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I learned a hard lesson about the creative process when I made my first solo record. It took an embarrassing studio session to show me what I was missing.
I’d spent months obsessing over demos in my bedroom and had a pretty clear vision going into the studio. The producer brought in a session musician for keyboards and synths. I’d sent him the demos beforehand, and on his first take he played something similar but was clearly finding his way through the arrangement.
After a couple of takes, I started micromanaging: “Can you hold that third note longer?” Then: “Maybe go back to how it was.” When it still didn’t match what I had in my head, he asked if I could show him. I jumped on his synth and played exactly what I’d programmed in my demo.
“So…is that it? Is that what you were imagining?” he asked. “Um…yes!” You can see where this is going.
I ended up tracking all the synth parts myself, exactly as they were in my demo. Same parts, just slightly better sounds. He had to leave for a gig before we finished, so he offered to track parts remotely and send them over.
A week later, I got an email with multiple takes. The first matched my demo closely. But the next few were parts he’d come up with himself. For one song, he split the piano into two layers–low notes creating a pedal tone that brought incredible tension, while sparse chord voicings created beautiful harmonic clusters against my guitar.
I never would’ve imagined these parts, and even if I had, I couldn’t have played them like he did. I was so stoked I emailed him immediately saying thanks. But suddenly those first songs we’d done in person seemed lacking.
I realised that if I’d let him do his thing in the studio instead of being so attached to my demos, some of his magic might’ve come through on those songs too. This mantra now lives on a Post-it in my studio:
When you try to control everything, you miss out on the magic of what you can’t imagine.
Do you relate to this? What’s your experience been like collaborating with other artists or musicians?
Thanks to Pete Covington for the content! Pete is a music producer, songwriter and touring guitarist based out of Australia. He posts awesome music industry content both on social media and Substack. Show him some love and give him a follow!
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