Zero-zero

Crossing the great divide.

I’ve tried really hard to avoid talking about this — but there comes a time when that’s no longer possible, when it can’t be held back anymore. And that time is now.

SPORTS.

F&#@ yeah!

I’m a secret sports fan, and this week, I’m going all in.

I say secret because for most of my life it’s felt like there’s been an unspoken barrier between sports and music. Like if you made a Venn Diagram of people who like sports and those who like music, the circles would not overlap or even touch.

It even feels at times like there’s something almost shameful about enjoying sports as a musician — like I’m betraying my people, abandoning our sound baths of A 432 drones and infinite wells of sensitivity to join a frat, crush beers on my head, and then dunk them in some miserable little art nerd’s face. Booyah!!!

Also, this is a newsletter about art and creativity! Ours is a struggle of the mind not the body. Our arena is one of emotions, of intimating and unearthing deep wells of beauty from a subtle look or a passing moment. We’re not trying to defeat or dominate anyone (except maybe conformity and inertia). Our opponents are only ourselves (and occasionally music streaming services). That’s not to say we’re not capable of battering ourselves just as much as any opponent.

Maybe that’s why I’ve tried to withhold any talk of sports in these newsletters, beyond an occasional reference around deliberate practice and skill-building.

But this week that all ends. I’m nailing my colors to the mast. I’m bridging the divide (with apologies in advance to those happy in their circle, separate and aloof).

The reason is that this month has seen the most vibrant sports-related outpouring of goodwill in New York City I can remember. It’s one of those rare moments where sports creeps into every conversation, where it bubbles through every interaction. Sports is genuinely bringing the city together right now, and it’s kinda amazing.

For one thing, there’s the World Cup. Restaurants are suddenly dripping in flags, watch parties spilling out into the streets. A random Tuesday’s business casual attire has been traded in for a panoply of different-colored jerseys. My kid, not generally a sports fan, made a massive “bracket” of all the groups and posted it on the wall, with a movable flag for each country to track their progress. During World Cup time, you get to see the boisterous diversity of backgrounds that makes this city so amazing.

But even more notably, there’s the New York Knicks, the long-suffering basketball franchise who haven’t won a title in 53 years but finally pulled it off, in the most dramatic, remarkable fashion possible.

I’m not a Knicks fan historically, but I gotta say, it’s been amazing to see my city so enamored. The bandwagon has been big and blaring and fun and welcoming, experienced in a thousand impromptu street parties, fireworks, hugs from strangers, etc. It’s been impossible not to hop on board.

The way the Knicks won is genuinely something, and this is where I will bring it back to creativity and music (thank you for your patience). For the entire series of the NBA Finals, they were behind in every game — sometimes by a lot. In Game 4, they were behind by 29 points and still came back to win — the largest ever comeback in an NBA Finals series. In the four games they won, the probability of them winning each game at one point was 8.4%, 27.2%, 0.4%, and 4.6% respectively. It’s a genuinely wild feat of mental fortitude that the Knicks were able to win these games.

The star of this Knicks team was a short (by NBA standards) guard named Jalen Brunson. There’s a lot to admire about Brunson — from the way he’s been written off a thousand times for being too short to the way he steps up in the most clutch moments to the way he passed up millions of dollars to give his team a better chance to win. My wife jokes that my love of sports is actually just the equivalent of gossip for dudes, and there’s a way in which a story like Jalen Brunson’s proves it true.

But the thing I’m taking note of today is his mindset — the specific mindset that allowed them to come back four times to win. It’s a mindset that always treats the score as 0-0.

When the Knicks are far behind in a game, it’s 0-0. When they’re ahead, it’s 0-0. Whatever the situation, you treat each possession as if it’s fresh, disconnected from all that came before it and all to come. You’re not re-litigating the past in your head. You’re not projecting yourself into the future, getting lost in dreams of glory or heartbreak. You default to the moment you’re in, to thinking about specifically how you’re going to handle yourself right now.

There are a number of reasons this type of thinking works. First of all, it takes your attention away from something largely out of your control (the outcome) and focuses it in on things that are largely in your control (your performance or your process).

For musicians, the analogy is obvious. It’s really easy to worry about how your album will perform, what your streaming metrics are, or the number of rejections you’ve gotten from promoters and labels. But those things can become huge distractions from creating great music and art. That’s not to say it’s bad to have specific career goals, but it’s important to not let them encroach on your creativity when you’re in the moment making stuff. Focus on the next note, not how it will be received.

The hits keep coming

Second of all, when something goes wrong, it’s really common to focus on the negative — the album that didn’t perform as well as you wanted, the day wasted with distractions, the song idea that’s just not quite working the way you want it to. This is related to the psychological concept of loss aversion — the way we tend to feel loss more deeply than gain. We sit with our losses, we let them fester, we revisit them again and again, even when it’s not productive or useful to do so. It’s in our nature.

Starting your day at 0-0 every day is a way to clear the decks. Whatever happened yesterday or with the last song, that’s in the past now. You don’t have to engage with it, if you don’t want to. You can start from scratch.

That’s not to say the baggage isn’t real. Sometimes your ideas really do suck, and nothing comes easy. Sometimes the grind is absolutely brutal. Sometimes you play a show to an empty crowd or release a song that falls flat. The challenge is that trying to be creative with all that weight around your neck becomes like trying to run through a gelatinous gloop. It’s so much work, so much effort.

Trick Yourself

And finally, a 0-0 mindset helps us avoid the trap of tying our identity to our outcomes. When the Knicks were down 29, they could have easily decided that they were a worse team than their opponents. In fact, that’s what the evidence indicated and what many of the pundits were saying (and still say, despite the win).

But that’s not what Brunson and the Knicks did. They didn’t think about the scale of the challenge — they shrunk it. It’s not about winning the title in that moment or proving that you’re actually a good team. It’s simply about scoring the next basket.

There’s some interesting research that shows that when people tie their self-worth to achievement, they’re much less resilient in the face of setbacks and frustration. It works if you always succeed, but the moment you fall short, it’s really easy to suddenly think you’re worthless.

And that feels hugely important for us as musicians because, well, a lot of us tie our self-worth to our musical achievements. I’m convinced that the musician who never feels imposter syndrome doesn’t exist, at least I’ve never met them. It’s so common to tell yourself you’re not actually good enough or your ideas aren’t good enough. The simple act of putting your creativity out there for others to judge requires huge amounts of vulnerability, opening yourself up to the idea that maybe you’re just not that good at this.

But what if it’s 0-0 every time? What if all that matters is what you do next — the melody you write, the song you put together, the show you play? What if you stick to the moment in front of you and what you’ll do with it?

So yeah, that’s my attitude today. It’s 0-0. I have no songs, no streams, no sales, no past disappointments to overcome. All I have is a miraculous brain, a bursting curiosity, and an excitement to so something I love. It’s hard to imagine what could stop me.

That’s it. Sports talk over. Back to minor major sevenths and the rest, and please pardon the interruption.

Go Knicks,
Ian

—
Ian Temple
Founder, Soundfly
ian@soundfly.com

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Tracking down the most epic pop songs of all time

My latest episode of How to Make Epic Music is out, and I took a deep dive into the history of epic pop music, from The Beatles to Donna Summer to Celine Dion. If you haven’t yet, take a listen here or on Spotify.

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Five Interesting Things

1. My friend Ewa Łączkowska released her own version of the Sontag Shogun track “in cloudy states” this past week, with etheral vocals and lyrics and a new arrangement. We made the stems for that track available in hopes someone might keep it going, and I’m so glad Ewa did! Give it a listen here.

2. Ted Gioia with a great reminder of why you shouldn’t tie your worth to outcomes:

3. I’m enjoying my free trial of Cantilever, an app of highly curated albums. This is exactly the sort of thing I want, especially when done by someone with similar tastes as mine — a recommendation for something to listen to, done with care and detail. Hoping I continue to use it going forward!

4. People who know me know that I love the course we made with Ryan Lott of Son Lux about creating your own virtual instruments. Well, Son Lux has a new album on the way, and I couldn’t be more excited for it! Here’s the first track.

5. If you need something to listen to, dive into the playlist of epic pop music I made for the latest podcast episode. Honestly… it’s really enjoyable. Full of melodrama and larger-than-life pop songs.