‘Inspiration exists but it has to find you working’
This Pablo Picasso quote makes a lot of sense.
I believe one of the reasons I have a job as a songwriter / producer is that I sit down and work at it every single day regardless of how I feel.
The romantic image of a poet sitting in a room ,holding a flower with a dreamy look on his face and waiting for the inspiration to strike is what it is: a romantic image.
The thing is, in the art world, a piece is good when you don’t see the work.
An artist is cool when what he does seems effortless.
Music is something non-musicians associate with good times, relaxing times, emotional times, introspection times…anything but work.
When I say to most people that I’m working as a musician and that I work from my home studio, I can see the little look on their face that says: ‘this guy has a cool life, he has it easy, he’s so lucky’.
And that’s true. I’ve a cool life , I’m super grateful but luck has nothing to do with it.
Hard work, sacrifices, consistency, self-discipline, battling doubts, risk taking , all that good but tough stuff is what it’s about.
Making things work for you as a music entrepreneur on a rainy Monday morning at 9 O’clock with no-one telling you how to make it work.
So here’s the point of this post, and it’s going to hurt if you don’t like reality checks !!:
As musicians we have to work like maniacs , accepting that no-one will take it seriously and no-one wants to hear about / see the work. We are 95 % in the shadows and 5% in the spotlights.
And the 5 % in the spotlights should not refer in any way to the previous 95%.
The way we communicate should convey what our audience links our music to: ease, fun, emotions, escapism, poetry, social consciousness etc. whatever that is.
NOBODY wants to hear about the work it takes.
And the cherry on the cake for us ,in this man of the shadow attitude, is that, regularly, like a little gift from the world, inspiration will come and the song will write itself, the fully formed lyrics will come out of our mouth, all the stars will align, inspiration will find us working. Almost like a surprise.
And this for me is deep and it’s like the true school of life.
Feel free to share your own thoughts on this below and if you disagree say that too!