Balancing Creativity and Technical Aspects in Music Production

Hey y’all!

I recently had a vibe-ullar chat with a producer friend about balancing creativity with the technical side of music production. It got me reflecting on how those two aspects come together in my own work, and how much one influences the other. So, I thought it’d be a total slay to dedicate this week’s blog to diving deeper into this topic (how mindful and demure, right? 😉).

The Intersection of Creativity and Technical Skills

On that fabulous note, I had a blast chatting with producer, instrumentalist, and composer Bryn Bliska (Maggie Rogers, Olivia Rodrigo, Karol G) to get her take on the matter.

I asked her: “When working on a project, how do you find the balance between the technical and creative aspects of music production? Do you find that one tends to influence your process more than the other?”

She said: “I generally view technique and technical matters as the language and means to communicate and bring forth creative visions and ideas. Often, learning new technical skills also changes how you’re able to speak a creative language, and breeds new ideas too! Other times, I’m actively working to figure out how to accomplish something I want to achieve creatively from a sound technical standpoint. I tend to really enjoy many of the nitty gritty, nerdy sides of production, whether that’s synthesis or sound design or intricate musical arranging, so these aspects are definitely a strong part of my musical toolbox and I also enjoy helping others’ bring their ideas to life with some of this background. But I think different projects call for a different balance, and keeping the creative flow and vision in primary focus is always my goal.”

Insights and Reflections

I love how Bryn views the technical side of production as a tool to bring creativity to life and express her musical vision. It’s a thought-provoking and insightful way to understand the relationship between the technical and creative aspects of production and how they influence each other. Her perspective also made me realize that I need to put more of an emphasis on consciously developing my technical skills. By doing so, I'll have more ways to express my creative ideas and even spark new ones I might not have discovered without those skills! (What a creative slay!). I'm super looking forward to applying this new perspective to my work and seeing how it influences my productions and mixes over time!

Thanks Bryn for such an awesome and thought-provoking answer!

Catch y’all next blog!