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WOw wowow wow what a long time that was. You must be starving, just look at you. Well fear not, I’m back in the groove, and I’m starting to churn these insights out like butter, because I’m nothing if not a glutton for the punishment that has become these newsletters (WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN THE CONSEQUENCES OF COMMITTING TO THREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTERS NO ONE NO SIR NOT AT ALL).

Anyway, I am back, and now here’s a big thing:

Musicians waste years trying to win at somebody else’s game instead of just using what they already have.

I have this project. It’s called lowkeyellish, this dark ambient music project.

Can I play an instrument? By no means can I claim that with any certainty.

But can I experiment and use something that I do have full control over: my voice? Yeah, I can.

Layering that, transposing it down, and experimenting with all of the different ways that you can mess around with sound and edit it and play around. I was using GarageBand. I don’t have anything else.

I don’t need anything else.

Use what you got.

The biggest thing that we always tend to forget is that what we have is actually already interesting. What we have is already something that could captivate somebody.

You won’t realize what the advantage is until you actually start to release a lot of the criticism and judgment that goes with this. What I think of as an advantage might not be one. What I think of as a massive disadvantage could be the one thing that most people are interested in.

We don’t know.

It’s easy for musicians to ignore their real advantages and copy somebody else’s strategy because music, like any creative endeavour, is super difficult and filled to brimming with uncertainty.

People are always looking for a sure thing. When you copy someone else’s strategy, it’s a framework. It gives you a way to release your own series of judgments.

But a funny thing changes when you stop trying to win at somebody else’s game and start using what’s already yours:

There is a level of authenticity, honesty, and truth that we can sense as a viewer, reader, or listener. We understand it. We see it.

When you’re really going for it, we can tell.
And when you’re putting on an act, we can also tell.

So list out what you already have. Go through your skills, your background, what relationships you have, what access you have, what your identity is, what your experience is, and what your audience is.

What do you know?
Who do you know?
Where do you belong?
What can you do unusually well?
What part of your story can’t be copied?

Then look at your current strategy. Is it using all of that, or is it ignoring it?

Before you pursue a new tactic or strategy, ask: Does this use the hand that was dealt you, or are you abandoning it to play somebody else’s game?

I’m not telling you to never learn new skills. I’m saying that you can’t keep putting these lofty win conditions in place before you engage with your own creative project.

You’re going to grow anyway. So why not just do it and use what you’ve got?

What advantage do you already have that you keep dismissing because it feels ordinary to you?

Jonny Hetherington is keeping Art of Dying's new album off streaming entirely — vinyl, CD, and digital download only. Two decades, eight albums, a Warner deal through Disturbed, and 200 million streams later, the frontman tells Lance Marwood on MAKE // BREAK exactly why: the maths that never recoups, the 1,000-stream rule that pays new artists nothing, the AI clog, and the analog revival pulling fans back to owning music. It's the clearest case this show has captured for going direct-to-fan — plus the $12,000 Suburban story every band signing a major deal should hear first.

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