Top Artists Reveal How to Find Creative Inspiration

7/27/2019 Top Artists Reveal How to Find Creative Inspiration

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Top artists reveal how to find creative inspirationGuy Garvey, Isaac Julien, Martha Wainwright and other artists give their top tips forunleashing your inner geniusFollow Laura Barnett by emailBETA

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Polly Stenham, Guy Garvey, Tamara Rojo, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Fyfe Dangerfield, MarthaWainright,Anthony Neilson, Rupert Goold, Isaac Julien,Lucy Prebble, Jasmin Vardimon, Sunand Prasad,Susan Philipsz, Akram Khan, Polly Morgan, Kate Royal,Ian Rickson, Olivia Williams,Martin Parr, WayneMcGregor

The Guardian, Monday 2 January 2012 16.57 GMT

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Guy Garvey. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/Rex Features

Guy Garvey, musician

For fear of making us sound like the Waltons, my band [Elbow] are ahuge source of inspiration for me. They're my peers, my family; whenthey come up with something impressive, it inspires me to come upwith something equally impressive.

Spending time in your own head is important. When I was a boy, Ihad to go to church every Sunday; the priest had an incomprehensibleIrish accent, so I'd tune out for the whole hour, just spending time in myown thoughts. I still do that now; I'm often scribbling down fragmentsthat later act like trigger-points for lyrics.
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A blank canvas can be very intimidating, so set yourself limitations.Mine are often set for me by the music the band has come up with.With The Birds, for instance the first song on our last album theband already had this great groove going, and I knew I wanted thevocals to reflect the bass-line, so that was immediately something towork with.

Just start scribbling. The first draft is never your last draft. Nothingyou write is by accident.

The best songs often take two disparate ideas and make them fittogether. When I started writing lyrics forThe Birds, I was sitting in acottage in the grounds of Peter Gabriel'sReal World studios. I waslooking out at the birds outside, starting to think of lyrics about them;and then I thought about the last time I'd been there, 10 years before,

at the end of a great love affair. I thought, how can I combine these twoideas? So I came up with an idea about a love affair that had ended ina field, with birds as the only witnesses. Don't be scared of failure.

If it's all getting too intense, remember it's only a song. I learned thatthe hard way: when I was younger, I played the part of the erratic,irascible drunk in order to have something to write about.

The best advice I've ever had came about 20 years ago fromMano

McLaughlin, one of Britain's best songwriters. "The song is all," hesaid, "Don't worry about what the rest of the music sounds like: youhave a responsibility to the song." I found that really inspiring: itreminded me not to worry about whether a song sounds cool, or fitswith everything we've done before but just to let the song be what itis.

Polly Stenham, playwright
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Playwright PollyStenham at the Royal court theatre. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Guardian

Listen to music I always have music on while I'm writing. I'm a veryaural person; as soon as I hear a lyric or phrase, I'm transported to aparticular time or place. My taste varies wildly. When I was writingThatFace, I listened toLove Her Madlyby the Doors, which seemed to saya lot about the characters' relationship with their mother. ForTuskTusk, I played Radiohead's albumIn Rainbowsover and over. Onelyric, about being an animal stuck in car, even made it into the play'splotline.Doodle I'm very fidgety, and I seem to work best when my hands areoccupied with something other than what I'm thinking about. Duringrehearsals, I find myself drawing little pictures or symbols that aresomehow connected to the play. With Tusk Tusk, it was elephants,clowns and dresses on hangers. I'll look back at my doodles later, andrandom snatches of dialogue will occur to me.Go for a walk Every morning I go to Hampstead Heath [in northLondon], and I often also go for a wander in the middle of the day tothink through a character or situation. I listen to music as I go. Again,it's about occupying one part of your brain, so that the other part isclear to be creative.

Tamara Rojo, ballet dancer
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Ballet dancerTamara Rojo. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

I seek inspiration in film, theatre, music, art and in watching otherballet companies, other dancers, and other types of dance. I never feel

jealous of another good dancer: I always feel there is so much to learnfrom them.

An idea never comes to me suddenly; it sits inside me for a while, andthen emerges. When I'm preparing for a particular character, I look forideas about her wherever I can. When I first dancedGiselle, I foundLars von Trier's filmDancer in the Darkincredibly inspiring. It was sodark, and it felt just like a modern-day version of Giselle the story of a

young woman taken advantage of by others. It brought the part alivefor me. Now when I talk to others who are playing Giselle, theysometimes say they're worried that it feels like a parody, and notrelevant to today. I tell them to watch that film and see how modern itcan be.To be truly inspired, you must learn to trust your instinct, and yourcreative empathy. Don't over-rehearse a part, or you'll find you getbored with it. Hard work is important, but that comes before inspiration:in your years of training, in your ballet class, in the Pilates classes.That work is there just to support your instinct and your ability toempathise. Without those, you can still give a good, technically correctperformance but it will never be magical.

Mark-Anthony Turnage, composer

Forget the idea that inspiration will come to you like a flash oflightning. It's much more about hard graft.
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Find a quiet studio to work in.Shostakovichcould not have composedwith the telly on. Try to find a studio with more than one window. I work best when Ihave windows in two walls, for some reason; maybe it is because thereis more light. At the moment, I'm working in a room with no windows.It's not going well at all.

Routine is really important. However late you went to bed the nightbefore, or however much you had to drink, get up at the same timeeach day and get on with it. When I was composing [the opera]AnnaNicole, I was up at 5 or 6am, and worked through until lunch. Theafternoon is the worst time for creativity. If you write something in the evening or at night, look back over it thenext morning. I tend to be less self-critical at night; sometimes, I've

looked back at things I wrote the night before, and realised they wereno good at all.

If you get overexcited by an idea, take a break and come back to itlater. It is all about developing a cold eye with which to look over yourown work.

Take a break of two to three weeks after finishing a work, and beforesending it off to wherever it has to go. That is difficult if you have adeadline but it is very important in terms of developing an overallview of what works and what doesn't.

Fyfe Dangerfield, musician

I used to think that being inspired was about sitting around waiting forideas to come to you. That can happen occasionally: sometimes, I'mwalking down the street and suddenly hear a fragment of music that Ican later work into a song. But generally, it's not like that at all. I likenthe process to seeing ghosts: the ideas are always there, half-formed.It's about being in the right state of mind to take them and turn theminto something that works.

One of the most difficult things about writing music is the sheer numberof distractions: mobiles, email, Twitter, YouTube. When you're writing,you have to be very disciplined, to the point of being awkward: turn offyour phone and find a space to work without any of these distractions.

For me, the image of the tortured artist is a myth you don't need to bemiserable to write songs. In fact, if I am feeling down, the last thing I
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want to do is write; though it's important sometimes just to sit down andget on with it, however you're feeling. Your creativity is like a tap: if youdon't use it, it gets clogged up.

We all have that small voice that tells us we're rubbish, and we need to

learn when to silence it. Early in the songwriting process, comparisonsdo nothing but harm: sometimes I put on aDavid Bowierecord andthink, "Why do I bother?" But when it comes to recording or mixing, youdo need to be your own critic and editor. It's a bit like having children:you don't interfere with the birth, but as your child grows up, you don'tlet it run wild.

Martha Wainwright, singer-songwriter

I definitely don't have rules I'm pretty disorganised. In fact, I oftenhave to guilt-trip myself into sitting down to write. It is so easy to let

your life get filled up with other stuff cooking, cleaning, going to thebank, looking after your baby. These everyday things do come throughin my songwriting, though. Most of my songs are defined by a sense ofloneliness, of isolation, that I probably get from spending a lot of timeon my own.

The little images that I get from sitting alone in my apartment the waythe light is falling through the window; the man I just saw walk by onthe other side of the street find their way into snatches of lyrics. Iwrite in short spurts for five, 10, 15 minutes then I pace around the

room, or go and get a snack.

When I first moved to New York some years ago, I used to go toconcerts every night I would see six or seven musicians a week. Nowthat I'm a songwriter myself, I find watching other musicians can befrustrating I want to be the one up there performing. But every sooften I see someone who inspires me to try something different. Thathappened recently withSufjan Stevens I saw him performinProspect Park, and his sound was so huge and poppy that I wenthome thinking: "I should really try something like that."

Anthony Neilson, playwright and director

Don't forget to have a life. It's important to look outside the business.There are so many great stories out there that have nothing to do withthe theatre, or with other writers.

Be as collaborative as possible. I do a lot of my thinking once I'm inthe rehearsal room I'm inspired by the actors or designers I'm
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working with. Other creative people are a resource that needs to beexploited.

Try to ignore the noise around you: the chatter, the parties, thereviews, the envy, the shame.

Listen to music to find a way into the story you're telling. Music isincredibly evocative: find the right piece that reflects the world you'rewriting about, and you're halfway there. When I wrote myplayPenetrator, I listened to a miserableSadesong on a loop. Listento a song enough times, and it provokes a Pavlovian response thathelps you get back to the place you're writing about. Masturbate frequently. You'll probably do that anyway, but you mayas well make it a rule.

Rupert Goold, director Get an alarm with a long snooze function and set it early. Shallow-sleep dreams have been the source of many of my best ideas (sadly,small children are no respecters of prospective genius).

The best ideas are tested by their peaks and troughs. One truly greatimage or scene astride a broken mess is more intriguing than ahundred well-made cliches.

Once you have an idea, scrutinise the precedent. If no one has

explored it before in any form then you're 99% likely to be making amistake. But that 1% risk is why we do it.

Make sure you are asking a question that is addressed both to theworld around you and the world within you. It's the only way to keepgoing when the doubt sets in.

I always try to reshape my ideas in other forms: dance, soap opera,Olympic competition, children's games, pornography anything thatwill keep turning them for possibilities.

I prepare less and less as I get older, and try to lose my script in thefirst few days. In the collaborative arts, the more open you are toshared inspiration, the richer the work. Or maybe I'm just getting lazy.

An idea is just a map. The ultimate landscape is only discoveredwhen it's under foot, so don't get too bogged down in its validity.
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Love the effect over its cause.

Isaac Julien, artist

I have a magpie attitude to inspiration: I seek it from all sorts ofsources; anything that allows me to think about how culture comestogether. I'm always on the lookout I observe people in the street; Iwatch films, I read, I think about the conversations that I have. Iconsider the gestures people use, or the colours they're wearing. It'sabout taking all the little everyday things and observing them with acritical eye; building up a scrapbook which you can draw on.Sometimes, too, I look at other artworks or films to get an idea of whatnot to do.

It's very important for inspiration to go elsewhere: to move away fromthe city into pastoral settings, and to make space for meditation. I alsoenjoy talking to people who aren't involved in art. For my recent work,I've had a lot of conversations with people involved in digitaltechnologies. It's useful to get perspective on what you do by talking toall sorts of different people.

Lucy Prebble, playwright

Lucy Prebble.Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian Act it out yourself. Draw the curtains.

If ever a character asks another character, "What do you mean?", thescene needs a rewrite.
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Feeling intimidated is a good sign. Writing from a place of safetyproduces stuff that is at best dull and at worst dishonest.

It's OK to use friends and lovers in your work. They are curiouslyflattered.

Imagine the stage, not the location.

Write backwards. Start from the feeling you want the audience tohave at the end and then ask "How might that happen?" continually,until you have a beginning.

Reveal yourself in your writing, especially the bits you don't like.

Accept that, as a result, people you don't know won't like you.

Try not to give characters jobs that really only appear in plays; thedeliberately idiosyncratic (eg "the guy who changes the posters onhuge billboards at night") or the solipsistic (eg "writer").

Write about what you don't know. Ifyou know what you think aboutsomething, you can say so in a sentence it doesn't take a play.

An apparently intractable narrative problem is often its own solution ifyou dramatise the conflict it contains.

Surround yourself with people who don't mind you being a bit absent

and a bit flakey.

Be nice to them. They put up with a lot.

Break any rule if you know deep inside that it is important.

Jasmin Vardimon, choreographer

Usually, I become aware of what has inspired me only towards the endof the creative process, or much later. These are the sorts of thingsthat motivate me:

Places that have certain emotional dynamics: hospitals, parks, courtrooms, therapy rooms.

Significant moments in my life that sharpen my senses, make melisten carefully, look for the detail, and awaken my curiosity.
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Things that keep dragging my attention and my thoughts, hauntingme at night.

Books, especially those that make me want to check theirbibliographies.

A sentence I read or hear.

Things that my daughter says or does.

Contradictions and double meanings in language or actions.

Ugliness.

My dancers, the artists I collaborate with.

Questions I can't answer easily.

Sunand Prasad, architect

Keep asking: "What is really going on here?" like a detective(orRudolf Steiner). Immerse yourself in the worlds of the people who will use andencounter the building or place.

Forget the building for a while. Focus totally on what people will bedoing in the spaces and places you are designing next year, in fiveyears, in 20.

The most inspiring thing is to see human ingenuity in action it is allaround us.

Ask off-piste questions. What if this library were a garden? If thisfacade could speak, would it be cooing, swearing, silent, erudite?

Keep practising scales. Architectural problems and propositions havemany scales simultaneously keep ranging across them.

Gather inquisitive and reflective people around you. The rapid

bouncing back and forth of an idea can generate compelling conceptsat amazing speed.

Once there's an idea, turn it upside down and take it seriously for amoment even if it seems silly.
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We all have a sense of the sublime use it to test your propositionsas rigorously as logic and functionality.

Susan Philipsz, artist

If you have a good idea, stick to it. Especially if realising the project isa long and demanding process, try to keep true to the spirit of the initialidea.

Daydream. Give yourself plenty of time to do nothing. Train journeysare good.

Be open to your surroundings. I try to find inspiration in the characterof the place I'm exhibiting in. It helps me if I can respond to somethingthat is already there.

Always have something to write with. I seldom draw these days, butI need a pen in my hand to think.

I like reading and watching movies, but mostly I find that it's things Ihave seen or read a long time ago that come back to me. The thingsthat you found inspiring when you were starting out usually stay withyou.

Keep it simple.

Be audacious.

It doesn't always have to make sense.

I love silence. I can't listen to music while I work and I need to bealone.

I go through messy phases and tidy phases. Being messy during atidy phase is never good, and vice versa.

Akram Khan, dancer and choreographer
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Akram Khan inDesh. Photograph: Alastair Muir/Rex Features

Collaborate Go on a journey with someone who is as different to youas chalk and cheese. I am inspired by the dialogue between twodifferent bodies, two different minds, two different ways of expressing asingle idea.Observe I observe my surroundings acutely an animal in the citystreets, a man in the wilderness.Displace yourselfI am always inspired by things that are placed inan unfamiliar territory. Even after 37 years, I still feel displaced withinmy own body: I have never felt completely at ease with it.Find stories I am inspired by stories of people, of communities, ofdifferent cultures, of new history that we are writing or forming. Mostly,I am inspired by children and their grandparents: the way their facesdance.Let go The subconscious part of myself creates far more interestingthings than the conscious part can ever dream of.

Akram Khan'sDeshpremiered at the Curve Theatre, Leicester in 2011.

Polly Morgan, artist

Don't wait for a good idea to come to you. Start by realising anaverage idea no one has to see it. If I hadn't made the works I'm

ashamed of, the ones I'm proud of wouldn't exist.

Leave the house. Or better still, go toBattersea Dogs & CatsHomeand rescue astaffie. I did so partly to get out more, as I wasspending too much time surrounded by the same objects, within thesame walls. The sense of guilt I feel when my dogs are indoors forces
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me out at regular intervals. One of my favourite new ideas came aboutwhen I stopped to examine a weed growing in the forest I walk in. Hard work isn't always productive. Your brain needs periods ofinactivity. I think of it as a field lying fallow; keep harvesting and thecrops won't mature.

Don't restrict yourself to your own medium. It is just as possible to beinspired by a film-maker, fashion designer, writer or friend than anotherartist. Cross-pollination makes for an interesting outcome.

Be brief, concise and direct. Anyone who over-complicates things isat best insecure and at worst stupid. Children speak the most senseand they haven't readNietzsche. Don't try to second-guess what people will want to buy. Successfulartists have been so because they have shown people something they

hadn't imagined. If buyers all knew what they wanted before it hadbeen made, they could have made it themselves, or at leastcommissioned it.

Don't be afraid to scrap all your hard work and planning and do itdifferently at the last minute. It's easier to hold on to an idea becauseyou're afraid to admit you were wrong than to let it go.

Kate Royal, opera singer

Soprano KateRoyal. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian Don't expect inspiration to happen when anyone else is watching. Itusually happens when you are on your own, and it's gone in a second.
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Inspiration on stage is a controlled version of what you mightexperience in the practice room. As opera singers, we are bound bymany rules musically, dramatically, interpretatively. When inspirationstrikes, you have to hope that the other 10 people on stage will giveyou space to wallow in your "moment".

Try not to analyse other voices and interpretations too much. Ofcourse we gain inspiration from the greats, but it is best found in thethe opera's score or in the poetry. If this doesn't inspire you, then youare in the wrong job.

Mistakes can be inspiring allow yourself to take risks, and do whatscares you. People might remember the colour of your dress and whatencore you sang, but no one will remember if you forgot a word or ifyour phrasing didn't go to plan.

Remember that art is everywhere. It's amazing what you can findinspiring on the No 464 bus from Peckham.

Alcohol and singing are not a good combination not in opera,anyway. The more you drink, the uglier you sound.

Be kind to your voice. If you want it to inspire you, you have to inspireit, with lots of rest, steam, sweets and a good talking to every now andagain.

Don't Google yourself or your reviews. It can only end in misery youeither believe the crap or the good, or none of it at all.

Let the audience into your world and you are bound to receiveinspiration from them. Sometimes even the man asleep at the back hasinspired me to sing with a little more "edge".

Get some perspective. I always thought I had to have music everysecond of every day, or I wouldn't survive. The truth is that when I stepback from it and learn to enjoy the more mundane aspects of life,

I appreciate my music so much more.

Ian Rickson, director

Hang on in there. Inspiration can come at any time, even after it feelslike you haven't been getting anywhere. Keep your stamina up, don'tforce too hard, and trust that you will find your way.
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Try to create an atmosphere where people feel free to take risks.Fear can shut down creativity, as can the pressure to impress.

Enable the power of the group, so that what can be collectivelyachieved transcends the pressure upon any single person.

Trust the ingenuity and instinctiveness of actors. Surround them withthe right conditions and they'll teach you so much.

You cannot overprepare. Enjoy being as searching and thorough aspossible before you begin, so you can be as free as possible onceyou've started.

Questions often open the doors of the imagination, even if we feel weshould provide answers.

Embrace new challenges. When we're reaching for things, we tend tobe more creative.

Try to remove your own ego from the equation. It can get in the way.

Work hard and relish the opportunities.

Take a deep breath, and a leap of faith.

Olivia Williams, actor

Olivia Williams.Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian Stay open. Acting is specific, because it requires co-operation andsocial interaction both to observe, experience and empathise with
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other human behaviours in order to reproduce them believably onstage or screen, or just to work with other actors to create a scene.

Relax. That doesn't mean the work itself or the preparation is relaxed,but the beginning of the process the reading of the script and the

vision of how it can be realised is not forced. Then, when inspirationhas struck, comes the messy process of practicalities.

Martin Parr, photographer

We live in a difficult but inspiring world, and there is so much out therethat I want to record. However you cannot photograph everything, so Ihave to select subjects that throw light on the relationship I have withthe world. This is often expressed as an ambiguity or a contradiction.

Look at tourism, for example. We have an idea of what a famous site

will look like as w've seen the photos but when you get there, thereality is usually different. This rub between mythology and reality isthe inspiration and the contradiction.

Inspiration can also come when a good connection is made with thesubject. The nature and quality of this connection can vary enormously.It may range from getting into a small community and winning the trustof the subjects over a number of visits; but it could also come fromwalking in the mountains and feeling a certain affinity with thelandscape.

The knack is to find your own inspiration, and take it on a journey tocreate work that is personal and revealing.

Wayne McGregor, choreographer

Do

Empty

Panic

Forage

Generate

Embody

Edit
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Decide

Persist

Practise

Interviews by Laura Barnett

Top Artists Reveal How to Find Creative Inspiration

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Transcript of Top Artists Reveal How to Find Creative Inspiration