This week it occurred to me how easy it can be to be unenthusiastic about doing music or in my case a music podcast.
It’s hard to see it in our own work but when you spot someone else going through the motions you start to understand that this is not the way you want to engage with your art.
That’s one of the benefits of social media is all kinds of videos show up in your feeds and we have the access and ability to notice these things.
Sometimes we can’t help it. We’re in a funk and we’re just trying to keep our head above water. But if I can ever prevent such an unengaged way of working the I would do so.
So I told myself, if I’m going to make music, I better be open to the possibilities of what can happen when I sit down to write. If I’m going to make a podcast, I better be open to whatever happens after I hit record. If I’m going to send this email, I better be open to connecting with you as this message finds you on any given Sunday.
And it goes the other way too, if I will sit down to listen to an album or a podcast I better do my best to give it my full attention and listen with an uncritical ear the first time around. Conscious listening or viewing of a film is work.
And it’s important work too, because without you being an audience member, that work has no meaning, even if the piece was made before you were born. Just like how a lightbulb won’t go on without there being both positive and negative charges, art needs a viewer for it to be art. Before that moment it is formless, merely an idea being worked out in the privacy of the maker’s home.
Look no further than professional sports for proof of this - how exciting is an NFL game without a stadium full of loud, drunk Americans and the big telecast to go with it? A concert without an audience is a jam session.
And whether this is about making art or consuming it, none of it is ever perfect so you better be open to the good, the bad and the ugly that comes out.
I hope you can take some of that gusto to whatever it is you have to show up for in life that can be prone to phoning it in, and I hope you find something in it that activity that truly resonates with you.
Enjoy this week’s podcast which features a nice quiet jam followed by a discussion on the topic of “the decisive moment”.
Listen on other networks here.
Have a great Sunday and a super duper week ahead, Ned. This calls for a bagel!