Mike Monday

Inspiration On Demand

The 7 Deadly Sins Against Creativity

It’s hard to get your creative juices flowing at the best of times. But if you avoid these The Muse will have little excuse not to come and breath in your right ear.

1/ Tiredness

The average person needs between 7 and 8 hours sleep a night. Go to bed early and get up early when you can. This is my number one piece of advice for anyone who wants to get anything done.

2/ Choice

Too many ideas, too many tools, too many distractions. Decide on one idea and focus on limiting your options before you start. You’ll do better work quicker.

3/ Email

Including Twitter, Facebook and internet surfing. If at all possible don’t check your emails more than twice a day and set aside a specific chunk of time each day when you’re not working on your art for your social networks and RSS feeds.

4/ Clutter

Physical – start by removing anything unnecessary for you to do your work in your immediate vicinity. Each day move outwards until your whole workspace is free of distracting clutter.

Mental – begin every day with a little quiet time and try to empty your head of all thoughts completely. I’ve recently got back to meditating for 20 minutes every morning before I do anything.

5/ Envy

Ignore what anyone else is doing. You might covet their success; in your eyes it might be undeserved, but don’t waste time thinking about it. Anything that’s external to your work is irrelevant.

6/ Critics

Ignore them at all costs. Chris Guillebeau summed it up when he said that no one’s ever erected a statue of a critic. I don’t think there are any statues of electronic musicians either, but I’m trying to change that. 🙂

7/ Perfectionism

Just finish it! Its good enough already.

Stop Complaining

You’ve wasted too much time complaining.

The game has changed and you can either sit on the sidelines or start playing.

This is as big a revolution in the way we consume and distribute music as there’s ever been in history.

As big as sheet music. As big as recorded music. As big as radio.

If not bigger than the lot.

And you’ve spent way too long whining about it instead of getting your head around it. You’re missing a golden opportunity.

Or more accurately – lots of them.

Because the writing’s on the wall for selling recorded music it doesn’t mean the same is true for music as a whole.

Our new currency isn’t vinyl, cds or even mp3s. It’s attention.

So how are you going to get mine?

Goodbye Fear, Hello Muse – Why You Should Externalize Your Creative Struggle

To your left is The Fear. This is what The Fear tells you every day:

“You’re not good enough.”

“They’ll laugh at you.”

“You’ve already done your best work.”

“You haven’t got the right tools.”

“It’s not perfect, go back and change it.”

To your right is The Muse.

She gives you ideas. But she is flighty, unpredictable and often arrives at inopportune moments. She also startles easily and deserts you at the drop of a hat. But give her enough space and she will repay you with more ideas than you’ll ever need.

Thanks to Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk on the idea of an external genius and my current favourite book Steven Pressfield’s “The War Of Art” who names his fear “Resistance”, recently I’ve experimented with externalizing my daily creative struggle.

It’s been so helpful that I had to share it with you. It’ll take a lot of pressure off your shoulders. Here’s why.

By personifying your inspiration and fear and making yourself the battleground, you’re removing the link between your work and your self-worth.

Beating yourself up for not doing enough good work is the best way of playing into The Fear’s hands and the quickest way to make The Muse run for the hills.

It’s also FUN! Let’s face it, the daily grind of creating anything can be a mundane business, and viewing your work as a struggle between the forces of darkness and light makes it a deliciously exciting prospect.

It’s certainly got me coming back for more.

What’s Next?

This site has been my main focus for a little under a year. Since writing and releasing my third album (my first without a traditional record label) I’ve had a couple of months to decide what to do next:

Writing

I’ve come to enjoy the writing almost as much as I do the music. It gives me a break from my music composition and production “day job” and it helps me process and clarify my thinking about my work.

But while it’s been a useful personal exercise what’s more interesting to me is focussing on the value I can give you.

Over 16 years of making a living from writing electronic music has given me a wealth of experience in the areas of creativity, motivation and productivity. Thomas Edison famously said that “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” and after bucket loads of sweat, tears and a sprinkling of inspiration, I look back on over 250 releases and remixes and realise how much I’ve achieved. But it’s been anything but easy.

The process of creating anything – whether it be music, a web site, a painting or company is a tortuous affair. I’ve used many techniques to fight the good fight over the years and some have worked better than others. By sharing my experiences and insights I’ll help you win your daily battle.

It’s my sincere belief that in tough times the world needs us to realise our dreams. It’s natural to hunker down and play it safe when finances are tight and prospects uncertain, but the more savvy of you will turn your dreams into goals and set about achieving them. If I can help just one person do that I’ll have achieved one of mine.

Music

I’m practising what I preach with my music. 

You might assume that as a self-employed music producer I’ve followed my dreams. You’d be mistaken. I’ve felt a disconnect for some time now. 10 tracks 10 weeks was an attempt to address that, as I thought the problem was external. Releasing the album myself and writing it in public inspired me in some ways, but in hindsight I was tinkering with the process of distribution rather than addressing the source of the problem within me.

If I look back to what I loved about music when I was a kid, it was performance. I started piano at the age of 7, quickly moved onto bassoon then saxophone and played in numerous bands, choirs and orchestras. This fed my soul. I even dabbled in free improvisation at one point and (even though much of the resulting music was a racket) I loved the unexpected things that could happen in an environment of pure performance.

But I ended up producing music in a studio and over the last decade I’ve only performed as a DJ. It’s been good to me, and had amazing opportunities to travel the world DJing everywhere from Kazakhstan to Australia, but I’ve increasingly felt that something is missing.

So I’m learning a new instrument. And when I say a new instrument, I mean new not only to me, but probably) to you as well. It’s an Eigenharp Pico. It’s more than an instrument because (when I get good enough) it will allow me to both perform and compose music on the fly. I’m extremely excited about the endless possibilities that this wonderful little machine opens up.

But it’ll be some time before I can inflict any music on you because it has such a horribly steep learning curve. It’s partly the challenge that attracts me to it though, and I’ll check in occasionally with my progress.

Money

I intend to make a living from the site at some point, but at the moment my focus is on providing as much free and useful content as possible. 

As for the music, I wish I could continue to offer it for free as I did for the 10 weeks of my 10 tracks, but unfortunately Bandcamp have started charging for free downloads. 

So until I make enough money to fund free downloads my latest album will stay at the very reasonable price of £5. And if you’re curious to know what my music sounds like you can download my favourite track off the album for free.

Manifesto

The idea of creating a manifesto appeals to me. It’s been on my mind since I saw Mathew Herbert’s personal manifesto a few years ago. I’m now working on a blueprint which I’ll live (and work) by, but which will be applicable to anyone who wants to realise their creative ambitions.

Aims

  • One post every other day on the subjects of creativity, productivity and motivation. My mantra is “less is more” and I’ll say as much as I can in as few words as possible. Although I will write longer pieces (like this) when the subject matter requires it.
  • At least one studio tip a week for those interested in electronic music production.
  • Occasional updates about how I’m getting on with my little Pico project.
  • A monthly newsletter with content you won’t find anywhere else.
  • I want to be fluent enough on the Pico to start releasing new music by January 2011. And then my tentative plan is to release a new track every week when my schedule allows.
  • A creative manifesto or blueprint to be finished early next year. It’ll be of value to anyone who wants to discover what they were born to do and how to do it.