Song Timing

If you wait until your team wins the championship to put out your song about the team winning the championship, you’re too late.

If you wait until Christmas to put out your Christmas smash hit, it’s not going to hit this year.

If you wait until the summer solstice to put out your breezy summer jam, it’s not going to be the song of the summer.

Songs and timing and culture and seasons and phases.

It’s tricky.

But in all three of these cases (and many more), the song has to be out there ALREADY if it’s going to find the intersection of all these things.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Trying New Ideas

When someone comes up with an idea and tries it and it doesn’t work, what do we think of that person?

The way you answer that question probably goes a long way in answering how often you try (or offer up) a new idea.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Good And Useful Tools

A stump grinder is an amazing tool. If you’ve ever seen one in action, it’s pretty compelling. Like watching a bon fire.

But just because a stump grinder is a great tool doesn’t mean you should get one…It doesn’t mean you should spend time researching them online or checking your lines of credit to see what you could make happen.

You’re never going to grind a stump.

Good AND USEFUL tools are what you’re going for. Don’t get distracted by only the good.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

Creative Service

Music making, as a profession, is both a creative industry and a service industry.

The amount of creativity vs. service depends…

If an artist is hiring you to play guitar on their song, ultimately they are the boss and you’re serving the artist through the song. But they hired you, specifically, because they like your creativity.

You might be a guitar player who likes to accommodate the artist no matter what…heavy on the service side. Or you might the type of guitar player who only wants to do your specific thing, stay true to your own artistic vision…and if the artist doesn’t like it, they are welcome to go elsewhere…heavy on the creative side.

And a thousand places in between.

The hope is that after we have gone too far in one direction or the other, or both…that we’ve found our place on that spectrum where music is both fulfilling and sustainable.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

The Problem With Singles

That’s the good thing about albums. The single comes out. The people like the single, so they want to live in that world for longer than three minutes.

Problem solved…there’s an album with nine or ten other songs that have some measure of cohesion and shared creative vision as the single.

The problem with only sharing an endless stream of singles is it eliminates a place for people to experience a longer expression of creativity from an artist from a specific time and phase.

This group of songs came out on this date. Those boundaries are an invitation to the type of listener who likes what you do.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple

More Than What You're Known For

Of course you are. We all are.

But your hit, your niche, your style, the special way you do that thing you do …that’s why everyone shows up. That’s what you’re known for and it’s an honor to be known for it.

No one thinks that’s all you are. But that might be all they’re looking to you for.

The chef at the asian fusion place can make great spaghetti.

The professional athlete is passionate about bracelet beading.

And of course…the famous with all the hits wants to be known for their deep cuts.

Hum Love on Spotify and Apple