How a house track from 1997 helped define my professional career.
I started DJ-ing from a very young age and at 16, it was my full-time occupation. 16 years in, you could say I was pretty passionate about it.
As a professional I was often asked “What do you do?”. I would reply, “I am a DJ”. And they would say “Yeah, but what do you do for work, what is your job?”.
It is the oddest feeling when you dedicate your life to something you are passionate about, and are then confronted with these types of questions — Somehow having to validate your existence.
Any person creative or otherwise will agree that, being good at something and dedicating yourself to it 110% always comes at a price — there is always a sacrifice made, whether it be a relationship lost or an important life event missed, not to mention the occasional stress. The reward however, is being passionate about something you love doing and being proud of what you are achieving — which hopefully always outweighs the sacrifices made.
The reason I want to share this, is because I know many creatives (of all types) that struggle with finding work, being acknowledged in certain social circles or even just being taken seriously with what they do.
The turning point for me was helped by an essay, that funnily enough, I discovered by listening to club music.
“The Artist Struggle for Integrity” by James Baldwin (1924–1987) — is one of my favourite works of this incredibly intelligent and sharp writer. I first discovered the essay, on a recording by a production group known as D.O.D. (Dance or Die). Cesar De Melero, a Spanish DJ and Ibiza regular, was a part of that production group. On one of my weekly visits to the local record store, the owner handed this vinyl over to me and said “You don’t even need to listen to it. Its from Cesar De Melero, you will love it”. The track was good, but it was the spoken word over the top, that really got me.
The essay was written in 1963 well before my time, but the words speak just as true today. James accepted his fate as a creative (writer) and understood that being an artist, would sometimes be incredibly hard and also lonely, but that it was something he had to do — it was a necessity for him, but that also benefitted the people around him.
The essay helped me understand what my role and journey was to be. It let me accept and be proud of my choices early in my career and realise that I had purpose and was not just passing time avoiding the inevitable of “growing up”.
Creativity is almost always mocked or misunderstood, unless it is paired with some form of notable success. Then all of a sudden the world loves you.
A recent report made by the World Economic Forum states that creativity will be the #3 most desired skill to have in any job by 2020 only preceded by critical thinking and complex problem solving (which I also believe is a form of creativity).
I wanted to share the two main propositions that James puts forward in his essay as they feel very timely and more importantly to remind the next generation of “creatives” to not doubt themselves and be proud of this incredible skill they possess.
The two main propositions of this essay are:
The first; “Poets (by which I mean all artists) are finally the only people who know the truth about us. Soldiers don’t, Statesmen don’t. Priests don’t. Union leaders don’t. Only poets.”
The second; “At a time like this when something awful is happening to a civilization, when it ceases to produce poets, and, what is even more crucial when it ceases in any way whatever to believe in the report that only the poets can make.”
These two outtakes might not make a lot of sense on their own, but the overall context of this essay is about creators and how creativity benefits our society. As we enter the fourth industrial revolution, many monotonous jobs will be replaced by machines and as the report states, creativity will be one of the most valuable asset to have, as it is one of the few things that machines don’t possess (yet).
Innovation is leading the way in every aspect of our lives. Innovation is led by “artists” or creatives and it defines our history, present and future. So it is all the more important to encourage our future generations to explore their creativity but more importantly, hold on to it and let it thrive.
Which brings me to music and its creatives (musicians) — Obviously a topic, close to my heart.
We have already seen the first steps of the “rise of the machines” in respect to music listening and the music industry overall. But, as great as Spotify’s Discover Weekly is, and how big data can predict the next hit song, I do not believe that the machines can ever take over. When it comes to music, machines and algorithms cannot create music out of experiences and emotions felt! — The day an algorithm understands what heartbreak is, we are in serious trouble.
In order for artists to keep feeding us this lifeline that is such an integrate part of our lives, we must keep encouraging them to create. Because it is only through their efforts that we can keep enjoying music.
True creatives, bare their souls through their expression of choice — writing, singing, dancing, science etc. We as a society need to change our perception of creatives and more importantly we as individuals need to look within ourselves and unleash our own creativity — we need more innovators like the Elon Musks’ of the world. We all had it as children, but somehow it got lost along the way when we were told to grow up.
