Focus is out now!
Image: Isabella Rose Young.
Aotearoa-based producer, Late June has announced his new album, Mending, will arrive this December. The news is accompanied by the release of his new single, Focus. To celebrate, the musician has shared with MILKY his thoughts on the damage you can do to your mental health by continually comparing yourself to other artists.
Speaking of the track, the musician shares: "Focus as a song is about relieving the pressures of succeeding and having perfect friendships and relationships in life, and just putting more comfort and love into daily life. I wrote the 'Focus' chord progression in my head while staring at the waves at the beach, just at sunset golden hour, purple, golden light shining down with my daughter digging a hole next to me, smiling and asking me questions. I wrote the song late that night, from around 7pm till 4am."
Relieving the pressure of succeeding/comparing yourself to others.
It sucks to say…. but super recently, I’ve had to start again getting into the practice of this. It’s hard when someone you don’t really know too well or has a quicker come up than you - maybe a year or two, receives amazing opportunities and hits life-changing goals fast.
It has made me just stand back and think, oh, like my whole discography, my whole catalogue, led up to this, like 100k-200k monthly on Spotify, and this other artist got that in 1 day on their first release.
Sick super cool, that’s so healthy for my mental health.
I’ve found in the industry that comparing yourself to others is natural. However, as a creative person, it’s extraordinarily damaging to both your own mental health and, ultimately, your art.
It’s hard in this feast-of-famine industry, where eyes and attention are valuable and life-changing, to see an artist who is succeeding and want to be in that position yourself.
And you have no frame or concept on how to replicate that success because—like, how on earth could you?
Success nowadays is so quantifiable with music; as someone who has felt like he has had even a little success with streaming, it feels odd to compare to other artists as it’s something that doesn’t feel like it really means a whole lot.
An artist I look up to could have more Instagram followers or lower streaming numbers or vice versa but ultimately does that mean that I have less fans or more fans?
And … why does that matter at all.
Success is a nightmare concept, full of nightmares and sometimes I wonder if I enjoy being a musician at all.
That being said… for me lately, having been lucky to live off music (not thrive, mind you) for the past few years, I’ve started to try to alleviate the pressure of music ‘doing well’ because steady income from music isn’t a given. In order to do this, I’ve actually slowed down writing music and instead focused on enjoying the process more and the richness of the art.
In my mind, succeeding in any creative endeavor is by impressing yourself and staying true to yourself. Someone could get like overnight blow up, or 7-10 years blow up, and at the end of the day their shit could stink.
If I’m writing music, making content, taking photographs or writing prose, I feel like focusing on honing in on my own experiences, life and what I want to say is more rewarding to me than any playlist or big number.
Mending is out December 6! Listen to Focus below!
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