If you create something that’s to your taste, you have to dig back in. Figure out exactly what it was that worked for you and not the algorithm. Iterate on it, and do it again.
Full Show Notes: https://thejaymo.net/2024/09/21/2424-dig-back-in/
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Dig Back In
When you create something that reflects your own taste, you’re bound to receive honest feedback. I want to thank everyone who shared their thoughts on last week’s episode, whether by email or in the comments—whether the feedback was supportive or simply expressing that it wasn’t to your liking, I appreciate it all. For those who didn’t weigh in, I’ll just assume a strong indifference – with no opinion either way.
The decisiveness of last week’s episode has made me think harder about the process of discernment and my own taste.
So lets, talk about that, today…
When you create something that feels transparently honest, something that satisfies your taste. It’s not actually about the thing itself. It’s also about understanding why the thing resonates with you.
You have to use your discernment to interrogate the work: What is it about this thing I have created that aligns with my taste? And why does it resonate?
At the beginning of the year (see episode 2401) when I decided that I was going to start doing sound design for each episode, I wanted to try it out in part to gain a bunch of skills. But also to explore what the show could become. A shift from Podcast to Radio thinking. This is still the ambition.
However, when I tried to execute on that ambition over the first 10 episodes I found it creatively unsatisfying. Something just wasn’t right. I was making the show as I always did, and then scoring it. It was a massive amount of extra work and effort on top of making the usual show and I was dissatisfied with the results.
So I stopped doing it. Discouraged.
But last week’s episode reminded me that the ambition at the beginning of the year, was still something I wanted to pursue. It also made me realise that if you are going to do the sound design for something, It can’t be divorced from the thing that you are making. It can’t be an afterthought. Just adding some drones or drums underneath a voice isn’t to my taste.
In the past I have called this podcast a 301 second long container for my creativity. Seeing what I can pour in every week. Adding music changes my understanding of the shape of the container.
Words + music + video together as a single piece. Complete.
On the surface, of course making something abrasive and noisy – yelling over crazy drums last week is to my taste. In fact it’s on the way to being the logical endpoint of almost all my creative work. From the breakcore I made in my mid 20’s, yelling through a gas mask over harsh white noise. To the occult noise and drone art I made at university, to the grindcore band I was in when I was 16. So all that suits me aesthetically.
But thinking about the thing I actually made. I realise that it isn’t all the noise that I find so satisfying. Not a single episode of this show has been a finished product, it’s always been a work in progress. 80% done. Good enough. So I ask again what was ‘good enough’ about last week’s show?
It was the integration—the music, writing, and visuals came together as a single entity, a cohesive whole. Something I don’t think I’ve achieved before.
Once you have made something to your taste, you have to explore why it satisfies you. This is one of the most important actions of the artist. You have to keep moving, keep exploring the thing that excites you, even if you can’t name it or pinpoint it exactly.
You have to go back to it, and make another. Make something to your taste and then iterate and do it again.
Explore what worked and try to figure out why it resonates with you. Each time you try again, you get a little closer to the core of it.
Right now, I’m not sure if making episodes like last weeks (or this one) are sustainable. They weren’t the last time I tried it. It was a different approach. The only way to find out is to try it again. You have to keep experimenting, until you find the thing that clicks.
That’s what makes the creative process fulfilling.
So, what you are listening to or reading right now is part of that return. This is real time learning. What about last week’s show can I find this week, even if it sounds completely different?
Even though last week’s episode was divisive, with some people loving it and others not so much, it helped me understand something deeper about my own process. And it’s made me more confident about what I want to build towards in the longer-term when 301 runs out of road. What about this, can I take with me when I start making longer but less frequent work.
Because here’s the thing about making stuff and putting it online: You can only ever do the experiments in public. And they are not about making something that everyone loves; it’s about finding what satisfies you and pushing that further. Don’t worry about the clicks and likes and follows, that’s all just a stupid game.
Create something that’s to your taste, and then dig back in. Figure out exactly what it was that worked for you, not the algorithm, and iterate on that and do it again.
Being creative isn’t about the finished product at all. It’s about the process of creating. The search for what satisfies your taste, and why.
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