"If you don't already have a struggle inside you, you gotta make one up." ~ Jack White
I took that quote from It Might Get Loud, which I think is a thoroughly enjoyable and inspirational documentary about Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page. Those three embody three entirely different approaches to the guitar and to music.
Another thing Jack White said in the movie was that he deliberately tries to make things hard for himself sometimes: if it takes him three steps to get from the organ to the microphone, he'll set them up four steps apart just to see how it's going to change his performance to have to rush. I can really dig that because I do the same thing. Not always intentionally, in fact not usually intentionally, but I suspect he started doing this before he did it consciously. I think I should do it consciously more often.
When I get out of my comfort zone, my ego can't interfere with my actions. My ego requires a certain amount of time to act and to get involved. If I'm rushing to get something done because I haven't allowed myself enough time to do it, my ego doesn't have the luxury of second-guessing my decisions.
When my ego is out of the way, beautiful things can happen. My ego is very good at censoring me. Art doesn't do well within censorship unless it can transcend it. The best way I've found to overcome the censorship of my own mind is to take my ego out of the process.
There are times, professionally, when this isn't a good idea. For one thing, some projects demand more control than chaos. This approach is, by definition, chaotic. That's the beauty of it. And his chaos is what I love most about Jack White.
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