Make stuff, everyday if you can. Forget about the tools, they will change with time anyway. Just make things. The more things you make, the better you get at it.

It seems odd to me that we place an hourly value on our time. Time is one of the few things we have a limited supply of, how odd to give it away for $7 an hour or whatever. Not to say that you shouldn’t take an entry level job to learn and improve your life. But it seems unhealthy when we start to think that way internally. Instead value should be based on output, if something took three hours or three years to make it could be worth the same.

Everyone feels like a fraud. I recently read an AMA (ask me anything) on reddit with famed composer Hans Zimmer, where once again he discussed worrying about people hating his work, feeling inadequate and not being able to get the job done. If one of the greatest living composers struggle with this, what chance do us mere mortals have?

Some days you find yourself playing with technology all day, you work hard. The sun sets. Suddenly you realize that you have not created anything. I LOVE technology, I love playing with it, forcing it to do my bidding and sometimes it takes a lot of creativity to solve technological problems. Be it with a audio workstation or how to create a certain sound or even keeping the computer running smoothly.

Ever hear someone say “My stuff is stuff is great, all my friends say so!” huh?? I still hear adults who should know better say this. #1 your friends don’t want to be jerks so they will always tell you your stuff is great #2 Unless they share the same craft as you they probably don’t know how to critique it anyway. If you only surround yourself with cheerleaders and yes men you will never improve. You need a group that can give you real and specific feedback.

Art snobs. People who have some unusual criteria for what art is, or how it should be done. Some even console themselves by saying, “even though no one appreciates or understands my art, and even though I am starving and have to work two jobs to do my work, at least I am not a sell out” Art absolutely can be used just for you, to help the artist understand something, or to get out a painful emotion but if you want to be more than and introspective hobbyist without a connection to some sort of audience it is all just posturing.

When someone says “I believe with all my heart” it always seemed odd to me. As if that belief added credibility to the statement. People believe all kinds of crazy things, and just because you believe doesn’t make it true one bit. Take the statement “I don’t believe in gravity” for example. Your belief changes nothing, you will still fall to earth if you jump off a building. So it seems like a fools errand to try and fortify belief.

Its easy to look at an artist and see how much natural talent they have and get jealous. You never see the years of blood sweat and tears it takes to become and expert. You don’t see the sacrifice it takes, and that is part of the marketing. It’s easy to see a star having an amazing life, but you NEVER see the work it takes to get there. Getting good, and I mean REALLY good at something takes years of dedication. Honestly most people don’t have the stomach. And as long as you can get a pizza delivered to your house and TV to your screens there is not much motivation. Honing your craft is both physically and emotionally painful. Emotionally because you have to constantly and honestly pick apart your work to see what sucks about it, and trust me something ALWAYS sucks about it. Take this commercial http://youtu.be/vsjjl8UGjkA I did the audio for a few years back, there are STILL things that bug me about it, no one but me catches them. It made me better going forward however because I was honest about what sucks.

It’s tough to show your project to the world sometimes. You want every detail to be amazing, you want to wow and impress. The need for perfection can be debilitating, and you should strive to be the best you can be. But forward motion is more important than perfection. How many songs are sitting on your hard drive unheard? I recently saw a forum post where a person spent 5 years working on one song. COME ON, finish the thing and move on. Even the crazy perfectionist Kanye will only sit on tracks for about a year. Either it is good enough to finish or should be scrapped.

It’s tempting when you are first starting out to take every opportunity that comes to you. You certainly want to get to work as quick as possible. But before you jump in, think about the value of your time. Since time is by far the most finite resource you have. Take a step back and really evaluate the project, is it going somewhere? Can it help grow your client base? Improve your reputation? Is the person running the project actually going to market the final product properly? It is allot to think about.

Somewhere along the way the “starving” artist thing became the norm, and artists just accepted this reality. In fact many artists brand successful artists as “sell outs”. To me the real sellouts are the artists who devalue creativity. Any artistic endeavor no matter how much natural talent you happened to be born with took years to perfect. Why put so little value on it? Art inspires the world to be better, or to think, or should at least garner some emotion. I know of no other pursuit that brings all these things to the table. Certainly many artists having access to the tools has helped make art a commodity. But it is still a highly specialized field.

All that matters is what you have actually done. What you have created. You can talk about how good you are, how educated you are, and if someone would just give you a chance….But life does not work that way. An artist is ONLY judged on their work. In other words the key of being a producer is PRODUCE. You should be passionate enough about your art to find a way to do it with whatever tools you can find, and with or without an obvious paycheck. The best way to become an musician is to start writing songs, the best way to become a writer is start writing. Put in the work, the overnight success fantasy is just that.

It’s easy to keep adding and adding to something isn’t it? The great designer Dieter Ram is who really coined the phrase “Less, but better” his ten principles of good design inspired Jonathan Ives who went on to design the imac, iphone, ipad and so on. I even heard a talk once with producer Scott Storch who talks about “sandbagging” a track by adding too many bells and whistles when the actual song is not strong enough. Try breaking everything down to the most basic element of what is needed. But how to do this with art? I can only speak to production and music, but certainly we have all seen the photo with far to many photoshop filters, where Ansel Adams simple style still can’t be duplicated. Trying to do too many sonic tricks with a week melody is simple trying to polish a turd, far better to scrap and start over.

Make art you love, always PERIOD. Far to many talented artists spend time they could be moving forward looking back. Forge your own path, make your own style. Don’t use auto tune because its cool, it won’t be soon! Don’t start doing dubstep just because its the in thing, there is a world of benefits to moving left when the world moves right. Jack White is the perfect example, and so is Warren Buffet. The path is certainly not as clear, but it is more fun.

We have all met the artist that won’t let go of a single part of their “vision”. They feel if a single note is out of place then the song is all wrong, and no one can contribute but them. Further we have met the artist that is convinced that everything they write is the next big thing and will hardly even show someone their work. It seems, as always we think too highly of ourselves. Shouldn’t creativity be a gift to the world?

Does anyone remember Zune, Microsoft’s answer to the ipod and itunes? Believe it or not, this platform was easily superior to Apple’s offerings but it was ‘too little too late.’ Interestingly enough, the Xbox, Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Microsoft Office borrowed the design aesthetic of Zune. The Zune team can sleep well knowing that their work ended up on millions and millions of desktops.

As a creative person this may be a hard article to read. The ideas presented within took many years of denial, blood, sweat, and tears before I accepted them. But when I did, I found my music career and income rose considerably. As creative folks, we want the art to speak for itself. The truth is: if you are a musician or trying to make money with your art, then you are a business and must think and position yourself as such.

This was published at the late great Prorec.com, but I believe it is gone now. It is a few years old, but still has some good info.

Why is it that the engineer says, “Here’s a direct box. Plug in and let’s get recording,” when a bass player shows up at a studio, then proceeds to spend hours and hours setting up the drums, guitar cabs, mics, pedals, etc? Without a kickin’ bass line, there is no foundation for the music. You need a bass sound that will punch, thump, rumble, boom, and articulate. So, how do we add rocket sauce to bass tracks?

What do you think of when you think of a hacker? Maybe its an evil person sitting in a room that has a genius plan to take over the world? Do you sit up at night and worry about how to keep hackers out of your system? First off lets define a hacker. Here is one definition from wikipedia.com Hacker n. [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.