On Creativity, or What I learned from Watching an Avicii documentary
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read
The saddest thing about watching the 2017 Avicii documentary is that the filmmakers couldn’t know their protagonist would die less than six months after its release. The documentary was about Avicii’s (real name Tim Bergling) struggle to deal with the increasing demands of his touring. However, the message I took away was that while passion can start a journey, it is ultimately the sheer volume of work that Avicii put in, and his ability to find outstanding mentors that helped take him to global fame.

Here are my takeaways:
- Put in the hours — amateurs start with passion. Avicii started producing music with his friends in a tiny bedroom. Hanging out, having fun making crass tunes on pirated copies of Ableton or FruityLoops. The difference between Avicii and his friends was that he would continue working on projects well after the others had grown tired. Essentially, he put in more hours.
- Learn the Art of Finishing — there is value in publishing bad work. In a digital world it is easy to start projects. To keep endless folders of ideas that never evolve or resolve. This approach means you never learn the art of finishing. At some point you have to decide a project is complete, and that from that point on you gain diminishing returns. Worse, you begin to doubt your work. Worse again, you lose the opportunity cost of working on new projects.
- Copy others to gain technical skills — great producers copy their idols. They copy song structure, drum patterns, synth tones, vocal lines, melodies. This is the way you develop the technical skills to start implementing your own ideas. Over time it becomes impossible that your own personality and preferences don’t leak into projects. A copy becomes a re-edit, a re-edit becomes a remix, a remix becomes a new song.
- Join a community — share ideas and gain inspiration by surrounding yourself with likeminded people. They are a great way to learn new things, understand nuances of approach and address common challenges people face when taking on new tasks. Over time you will find yourself contributing back to that community and teaching others. Which is ultimately the best way to solidify your own learning.
- Proactively find a mentor — Avicii proactively reached out to his heroes and found an early connection with industry greats such as Tiesto, Laidback Luke and David Guetta. In the beginning he was just another fan to them, however through sheer passion he distinguished himself and started to stand out — enough for them to start offering him suggestions and motivation.
- Produce a high volume of work — another key to Avicii’s early success was the speed with which he worked. In the beginning this was due to passion and his clarity of vision — later on it was due to his increasing technical ability with melodies. This speed allowed him to churn out a huge number of demo tracks — testing what worked, and what didn’t.
- Find a manager — the mind that creates the art is not always the mind that commercialises it. The documentary on Avicii’s touring life isn’t too sympathetic to his manager — pictured as no holds barred hustler, determined to do deals and bring in cash. However, within reason, it was this manager’s relentless hustle that brought him worldwide fame and attention.
- Great things look insignificant in their early stages — Avicii is remembered for playing stadiums. Highly produced stage shows of CO2 cannons, fire and lights. However in the beginning he started small , a support act for other DJs to a handful of people trying to talk over his tunes.
- If you need a break, take a break — mental health is a delicate area. Avicii struggled to say no. The documentary shows him with an addictive personality — he couldn’t stop making music and he had trouble saying no to alcohol and had trouble saying no to touring. After suffering from poor health and work related anxiety Avicii eventually did stop touring. But it took a huge toll on him personally. There is always someone to talk to — Lifeline.
