Rick Rubin: The Creative Act: a Way of Being

 

Minimalism is a key Rubin principle

Rick Rubin, a man I've never heard of, a producer of music I've never understood or cared for, is suddenly appearing everywhere as his new book on creativity is released.

First notice came from a Tweet hyping a 60 Minutes interview using the words "this interview is deep and inspiring." Then, as the latest guest on the Huberman Labs podcast, one of my favorites. Since the Huberman podcast is a daunting 3-hour behemoth, I went to YouTube for a shorter initiation and found:

Music Producer or Creative Therapist?

Most of the 33-minute video focused on music and musicians I don't resonate with and then it jumped to Johnny Cash, whose music I do care about. I've read a lot on creativity but Rubin is saying important things about creativity in a way somewhat different from what I've heard before, with an emphasis. shift from producing to reducing, looking for "I really like this" moments. When working with Johnny Cash and others, he takes a stance for doing whatever it takes to make the artist's best work. For example, when they got together,

He meditates with musicians before producing in order to clear out the bullshit about the externals of what other people want. Cash felt like he hadn't made a good record album in 25 years and had been discarded. "Let's do whatever it takes to make the best album you've ever made." For weeks, Cash played songs he liked and told stories. Process resulted in a 1994 Folk Album Grammy. The narrator states that "Hurts" may be the most powerful record of both of their careers. 

If you're a Johnny Cash fan or even just a vulnerable, living soul, you might find this to be a gift.

According to Rubin, the creative process is subtractive. You have to remove as many distractions as possible. No clutter, televisions, clocks. It's like a blank canvas. 

"The goal is to create a setting where an artist can become completely vulnerable and feel completely free to be themselves, 100% with no shame or needing to perform a certain way, and no expectations, just really a safe place to be naked, basically."

All of this was enough to get me into the Huberman podcast and download a Kindle sample.