Tag: ten things

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Some days starting a new creative project is really hard. Creativity can be as difficult as it is pleasing. If I’m not in the mood, distractions become attractive. My head tells me that other options are available, but my heart wants to create… 

  1. Food. Yes really, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve settled down to work and my stomach has decided that food is more important. A sandwich, crisps, a biscuit (I don’t even like biscuits!), anything to stop me doing some work.  
  1. Neighbours. Suddenly the activities of my neighbours become far more interesting than writing a song, blog or doing some artwork. Who knew that next door’s Deliveroo delivery could be so entertaining?!  
  1. The box set. I’ve seen Sex And the City 8000 times, I don’t need to see it again, yet hours on the sofa seem more attractive than getting started on a blog. Also don’t let me crack open the Ghostbusters box set… 
  1. Cleaning. Suddenly I have a desperate urge to clean everything and get on top of the housework. This is partially linked to the fact that I find it hard to be creative in a messy room. For me, a tidy room means a tidy mind. Coincidently I have no urge to clean when I’m not creating. 
  1. The phone. This is a dangerous problem. Hours can be lost doom scrolling and checking out other artists and what they are up to. It can be a door to depression, so don’t go there. Don’t look at their accounts, concentrate on what you are doing. Also, whatever you do, absolutely do not look on Amazon, it leads to stupid purchases.  
  1. Old work. Looking at unfinished projects and suddenly thinking that they are more important than the piece I’m working on now. I also look at pieces I have finished and past successes (and failures!!!) and waste a lot of time analysing how I would have done things differently. 
  1. Emails. Messages from clients, friends, shops that I once bought something from in 2015…. These all become very urgent when I’ve got a creative project to start.  
  1. The need to go outside. As soon as I’ve got to sit down and focus, my brain tells me that I need to be outside in the sunshine. Or, even worse… that I will work better in a coffee shop. I’ve learnt to set times or targets for working and then the reward is a wander outside.  
  1. Tea. I have come to the conclusion that a cup of tea has the same danger as a mythical siren; the kettle is so alluring and takes me away from my goal. It all starts with “I’ll just have a quick cuppa…” 
  1. Teenage music. And by this, I mean the music that I listened to when I was a teenager. Hours of time lost to listening to Adamski and the Prodigy.  

PS. I wrote this blog instead of composing some music that desperately needs finishing. I was listening to Killer by Adamski. You’re welcome. 

What makes you procrastinate and not be creative? 

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Fortunately since I cut my first demo in March 1995 (yes twenty years ago peeps!), technology has moved on in leaps and bounds. The days of spending hours in someone’s studio trying to put together the beginnings of demo are long gone and now most people start the demo stage of a recording at home before heading to a professional studio. However there are still some issues that hamstring every recording artist during the “demo” stage of the song. Here are some of the things you need to know to survive recording at home…

  • FullSizeRenderSpend ages setting up and setting levels only to discover that a) you’re not in the mood, b) you have no talent or musical ability, c) you haven’t actually written the song yet.
  • Don’t allow your family to flush the bog. Under no circumstance can anyone have a wee. It takes ages for the sound of toilet refilling to stop. No-one wants to hear that on a recording.
  • You will drop mayonnaise from your sandwich on the laptop keyboard. The smell will never go and everyone thinks you smell at bit “funky” now.
  • You will spend ages producing a world class vocal only to discover that a small bird three miles down the road can be heard chirping in the background. Incandescent rage is the only answer. Start again.
  • An episode of The Bill from 1997 is on the Drama Channel; abandon all projects until you have watched the episode even though you saw the entire series in 1997 when you were a student.
  • Just given the best piano recital ever? Well done, however you forgot to push the RECORD button. Start again.
  • What’s the jangling noise in the background of your vocal? Oh yes it’s all the jewellery you love to wear. Take the damn silver bangles off. Start again.
  • The beautiful backing vocal you did at 3.10pm on Tuesday sounds like complete crap at 10.35am on Thursday. Start again.
  • You can’t understand why the microphone won’t work. You’ve tried singing into it, tapping it, magic spells. You tell it how much you love it and you’re sorry you got cross and shouted, but nothing makes it work… Then you find that it wasn’t plugged in.
  • The four hours you spent meticulously mixing the drums, weren’t all wasted… you got to eat a whole packet of biscuits too.
  • That song you wrote that sounded like a hit… sounds like total crap once you’ve recorded it. Start again.

So dress it up all you like: recording demos is fun, crazy, illuminating but also a little but treacherous. The important thing it to keep going no matter what…

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When I was 17 I had a dream of how my songwriting career would pan out… I would live in London in a tiny bedsit, just me and my piano and spend my days writing beautiful songs whilst trying not to starve to death from crap pay and late night gigs. My days would be spent thinking up new ways to be bohemian, playing my Carpenters vinyl and reading trendy paperbacks. To some extent my student days were like this: I lived in a damp house with 3 friends and piano, I drank Cinzano and Jack Daniels (not together in the same glass, that would just be weird), listened to Sarah McLachlan and Sophie B Hawkins (showing my age now!) and bought clothes from Camden market.

However my life 20 years on is very different. I’m married with two children and although I lived in London for 11 years, I now live in the Home Counties in a sensible house that hasn’t seen any bohemian, artistic deaths. My songwriting techniques have changed over the years and I’ve learned to adapt as my situation changes particularly with motherhood and the demands of running a business. Nothing ever prepares you for these changes but here are the things that I have found interrupt my songwriting…

Blog photo sept 15

  • At the crucial lyric or harmony development stage, my 2 year old will always fill his nappy with something disgusting and demand a nappy change. Not only does it disrupt my creative flow, it completely and utterly kills the mood…
  • I stuff myself with food. Yep I write 8 bars and then immediately think that I deserve some sort of treat for 15 minutes of concentration. Hello treadmill!
  • Suddenly everyone wants to visit. My doorbell only ever rings when I’m working, yet no-one ever shows up when I’m watching TV or cleaning the sink.
  • The smell of burning food. I can’t tell you how many dinners I’ve ruined by “just having a few minutes on the piano” while its cooking. I always get into the song, forget the dinner and serve up something cremated with a side of “would you like to hear my new song?”. My family aren’t impressed.
  • My children join in… There’s nothing more distracting than my 7 year old daughter singing one of my songs in face or my 2 year old son banging the piano and pushing me out the way so he can have a go.
  • The piano is too messy. I can’t deal with untidiness in the area I want to be creative in. If it’s not tidy then I’m not writing. I’ve spent many hours procrastinating under the guise that  “I can’t possibly write unless the ambience is right!”.
  • I’ll just check Facebook, Twitter, my emails. LISTEN UP HELEN: NO-ONE EVER WROTE A SONG BY READING FACEBOOK.
  • I get lonely.
  • The spreadsheet of doom… or otherwise known as “The album song list”. This can either cripple or energise my composing. It’s either “Ooooh I’ve written 8 decent songs that could go on the album, let’s write a hit!” or “Great. 8 crap songs, let’s see if I can completely kill the album”.

And then there are all the other things: accounts, emails, promotion and of course writing blogs! So I’m off to write a song…