IndieBiz - Get up and Write it Down

When I was younger I read somewhere that the difference between an artist and everyone else was that when an artist gets those crazy brilliant brain waves out of nowhere, she doesn’t ignore them or forget them or let them slip away afraid of the mess they’d make. She gets up, even if she’s in bed and it’s very late at night, and writes them down. I may be paraphrasing some really well known quote, I was a kiddo and have fuzzy memories of this influential idea, so forgive me if I’m bowlderizin it. You get the gist.

These days it seems everyone wants to be in a band or start a creative project of some kind. This is awesome, don’t get me wrong, and lots of these people have incredible wellsprings of talent. What will make the difference between all these people trying and the very few who leave a lasting impression with their art will be the sheer over and above extension of will, and development of skill. Not just getting up to write down the good ideas, but in other things involving big will, like stretching for that last exceptional bit of politeness when you’re tired and dealing with crabby collaborators (we had one rude musician in our week of awesome bands for the McGill Frosh events we were doing this week, and trust me that is one band that we will not book again, and that’s a shame for the rude guy’s band mates. He shoulda tried a leeetle harder to be civil.)

The get up and write it down / suck it up and be nice principle applies all over the place. And it’s plumbing the depths of character to make the supreme, exhausting, but ultimately rewarding effort to create with joy and diligence that makes real success stories so satisfying I think. It’s how you know you earned it; it’s what makes it sweet; and it’s what will make the good people around you happy for you when you do strike it lucky eventually.

Hot tip - If you want to build up some of those character muscles and strengthen your ability to find those deep resources in yourself, I highly suggest spending some time around little kids, babies preferably. Those little buggers will whip you into shape but good. =)

Here’s a fun video of a super nice and always chill band we love to work with, the Franco Proietti Morphtet at Frosh: