Creativity is probably the most powerful resource we have. Not only for our progress as individuals and our success in daily life, but also for the development of mankind in general.

Certainly most of what I do for work requires constant problem solving and can be classified as creative work.

I often wonder: What could I be doing to get the most out of my creative abilities or maybe even improve them? Is that even possible?

Well, thanks to Andrew Huberman (a neuroscientist, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and a podcaster) I am a lot wiser now.

Although much still remains a mystery, science is becoming better at understanding the mechanisms involved in creativity. 

Indeed it turns out there is a lot we can do to enhance our creative innovation abilities.

I’m briefly going to relay to you here some methods that I think are interesting and easy to do.

I have and will be applying all of it myself.

If you want the full lowdown, you’ll find all of these methods (and much more) discussed in the Huberman Lab podcast episode “The Science of Creativity and How to Enhance Creative Innovation”. 

You can find it here:

https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-of-creativity-and-how-to-enhance-creative-innovation/

It’s all backed by solid science and the studies in question are referenced in the link above as well.

To my surprise I found out I’ve already been doing all of those things in some form. But I was never aware of their effects on creativity specifically. I certainly have renewed motivation to keep up with it now.

Very briefly, some basic premises first.

We are using the commonly accepted definition of creativity here: 

Creativity is the ability to generate novel ideas that are useful.

There are two types of thinking that are especially important for creativity to happen: divergent and convergent thinking.

Divergent thinking is open, brainstorm-like thinking. Free association.

Convergent thinking is when you analyse, filter through options and focus in on specific things.

We have specific, separate brain circuits for divergent and convergent thinking. They are both triggered by the neurotransmitter dopamine.

In addition, memory and our ability retrieve things from it plays an important role.

OK – here are the tools I wanted to mention and how I’ll be applying them.

Positive mood

It’s been shown that our divergent thinking can be reliably improved by inducing positive mood.

Our mood is related to the tonic (baseline) level of dopamine circulating in our brain. This baseline level is different for everyone. So some people generally start off on a better mood to begin with, while others can use a bit more of a nudge to get there.

If I’m not in a good state of mind already when I get to work, I’ll try doing things that help me get there. 

I already have a morning routine that helps me with getting to a better state of mind. It involves some yoga, meditation, sunlight (or SAD light) exposure, good coffee & breakfast, reading and going outside for a bit to do chores.

I feel like I’m at a pretty good place if I can just keep up with those things. I could add to that maybe listening to some music I enjoy. 

If I’m having a bad day (it happens especially when I’m tired), maybe it’s best that day I focus on tasks that require less creativity. I always have admin-type work that needs doing.

Think about what this could look like for you. What could you do to improve your mood before doing creative work?

Getting the brain fired up before creative work

There is a specific type of exercise that has been shown to increase dopamine in the divergent thinking brain circuit by as much as 65%. This is ideal for “fuelling your brain” for creative work.

This type of exercise is called NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest) or Yoga Nidra. It involves being very still while having your mind wander. I’m not going to go into the specifics here, but it’s very easy and you’ll find plenty of free guided options to try online.

The NSDR exercise is specifically noteworthy because it increases dopamine in the very brain circuit that is responsible for divergent thinking. You can’t get that effect for instance by just taking caffeine, meds or any other substance (this increases the effect of dopamine evenly across all systems in our brain).

I have been doing NSDR before for different reasons (helping me get back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night). But I will be trying it now also before engaging in important creative divergent type work (for instance, writing music).

Movement as a catalyst for new ideas

You’ve probably had moments sometimes when a new idea or solution to a problem just seemed to pop in your head seemingly out of nowhere? This usually occurs when you are not actively working and doing something “boring” or repetitive instead – taking a walk for instance.

Certain types of action and patterns of movement are conducive to forming novel ideas. These patterns allow our brain to activate an alternative network of connections that is normally dormant. It opens up new shortcuts and pathways inside our brain which allows us to “connect the dots” in new ways.

Specifically, these patterns of movement include anything that doesn’t require conscious attention on any one specific thing. So things like walking, jogging, swimming and so forth. For me, taking a shower is also one.

Having a dog helps makes sure I’m taking walks too, so maybe consider getting one? 😉

Training the relevant brain networks

There are specific perceptual exercises that will help improve our divergent and convergent thinking abilities on the long run.

These involve two different types of meditation. I prefer Huberman’s way of just calling them perceptual exercises, because the word meditation carries unnecessary connotations and makes it seem difficult to some people (it isn’t).

These exercises are called open monitoring meditation (for divergent thinking) and focused attention meditation (for convergent thinking).

In open monitoring meditation you let your mind wander, where as in focused attention meditation you do your best to focus on one specific thing (like your breath or a dot on the wall).

I wasn’t aware of the effects of these exercises on creativity, but I have actually been doing both of them for a long time (on and off). I’ll make an effort to stick to these habits better now.

Further thoughts

Two other things that greatly affect our ability to carry out creative work:

– Getting enough good quality rest. 

– Not being distracted when working.

Life happens, and it’s not always possible to be well rested and undistracted. As an insomniac and a father of a 2-year old I am much too familiar with that.

But optimising those two things as much as possible needs to be a non-negotiable.

Let’s talk about something very foundational: Gain staging.

Why is it so important?

Imagine you’re making a smoothie. You’ve got all your ingredients ready to go in the blender. 

You spin it. 

But you made one crucial mistake: 

You forgot to put on the lid.

Oops.

Gain staging is for your mix what that lid is for your blender.

Without a proper gain staging practice it is difficult to control your mix. Things are going to shoot up all over the place. 

You have good intentions and maybe even great ingredients, but you end up with a frustrating mess.

I’ve been there! For a long time gain staging was the missing link for me. Of course I didn’t realise it at the time. Once I started applying it, a lot of things got easier.

But let’s back up a bit. 

What do I mean by “gain staging”?

Gain staging is the process of staying aware of and being in control of how loud the different parts of the signal are throughout your entire music making process.

It involves things like recording at a good level, maintaining consistent gain when going in and out of your plugins, achieving good fader resolution, hitting your bus processing, analog chain or analog modelled plugins at an optimal level, and so on.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not something you only do once at the beginning of the project. It’s important to start off well, but it’s an ongoing process. 

What are the benefits?

Adopting a good gain staging practice provides consistency and repeatability in your work. It allows you to remain more objective and trust your decisions.

It can help you better stay in control of the whole process, enabling you to work quicker and finish more of what you start.

Because you’re not getting bogged down so much, it allows you to focus more on the creative side of things and stay in a flow state. 

It provides a solid foundation to build your mix and improve your skills.

There is no one right way to do gain staging. What’s matters is finding a way that works for you.

I’ve spent many years trying different methods and tweaking my approach. 

Here’s what I think many people get wrong:

They think gain staging is about developing an elaborate system of rules and mathematics to live by religiously.

I don’t think so.

Gain staging is supposed to make things easier for you. Not harder! 

Of course, there’s an initial learning curve like with any other skill. But it doesn’t have to be difficult.

My approach these days is simple and straightforward and I don’t really have to think about it much. It’s a natural part of my workflow. 

There’s only so much I can cover in one email, but I recently did a 30+ minute video about gain staging in Patreon . 

In that video I go through what gain staging means to me, what things exactly it entails and why, and I also show different ways of how to approach it in practice in the DAW. 

You can use my approach as a starting point for your own exploration if you want. As I said it’s the result of many years of trying different methods and seeing what works for me.

Click here to watch the video: Introduction to gain staging

This old joke has been making the rounds with musicians for decades, but its even more relevant today:

“What do you get when you put sh t into a reverb? Reverbed sh t.”

OK – not the best joke ever (lol), but illustrates the foundation for great sounding music:

Your music can sound only as good as your sources allow. 

First thing in the process you shoot yourself in the foot? Not a good look. 

With the range and complexity of effects processing available now, it’s especially easy to get carried away and forget the basics.

Now…

Sometimes you’re unable to rerecord or use a higher quality source.

What to do?

Trying to mask the problem with effects will likely make it worse, and certainly harder to fix.

You’ll only end up with “reverbed sh t”.

Before adding anything, focus on reducing. Deal with the root cause of the problem. Make your audio as clean as possible. 

Subtractive EQ is my first line of defence. A careful approach and attention to detail goes a long way.

It’s worth investing in good editing, analytic and corrective tools. The options most DAWs come with are basic. There are tools now that achieve things that were unthinkable only a few years back.

After you’ve done everything you can to make the source as good as possible, add effects intentionally. Create depth and texture. Bring out the best in your sounds. Make things work together as a cohesive whole.

Here’s the bottom line:

1. Start with carefully curated, high quality sources. 

2. Apply proper corrective techniques where necessary.

3. Use additive effects with intention.

In that order.

That is how you can create beautiful mixes that will stand the test of time.

PS. If you’re looking for a free and supportive community to hang with and help grow your music production skills, you’re welcome to join us at the Resoundsound Discord. You can catch me there most days, along with a bunch of cool people. We just reached 100 members!

Click here to join Resoundsound Discord.

It’s been said that difficult times are necessary for progress. And when it comes to making music, it’s no different. 

Each artist’s journey is unique and the struggles they face will vary. But one thing is for certain: challenges are inevitable. 

It’s important to keep this in mind as you pursue your creative endeavours:

It’s not supposed to be easy. 

In my case, at least, it hasn’t become easy after 26 years of making music. 

It may look easy from the outside. That’s because you only see the tip of the iceberg. 

As we gain experience, we become better at many things. But there’s always a new obstacle to conquer. We shift our attention there. And once again, we struggle.

If you’re not facing any obstacles, it’s probably a sign you’re not making progress and need to push yourself more. 

My biggest struggles in the recent years were related to my Rhytual project. I went through a long quiet period after the initial release in 2019.

I wasn’t sure of how to move forward. In fact, it seemed like I was going backwards. At one point I had an EP lined up on one of the most iconic labels in electronic music. Then, they changed their mind.

I didn’t let that phase me one bit. I knew it wasn’t my fault. I had done everything I could. It’s life and these things happen.

It was a chance for me to reflect. That led to important realisations. After many years of struggling, I suddenly understood the way forward. For the first time, there was clarity.

I kept doing the work, and the results are now starting to show.

My recent Rhytual release was played by Giles Peterson in his show on BBC and got a full page feature in DJ Mag.

That is exactly the kind of response I was hoping for. Rhytual is all about moving without boundaries.

The silent, diligent work is paying off, my friends.

This release is just the beginning, too. There’s lots more I’ll be excited to share with you soon.

When an obstacle presents itself, try to think of it as an opportunity to further your craft. 

Don’t be afraid to struggle! It’s hard and uncomfortable. But in the end, it can only lead to progress.