“I want to promote a description of creativity as a process of attunement to the material environment, not an isolated or inward journey further into one’s thoughts or mind or soul. In this sense, the description I want to promote is one driven by a critical curiosity rather than a thing called inspiration…which I know… Continue reading

“Piano first, generally. Though maybe a small rhythm element may be put in place to spark the harmonic gateway that the piano provides. Then starts the long process of embellishing it, or orchestrating it. I say orchestrating, as I like to think of the synth elements that I add as orchestrations.” Neil Cowley, Headphone Commute Continue reading

“Because their devices dinged them a few times a minute, their minds were reshaped to the jittery, needy psyche that ruled the digital realm. In a few short decades they’d transformed proud and free animals—humans—and made them into endlessly acquiescent dots on screens. How many people live in a state of aggressive truth-seeking?” Dave Eggers,… Continue reading

“Knowledge is subtractive, not additive—what we subtract (reduction by what does not work, what not to do), not what we add (what to do).” “By setting oneself totally free of constraints, free of thoughts, free of this debilitating activity called work, free of efforts, elements hidden in the texture of reality start staring at you;… Continue reading

“When I was working as a pop music critic, I tried not to think too much about quality—at least not directly. My belief, then as now, was that there was no useful difference between loving a song and considering it good, or between not liking one and considering it bad. (If it is possible for… Continue reading

“All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s… Continue reading

“It’s noteworthy that the first action a computer program designed to detect patterns undertakes is not to analyze but to collect. Which is consistent with how many writers, musicians, and designers view themselves: not as master craftsmen but as collectors. They consume voraciously, pursue obsessively, and accumulate influences the way chefs hunt for ingredients.” “The… Continue reading

“If we think about what it means to ‘concentrate’ or ‘pay attention’ at an individual level, it implies alignment: different parts of the mind and even the body acting in concert and oriented toward the same thing. To pay attention to one thing is to resist paying attention to other things; it means constantly denying… Continue reading

“Vocal psychedelia is the omni-genre at the epicenter of our new musical mythology, from Jamaica to Africa to America.” […] “Auto-Tuned artists are the new synthesizers — they’re the new samplers — and the sounds they make recalibrate your consciousness.” […] “Music simulates the future. It war-games it. All those sci-fi sounds it produces, all… Continue reading

“Ship creative work. On a schedule. Without attachment and without reassurance. The internet brings uninvited energy, positive and negative, to the work we set out to do. It opens an infinite spigot of new ideas, new tools, and new people for the project. If you want to create your work, it might pay to turn… Continue reading