I spent a lot of this last weekend in the ocean or lazing beside the pool with an icy cold beer. Apart from playing two DJ sets, I did zero work. It’s been about six months since I took an actual break, so it felt really strange to do this. There was this undeniable feeling of “I should be doing X” or “If I don’t do Y, then Z will happen.” I could feel my brain trying to pull me back into that grind mentality, even when I was supposed to be relaxing. One thing that really stood out during these moments of "attempted relaxation" was how many of my daily actions are motivated by a subtle sense of fear. Over the past few months, I've become someone who works all day and into the night. From wake-up to bed-bed... just working. But doing what, exactly? What percentage of my actions actually contribute to achieving the goals I’ve set for myself? Back to the beach… Saying I did zero work on the beach is a bit of a lie because, in many ways, the work continued in my mind. But the difference was that this work didn’t need an internet connection or even a laptop or phone. This work was me organizing my thoughts and putting out fires triggered by random, rogue ideas. So many “what if this?” and “if not that, then what?” moments popped up—without me even lifting a finger. As I began to really relax into the weekend and let my body know that it was okay to take a break, something interesting happened. The enormity of my to-do list - the massive weight of all the things I’d parked when I took the weekend off - suddenly started to shrink. A list of 100 things became one. The effort required to do one thing is much, much less than the energy needed to worry about 100. I’m back home now, and there’s still a lot to do. But I’m filled with a sense of clarity around what I need to do right now. It’s one step at a time, and that feels a hell of a lot better. This is the (forgotten - at least by me) magic of taking a break. Sometimes, stepping away is exactly what you need to see things clearly again.

This is really really great and I urge all of you to take a listen and dive into Si’s mind as to how he creates his music 🔥 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tape-notes/id1249834293?i=1000671480103

Hey fam, I thought this pod would resonate with a lot of you. Kieran is a musical genius and one of my heroes, and it’s a privilege to be able to peer into his mind on how he creates. There’s so many gems of wisdom in this, his workflow, his deep well of ideas and influcences, field recordings, old loops he made as a teenager getting new life, less is more attitude in most productions, writing on his laptop using his LAPTOP SPEAKERS for like 80 % of what he does. I mean, it’s incredible really. Inspiring stuff right here : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tn-140-four-tet/id1249834293?i=1000662459270

One of the main limiting/annoying factors with music production is, that at some point I can't really hear my production anymore - it's more and more dominated by "what I think it sounds like" - this leads to the situation that sometimes even after not listening to a track for many days I still am not able to realize how unbalanced the instruments are or how boring a section is. Is this just something one has to power through (I am only doing this music production thing for a bit more than two years now)? I do take frequent breaks and I don't think it's related to acute ear fatigue - but rather my imagination overpowering my ears... Not sure if I make myself clear or if this is even a thing others struggle with :)

For those who are DJs in the group, who has mixes they can share in the comments to help us all get through the work day or inspire some new tunes. I'll start with the last mix I made... https://soundcloud.com/44beats/episode-16