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September Newsletter: Building a Bridge
🕑 Added 2024-09-02 15:00:08 +0000 UTCI’ve lost count of the number of LPs released under the Car Seat Headrest name. It is a blessing to be able to produce, but making art has never changed or saved my life. Consuming art by others has changed my life, creating a bridge that spans the gulf between others and myself. Making music of my own has been more of a nervous tic for me, a way of turning uncomfortable feelings into an object of merit. I hoped that my songs would help others recognize things in me I was otherwise unable to express. However, the process of creating, finalizing, releasing and promoting always left me feeling empty and dissatisfied. Until I reassessed my deeper motivations, I felt constantly on the brink of quitting the album business altogether.
My perspective was flawed. Art builds a bridge, but it is a one-way bridge. To reach back to you, people construct their own bridges, however they know how, artistically or otherwise. A heartfelt thanks, a compliment, applause after a song. All of this is meaningful, if it is seen for what it is, a pathway to the heart. We are surrounded by these smaller and subtler bridges, and they are just as important as the big ones.
The biggest danger in artistic pursuit is that it blinds one to the gentler lights of these smaller bridges. Burnout happens when the “voice of the muse” turns into the only voice you accept as valid. Creative instinct, when overindulged, becomes a voice of judgement forcefully lodged within you, preventing you from enjoying anything. Work to dislodge it, and it returns to its proper place - a tool that makes all tasks in front of you a bit more fun. Everything is a creative endeavor, if you can adjust your eyes to it.
Encountering younger artists, I see some of them self-conscious of their relative lack of output; I see others putting stuff out to the same cycle of dissatisfaction I’ve encountered. To all of them, I say, don’t worry about the big bridges, worry about the little ones. Don’t get hung up on the particular work of art you’re unable to complete, and overlook the works you do for the world every day. The world of the big artistic project may be an enticing one, but ultimately, you always return to this world in order to deliver it. It is the connections made here that count, regardless of the form.
Comments
Em
You are such a beautiful writer, I think everyone needs to hear this. Your music has not only connected with me, but has connected me to others who your music has reached, and that’s my favorite thing about art! I’m endlessly grateful for the music you put out, and comforted to know even my favorite artists struggle with the same things I do
Souly
Will, this is probably the most inspiring thing I’ve heard from you, and that’s saying a lot considering how much your music means to me. I’ve struggled with similar feelings of emptiness and frustration in my own art, especially after giving up on a project I was excited about. I often feel like I’m not particularly skilled at anything, which only makes it more frustrating. Your words reminded me that it’s not about the final product or how skilled you are, but about the “connections” we build along the way. it’s exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks <3
Mildackee
Exactly what I needed to hear this week! I've a bad habit of forcing myself to build bridges I don't have the resources for, falling in, and sending myself spiraling down shallow, sad, little thought streams. Thank you for sharing this. <3
Musical dance
Thank for being you and sharing what is inside. Not everyone has the courage to do that. Peace be with you.
raven
Everything you do is water under it
Garett
Everything you say is a bridge
Aster McNulty
I just drowned because this is so deep
Luka Buchanan
thank you for this meditation, there is so much to think about here🧎 would love to hear more of your perspective on the overindulgence of creative instinct, as you say it. is the ‘voice of judgement’ the kind that demands perfection or glory or success in creativity, which then stunts a different, ‘lesser’ (according to the judgement) creativity, the everyday connections? i haven’t been able to paint recently, but i am gardening a lot, and i appreciate growing vegetables as a kind of loving creativity; the bridge being from the earth to my heart (and hopefully vice-versa). at the same time, i spend many frustrated, solitary hours trying to write songs and the process does not feel loving or creative at the moment haha. i don’t know if that bridge is going anywhere!
Tal
damn that's so tru bro
Gabi Emerson
Bridges are meant to be an assistive device to help us reach out destinations, some bridges are great for everyone and will stand for the rest of time, others are rickety, barely load-bearing and will unfortunately need to be deconstructed and removed or rebuilt. I hope that your bridges are getting you wherever you want to go!
Sky
The bridges you guys build inspire me unlike anything else. Thank you for your sincerity!
duke
needed this today, thank you.
raven
four paragraphs of incredibly inspiring words, thank you.
