so something interesting has happened over the last few weeks.

i’ve been pitching my new single to playlist curators ahead of its release this friday.

after months of working on the music, finalising the mix, shaping the visuals, building the release plan and preparing everything behind the scenes, it’s finally almost out.

honestly, this is usually the part where things get a little scary.

you stop creating in private.

and you start letting other people have an opinion.

the response so far has been really positive.

around 60% of the playlist pitches came back as yes.

but the interesting part was actually some of the no’s.

the strange thing was, a lot of them actually said they liked the song.

the reason they passed was something else.

“it doesn’t quite fit our playlist.”

weirdly, i kind of understand.

the whole reason i wanted to make this album was to stop thinking like that.

i didn’t want to sit down and say:

“i need to make a house record.”

or

“i need to make a pop record.”

i wanted to combine all the things that have shaped my taste over the last 15 years.

the emotion of cinematic music.
the songwriting of pop.
the movement of house.
the groove and rhythm from years of playing drums.

naturally, that creates something that sits somewhere in the middle.

which is both exciting and terrifying.

as artists we spend so much time trying to find our own sound.

and honestly, for a long time, i think i was chasing that too.

since starting my artist project, i’d sometimes use comparison as validation.

if something sounded like an artist i admired, it almost felt like proof i was moving in the right direction.

like i was getting closer.

and sometimes those references are important.

they help you learn.

but eventually there comes a point where you have to stop trying to prove you belong somewhere and start figuring out what only you can make.

sometimes when you finally start getting closer to that, you realise it might not fit perfectly into the boxes that already exist.

and maybe that’s the whole point.

it’s easy to spend so much time trying to fit somewhere, that you slowly remove the things that made it interesting in the first place.

the imperfections.

the weird ideas.

the choices that only you would make.

those are usually the things people connect with.

not everyone is going to get it.

not everyone is supposed to.

but creating something that feels honest will always matter more than creating something that just fits.

references are important.

inspiration is important.

but at some point, the goal isn’t to sound like the artists you admire.

it’s to understand why you admire them, and use that to create something that feels like you.

that’s the part i’m still figuring out too.

and maybe that’s the part we’re all trying to figure out.