In Questloves thoughtful new bookCreative Quest, the musical artist-producer details how everyone not just artists can unlock creativity.
He chronicles his own musical journey, and zeroes in on the importance of mentors the power of collaboration.
Its part memoir, part useful guidebook on how people can access their artistic side.
Credit: Rob Kim/Getty Images; HarperCollins
Read on below, and pre-order your copy of the bookhere.
Its practical advice for what most people assume is a personal, hard-to-put-into-words process.
Stuff like Everyone has the power…you just have to click your heels together.
They work for me.
Sometimes I kinda see that they work for others.
Not really a guarantee there.
My book doesnt come with a coupon…
Hold off in calling your lawyers.
You give a lot of credit for your creativity to your mentors and peers.
Why?I say right off the bat: I dont even know if Im a creative.
I am in that field.
I have achievements and accomplishments.
Im comfortable in the passengers seat.
I love looking at the way that other people work and trying to figure them out.
When are they at their best?
When do they trip and fall?
What does that mean to them?
The last thing is that Im a natural collaborator.
Im in a band, have almost always been in a band.
On the show, I play with other bands every night.
I have written soundtrack music for other peoples films.
When I write, I co-write.
So I am always trying to fit my creative impulses in and around other peoples.
You write about the importance of curation.
So its easier than ever to build your identity from pieces of other works.
People are, more than ever, collages or mosaics.
So youre not only curating other artworks all the time but curating opinions about those artworks.
What was the hardest/easiest thing about writing this book?
I felt way too young to give life lessons.
It was exhausting to go through my own creative process without feeling like I was conducting an autopsy.
I was constantly TMI-ing myself.
The easiest part was collecting and retelling all the great stories and inspirational moments Ive had with other people.
There arent easy answers.
There arent pat exercises to do every day.
But you have to keep doing it.
It can make you feel insecure.
Luckily, its one of the only fun, rewarding, and wisdom-producing things on the planet.
What was your writing process like?
We sit down at the beginning and blueprint the whole building.
We know where the columns go and where the doors go and where the windows go.
We know which walls are load-bearing.
Once thats done, the rest of the process is easier.
When we get together to write, we can drop into the book at any point.
If Im in the mood to discuss success and failure, we can do that.
If Im in the mood to discuss the dangers of self-parody, we can do that.
Eventually, a book.
