How creativity became a solitary sport
And what I'm doing to increase collaboration with fellow humans
Before I cultivated the discipline to write regularly my main creative outlet was music. From the ages of 15 - 25 I played in bands variously called 'Konfusion', 'Gimp' and 'Quarterlife Crisis' (I know!), and as the lead singer it fell upon me to take on songwriting duties too.
Sure, I could knock up a few chords and rough vowel sounds in my bedroom but the real writing happened in the rehearsal room with my bandmates, each contributing an idea on their weapon of choice; bass, drums or guitar.
We would spar, challenge each other, laugh at each other’s cheesy rip-off riffs until we hit upon one that got everyone's heads nodding. That's when we knew, by mutual consent, that we had something and laid it down on tape (24 years ago 👇!!)
Rehearsal nights on Thursdays at Scream Studios in Croydon were as much fun as Friday nights in the pub, if not more. We would drive down in our shitty cars (mine a metallic turquoise VW Polo purchased for £150), loaded with guitars, amps, 6 packs of warm Carling and 20 packs of Marlboro Light. We would play, drink, smoke, chat, swap music recommendations, plan gigs and demo recordings, dream about being rock stars and generally have some of the best times of our lives in those stinking rooms in deepest South West London.
That was the 90s and early-00s, the age of the band. Now, we're in the age of the artist, the solo bedroom producer, and I wonder if it’s even half as much fun or productive.
So much creative endeavour has been a team sport up until now. To be anything more than a folk singer you needed to find a bassist, drummer and lead guitarist at the very least. You would have to go to a studio to record your demo with a producer and engineer, then give that demo to promoters and venues who might book you and put your posters up around town. Now musicians, like writers (and filmmakers, photographers, podcasters, etc.), can and frequently do, undertake everything themselves but I wonder what we/they miss in that process?
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This is not a pity post. I am hugely grateful for the opportunity to self-publish without gatekeepers thanks to the likes of Substack but let's not pretend it's not hard, lonely graft. I am the writer, the editor, the designer, the marketer, the salesman but I am not an expert at all of these jobs and my anxiety over what I can't do sometimes threatens to overwhelm what I can. Am I losing views because my headlines or header images suck? Am I missing opportunities because my social game is weak? Am I failing to grow because I don't like making videos? These are the thoughts that periodically paralyse me and make me questions what I’m even doing.
From DIY to DIA (Do It Alone)
I grew up listening to punk rock and am a massive fan of the DIY ethic but DIY has become DIA - Do It Alone. Just because we have the tools to write, design, edit, publish, market and sell ourselves doesn't mean we can or that we always should. Not only is it exhausting and not only are we unlikely to be equally good at all aspects of the process but also, we aren’t able to challenge and inspire ourselves as well as others can.
Throughout history creative partnerships and, indeed, rivalries between people have spurred incredible innovation. If Paul McCartney hadn’t approached John Lennon at Woolton Village Fête on July 6 1957 the world would be a much poorer place. If Brian de Palma hadn’t introduced Martin Scorsese to Robert DeNiro, or if DeNiro and Pacino hadn’t competed so fiercely at the start of their careers, there’d be a giant hole in film history. And Steve Jobs without Steve Wozniak may just have been another callow egotistical megalomaniac desperate to touch a boob, but with no one to bully into making him a billionaire!
My point is, as much as we all love the narrative of the lone genius, and even though every phone is an HD camera and every laptop comes pre-loaded with design, recording and editing software that doesn’t mean we can or should do everything alone. Partly because it quickly stops being fun and starts being work but also because it makes it seem like collaboration is a weakness and other people are the barrier to your success, when it’s actually the opposite!
To that end, about 18 months ago I co-founded a little creative development company called Pretty Neat Productions with another writer
. This is the first time I have had a writing partner outside of music and it's a blessed relief. When I can't face another lonely hour at my seat after writing for Moore's Lore Media and Pro-Human I can call Tammy for a coffee or a beer and we can at least talk about the work, bounce ideas around, read each other's pages and critique them with honesty and good humour.
Not only does Tammy help make the process more sociable, she also keeps me accountable, checking in to see that I am not losing hope, reminding me why we’re bothering and asking me for new pages to review - and I do the same for her. By sharing the creative load we’re able to accomplish more too. Last year we produced two (nearly three) full cast immersive audio dramas together, which was the quickest and cheapest way to lift our words from the page and make them real.
We could have used AI voices but we hired (mostly) local actors in a tiny studio run by an accommodating engineer and we rehearsed experimented and had fun together. It was exhausting but in the best way. The kind of tired you get after exercise as opposed to the morning after 10 beers.
It’s a feeling I want more often, which is why I am now also collaborating on a play with my friend Marc and why we’re setting up a series of Pro-Human events in Singapore to bring people together and lift these words off the page and into a community. Because how can I claim to be Pro-Human if I only collaborate with my laptop?
To Do List
My recommendations for new things to read, watch, look at, listen to and do:
Rutger Bregman’s latest book ‘Moral Ambition’ was released this week. I found his previous effort ‘Humankind: A Hopeful History’ all kinds of uplifting and I am looking forward to engaging with his current call to ‘stop wasting your talent and start making a difference’, perhaps via his School for Moral Ambition:
There is an article I intend to write one day about how I think Meta might be the most evil company on the Internet at this current time I am too enraged. For now, see if your blood pressure can stand this incredible Vanity Fair expose about ‘How Meta AI Staffers Deemed More Than 7 Million Books to Have No Economic Value’ 🤬
Singaporean shoegazers Subsonic Eye have released the first track from their forthcoming album ‘Singapore Dreaming’ and it’s my favourite from them yet so listen, pre-save and look out for gigs soon:
Art season is kicking off in Singapore so get yourself booked into some shows at the Singapore International Festival of Arts and The 34th European Film Festival for starters.
Right, that’ll do ya. Cheers, Nx
Great that you still find ways to collaborate and make it enjoyable. Funny that I am the opposite: working alone is the ultimate gift, very satisfying and dare I say fun. But maybe writing is distinct from music. At any rate, it is important to acknowledge to ourselves what environment fuels creativity.
Let me know if I can help, or at least be invited to your SG get together. Let’s put the band together. I used to work as a roadie, because I had the pickup truck.