Let Go and Haul: discipline & rebellion
Journey: where we’re at
Welcome Vickie! Vickie is our music advisor, she’s going to be working with us on our synch music licensing strategy. Vickie’s based in LA which also makes her our first official Angeleno (NYC+LA is part of our longer term strategy).
I believe it’s an exciting time to be working with music. We’ve seen the music industry go through a ton of changes in the last ten years, but things are shaking out thanks to streaming subscriptions, and overall, things are way less tumultuous than they were. The next big thing on the horizon for the music industry is video, or what is starting to be described as “micro synch” aka a license to synchronize music to short form video (instead of a feature length film, which is what a synch license was originally designed to do). I hope we can be a part of this momentum!
Shout out to my old boss Jim Lucchese from the Echo Nest who introduced us!
Journal: what I learned
Since we’re on the topic of music, a couple of interesting things have recently happened here: Apple Music reportedly has more US subscribers than Spotify (I’m not super surprised by this, the pre-installed app situation is mega); and Insta added music to stories. The UI choice of making the name of the song a “sticker” is intriguing. While I’m guessing this was likely a business constraint, I’m more curious if this is also validation of one of my hunches that that audio is in video today is purely dependent on context. The video needs to “work” with the sound as well as without the sound.
I’m writing this from my roof today. It’s *the* perfect summer temperature to be up here with a speaker and yesterday’s Soulection show. Life:
I really like knowing what people want to talk about in this email. If you have a topic, please hit reply and tell me! Today’s email is inspired by my friend Simon (who worked on the incredible branding we’re going to be unleashing on y’all soon). Simon’s request was around energy levels – “what are you physically and mentally surrounding yourself with?”
Great question. Staying inspired and energetic is a lifelong journey, isn’t it?
Choreographer Twyla Tharp (yep, I’m still in that book) talks about “creative DNA” – the idea that we’re born with something that is the raw material of our creative instincts and output. She talks about how hers is “involvement and detachment” that she expects an insane degree of involvement from herself and her dancers, but that she also detaches to step back and be on the outside looking in. Her creative process is a series of “dive in, step back”. Citing her childhood in secluded rural California with a drive-in movie theatre she could see from a distance, she says this makes sense. She explains that creative DNA doesn’t just inform our process, it also informs our aesthetic – for example, the focal length people operate best in: Raymond Chandler’s work is all about up close detail. Photographer Ansel Adams’ work is the widest shot possible.
I’ve long known that my creative DNA is rooted in collage. My whole life I’ve loved taking found pieces and putting them together in a new way, whether it be magazine pages or APIs. No explanation needed for what we’re doing with TRASH here haha! I believe that our creative DNA isn’t just about our process or what we’re drawn to aesthetically though, it’s also where we get our energy.
I could be wrong about this, since I still have a lot of living to do, but I think that mine comes from the tension between discipline and rebellion. I had a pretty structured upbringing that involved a lot of discipline. I had to practice cello every morning before I went to school. I wasn’t allowed to watch most TV, play with anything that resembled a gun (including video games) or go to the giant mall in my hometown.
Naturally, I rebelled, and I found a lot of creative energy in that. I loved “sneaking” TV at my friends’ houses. I later learned how to channel this rebellion into learning how to push the boundaries of a creative brief in design school, smirking when my professors had to give me top marks even though the project was the complete opposite of what they expected. I was drawn to creative pursuits in male-dominated fields (design, tech, music, video) where I was told I couldn’t do things. In my particular case, this just made me want to do them more, and I did. A ton of my creative energy comes from trying to do things differently, going against the grain, challenging the status quo. (I realize this could sound hella eyeroll given that I work in a mainstream industry, but when I started off in tech, it was a weird, alternative place. I miss that old internet, and I’ve tried to stay true to my course despite all the things I could be doing in it. The status quo is always relative).
On the other hand, what all those classical music lessons, competitions, and intense rigor and discipline around practice taught me is that you need to just show up for the creative work every day, whether you feel like it or not. The best way to do this is to have process – or habit. (I’ve been writing about this for the last two weeks so you know how I feel about habits!) There are Sundays I’m excited to sit down and write this first thing in the morning, and there are Sundays this feels like effort. Those feelings are important to note, but the point is to keep doing it regardless. Action creates motivation and all that.
The interesting middle for me is that discipline and rebellion – much like Twyla’s involvement and detachment, do not necessarily go together, and I’m almost always operating at the tension between the two. So what do I surround myself with physically and mentally? Things that are at that precise intersection.
Jams: what I’m into
I’ve fallen down a dirty south hole recently. I can’t stop listening to Goodie Mob’s Cell Therapy. What is that ominous ASMR scratchy noise at the beginning? Is it a güiro? I feel like the #slime kids on Insta would be all over this.
While we’re on the topic of the 90s, last night my friends and I fell into a Sifl & Olly YouTube hole at mroth’s suggestion. Omg, that aesthetic. Those chromakey backgrounds. The sunflower petal eyes. So crescent fresh.
If you haven’t heard Kingdom’s Fader mix yet, get the hell in there! Fade To Mind (which Kingdom is one half of) turns seven this July (which I kinda can’t believe) If you’re in NYC or LA, get to those parties! If I wasn’t going to be out of town, I’d 100% be there too.
I’m nearly finished watching the latest Queer Eye (which is p fun). Someone please recommend me some new TV jams. I like comedy and crime fiction.