Bibio on feeling stuck

Posted December 5th, 2022.
Cataloged under Bibio, Music, Creativity and Productivity

If I’m working on a particular track and I’m not particularly into what I’m doing or not sure what to do next, the natural thing is to have a break, just do something else. I have lots of tracks I’m working on at the same time. That’s changed over the years because I’ve got all these sketches on my phone as well.

I never treat anything as a reject, I never delete anything. It’s just a matter of when I’m ready to work on it again. Having this huge archive of unreleased, unfinished music, I can dip into any of it if I don’t feel like starting something new. It’s good to remind myself that I shouldn’t pressure myself into coming up with new ideas all the time. Sometimes there’s gems in there that just need watering and giving some TLC.

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Joakim on modest art

Posted October 27th, 2021. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Music, Creativity and Inspiration

Everybody is brought up with the idea that you need to make great art. But most of the things that I listen to and I really love is very modest art. Like, even if you think of library music, it’s not made to be art. It’s made to be used for commercials. But there’s so much love in the craft that it becomes amazing. And it’s very modest. I think this struggle is a good thing to go back to, and retreat from. It makes you progress. Even if you’re not going to make the greatest record or write the greatest novel, the process of doing it helps you progress.

Live vs. studio recording

Posted December 5th, 2022. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Bibio and Music

One analogy I draw to help people understand is you wouldn’t expect a film actor to go on stage and be a stage actor or a film director to be a theatrical director. They’re two different worlds. People get into one because that’s their passion. For me, the live thing is like theater. What I do is more like a film director because it’s all about piecing things together. Live music is not my thing. It’s not what I do. What I do is recording.

They don’t really know what they’re doing

Posted July 19th, last year. (Permalink)
Cataloged under Creativity and Music

It’s not a particularly fashionable idea right now but if you scratch any interesting artist you’ll hear that one of the key components to how they do it is that they don’t really know what they’re doing. […] If you don’t know what to expect, there’s a chance the listener and reader will find themselves in a place they wouldn’t expect to end up, that’s where interesting art resides.