Rick Rubin on The Creative Act



Thanks to Hans Eirik Borgen, for directing my attention to this interview with the legendary music producer, Rick Rubin. (https://lnkd.in/ekzwPkd7) His entire approach to creativity is very much in tune with the process and values of interestingness and I would like to point out just a few of the points of overlap.

Beginning with Anderson Cooper’s introduction of Rubin as ‘one of the most talented music producers of his generation and certainly one of the most interesting.’ It is worth thinking about why, in telling the audience why they ought to continue watching, Cooper felt the need to add that Rubin is not *just* a once a generation talent in his particular field (after all, that might bore someone uninterested in popular music) but someone you will want to know more about, whoever you are.

The origin story behind a Tom Petty hit reveals something of interestingness’ characteristic meandering search process and sharp eye for the signifying, yet often inadvertent, detail:

“Tom sent me demos of about five new songs and none of them really struck me. Honestly, none of them spoke to me, but that guitar riff that opens the song was something that was played between two of the songs just like a, like a warm-up. I drove to Tom's house and I played it for him. I said ‘Listen to this space. I feel like this is the best thing on the tape. Write this one.’ and that turned into ‘Last Dance With Mary Jane.’”

Reinvigorating Johnny Cash’s career began with Rubin’s search for songs that were ‘brutally honest, brutally honest’ about The Man In Black himself, his frailties, self-doubt and pain. Truth, human truth, is almost always more interesting than fiction because it has limitations, it acknowledges the dark side of life and it connects to many memory patterns we already know.

Chuck D recalls how Rubin often seemed asleep in the studio because he was listening so deeply and then he’d make a small suggestion that made the song coalesce. Rubin does not play any instruments. “He didn’t pioneer the production. He didn’t pioneer the rap. But he pioneered a certain energy for it to be daring.” (And that is one of the best definitions of the planner’s role that you’re ever going to get.)

Perhaps most notable and most relevant for marketers caught up in the Boreplex of descriptive research masquerading as creative prescription is Rubin’s definitive statement: “The audience comes last…The audience doesn’t know what they want. The audience only knows what’s come before…I want them to say ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever heard’ and not know why.”

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