An insight into my creative world, sharing my knowledge and experience, to help artists, songwriters and producers take their careers to the next level.
your song might be good. that's the problem.
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Most songs I hear aren’t bad. They’re good. The writing works. But something doesn’t land. Not in an obvious way. Just enough that you don’t feel pulled back to it. I used to think that meant something was missing, so I’d add more. More layers. At the time it felt like progress. Looking back, it wasn’t. The issue wasn’t that the track wasn’t full enough. Everything was working… but nothing was leading. That shift only really happened when I started being more intentional with what I chose to keep. A smaller palette. And understanding that if something didn’t feel big enough, it usually wasn’t a mix problem. It was a sound choice problem. One of the simplest checks I still come back to: If you mute something and don’t miss it, it shouldn’t be there. And more often than not, removing it makes everything else feel clearer, stronger, more defined. That’s the part most people skip. Not because they don’t hear it, but because it feels counterintuitive to take things away when you’re trying to improve something. But the records that really land don’t feel busy. They feel decisive. Every element earns its place. Good songs don’t fall short because they need more. They fall short because no one made the final call. The hard decision. And that decision is usually the difference between something that feels finished and something that’s actually worth releasing. |
Rich Pilkington.
An insight into my creative world, sharing my knowledge and experience, to help artists, songwriters and producers take their careers to the next level.
when I first started making music, I thought getting better meant learning more. another tutorial. another plugin. another songwriting technique. another mixing trick. and to be fair, all of those things helped. they taught me how to create. but over the last few years, I've realised the biggest breakthroughs in my career didn't come from learning new techniques. they came from learning how to think differently about the techniques I already knew. this really hit me over the last couple of...
lately i've been thinking a lot about creativity. not creativity itself. but the way we talk about it. i think we've romanticised the idea that great work arrives out of nowhere. one perfect idea. one magical afternoon. one moment where inspiration suddenly strikes. and then somehow... you create something incredible. if i'm honest, i used to think like that too. i'd wait until i felt creative. until i felt motivated. until it felt like the right day to write. but over the years, i've...
lately i've been thinking a lot about attention. not how to get it. but who it's actually coming from. everywhere you look, someone is trying to grab a few seconds of your time. another reel. another ad. another "you need this." and if i'm honest, i catch myself doing it too. trying to find better hooks. better ways to get people to stop scrolling. because that's the game now. attention feels like the currency. but i'm starting to wonder if we've become so obsessed with getting attention that...