Beginner’s Perspective III: Creativity and Workflow
Sarah Mari, hoping to improve her own skills, explores music production from the perspective of a beginner by interviewing Building Beats’ workshop leaders. This third interview is with Sam Lee, aka SammAyOnTheBeat, and Kristen Glennon, aka Pozibelle.
Sarah: Alright, so my first question is: when did you decide to make music? How did you know it was for you? Was there a specific moment that you decided to dedicate your time towards music?
Sam: For me, it was in high school my sophomore year. My cousin had installed FL Studio onto my computer and was just casually making beats. And you know, I was fascinated by that specific programming and the fact that you could just create music digitally. And I didn't need any instruments or formal training to create based off of this program, and it was really eye opening for me in that moment. Yeah, that’s pretty much the moment that shifted my trajectory as far as what I was interested in and what I wanted to do moving forward.
Kristen: I don't know that there was a specific moment - it is all blurry. Music was always really important to me from when I was super young. I was always fascinated with the radio and how there were people behind the scenes that got to make these selections for what everybody else would hear and I was just really fascinated with that power. And I didn't really work with making music or any of that until my mid 20s. So, I just started buying records and then a friend of mine was like, “Hey, I have some turntables and a mixer; do you want to buy them?” I just went for it and was like, alright, let me explore this. It's just my path that led me to it and I DJ’ed for quite some time.
Then, a friend of mine was like, “Hey, I have this MPC, are you interested?” and I just went for it. And I guess I had always just surrounded myself with music producers and DJ's. I just started banging on the pads and that was ten years ago when I got my first MPC. It's been…it stuck.
My Thoughts: Something that had held me back for so long was my inability to easily pick up an instrument. And without that ability I figured making music was not something that was on the table for me. But with tools such as DAWs like FL Studio, the ability to play chords on a piano in a timely fashion is not always mandatory. Or even having that specific instrument in your possession since these DAWs have a lot of instrument sounds you can experiment and get familiar with.
Another concept that was foreign to me is who these mythical beings were who got to pick music for radio stations, events or even movies. I remember thinking when I was younger that what DJ’s did was the coolest job in the world. I always wanted to curate playlists for every event possible. Getting ready with friends for a dance or going on a road trip or even just going for a walk. And as I grew older, I still think it’s the coolest thing. But it’s also interesting to notice that proximity really has so much to do with exposure. To have multiple friends involved further pushes you to get better and opens one up to opportunities and tools like turntables, mixers and even MPCs!
Sarah: How would you define creativity?
“Creativity is a spark. It's a moment of inspiration that consumes you and desires an output. The output can come in many different forms, many different mediums.”
Sam: In my younger years, it was through art. I wanted to be an illustrator. I wanted to sketch and draw and do all of these things and creativity allowed me to, you know, find out what my approach to art was. And when I got involved in music, it inspired me in a different way; just being involved in digital music production was inspiring in itself. Being creative in layering sounds and understanding all the different complex systems within learning a step sequencer and using effects and things of that nature really allowed me to create things from scratch and not feel limited by my knowledge at that time. So creativity is something that just consumes my day to day work and allows me to push through and create results.
Kristen: I think creativity can show up in a lot of places in a lot of different forms. For me, when I'm creating music, I like to place restrictions on myself, like I only work with three different sounds or I have to get something done in 10 minutes. Within that, it opens up possibilities for your brain to think in different ways, and that's that moment where creativity kicks in. Because yes, you have these restrictions that you have to follow, but there are ways around them. There's these little loopholes that you can find in these little pockets of energy that you can explore, that may be new ways of working. And even in my daily work with Building Beats I may be working on a spreadsheet, which many people might not think is creative, but within that, a spreadsheet, there are rules and parameters that have to be followed - but how can you flip those and tweak them to make something interesting? So that's creativity to me: finding those little pockets of expansion within restriction.
My Thoughts: It’s interesting to see it described as, ‘a moment of inspiration that desires an output,’ because I tend to work best or get my best music out when I am in the middle of a strong emotion. Because music is a release for me; a place for me to express and get out what I need to in that moment. But on the other side of that is, in my case, I don’t exactly want to rely on moments of strong emotion to exercise my creativity. So, in regard to Kristen placing restrictions on her creativity, this provides that stability in skill building. And it challenges you on a daily basis to improve and try things out to expand your creativity. As someone who relies on ‘feeling creative’ to create; by making it more of a daily occurrence could allow for more growth and makes the process less intimidating. Also, those who don’t believe organization takes creativity; you are wrong. It is so essential to find a way to organize something so that it is easy to navigate and understand. And finding ways to start with data and turn it into a spreadsheet and then a whole system that serves a bigger process takes creativity.
Sarah: Someone I really admire, Jhene Aiko, prides herself as this artist that is very intentional about her creative pursuits. How would you describe your approach and what is the main guide to anything creative that you do?
Sam: For myself, creatively, it definitely changes depending on a particular project that I'm working on. If I'm working with an artist or another collaborator, I'm intentional in my approach on what the specific outcome is we're working on. And I'll let the creativity flow that way through each other, and how we're going to develop what that outcome becomes.
Solo? You know when I'm working on a solo project or I'm just brainstorming, it's very therapeutic; in the process where I'm just trying to get some thoughts out or I'm feeling a certain way and the music is just flowing in that specific realm. I've been told over the course of my creative process that a lot of my music sounds sad or dark. And I notice that, so I think it just really dictates the mood that you're in, which you're trying to portray to the audience, or what you're trying to get out in that moment. For me, it really just depends on the time, the day, or the moment that inspires it.
Kristen: Lately I've been thinking a lot about curiosity and how that's a really important piece to my creative pursuit. If I'm not curious – it won't go far, right? But if I investigate what I'm working on I tend to find something to be curious about and when I'm not fully satisfied with it I ask myself questions. Why does it sound like that? How can I tweak it and flip it so that I am curious so it can expand and go in a different direction? And also, I think continuing to learn new things keeps me curious and exploring new pathways; whether it's getting a new piece of gear and investigating that or digging deeper into the stuff that I already have. And lately, community has been playing a big part in that. Hearing their process and how different it is from mine keeps me curious 'cause I get ideas and I'm like, maybe I'll try it that way – learning new things and exploring the constant exploration; constant reevaluation. Just staying curious.
My Thoughts: Personally, my music tends to be on the more sad/ angry side because those tend to be almost the easiest emotions to get out. And sometimes my intentions are just to get the emotion out and not make a song others will hear. But curiosity feels like something that can carry you the rest of the way. For example, I have these lyrics that are sad; how can I further portray that feeling with my drums? Or you have a set of angry sounding chords, how can I adjust the BPM or how these synths push that emotion?
Also, whenever I get a new piece of equipment, I often am interested in how much I can get out of that item. Listening to music keeps me curious as well and it’s often when I hear something I like I wonder how I can do that at home? Recently I’ve been experimenting with how to pan vocals the way Sevdaliza does or how to get sounds to sound crisp like Sophie’s? I work the hardest when I want to figure something out and it’s within my grasp because, let’s face it - there are some limitations with being a beginner and wanting to learn. But I try not to bite off more than I can chew and start small with what I want to do.
Sarah: How do you get yourself ready to make music? Do you have any rituals when it comes to music making?
Sam: In the past I would normally create at night for some reason. The evening to night time was prime time for me to create and it gave me the best window to lay out thoughts, ideas and incomplete projects. Over the course of the quarantine, I've discovered that that system hasn't been working too well for me, so I'm starting to adapt by creating an earlier schedule – and blocking time when it's necessary for me to create – just to spark some type of creativity. So, I would say that works best for me; just locking it in on my calendar, preferably in the morning or early afternoon. Also, if I'm not feeling motivated to create or I'm going through what I like to call “producer block,” I'll take the time off that's necessary. I’ll take my walks or I'll just live life and have that moment to myself to come back and inspire me. I've had plenty of moments where I was away from creating for quite some time and came back and I'm knocking out like 5 to 10 tracks - just laying down ideas and then they’re forming into complete ideas.
Kristen: It's very important for me to have everything hooked up and ready to go so if I have a moment of inspiration, I can easily just sit down. I leave a lot of my gear on a lot of the time too, cause I'll be in the middle of an idea, so it's just like hooked up and ready to go the way I need it.Lately I've been waking up early to work on music first thing in the day. And coming into it with a clear head and mind. A clear plan of what I'm going to work on in my allotted time. Cause it's really easy to get distracted and bounce from thing to thing to thing to thing. And, lately, I find that I'm way more productive if I just sit down and I'm like, “OK today I am arranging this song and I'm going to work on that for one hour and then after that I'm going to organize some samples for 30 minutes” and just clearly block out my time so that I don't end up bouncing around for 2 hours and not really complete any tasks.
I also really try to minimize distractions. I put my phone away, turn off my notifications, close my browser windows. Just so that I can really zone in. And, I love wearing socks when I produce – I’ve been barefoot most of the time in my house. But when I sit down at my desk to create, I have to have a pair of socks on to feel cozy and in my little bubble. So, it's funny; I normally leave an extra pair of socks just sitting under my desk so that I can put them on when it's time to work.
My Thoughts: I tend to have a very chaotic approach to making music and that is to do it when I feel a strong emotion; which is great during months that I have the energy and time. But when I overbook myself and stress out about not making music it makes the process all the more daunting and almost brings about a shame that keeps me from wanting to create. I am in the process of having everything hooked up and ready, but I’ve had to change my set up and looking for a desk to accommodate has been quite a task! But the idea of having to plug in my mic and move things around to get my keyboard set up tends to just cause me stress. So, getting a desk is very much at the top of my list!
Being clear with my intentions by blocking off time makes making music a priority and allows me to make time for it instead of having to make time for it. Very big difference. Keep in mind that if something isn’t working when creating, sometimes just getting up and going for a walk or even taking 15 min to do some yoga can clear up your head space. Or giving yourself the chance to just forget about it for a bit until something occurs that sparks up that creativity again for a project has been true. Because I have tried to force myself to complete music but if it’s not working and I push myself I end up hating the project even more and it increases my hesitation on working on it any further. There needs to be a balance.
Distractions are also something I tend to underestimate especially because I record a lot of vocals with the lyrics being stored in my phone. It’s hard to record if I keep getting notifications on my screen. Transferring things over to paper has helped with this immensely to minimize distractions. And I found the socks thing funny because my feet are the first things to get cold and I often hate having to get up in the middle of the session for anything so maybe having a sock compartment could be useful! I already like to keep water, a snack, pens, paper, instruments and equipment I plan to use within arm’s reach to eliminate getting up, but socks might have been a missing component!
Sarah: How do you deal with times of feeling unmotivated with your music?
Sam: Dealing with that, I think it just comes with the process. You're going to have moments where you feel like you're creating the best music you've ever created, and then you'll have moments where nothing sounds right to you. For myself, I'm also an engineer and I think having the time to work with others on their own project gives me time to recollect my thoughts and come back to my project with a new ear; so that's helpful.
During quarantine, I've also discovered that I love sound design. I've been watching multiple videos and researching sound design, drum synthesis and all types of forms of creating sample packs. And when I'm not creating my own music or working on a specific project for an artist, I enjoy the process of creating my own sounds. That serves as a way to break the producer's block that I'm going through because I'm focused on something else that doesn't rely on me building out a full track that I adore so much. I can focus on creating, like, just a piano loop or a percussion loop or something like that. And that helps bring the inspiration back to the process.
Kristen: When I feel unmotivated, I just push through it. The things that really help me are scheduling time every day and making that a daily practice. And then within that, having a clear task that I'm going to complete in my daily practice time.
“If I'm not feeling motivated to write or to actually create, there are other tasks besides just sitting down and actually getting the music out. You know, there's recording, organizing samples, gathering music to send to somebody. There's multiple tasks besides that magic creative moment; it’s still part of the whole picture of me being a musician and artist.”
My Thoughts: Having multiple creative pursuits I think is crucial to overall creative performance. Putting all of your efforts into one area causes it to be the only outlet and if it’s the only outlet, I often find myself getting tired of it. So, whether it’s sound design or even film making or drawing, finding another outlet to dedicate some of that creative energy to can keep your creativity from feeling stagnant. And the approach of focusing on drum loops or piano loops makes the process less daunting. By breaking it down, it’s not a big monster of a project but a few exercises to get to an end result.
Also, I never thought of the organizational side of music producing to be a part of the process, - more of the optional end of music making - because, I thought, music making was the process! But anything that contributes to making it easier is a part of the process! Organizing samples and gathering music to send someone are all aspects of creativity and fueling that process facilitates a smoother experience.
Sarah: Do you have tips on things that have improved your workflow to facilitate your creative process?
Sam: For music production, I have to be organized. I can't operate properly without having some type of outline or just something to make the work easier. Ultimately, you want to create; you want to get to work as fast as possible; you don't want to have to worry about setting things up and figuring things out while you're creating. So, I like to make that part as smooth as possible. A couple of things I enjoy to do is organize my sound library and create templates for various situations just so I can have a nice start to my session. And, I also enjoy making presets for plugins and presets for different VST's I use in my workflow. So if I want to create a certain style of music or I'm trying to emulate a certain sound, I have presets that are ready to go that I can just use to start the process off and get it going.
Kristen: Scheduling my time [and] being intentional about what I'm working on during that time has been super important and making that time regular and consistent so that I stay grounded within my projects. But another thing that has really helped me in the last few years is that I have this practice where I will just sample things randomly and give myself a palette of random sounds and samples to work with. And then treat those like a puzzle where, like, I have to make them work. It’s been a really good practice for me because I let go of expectations of what my track or beat should be. Because, I mean, I am in charge, but the sounds that were randomly given to me that day are ultimately in charge so the expectations are removed and that practice in itself has been super helpful.
Also, those restrictions of only having these specific sounds to work with really has helped me think creatively and outside the box with how I can tweak sounds and samples to create something new. And it works sometimes. Sometimes I'll get something really cool and sometimes I'll get something that is a mess, and I’ll go back to and feel like, “What is that?” But what ends up happening is that inside that mess there is normally a diamond in the rough. There'll be like, maybe a couple chords that I played out, or a cool sample arrangement that I can extract from that sketch and use it in another track so that I don't have to start from scratch all the time. So, I have all these little sketches from this random sampling practice and then I take those sketches apart and treat them just as their own samples and I can mix and match them in other places. So, that's really helped me keep moving forward.
My Thoughts: I think the main takeaway from this article is how important organization is for the creative process. Whether it’s organizing your sound library, creating a template or creating a spreadsheet for your current projects and their status or your plan for each track; it’s all vital to the process. When these steps of the process are functioning, it streamlines the creative process so there’s no time getting frustrated going through samples or trying to figure out the desired preset. Plus, the idea of incorporating a challenge for yourself to test your creativity drives the skills even further. Like working with a few random sounds and trying to create something from that. Even if the end result doesn’t turn out as desired there can be these ‘diamonds in the rough’ that can enhance another project or spawn a completely new one.