Hi!

Ian Temple, who just appeared on the Music Production Podcast, sent out an excellent summary of our conversation in his Soundfly Newsletter. He did a great job explaining some of the big moments of our conversation.

In the past, I've mentioned a few email newsletters I actually look forward to, and Ian's Soundfly newsletter is one of them. I've "reprinted" the email below with Ian's permission. If you like it, I think you will enjoy the insights he shares every week.

Subscribe to the Soundfly Newsletter Ian Temple on the Music Production Podcast

Enjoy,

Brian Funk

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Hi all,

First of all, thank you so much for all the beautiful replies to last week's newsletter! I had a tough week personally, and your messages really touched me. I'm glad that one resonated. Thank you.

Last week, I was on Brian Funk's Music Production Podcast, talking about this newsletter specifically, this community, and some of the philosophies behind it. It's a bit long, but I thought it might be useful to pull out a couple of the main ideas as bullet points. You can listen to the full thing here.

Any of these that resonate with you? Any of them you disagree with? (A good disagreement can often be even more illuminating than agreeing). Let me know!

"Learning skills is somewhat predictable. Your creative output is wholly unpredictable. Have patience, trust the process, and be endlessly forgiving."

If I had to summarize my creative philosophy in a paragraph, this might be it. There's a lot we can do to put ourselves in the best situation to make great music, like taking courses, practicing, and listening closely to a lot of stuff, but ultimately every day is still going to be a chaotic battle with the eight-headed hydra of creativity we're all wrestling with.

The messiness is the way this machine operates, it's a sign that we're pushing ourselves and not just staying in one place. It can even be fun and exhilarating. But it doesn't always make it easy. Love yourself, keep going, and find joy where you can.

Control the environment and inputs. Give yourself time. Let the creativity come.

"The creative process requires changing things up often. The things that work for one song or album may not work for another. Adjust your inputs and be willing to change your frame frequently."

This is one of my biggest takeaways from the courses we've made and asking tons of amazing artists how they make their music. The answer is almost always: differently each time. One song idea might come to you in a shower, another might be the result of a jam session. One idea comes from something you learned, another from something you dreamed.

Since you can't always anticipate what process will give you the best outcome, the best thing to do is to make sure you're constantly changing things up. That could be learning something new. It could be seeking out new points of view. It could be trying different instruments or plugins. It could be changing spaces.

Be curious. Be open. And be willing to try new things when your process isn't working.

"Creative momentum builds on itself. Look for ways to kickstart momentum, even in small doses."

I think a lot of people hold themselves back by telling themselves they need the perfect situation to be creative. They need the perfect gear, ample amounts of time, and the exact right head space.

Unfortunately, that stuff rarely converges all at once. The best we can do? Create a little bit of momentum each day. It could be five minutes spent with your instrument, it could be writing lyrics on the commute to work, it could be opening up your Ableton Live project before you go to bed so you're ready to dive in the next day. What will you do to create momentum today?

Additionally, watch out for stuck points that can halt your momentum. It can be worth leaving something unresolved or throwing out a good idea that's just not quite working for the sake of moving forward.

"The stories you're telling yourself matter. Make sure those stories are productive and supportive of what you're trying to do."

I was reading the summary of some research today about how telling your kids the world is scary and bad generally leads to worse outcomes than the opposite. That's because our beliefs and the stories we tell ourselves have real power over how we think about life and the possibilities within it.

The same goes for creativity. If you tell yourself you're not really that creative, you're less likely to try out novel ideas that may occur to you in the middle of the night. If you tell yourself you don't have the right gear to sound professional, you're unlikely to work hard at making the best possible sounds with the gear you do have.

One challenge is that it's often really hard to even know what stories we're unintentionally telling ourselves. As Brian Funk talks about in the podcast episode, that's where it can be really useful to have community and peers who will help challenge you or reflect your thinking back at you. I firmly agree.

What are some of your core philosophies around the creative process? What are some of the stories you tell yourself about how to produce creative work? I'd love to hear them.

Yours,
Ian Temple
CEO & Founder
ian@soundfly.com

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