The Creative's Toolkit
Buona giornata cuties! This is a postcard from here:
This summer was weird but I’m here and I’m hiking and eating fresh fruit and listening to my Nonno enthuse about Jackie Chan movies, it’s all good for the soul!
Special hello to new subscribers, and to the gal I met at the All Together Now portaloos who said she saves reading this for her Thursday evening glass of wine, you made my night!
This month’s podcast features lovely Aisling Moran who waxed lyrical about Florence Welch. Probably unsurprising that Florence + the Machine is one of my longtime loves, and yes I did wear a Topshop birdcage necklace through most of my teens, and yes I was secretly delighted when a drunk man took a photo with me at Electric Picnic 2017 thinking I was her. (This seems to happen a lot at festivals? Laughed a lot when James Nerney got his photo taken as ‘Hozier’ at All Together Now.)
Aisling is a dancer and musician herself, and you can listen to her beautiful home-recorded EP on Spotify - it’s called Chaos Made Holy. Her voice is a dream:
We chatted a lot about the catharsis that comes from creativity in any and every form, and that inspired the theme for today’s newsletter. My favourite resources and habits for creativity are listed below and I’d love to hear yours - you can comment or reply to this e-mail if you have any thoughts or recommendations!
Big Fan of Florence + the Machine: aisling
We actually covered a lot of ground, from LimeWire mixtapes to rain dances at Oxygen, anxiety and addiction, the pressures of making music in the TikTok era and festival fashion. This one is packed with nostalgia, reassurance, and the pure light of Aisling’s laugh :)
We reference:
Useless Magic: lyrics and poetry by Florence Welch
The choreographed music video for Big God:
This rainy day at Oxygen Festival that I was definitely underage at:
And this poem by John O’ Donohue from Conamara Blues:
I would love to live
Like a river flows,
Carried by the surpriseOf its own unfolding.
The Creative’s Toolkit
In general you don’t need anything to be creative, that’s kind of the magic of it, but sometimes when it’s busy - or when your mind is busy - it can be useful to have tools to reach for. I find it helps to set a space aside (not as good at setting a specific time aside, but that’s often recommended too), and to have a little ritual to set the tone. I light a candle at my desk and make a cacao or tea… it’s almost definitely a placebo, and it helps!
For controlling the controllables: Navigating Overwhelm - Rebel Matters Podcast (single episode)
I hate the idea that creatives need chaos to thrive. Unfortunately… I do feel more ignited when my cortisol is a high, but have no follow-through until things are more zen anyway. Thankfully I’m better at taking care of myself in stressful periods than I used to be (v grateful for whatever force it is in me that takes to cooking really elaborate meals when run down instead of living of Cadbury’s Bourneville and peppermint tea like I did in my 20’s), partially in thanks to this podcast by Áinle that I come back to every now and then when things get wild. It’s full of reminders that it’s okay to step back, and that it’s okay to lean in too, as long as you provide yourself with the appropriate supports. Also helps that he’s super soft-spoken with a Belfast accent that’s soothing as f*ck.
For writer’s block: Orlando Weeks - "I'm getting better at my 4s" - 101 Part Time Jobs (single episode)
We’re often told to pick something and focus on it - to choose a career, a subject, a title - but that’s just not how life is. Most people have many interests, passions, skills, and especially if you’re creative (which I think we all are), you probably need multiple creative outlets. I tell myself that if I could just focus on one skill I might actually accomplish something, but facing a wall or stuck in a rut when that one thing isn’t working is no use. It’s reassuring to hear Orlando describe how he reroutes after hitting a songwriting block by switching to painting, or moving back to writing or music when his brush runs dry. He shares lots of insights into creative processes and how mixing mediums can open new doors in this podcast. Super refreshing.
For a lesson in authenticity: Derrick Gee (@gee_derrick) (single episode)
We mentioned Derrick Gee in the Beyoncé edition of Big Fan because of his interview with Harry Styles’ Creative Director Molly Hawkins (which also raises good points about collaborative creativity!), but he deserves a follow for the way he balances and justifies the content he makes with his genuine passions and interests. He openly speaks about the difficulties that arise when your hobbies or creativity are monetised or made public.For keeping a clear mind: Morning Pages á la The Artist’s Way
Full disclosure: never finished The Artist’s Way, and don’t consistently write Morning Pages, though it seems to be a habit worth forming for meditative purposes, anxiety relief, or to help with creative flow. The idea is that you spill everything from your mind onto three A4 pages first thing in the morning. Stream of consciousness, no objective, no editing, no re-reading (further disclosure: I definitely read back over some of mine and they are super cringey). I find ideas form or problems unravel before I even realised they’re on my mind, which is wild and useful!
When you need a pep-talk: Soul Salon with Ayandastood (weekly podcast)
A reminder to create what you need to consume: “If you create something and no one sees it, does it count? Yes.” - Slow Stories with Coco Mellors (single episode)
I really like that in one of her interviews she quips that she had to basically re-write the Cleopatra and Frankenstein because “it had basically no plot. I mean, you could argue that it still has no plot!” It makes me think that not taking what we do so seriously could probably make our whole process a bit easier and more free.
For finding flow: Flow State with Bobby Lyte
Deep focus playlists and pomodoro timekeeping for when you actually sit down to get things done.And finally, to contradict pretty much everything else (I think):
There’s a lot of siar agus aniar in the comments about what this quote means but my read would be that we can spend forever trying to absorb, research or learn everything possible before we feel ready to set out to do or make something of our own, but, in the end, the work only gets done by doing it. I’ve spent years procrastinating and obsessing over creative processes and how other people achieve things, telling myself that at some point I’ll have seen enough to know how to do it myself - but I don’t think that day ever comes! Close this tab right now!
If you haven’t closed this tab, here is this month’s playlist, featuring Laura Marling (whose Substack I am now obsessed with, she is even more intense than I am if you can even imagine it), Huartan, Yenkee, Trá Pháidín, the gorge Clairo album and some new Angie McMahon:
Ní fhéadfainn nuachtlitir na míosa seo a sheoladh gan Eoin French nó Talos a lua, suaimhneas síoraí dá anam aoibhinn. Is fiú go mór éisteacht siar lena chuid albaim, tá cúpla amhrán ar sheinnliosta na míosa seo, agus sult a bhaint as an bhfíseán álainn seo ó Sounds From a Safe Harbour anuraidh:
Agus buíochas mór le gach duine a tháinig chuig an Chollchoill / The Hazelwood ag Electric Picnic, bhí muid an-bhródúil as na ceoltóirí uilig a thug chun an ardáin. Bainim an-sásamh as an gcineál seo oibre agus is mór agam go mbíonn an deis agam tabhairt faoi agus a bheith páirteach in oícheanta chomh speisialta leis an gceann seo:
Míle buíochas libh, mar is gnáth, as a bheith anseo - murach sibh!
A dopo,
Emma xx