Jacob Collier: “Another thing I recommend to people is to try and make the worst song in the world”Stuck in a creative rut? British multi-instrumentalist and producer Jacob Collier has a piece of advice for you: try to make the worst song in the world. This unusual approach, he suggests, can lead to surprising results in your music.

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Speaking in a recent Guitar feature, the six-time Grammy winner says that the fear of getting stuck creatively is something every artist – himself included – experiences.
“I don’t know any musicians or creative people who don’t know that feeling, because it’s just part of it,” Collier admits. “I will say I’ve come to understand myself better in it, and I realise what I need in those kinds of situations.”
“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.”
As Collier explains, it’s important to keep an open mind when making music so you don’t get bogged down by expectations.
“I find myself locked when I’m covered by expectation,” he says. “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.”
“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,” Collier adds.
By aiming for something intentionally bad, musicians can break free from the pressure of perfection and allow their imagination to run wild.
”I’m perpetually surprised by how interesting my ideas become without the fear of them having to be good,” he says. “In fact, they can actively be bad. It’s a guaranteed way of making something interesting.”
Earlier this year, Jacob Collier aimed criticism at veteran producer Rick Rubin, after he shared his philosophy that the audience should come last when it comes to songwriting.
“I would critique Rick in a sense that I don’t think his audience is creative people,” Collier said. “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.”
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