Art is Never Finished

Starting to create something is difficult but finishing it can be even more of a challenge.

Somebody somewhere, probably famous, once said that art is never finished, only abandoned.

Although I’m not keen on the use of the word abandoned, I can understand the thought behind it.

I don’t think of my finished music as abandoned, more that it has been set free to make its way in the world.

Like a bird that’s flown the nest, I will always keep an eye out for it and do my best to make sure it stands a chance of survival out there in the big wide world.

In these situations, your instinct might be screaming to keep them close to you for a little bit longer, but you must let them go at some point.

Setting a deadline of some kind for your creative output is a good way of doing that.

There’s a great story about Andrew Weatherall’s remix of a Primal Scream track called ‘I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have’ which was renamed ‘Loaded’ and became the lead single on their third studio album Screamadelica.

Primal Scream - Loaded (Creation Records) February 1990

He sent off the final version of the mix to the record label not realising that he’d recorded the drum loop wrong, or at least not how he intended to.

If you listen to the track you can hear that the drum loop has a cymbal crash at the end of every bar but was supposed to be at the end of every 4, 8 or 16 bars (not sure which).

That mistake has made the track even more memorable.

It wouldn’t have happened if he’d had more time to work on it and wasn’t in a rush to send it off to the label.

Set yourself a deadline and just get it done.

Move on to the next.

Some mistakes will be bad.

Some mistakes will be really good.

#beboldbebravebeunique

Darien