Advice from someone at the top of their creative industry

[GregB]

A famous creative, amongst the pantheon of his craft, was asked ...

 

Q. If ... a young aspiring [creative] asked you for advice, what would you say? 

 

A.  I always say the same thing. Get your own voice. Stay true to that voice. Get every single element of the [project] as close to perfection as you can. Do the best that you can. Stay true to the idea. And never turn down a good idea, but never take a bad idea. And always have final 'cut'. Don't ever let anyone take away your creative freedom to make the [project] the way it's supposed to be made, based on the ideas.

 

The above is part of an Empire magazine (Feb 2024) interview with David Lynch, the masterful and stylish film director.  And while it is his personal take on filmmaking, it is 100% relevant to ANY creative project including songwriting, performing, arranging, production, etc..

 

The commonest thing I see on the Songstuff boards is people seeking advice, feedback and affirmation.  Self-doubt and imposter-syndrome is natural for creatives, but there is little point in succumbing to negativity.  We are musicians, writers, performers, producers (etc.) because we have a need to express ourselves.  And though while it is nice to be 'liked', it is more important to be true to yourself, make decisions and stand proudly by them.

 

We each have a unique combination of life experiences, skillsets, abilities, tastes, emotional triggers, strengths and weaknesses.  Not one of my own music/videos has taken the world by storm nor earned any useful money.  But I poured myself into their creation and, by my own yardstick, I did the best I could with what I had.  If I can still like something after having heard it a hundred times during the length of the project, and can think of nothing else to improve it, then that's the end of story.  I'm pleased and proud with the result ... other people can take it or leave it.  

 

Mind you ... we all bang on about stories/quotes we agree with! 😄

 

Greg  

 

[David in WV]

What a truly wonderful post, Greg . . . and a well written too. 

 

Bravissimo!

 

David

[john]

Hey Greg

 

I don’t disagree with any of it. I will add though that our needs change with time. We might always be learning but the balance of what we need changes. In the early days we can benefit from instruction and/or feedback, we can also often do with some confidence building. So earlier in our career critique is beneficial as a process as we are introduced to new ideas from fellow writers. We can then debate these new ideas, try them out, get feedback etc. As we progress in our music career we also begin to offer our ideas and suggestions where we get to debate those ideas and their effectiveness. Later in our career, when we are introduced to less new ideas, our main use of critique is in giving feedback. In fact most really experienced writers on our boards rarely post up works for critique. They almost exclusively post feedback on other writer’s work. Explaining ideas and debating the points raised helps even experienced writers to exercise their own writing tools and it helps us to cement our own knowledge on any given technique.

 

Critique isn’t for everybody, though it does have that potential. It’s relevence to writers changes through a writers career.

 

Once upon a time a lot of artists delayed the big reveal of their music until it was of a decent standard. Punk, in particular, blew that out of the water. Even with very little experience, artists would perform songs very early in the song’s evolution, often with very poor instrument skills.

 

New waves of music genres had improved this scenario, however, the advent of the modern online world of music has scene songs being shared while they are being written. I don’t mean on forums like this, where music is largely shared with other musicians as a learning aid. I mean artists sharing WIP songs, often as a way to have relevant content on their social feeds. I see it all the time on X, for example. It is something I would absolutely discourage artists from doing. It goes with a trend of warts and all behind the scenes views of artists. There is no value to the artists of sharing anything that shows them in a bad light. Half-baked music is damaging and it destroys any form of mystique around the artist. Note, there is a difference between sharing half-baked songs, and fully-baked songs, then cut up and made to appear like a WIP song. The latter is stage managed scene.

 

My point in all this (somewhat lost, I know) is that you can be true to your voice and still listen to and take on board advice from others… provided that their advice is still true to your personal values.

 

It is also useful to get a degree of affirmation for confidence building. The trick with any and all advice is knowing when to listen and when not to, when to adapt advice for you and when to use as is. This is as much the learning process as any other.

 

It also depends on the subject of the advice, and it’s purpose. So, for someone with no ear training, who cannot detect when they are singing flat, it is useful to both learn how to spot it, and to learn ways to combat it.

 

This goes back to the nature of critique and our understanding of it:

 

• There are no “right” answers. There are things that are “generally accepted wisdom”, but that does not make them right.
• There are no songwriting rules, only guidelines.
• Going against those guidelines has real consequences, good, bad, and all shades in between. 
• Critique offered is just an opinion
• Critique may involve observation, analysis, proposal and discussion, but the writer’s decision is the point at which the writer or artist should be true to themselves and their vision

 

Being true to yourself does not mean be stubborn or cut your nose off to spite your face, or simple don’t listen to people. Agree or disagree with suggestions, but honestly, consider them. You certainly shouldn’t not do something just because someone else suggested it:

 

• Make your vision manifest. Make your idea happen.
• Don’t be afraid to change your vision. If you learn something along the way that changes your vision, so be it.
• Similarly, don’t feel compelled to implementing every suggestion. Advice from other writers does not come from songwriting gods. It is just an opinion.
• Equally, you are not infallible. You will make mistakes. At the same time, it is ok to make mistakes… however,
• it is better to make bigger mistakes in from of small numbers of chosen people than it is to broadcast your mistakes to millions (unless it is an entirely stage managed process)

The notion that be true to yourself means be bloody minded until the very last gasp is dangerous. Especially if you are early in your writing career. Admittedly it is a significantly different prospect where you are a highly experienced writer versus a beginner writer.

[GregB]

18 hours ago, john said:

... I will add though that our needs change with time.

 

Damn right!  Not long now before I need a walking stick, diapers and, finally, a hole in the ground  

[john]

20 hours ago, GregB said:

finally, a hole in the ground

 

Under the circumstances, I think we can manage a toilet...!