If you’re a solo artist writing, recording, producing and mixing them yourself, collaboration might be something you’re not that interested in.
However, as someone who’s made music for decades as a solo artist, and who’s worked with others on his music, here are my thoughts: collaboration is one of the best ways to spark creativity and new musical ideas.
You have something unique to offer musically, because of your own individual experiences and musical skills.
And by collaborating with someone else, you’ll be able to take advantage of their unique musical identity, and you’ll both unlock a deeper level of your talent than you realize.
I usually start most of my songs on acoustic guitar. However, there are times where I’ve got a song, and I know that it’s being limited, simply because it’s physically defined by how my fingers can move on a fretboard!
When working with Ivan, with his creativity and skill on the keyboard and with synthesizers, unlocked different ideas and thoughts in my head.
It was still my musical identity, but a different facet was being unlocked!
Ivan also works in a different music genre from me, which inspires even more ideas when we collaborate.
That’s what collaboration can do for you.
You’ll often see artists and bands do this, changing their primary instruments to unlock a different part of their musical identity.
Think of artists such as Bruce Springsteen that brought wrote songs mainly on the piano on his breakthrough Born To Run album, when he was a traditional guitar singer-songwriter.
Or the Arctic Monkeys, which shifted away from guitar-based rock into the piano-based Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.
So start thinking: who and what kinds of musicians could you collaborate with to bring new inspiration and ideas into your music?
Collaborating can be very different for various musicians. Maybe you don’t have the studio space to have another musician in the room with you. Or maybe you’re not in a city where you can connect and collaborate with other musicians in person.
But collaboration can take various forms. You can invite feedback on your early demos, getting ideas from friends whose musical opinions you respect.
There’s also resources online to connect with other musicians. From websites such as soundbetter.com, or vocalizr.com, you can easily find and invite other musicians to collaborate and work with.
You want to collaborate with people that will fill in musical gaps for you, whether it’s having a skilled guitar player, or a great sound designer to help you take your music forward.
But keep in mind that what you’re after the most is finding honest, clear perspective on how to develop your music further.
However, you can sometimes get bad and wrong perspectives on your music. You want to be strategic with whose opinion you listen to on your music, as opposed to listening to anyone on the street!
Here’s what I want you to do: write down and find one person you can collaborate with when making your EP.
It doesn’t have to be having them physically in the room, and it doesn’t even have to be someone that fully contributes to your project!
It can be as simple as having someone you trust listening to your early demos, giving you mix feedback, and contributing ideas.
