I actually want to take a moment to acknowledge Akira Khan (who actually runs his own blog called every day grind which you should check out), because if you don't know who he is, he is CONSTANTLY putting out new tunes all the damn time. In the last 13 days of writing this, he's released 7 tracks, so that must give you some sort of an idea of how much of a beast he is. In our podcast (which you can download on my website or stream on Soundcloud), I ask him about how he stays so creative and is able to pump out track after track- and his music is very, very good. He responded to my question by saying that 'it's all about the everyday grind... i found (inspiration) from many things. It's about opening up FL Studio, opening plugins, and getting to work, creating whoever knows what. I don't have a specific idea of my next track or my next project in mind, I just open up my DAW and write music... And I got into a routine. Also being independent. Focus on yourself so you have experience that you can use in the future.'
This is advice that I had heard many times before, but hadn't hit me as hard as when Akira said it, mostly because his advice was directly backed up by his massive discography, because of the frequency of how much he works.
Most people reading this, including me, have the issue of being a 'perfectionist'. And I'm not talking about working hard on a song, or looking after it. I'm talking about that phase when you're working on a song where you just listen back to it and think 'ugh, this isn't good enough. I'm just going to stop here and work on another song.' This is a TERRIBLE HABIT FOR MUSICIANS! From experience, doing this will destroy your creativity. You'll get into the habit of never liking anything you do, and you'll very rarely finish projects. And yes, of course, not everything you write will be gold. In fact, most of what you write will probably suck. But the best artists write HEAPS of music every day, or as Akira Khan puts it, the 'everyday grind', and then they are experts at finishing songs and writing new ideas- and then they filter out the shit. But you cannot improve without writing shit you're not happy with, you just have to start forming full ideas! It's much better to write 100 songs and pick 10 you're truly happy with, than write 10 songs. It's just good practise. It builds good habits. You wanna be a musician, write more music.
Am I above this? God no. I'm actually the worst at it. I have a massive habit of writing 8 bars of music and then abandoning it before it becomes a full song. But I'm going to try and hold myself accountable for it, and start finishing more ideas. I dare you to open up your DAW right now, find a project you had no plans on finishing, and finish it today. At least the basic structure of it, it doesn't have to be polished, it doesn't even have to be good- just do it. It takes discipline. I'm going to do it tonight, finish a song I don't feel like finishing.
Rant over!
Hope this helped, and go and check out Akira Khan. One of the best artists and best musicians, he's dedicated as fuck and I have crazy levels of respect for him. And check out our podcast, it's super interesting because me and him might cover some more points about it that I haven't talked about in the blog, and it's just a good listen regardless.
Also get off Instagram and write some fucking musicccccc