“I recommend people try to make the worst song in the world”: Jacob Collier offers unusual creative advice

As musicians, we’ve all been there: stuck in a rut, hamstrung by writers’ block and unable to come up with anything even half-decent. Well, Jacob Collier might have found the solution: try writing the worst song in the world.

That’s the, er, interesting advice the six-time Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist proffered in a recent interview with Guitar.com. He was talking about how expectations can feel creatively restricting. “I find myself locked when I’m covered by expectation,” he said. “And if something isn’t a certain way then I’m failing. But some of the process, for me, is trying not to hold onto expectations too closely and let something be whatever it needs to be.”

“Sometimes you need space, sometimes you need food, sometimes you need to go for a walk, sometimes you need to cry, sometimes you need to talk to your friends, sometimes you need to persist, sometimes you need to change tack, or sometimes you need to go and play a show.”

“Another thing I’ve tended to enjoy over the years that I recommend to people is to try and make the worst song in the world.”

Jacob Collier - Witness Me (feat. Shawn Mendes, Stormzy & Kirk Franklin) [Official Music Video] - YouTube

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The idea is that by doing so you relieve the pressure and allow the creative mind to roam free, and (hopefully) stumble upon something wonderful. 

“I’m perpetually surprised by how interesting my ideas become without the fear of them having to be good,” he added. “In fact, they can actively be bad. It’s a guaranteed way of making something interesting.”

Jacob Collier - Time Alone With You ft. Daniel Caesar - YouTube

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It’s not the first time this year Collier has come out with a surprising statement. Back in April, the 29 year old took aim at veteran producer Rick Rubin and his approach to writing. On an episode of the Colin and Samir podcast he said: “Rick says things like ‘art is only pure if it’s made for only art’s sake’. Absolutely false.”

“I would critique Rick in a sense that I don’t think his audience is creative people. I think his audience is people who aren’t creative, for whom creativity is novel. And they’re thinking ‘Gosh, wow! I never even thought that you could make something for yourself!’ But I feel that anybody who’s inherently creative in some way knows that there’s no one way to do anything.”

“I look at Rick and I’m like, ‘has anyone ever debated (Rubin) on this stuff?’ because there are (multiple) ways of approaching creativity…I’d love to sit with Rick at one point and just talk to him, and chew the cud and push him.”

The 29-year-old recently completed his Djesse series of albums when he released Volume 4 in February. He’s currently on tour in Europe.