Creating and waiting

So, I just read a piece on the Grauniad about how creative people are often at their most productive – creatively speaking at least – when they’re away from their chosen outlet, which I find really interesting, if only because I’ve forced myself to write something every day here for the foreseeable future. The main thrust of the story seems to be that (I’m paraphrasing) creative energies are stored up in rather the same way that KERS works – while the brakes are on, the ability to accelerate is increased.

In other words, you get your best ideas when you’re not trying to have your best ideas – or indeed any ideas whatsoever. It’s a theory that won’t surprise musicians (McCartney regularly opines that he ‘dreamt’ Yesterday, and one of the few evenings in 1965 that saw Keith Richards fall asleep was interrupted when the riff for Satisfaction crashed, unannounced and unbidden, into his beleaguered frontal lobes).

I’ve experienced similar things when playing around with the music I occasionally create as a hobby – I’ll be tinkering around with something, trying to make it work in a way that’s in some way different or better than the stuff I’ve made previously, and nothing gives. No great leap forward is forthcoming, and in fact, more often than not, incremental, dispiriting hops backwards are more likely. If, however, I load up a bank of samples and progress into a new Logic project window as fast as I possibly can, the results are often more vibrant, more interesting and better to listen to.

Some of the best tunes I’ve ever made were hammered out in a couple of hours, and to be honest, I’ve never really developed anything from 6/10 – more work needed to 9/10 – ready to be pressed, by worrying about the whys and wherefores of individual signal fades or the position of the odd, errant snare. Barrelling into a new project works wonders, and at its best, the fuel for it – a half-formed idea for a blogpost or a song or whatever, is insanely fleeting, but creates longer-term, more substantial results, almost like the initial spark and its resulting bonfire.

In the case of this blog, I reckon that something concrete and manuscript-shaped could definitely come out of it. There’s the larger 50/5000 project, which I’ve promised myself I’ll finish, and is already one post strong (Yay!). Any undertaking that forces me to knock out a quarter of a million words by the end of the year has to be a good thing. 245,000 to go, and I think I’ll get there. It’s making me want to write, and in the last two weeks, I’ve created over 10,000 words, which is a PB all over the place. Intriguingly, it seems that the more I force myself to write, the more I’ll write, and the more I’ll like it. Just have to see how it goes.

On the subject of improvisation, creativity and weird noises, chief NYC blipster OneOhTrix Point Never’s new album R Plus 7 is shuffling apologetically onto my iPhone as I write this. I’ll do a bigger piece on OPN in due course (perhaps as part of a Musicians I’ve Met With Weak Handshakes feature?). Really looking forward to hearing it thanks to the Quietus’ review.