise you speak from your heart anyway, it doesn’t matter whether you add them or not.

And I feel the same way about adding unnecessary flourishes to my tracks.

Boom

Oooooh!

Ahhhhh..

Owwww.

It’s quite nice that people come together to watch things explode in the air for a bit.

Which said like that, feels like a weird thing for humans to do..

But actually, a well presented firework is a masterclass in capturing attention.

The suspense, sudden bursts of colour, mixture of patterns, all happening live, holding our collective gaze.

And I’m all for things that bring people together.

Yoyo

Yes, you only live once.

But using YOLO as an excuse to make short term decisions you’re guaranteed to regret later makes little sense.

So a better excuse is..

You’re only young once.

In which case, you smash that ninth jäger bomb you spring chicken.

But…

You’re only as good as the excuses you let yourself be stopped by.

Flattery

When our ideas are imitated, we hit a milestone, where two things have happened.

1. We produced an idea desirable enough to want to imitate.

2. The idea is clear enough that it is obvious when it is imitated.

And the opportunity here, is to own this flattery and encourage others to iterate on your work, instead of shutting it down.

The truth is, nothing is truly original, and every one of our works lies on a trajectory of ideas that keep evolving.

The most profound artists all set the stage for the next generation to come.

Keep going.

Sunshine

Our emotions have a filter.

And how we experience reality depends on how it functions.

What was that look from that person?

Are they judging your outfit?

Or maybe, they’re wondering where they can buy it from.

When we choose the most negative interpretation possible, everything always feels grey and overcast.

But the most radiant people I know strive for positive interpretations where possible, promoting good vibes like sunshine.

We have a choice.

Content

Don’t share something because you think that’s what you have to do.

Share something because you feel joy in it.

Me vs Us

“Hi I’ve made a new song. I made it for myself, absolutely no one else, especially not for you because I couldn’t give a fuck what you think about me.

But please listen to it, then like, comment and share it with your friends - thanks! p.s. I don’t care what they think of me either because I make music just for me”.

Vs.

“Hi I’ve made a new song. I made it for people like us, who feel like us. I know how you feel, and I know this track will help you feel better.

And if you know someone else who feels the same way because they’re one of us, send it their way because it’ll probably help them feel better too. Thanks”.

Understand

At every new stage of my life, I continue to appreciate new palettes of ideas that never made sense before.

Minimalism, slam poetry, systems thinking and even midcentury furniture.

And of course, everything makes more sense as we understand more about ourselves and the universe at large.

Similarly, so much of music that I didn’t like before turns out to be music that I simply didn’t understand.

And today, if I don’t like something, I remind myself I probably don’t understand it.. yet.

EQ

No, not the kind with knobs and sliders.

I’m talking about your Emotional Quotient.

Have you obsessed over it as much as you obsess over the passive circuitry in your hardware equaliser?

Because I guarantee that if you are an artist, obsessing over your emotions yield far better results than obsessing over technical aspects of your gear.

Your most critical tool is how you feel.

Recovery

There was a period of my life where I’d run out of steam half way through a sentence.

I’d start speaking and immediately falter because in that moment, I believed I had nothing much of value to say.

And of course this issue wasn’t about the value of my contributions, but a matter of low self-esteem.

And to rebuild this self-esteem, it’s taken a great deal of self examination, honesty and self love.

But when you come through the other side, nothing you talk about really changes.

But how you feel about yourself talking improves dramatically.

And that’s what recovery felt like for me.

Your story

A technique used by salespeople to handle objections is to disengage from facts, and tell a story.

A story about why you’re here, what you really want, and what the occasion means to you on a deeper level.

And it works because doing this gets to the heart of how we human really make sense of the world around us.

When we as artists want to make a compelling narrative about who we are, just telling facts rarely makes for a good story.

By demonstrating what’s at stake and why our creation matters, we tell a better story that our audience becomes a part of.

And good story is difficult to ignore.

Respect

Looking back, I grappled with a problem.

I wanted everyone to like me.

And what I’ve learned in thirty years is, not only is this impossible to achieve, but it also ironically makes you pretty hard to like.

An approach I now prefer is to simply carry myself the way the people I respect like.

At the end of the day, this is way more realistic than pleasing everyone.

And having switched to this mindset for many years now, I can confidently say I respect myself way more for it too.

Portal

Screens serve as emotional portals, transporting our feelings to distant places and faces.

And this isn’t always a bad thing. I’ve connected with people that matter to me through this portal.

But it’s also easy to escape into the portal to hide from our reality here.

The thing is, the real world is far more vivid. High fidelity can never beat the richness of actual reality.

And a day well spent for me is always in the now, the present, on this side of the screen.

Gratitude

I’ve just cleared out my wardrobe full of colourful shirts, worn-out jeans, and logo-laden tops.

And although I’ve had an incredible time wearing them, they are choices of a distinct phase of my life. It’s time to say good bye.

These pieces remind me of people who’ve come and gone in my life - many who I’ve had a great times with, learned from and made a difference to who I am today.

The truth is, people come and go from our lives no matter who we are, or what we do.

And as I fold these clothes for the last time, I realize it’s not about mourning an end, but expressing gratitude for the imprints they’ve left on me.

Promise

I believe that mastery is the only concrete strategy one can adopt as a professional creative that must survive.

Because the competition is any artist with the initiative to upload their work online, which is simply staggering.

So for me, it pays to stop competing altogether and focus on a creative process that becomes better over time.

And here’s the thing. When it is clear that an artist is on a trajectory of mastery, it doesn’t matter whether they have already blown up or not.

They show more promise than artists who are simply banking on luck.

Something

Sometimes you have nothing.

Nada.

And that’s okay.

Write anything.

Anything is a good reason to consider something.

And sometimes, something is enough to realise there is a point to be made.

Todays point is literally derived in this manner.

Inspiration follows action.

Not the other way round.

Process

Results matter, they do.

But lasting results follow a process of practice and refinement.

The first 10 hours of work will never be as skilled as the work after 10,000 hours.

But when our mind is results oriented, we fail to see the value of the first ten, hundred, or even thousand hours of practice.

Conversely, a process oriented mind is able to value the journey on this path of mastery.

As James clear elegantly puts it:

“..if you optimise for the outcome, you win once. Optimise for a process that leads to great outcomes, you win again and again”.

Home

Home is the smell of our washing, the way our pillow feels, the family we live with.

Those things we just know, because we’ve soaked up its essence over time.

And home after travelling feels nice.

Composers and story tellers use this device all the time. We repeat ideas enough for it to become familiar and comforting..

Only to switch things up and take us on a journey, before returning to the main theme.

A compelling exposition is creating a home worth returning to.

And I wish a safe home to all my readers.

Judgement

Avoiding judgment is tough.

It’s easy to spot a flaw in others and jump conclusions that label them as bad people.

But when we readily judge others for their flaws, the moment we do anything less than perfect ourselves, it sets us up for vicious self judgement and loathing.

The truth is, no one is perfect all the time.

Going easy on others is going easy on yourself.