Note #32: Collaboration and The Creative Vision

How to play with others

Having a creative vision about what I like and know and want–in writing, architecture, graphic design, music, you name it–has made me into something of a lone wolf most of my life.

For that reason, I have never leaned toward collaboration. Maybe my passion and drive has marked me in some way as being difficult, or unable to play well with others. I know it happened frequently in my twenties when I was starting out in my profession and was the difficult person to get along with in the office, on projects, on the “right” way of doing things. I can still be this way, I am well aware, but I also recognize now that often I need others to get things done in a way I never would have acknowledged in the past. Or, perhaps it’s more that I recognize that others can pick up the slack and do the stuff I don’t really want to do. As well, I don’t usually want to take all the credit for creative projects that aren’t mine to take credit for anyway (this is in my work life, architecture, which I may or may not write about at some point). When it comes to writing, I still like to do it on my own, with little outside interference. (Is this possibly why I never found an agent after all of the years I’ve put into writing?)

Often, submitting writing, I found editors who were not ego driven and guided me in the best ways, not trying to rewrite entire pieces. But then I’d also had terrible editors who attempted to re-write my work and put it out there–with my name on it. I’ve lost much sleep and fired off many angry emails to prevent these editors from publishing this adulterated work. When you come across these editors, the best thing is to pull your work. They usually complain, insist on their entitlement, etc.

It’s often those people who think they know it all that screw up everything.

When it comes to music, I am, as I mentioned in my last piece, firmly in the DIY camp. I am not saying I know it all, by the way. I am simply saying that I prefer to do it my way.

I haven’t really been clear on how much I am willing to let others in to collaborate. I have, to date, played once on stage with one other person, and this was after I gave him my song an hour before playing it live–mere hours after I had written it–and asked him to play along with me. He was happy to oblige, though I’m not sure the result was as successful as I would have wanted. The mere fact that I was able to do it seemed like a huge step for me. But I couldn’t have been the easiest to collaborate with, having done it at the last minute.

The latest in another huge step was letting this same friend contribute to one of my songs. I had sent him a file of this song, mostly complete, (the song, Alright Again!) just showing it to him, I suppose, to get his reaction, and he said, “You want some bass on there?” I thought about it for an hour then decided I would let him try. He sent me a bass track that I wasn’t sure I loved. Having gotten used to the song as I had recorded it thus far, and having listened to it several dozen times, adding bass to suddenly seemed jarring to me. Yet, what happened is what usually happens, I listened to it some more and it eventually grew on me. The bass made it into a song and is probably better for it.

This wasn’t a case of someone thinking they knew better than me on my song; this was a case of them wanting to help me make it more full, more complete as a song. It helps to have reasonable collaborators.

This led me to the realization that I could collaborate more, and probably should. These will always be my songs, my recordings. I give credit to my friend for his work, of course, but it’s like a mosaic, a song. There are many components that make it what it is. Any contributions are mere percentages. It’s not like I’m giving someone 51% control. I’m giving them 4 or 5 percent to mess around with.

When I work on my songs, I notice that I do certain things that I can’t imagine anyone else would if they tried to play it. I hear what I hear in what I wrote, and of course, how I play it. I can recognize that the unique end product is wholly my own.

I have this notion that when I get a band together, they are just going to defer to me, the songwriter. But I will probably be happy just to have anyone who wants to play on my songs, period. As I get older, the need to control every component of the creative work melts away somewhat, anyway, and I feel like it would be wise to open the doors to collaboration, and surprise myself.