How to Get the Creative Flow Going and the Importance of Being on Time

I don't really do *anything* always. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I guess that's just how it is. I think that you should really just keep an open mind with things. I held a sample idea for two years that I always thought would be good and it ended up coming to life to start this track Doc Daneeka and I just made that's gonna be dropped on Play It Down this month. I think it's important to always have ideas circulating; you never know when one of them will spark something bigger. These two questions go hand in hand for me, because I think a lot of the process of getting a vibe going is experimenting and learning. Going through some Max for Live stuff may spark a new rhythm. So could experimenting with a new effect or plug-in. Trying to recreate other people's music can be amazing because you will take influence from something, but hopefully you will also put your own twist on it and make something new, or at least new for you. I can look back at some of the music I've written and remember exactly what I was trying to learn at the time I made it. There was always that cross section where I went, "Oh wow, that can go into this other idea," and at that moment, I left the learning process and entered into a songwriting process. Keep experimenting. Layer drums, process things through other things, put your synth MIDI into the drum MIDI, experiment with all the ASDR in your synth—there are so many options to get flow going. Most importantly for me, when I'm not feeling it, I just listen to music. Sometimes I'll put a record on, clean the studio, and listen. Try to just feel things. I've really been trying to take in different eras of music, and think about the process of how different songs were created, and how that relates to 2013. Obviously it's different, but it's cool to think about. Go to a museum. Read a book. Try and take some influence from some new things. Maybe stepping away is the real key that's going to spark some new fire. *Column 50*