I had dinner with two of the guys from Arrested Development and spent most of the evening discussing music, life, entrepreneurship and everything in between.
I love spending time with creative individuals and learning more about how they think, how they operate, and how they get their stuff done.
After the basic pleasantries were over one of the very first questions I asked was where an artist goes after achieving the highest achievement in their industry – not one, but two Grammy awards.
Rasa Don’s answer (I spent most of the night with him as we were dinner buddies) was simple: Life. As a creative your inspiration continues to evolve and greater challenges naturally present themselves. The Grammys were a nice symbolic gesture of their pursuit of excellence but their pursuit was there before anyone recognized it and it is still going strong when the rest of the world forgets or moves on.
We spoke in depth about a ton of stuff, from his creative process to children’s educational programs to Snoop Lion to application development. The food was good, the drinks were great, but the conversation was par excellence. I’ve got a lot to chew on, that’s for sure.
One fascinating topic that we discussed in length was the idea surrounding the innovator and artist and how the world naturally wants to “box” them in while the artist is constantly trying to destroy the box while being simultaneously praised for that same box.
It’s an interesting tension that I’ve felt before – how many times have I “changed” and taken my blog with me? I’ve had a lot of people ask my why things have changed and how they liked the “old” me better than what they are experiencing today. These people can’t see that as a creative it is not only instinctual but also my job to continue to evolve.
Many people don’t appreciate nor do they like the evolution because it requires them to also change as well, and change, as we all know, can be painful and time consuming.
There’s a rhythm to life and the rhythm doesn’t stay the same – if it does then you’re probably dead.
Couldn’t agree more about the necessary evolution of the creative person. It’s something I used to hate about myself – that I had to keep changing, as people had a hard time changing with me (especially online). But now I guess I’ve just come to accept it as part of who I am.
Great post and opportunity to sit down with a creative group of musicians. I agree that we must evolve in out creative endeavors.