To create something fresh requires that you seek out, delete, and destroy everything that feels stale.

Whether in music, writing, fashion, film, business, or problem-solving...the goal is to be innovative and to make something new.  Even when you produce something of the highest quality, it will not be valued unless it also feels fresh and new.  But in pushing things forward and innovating, you are helped along by the process of nature.  You are helped along by evolution itself.  Your audience will be ignited and they will care.  That reaction will be a natural expression of their nature.

To create something fresh requires a certain mind-set.  You have to remain constantly critical.  You also have to ask others to openly critique what you create and trust their opinion when they say it is uninteresting or unoriginal.  To create something fresh and new requires listening to your inner-voice, your intuition, and it also requires that you are up-to-date on what's going on in the world.  You need to stay current and you need people around you who are current.

When you fail to create something that feels fresh, new, and exciting, your work fails to become relevant.  But, to the extent that you achieve it...that's when you find that the world makes room for you.

I want to thank the guys in my band for helping me to understand this prior to going into the studio earlier this year.