Remember that famous quote, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”? Stress. Limits. Eno. Deadpool. Frankenstein. Marie Kondo.

Roger CortonLast time you said you had various strategies for practicing creativity. Improving creativity the same way you practice scales. OK. Some specifics, please?

JCHThe word ‘strategies’ is something I ripped off from Brian Eno. He had this whole system of things to do to be ‘creative’. There were playing cards.

that’s why I’m such a believer in Crisis. Pain. Suffering. I know it sounds creepy, but these are often the biggest catalysts for profound change. Or failing that, at least a burst of creativity. So much of the reason we don’t improve is because we do things the same way over and over. And it seems like, for most of us, there is something about something ‘breaking’ that unleashes the mutant gene

RCI remember that. When you were stuck, you […]

It Might Get Loud. Schickele Mix. Can you teach creativity? How does one practice developing your own style?

JCHYou know that opening to “It Might Get Loud” where Jack White makes a guitar with a nail and a board?

RCKnow it well. I love that. I don’t like The White Stripes that much, but I love that opening.

JCHRight. It’s the classic rebuff to everyone with G.A.S.

RC Gear Acquisition Syndrome for the unenlightened.

JCH Or those who don’t play a musical instrument.

JCHIt’s a challenge. It says that you have this ‘thing’ inside that is gonna get out, whether you use a guitar or a trombone or a nail on a plank of wood. You have something to say. And sadly I think that very few of my students, or even people I […]

More on Prince. Tavis Smiley interviews. Re-invention. Fan trust. Covers. What’s in a name? Lenny Bruce. Goyish or Jewish?

Roger CortonI read your post on Prince. You’ve talked many times of the difficulty in mixing yourself.

JCHIt’s awful. You tend to hear the music as you wish it sounded. You don’t hear it as it is. I’ve rarely talked with other musicians about it, but it’s as clear to me as a sky of azure that almost everyone suffers from this to one degree or another. Which is why it’s so dangerous to be a one-man-band. But he had that gift. Apart from all his other talents, that was the deal–seeing reality for what it is.

RCSo you’re downplaying his playing (sorry.) But you do the same things. You do it all.

JCHI’m gonna get punished for this, but from what I can hear he was an OK guitar player, drummer, whatever.

RCSeriously? ‘OK’?

JCHLook, I’m not Trump so don’t […]