The Win Is the Making
I think we are all here to create. In one sense, we’re here to work. But real life, real excitement, comes when creating.
So lost amongst the argument of not getting paid, AI taking over for composers, and everything like that, is a simple truth: never, ever, ever has it been easier to share creations with people.
And if you’re not being satisfied or fulfilled or anything like that just from the mere act of creating, then you should probably take a hard look at doing music in general, or any creative artsy-fartsy endeavor.
It really is great to live in a time where you can just create and put something out there within the same day.
I have a shitload of stuff on SoundCloud. This month I made a 20-track little record for sync. Best of is seven or eight. Linked here. I’d be really happy if somebody picked it up and used it. I’ve started submitting it to catalogs. But that’s extra on top.
Obviously, creating is huge if you’re here to do it. But it’s also meditative. And I think the more time you can spend doing one thing and doing it deeply, it just improves your personage.
So if you’re a goal-oriented person, consider the fact that making something means you’ve already won and you’re there.
If you’re a systems-oriented person, consider the fact that when you’re making music, it’s a form of meditation. So it checks that box. If you’re in it, you’re in it. You’re just only there.
And if you’re really in the flow, you’re connecting with a part of the universe that no one knows.
All the greats, all of them, consistently say they don’t know where it comes from. That it just comes. That they just connected. That they just went fishing. That they’re trying to catch something.
Noel Gallagher said he tries to catch it before Chris Martin or Bono get it. That’s hilarious. And I think it’s really true.
I constantly and daily reevaluate why I do this so much, since I create almost every day. Sometimes I do feel like it’s a waste of time, but it’s only a waste of time when I find myself climbing the ladder in my mind. Trying to get ahead, or trying to beat somebody, or trying to do something better than someone, and a bunch of unnecessary stuff like that.
When reality is that just the fact that I can do this, seemingly infinitely — I can write and create and record and finish music — and I used to not be that person, but somehow I arrived there.
And I’m just so grateful for it.