Music, Film and Creativity

Over the last few weeks I've been enjoying listening to “Linchpin”, an audiobook by TED educator and author Seth Godin. Seth talks about what's in the way of showing up in the world and the marketplace with authenticity and a compelling, individual take on things.

He encourages the reader to see herself as an artist who has a unique contribution to make in their field. What can get in the way of this is what he calls the “Resistance to Shipping”. As soon as I heard that term I knew what he meant. I've often experienced the feeling that a particular piece of music or project that I've produced isn't quite there yet, or not ready to be shared widely, that it needs some more work or another round of improvement before it can go out to the world.

In the course of my work, my life in general and my online life I often share my output, of course. But the feeling is there nonetheless, and sometimes can colour decisions about timings or who to send some things to.

The underlying emotional barrier is a fear of rejection, which I am pretty sure is a universal for any creative person. There is also an element of perfectionism, which says that unless something is perfect it's not worth sharing with the world. What Seth Godin says about this is that “perfect is the enemy of good enough”. Aiming for the highest possible standards is reasonable, but letting the chase for perfection get in the way of products, ideas or pieces of music going to consumers/audience/community is a shame.

With that in mind I'm undertaking a little shift in how I operate online. I'm going to start taking more risks in putting my ideas, thoughts and finally of course, music, out.

I'm already in the process of rolling out a number of soundtrack collections via a distributor so a larger proportion of my work is gradually becoming available as music to stream, download or license. But I'm not going to stop there.

I had a great conversation last night with Chris Chow and Rupert Peddle, fellow BAFTA Crew members (editor and steadycam op respectively) who encouraged me to share some “making of” films of my processes. I've been enjoying quite a lot of hands-on tinkering over the last year or so and I'm going to accept that challenge/encouragement and find ways to open up some insights in to how I work and how I've made certain sounds/pieces in my catalogue. If that sounds exciting to you, come back soon or get in touch!