Be a Better Artist

In today's episode we explore the idea of how learning new things, expanding your understanding, equates to moving around to discover new perspectives. You must not let yourself become stagnant in life when it comes to your mind. You have to keep moving. Learn new things. Garner new perspectives. Observe problems from multiple angles. This is how you revivify your outlook on life and maintain a mo...

We're back. It's been a heck of a year, but for me there can be no life without BABA, so let's go. In this episode we talk about the need for management for creative people, especially for those who work alone, and how you can use a schedule to assure stuff gets done faster, more effectively, and more reliably. BABA interviews will be coming back, so let me know if there's an artist you'd like me...

It's been a while since I released an episode, but I haven't been sitting on my laurels. I've been tremendously prolific, filming over 100+ episodes of this podcast, but the audio is not salvageable unfortunately. In this episode, we talk about how all creatives can look at these types of "lost and wasted work" -scenarios, and how to orient themselves towards these challenges in the most construct...

Stefan Runstrom is the owner and founder of Circles Drum Samples, a sample library development company focusing on drum sampling. He's also an audio engineer, a drummer, and is known from the band Tickle Me Pink. We talk about music, business, music business, sample library development, creativity, recording, dogs, life balance, finding the right business partners, marketing, branding, and drummin...

Chris Child is an electronic music composer and music producer, best known by his moniker/alias Kodomo. He's also an Emmy award winning TV composer, and has contributed music to games like Amplitude and Rock Band. We talk about his path in music, mindsets, philosophies, practical approaches to creativity, some synth nerd stuff, music tech, and mixing.

Kasson Crooker is best known from his work in bands like Symbion Project, Freezepop, and Splashdown. He has worked for the music video game company Harmonix, and lately joined THX as a Director of Product Development. We talk about his path in music, mindsets, philosophies, and practical approaches regarding it, some synth nerd stuff, music tech and how that inspires to creativity, as well as our...

How you use your money is a massive part of building success and happiness. We often waste a lot of our resources when we're not mindful of what we're doing, and how those resources could be used in other ways to play into building our dreams. In this episode, we explore the concept of 'luxuries' further, and where you might want to be allocating your money in the future.

One of the fundamental truths of life is change. Everything will change. And to expect relationships to be an exception is foolish. People choose different paths, and sometimes that means parting ways, and sometimes it means redefining the relationship. In this episode we talk about how to orient yourself towards that change in the most efficient and effective manner.

We've all felt the immense joy and pleasure of thinking about all the amazing things you'll one day achieve and fulfil. But then the day comes when you actually start doing something about it, and you feel uninspired, empty, and scared. It's so easy to fall in love with your romanticized ideas of how and what it will feel like to finally pursue your dreams, but what is missing from this conversati...

You nailed it. You won. You succeeded. But how should you respond that? Go out and celebrate, or take the energy from that victory and keep going? In this episode, we talk about momentum and how to keep it alive in a lasting and balanced way.

Losing doesn't feel good. Even when you know that in the long-term it's just a part of the bigger game, it still sucks in the moment. However, you shouldn't judge those negative feelings as simply being bad, or you being bad as a result of experiencing them; Emotions come and go, and often we have little say in them, but what really matters is what you choose to do about them and how you handle th...

Laziness plagues most of us. But why? In today's episode, we explore perspective management as a tool for curbing laziness, so that you may start to aligning your longterm goals with your actual internal values.

2020 turns into 2021, and suddenly we come to the realization that yet again another year has passed by, and the change we want to see in our lives hasn't taken place. While wanting your life to change is great, what we want to avoid is unrealistic and romanticized ideas of how the change WILL happen and what it will FEEL like. In this episode I offer some alternative approaches of how to look at...

It's no mystery why we choose short-term pleasure over long-term dedication. The rewards are here, now, guaranteed, and pleasurable. But every time we choose those over our goals and dreams, we delay our arrival to them. In this episode I propose some ideas of how to stick to those long-term goals, and how one might even learn to get pleasure and happiness out of the process of pursuing them.

I've been disappointed in my performance lately. I've fallen out of habits that have previously been very lucrative for me. And I miss those days. But I know not to take it too heavily, because falling off the horse happens all the time. That's just life. What matters the most, is learning how to get back on. And a big part of that is setting up your day strategically. By simply designing your day...

The biggest hurdle when facing an obstacle often is that we refuse to accept what's in front of us. We didn't expect it, it makes us uncomfortable, or it doesn't fit our inner narrative of what we think 'should' be happening. It's this refusal to accept whatever's there that stunts our growth. We always think it's going to be something different. We think this is not what things are supposed to lo...

Financial stress is still stress, and a very strong one at that, as money has a hand in almost everything. As we talked about in the previous episode, stress puts you in survival-mode, and that will make accessing creativity increasingly difficult. In this episode, I share some of my basic concepts of how I think about money and expenses, and how those relate to pursuing a creative career as a mus...

When real life bears down upon you.. When you struggle to find time and energy for music.. Working on it can feel more like a depressing reminder of what you can't have, and it's very easy to feel overwhelmed and consider just ditching music altogether. But of course, I won't let you do that. In this episode we touch on a number of topics, but primarily focus on defining, categorising, and priorit...

Real life can be hard and taxing. You get home from work, and you don't have any juice left to fire up the DAW and get to work. We've all been there. It's a tricky beast to figure out. But we CAN do so much about this. In this episode, I lay out some fundamental perspectives and concepts for you to brew and contemplate on regarding your mental energy.

There are several theories of 'How to make it in music' out there. Some say you have to tread your own path, some say you have to study others in order to be able to figure out how to succeed. In this episode we inspect both perspectives, and in fact explore why you should explore and integrate BOTH approaches to your career as an artist.

Sensitivity is what allows artists to pick up information and patterns that they can leverage to create their art. But if your art isn't currently producing you any financial or other benefits, your view of sensitivity can turn on you, seeing it more as a curse and a burden. In this episode we talk about how that's not true, and how every single trait in us is a double-edged sword.

We've all been there. Sitting in front of the computer or our instrument, and feeling frustrated, hopeless, useless, or all of the above. Worry not, there's a solution. There's always a solution! https://beabetterartist.com/

Artists are notoriously known for their instability and turbulent emotional life. But why exactly is that, can something be done about it, and why would you WANT to do something about it? https://beabetterartist.com/

Self-awareness is undoubtedly a superpower. When used correctly, it's the key to tremendous success. But what should you do when it turns on you? How to stop being overly self-aware and self-conscious in situations where it doesn't help at all? In this episode, as I walk through the streets of Florence Italy, not only do I explain, but also apply some of the techniques and approaches that have hel...

Originally published 27 Apr 2019. The only thing that's guaranteed in life is change. https://beabetterartist.com/