What kind of voices are in your head ?
As artists you end up with a choir of voices in your ear. Producers, labels, managers, fans. That one uncle that tells you all you need is more exposure.
There are a lot of (mostly) well-meaning voices throwing their pennies in the pond hoping you’ll listen, two cents at a time.
But when all those voices shut up, what do you hear in the silence ?
What’s your own head telling you ?
Theoretically, your own voice is the most important. It’s the one that sets the course for where you wanna go and how you’re gonna get there. It should be the voice that leads the chorus and signals direction. You’re singing lead, not standing in the back gently crooning BGV’s that’ll get buried in the mix.
Practically though ? Your own voice scares the shit out of you sometimes. We know that’s true because we’ve been artists too.
When you follow your own lead and get lost, you’re the one on the hook for finding your way back. That’s some heavy pressure. And pressure has a way of messing with the gauges.
Of all the outside voices vying for space in your head, it’s often your own voice that’s beating you up. Tearing you down. Sowing the seeds of doubt and turning on the sprinkler. You can be your biggest champion, and your own worst enemy. Often in the same 24 hour period.
As an artist, you don’t get to leave your work at the office. You bring it home with you. You tuck it into bed and sleep with it. You wake up and make it coffee while it stares at you from across the table. Silently. Your work sits there at breakfast, a reflection that is supposed to mirror you, but somehow gets warped every time you take your eyes off it. The work needs constant attention. You are the work. The work is you. When you can’t separate from that, the voices never stop. If there was an easy answer, we’d offer it up. But there really isn’t, it’s supposed to be hard.
So here’s our singular piece of advice - Learn To Discern. Discerning which voices to listen to and when, is the start of trusting your own judgement. Not everything you think is good. The more you are able to discern the helpful from the harmful, the louder your real voice gets and the more confidently you can speak. About who you are, where you wanna go, and how you wanna get there.
No one knows better than you.
The more you’re able to discern the productive parts of your own voice, the more you’ll be able to discern and edit the voices coming from the outside too. It’s hard to trust someone else when you don’t trust yourself.
You don’t suck.
Your ideas don’t suck.
Your vision doesn’t suck.
Tell those voices to fuck off.
They won’t leave entirely, but at least give them seats in the nosebleeds where you can’t hear them scream.
Save your VIP passes for the voices that tell you you’re enough.
Your heart is enough.
Your ideas are enough.
What you feel is enough.
Not enough to be someone else, but enough to be you.
Learn to discern the voices that give you the confidence to be the version of you that matters most, and then watch what happens.
The reflection gets better.
Not perfect. But better.
Isn’t it great being an artist ?
Mirrors are broken.
Heads are loud.
The creative burden is not comparatively extraordinary, but it is unique in its heaviness.
Waking up everyday to do this makes you part of a select group of flawed, messed up, beautiful, special human beings.
For a profession built on performing, the hardest work might actually be listening.
It’ll never be easy, but it gets a little easier when you start to pick out the voices worth listening to.
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