Am I really still working on this page? Say it ain't so.
Yeah, okay so that took a little longer than expected. At first I was like "yeah, a simple, single-page website is all I need, straight to the point..."
Next thing you know I'm learning CSS and customizing fonts and buttons and all this stuff because that's how my brain works. I see one little thing that leads to another and a month later I'm still working on it. To be fair, this is all new to me, I've never done CSS before so things that would take a professional website builder 5 minutes to change probably took me an hour on average to figure out. I do have google to thank for a lot of that, some really helpful sites that I found along the way (Squarespace support being a monumental help) and a lot of patience.
I should also give credit where credit is due, especially for the photography on my page, to Shjaane Glover and Tomas Macacek, @mossfaerie for designing my logo and Pete Grecco for cleaning it up and giving my site a good once over. Also thanks to my buddies Kevin and Dave for reviewing my page and giving me their valued input. Lastly, thanks to all those who were kind and generous enough to give me testimonials: Eric Ratz, Harry Hess, Kevin Hearn, Jeremy Widerman, Danko Jones, John-Angus Macdonald and Zach Schottler.
All of this brings to mind something my pal Dave said to me: "Don't let perfection be the enemy of progress". I think, as artists, it's so easy for us to sweat the small stuff. Waiting for the perfect time, when we have enough money, when we think people are paying enough attention... is the song good enough? Is the mix good enough? Is this the best that I can do? These can be some of the toughest questions for us to answer or overcome; our fear of letting go. After-all, we're putting our baby out into the world, baring it all for to see and scrutinize, a representation of ourselves, our legacy... it can be daunting, even paralyzing. When, or how, do we learn to let go? What is the balance between perfection and progress? I'll tell you right now, even I'm still working on this. I think I'm getting better with it over the years but I still need to remind myself, in many instances, I'll likely never be fully satisfied with what I'm doing in this moment in time... but is that a bad thing? As long as it's better than yesterday, we're growing.
I've always disliked the term "good enough"... I feel like it's a lazy phrase, a way of settling in order to move on. Yet most of us have to work within constraints... money, time, skill, resources... how do we make the most of what we have on hand and still end up happy, if even simply satisfied with what we're putting forth? Our work as artists is usually a representation of ourselves and we don't want anything short of the best of that.
Striving to improve is what drives us forward. If we really thought we were maxing out our full potential right now then where does that lead us? We could just hang it up and retire since we just put out our life's masterpiece on our first shot (wouldn't that be nice!).
For example, when it comes to mixing, I've learned to get the song to a point that I think it sounds great and is representing the vision of the artist... or at least in the ball-park. After that, any revisions tend to be personal taste. I try not to get too attached to how I want it to sound because ultimately the artist needs to live with it and feel represented. This doesn't mean there is anything inherently wrong with my mix, the band just prefers a more bass, a lot of reverb, really loud cymbals, etc... that's their vision. I don't have to love it, I just need to understand it so I can be on the same wavelength. Of course it's my work and if I think any of these changes are creating issues or not going to translate well onto a stereo or streaming platform I'll give my two cents but in most cases it all just comes down to personal taste. How I hear music is different from how you might hear it. I get attached to my work too but I have to remind myself to let go. At the end of the day if the client is happy then I've done my job. The representation of me is the body of work as a whole and my relationship with the artist.
So when it comes to your music or your art don't let perfection be the enemy of progress. Easier said than done, I know. Just do your best with the resources you have at your disposal and it'll get better from there. No hockey player waited until they were pro to start playing.. they started when they could hardly skate. Did they start out as a lead goal-scorer? No, but they got there. You have to start somewhere, anywhere. The key is to just start and figure out the rest along the way.
What are your thoughts and/or experiences with letting go? Do you agree or disagree? Contact me and let me know!
