During my time at NAMM 2020 in Anaheim,CA, I had the chance to meet with my good friend Graham Cochrane. Meeting with friends like Graham is always my favorite part of going to NAMM.

Graham has been running The Recording Revolution (https://www.recordingrevolution.com) for more than 10 years now, a pioneer in the YouTube space as far as music production tutorial goes. In this video, Graham shares with us 5 WAYS to be MORE PRODUCTIVE in the STUDIO.

(video transcript)

Chris:
Hey, guys. Chris here with Graham Cochrane from the Recording Revolution. So if you just came back from a 10-year trip to Mars, and you don’t know who Graham Cochrane is … You know what? He runs the Recording Revolution, amazing YouTube channel. I’m going to leave the link in the description down below, and today we’re going to talk about five ways to be more creative in the studio.

Chris:
Hope you guys are doing good. If you’re new here on the channel, feel free to subscribe to the channel. Click on the notification bell so you don’t miss anything. Again, you know the drill. Share and like, if you find that the video is helpful.
Chris: Graham, thank you for being here.

Graham:
Dude, pumped to be here.

Chris:
We in California at NAAM, which is always great, because I get to meet with this wonderful human being.

Graham: That’s the best part. The best part is connecting with people like Chris, and seeing everyone we see on the internet. You know, through the cameras? We get to see them in person. Yeah, I love it.

Chris: It’s always fun. And now we’re lucky enough to have Graham sharing with us some very cool tips about being more creative in the studio. Let’s go with tip number one, Graham.

Graham:
Yeah, so the first thing that’s helped me out is something that I learned from a guy named Jay Abraham, who’s a business consultant, guru, sales guy. He calls it the creativity switch, and the idea was simple, is if you want to be more creative … He was thinking about it for his business, but if you want to be more creative with your music, you can’t do the same thing you always do, because your brain is conditioned and designed to become efficient.

If it figures out that you always wake up and do the same thing first thing in the morning, or if you’re in the studio, you always use this mic and this way, you always do everything the same, it can basically go to sleep, because it’s really good at running on autopilot. It does so much.

Graham: So his idea was change up your routine, get different stimuli, whether it’s visual or auditory, to make your brain notice that something’s different. Then it wakes up a bit, and it goes from autopilot mode to like fully functioning mode, which is … I think to be creative, you want your brain to be fully awake.

Chris:
Exactly, yeah.

Graham:
There’s so much power in there, but it was an interesting concept of what can you switch up in your routine to be more creative.

Chris:
So you have examples?

Graham:
For the studio, for me, so when I heard this concept I said, “Oh, this is great.” And since I’m a weirdo, I like to do themed challenges. In my mind, I was like, “I’m going to do a whole EP, a whole little record based off the creativity switch, and I want to switch up everything and see what happens.”

Graham: So one of the first things I wanted to do to switch it up was to make a record in an entirely different piece of software.

Chris:
Okay, interesting.

Graham:
So that’s one thing you can do to unlock your creativity. I’m a Pro Tools guy. I record in Pro Tools, mix in Pro Tools. So I said, “Okay, let me pick not only a different DAW, but I want to pick the most bizarre DAW.”

Chris:
Which was?

Graham:
Which was Reason.

Chris:
Oh, okay.

Graham:
And if you’re a reason user, I love you, but I need to ask you how to use Reason properly, because I don’t understand how Reason works. But I decided to use something … So visually, I’d be looking at something different visually, and obviously there’s different plugins and different sounds, but I couldn’t do the same thing I always do in Pro Tools, because I-

Chris:
I see.

Graham:
My hands were tied a little bit, because I didn’t know the program very well, but that was one way to just get my brain thinking differently.

Chris:
That’s pretty cool. That’s pretty interesting. I guess for me it would be something like Ableton.

Graham:
Yeah, yeah. That would be a good example.

Chris:
That would like … Yeah, that would tear my world apart, basically.

Graham:
Well, yeah, because different DAWs, some are more similar than others, but Ableton is very loop-based. Reason is very much like, you have the rack where it’s like you’re plugging in like virtual 

Chris:
The cable thing is quite cool though, you know? I remember when I first worked with Reason. That was years ago, but that was interesting. So it turned out well in the end?

Graham:
I mean, I think so. I think so. But that was one of the things, that when I started making a record with that program, I had different plugins and different sounds. They have cool vocal distortion plugins, and I did different things on that record because I could, because those different sounds were there, and they were readily available. I was more experimental. It was like, “I don’t know what this is, so let me try it.”

Chris:
Exactly, yeah.

Graham:
And for me, that was a good place to be, because I’ve been making music for so long that I kind of just do things the same way. That’s one tip, is just use a different piece of software.

Chris:
That’s amazing, and let’s go with tip number two.

Graham:
So tip number two is if you’re a songwriter and you’re also making your own music, you probably have an instrument that you tend to write off of. I’m a guitar player and a singer, so I tend to like start with the guitar, and I sit down, and my songs come out of that. Consequently, they’re going to have a certain sound because they’re based off of guitar chords. I’m not a keyboard player, I can’t play keyboards.

Graham:
This time around, I decided to start with drum loops. Start writing from a different instrument. So if you’re fortunate enough to be able to play different instruments, then you could just start with keyboard, or you could start with … I can’t, so I was like, “I will just, in Reason, cycle through a bunch of drum loops, and just see what …” And literally write songs based off of that loop. Don’t even touch my guitar. I brought guitars in later, but that was to support whatever the song was coming out of the drum.

Chris:
Okay. So I guess you started with the loop, you created a melody or something, because you don’t have any chord progressions or something.

Graham:
It was different for each one. One song had a loop, and then once I found a loop I really liked, I started to hear like a bassline in my head. I was like, “Oh!” So I grabbed my base. I was like, “What if I play this on the loop?” And then, okay, then I’ll support that with guitar. The Other ones, I started with drum loops and then I would cycle through like organ loops, or keyboard loops, or piano loops. I’m not a loop-based musician, but again, this was something different. It made me more creative.

Graham: Because I’m still a singer and a songwriter, and I’m still going to play guitar, but what came out of this, the songs turned out differently because of the origin of the first instrument. You know?

Chris: Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

Graham: So start with a different instrument.

Chris: I love it.

Graham:
If you don’t play another instrument, that leads me to another tip, which is collaborate with someone else.

Chris:
Collaboration, I’ve talked about that on this channel a lot. I love collaboration. That was actually part of my process producing music, for clients or for myself. Always collaborating with people. I just love it.

Graham:
But so many home studio musicians these days don’t collaborate, because they don’t have to to realize their musical visions, which I love. You’re empowered to just make it all yourself, and I love to do it all myself, but if you want to be more creative, sometimes collaborating with someone who either A, plays a different instrument than you, then you can literally write songs with a different instrument.

Chris:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah.

Graham: Or like I’m doing right now, I’m finishing up an EP with our mutual friend, Ill Factor.

Chris: Yeah.

Graham:
And he’s a super-talented, electronic music producer in Miami, and he does different music genre-wise than I do, but also different instruments. And so we co-wrote a whole five song EP together. We did a couple of singles together and they worked out really well, so we wanted to do more, but I just went to his studio and we just locked the door for 48 hours. We just said, “Let’s see what comes out.” And he would start with a bunch of weird sounds that I don’t have access to, or I can’t play keyboard, so I would never hear. And then I would bring my sort of rock and guitar sensibilities to what he was doing, and it’s just cool. Different stuff came out.

Chris:
That’s so cool. Okay, what about tip number four?

Graham:
So we did different software, different instrument, collaboration. Go to a different environment.

Chris: Oh.

Graham:
This can be as crazy as literally going to a different studio, or recording outside, or doing something weird. I have one of my students who recorded in a car. He needed to record vocals. He literally got this song on a national TV commercial, it’s for like Chevron, a gas station or something. But he needed to do the vocals in a quiet spot, so he recorded in his car.

Chris: Awesome.

Graham:
Anyway, so you can record in your car. What I did was, instead of recording at my home studio desk with all my gear, I grabbed a little portable interface and just went to my sofa, sat down on my couch, on the coffee table. And it’s in my house, it’s not really a different place, but it feels different, because you’re sitting on a couch. I’m not in front of my … I got a little laptop, a little interface.

Graham: It just feels different, and that’s kind of going back to the creativity switch. That’s the idea. It can be one little shift. It sounds weird, but your brain is seeing different visual stimuli. You’re sitting in a different spot.

Chris:
Makes sense.

Graham:
It just forces your brain to wake up, because when you sit at your desk that you always sit at, with your mouse and your keyboard, or whatever your rig is, your brain knows it and it’s comfortable, so it can go to sleep, and our whole goal is to wake up the brain.

Chris:
Man, those were cool tips.

Graham:
Yeah, man.

Chris:
There’s one last one.

Graham:
This one is a little counterintuitive, and I don’t know if this is even the one we were talking about, but is: If you’re a typical creative and you just sit down and create in the studio, and whatever comes out, comes out whenever it comes out, one way to be more creative is to set really strict deadlines. And I say that because a lot of creatives struggle with deadlines, and they feel like deadlines are suffocating or limiting, or you know … How can you put a deadline on art?

Graham:
But I don’t think a lot of home studio musicians realize that the best song writers, the best creatives in the world, this is their job and they have deadlines, and they work with it. They go to work every day and sit down like, “I’ve got eight hours. I need to write two songs, or I need to write three songs, or one really good song,” and they have to get it done.

Graham:
It’s that bit of pressure that helps you focus. That’s all deadlines are good for, is focus. And again, it’s getting your brain to do what it can do really well, but your brain is like me. It wants to be as efficient and as sleepy as possible. I just want to do the maximum output with the minimum effort, you know? It’s a powerful thing, but to be creative, we want to wake our brain up.

Graham:
So I think when you have a deadline like, “Hey, I want to record a single, and not only write it, record it, but I want to release it in the next 30 days.” And you circle it on your calendar, and you tell your fans on Instagram or Facebook, “New single drops on this date.” Once you’ve done that, it’s out in the open, you kind of are forced to make it happen. And you’d be surprised how good you can do something if you have to.

Chris:
It’s hard, like for myself, set up a deadline for my own music, it’s something super hard. For a client when you don’t have the choice, that goes well, and I work well under pressure.

Graham:
That’s good.

Chris: You know?

Graham:
But it’s hard for your own music?

Chris:
For my own music or to set up my own deadlines, it’s like … Okay, it’s a bit harder than doing it for clients.

Graham:
What do you find is the hardest part about it? Do you find that you just don’t hit the deadline, or does it stress you out, or?

Chris:
Maybe I don’t hit the deadline, maybe that’s one of … Yeah, maybe I’m afraid of not meeting the deadline. Maybe it’s a money issue, financial issue. You know, when you work with a client, you have like a deadline, you have money that comes with it for sure. Also now, you force yourself, you have the time. You make the time, you know? Because you have the financial aspect that is covered, that you don’t have to worry about.

Graham:
Yeah, yeah.

Chris:
And you want to please your client. You want to make sure the client’s happy, you want to make sure the client’s going to come back after, that he’s going to talk highly of you. You know? So you want to make sure he’s going to come out of the studio happy. And by meeting a deadline, the client is very happy.

Graham:
But it’s so ironic though, because you should think those things about yourself, right?

Chris:
There you go.

Graham:
That you come out of the process happy, that you get what you like. You should treat yourself like a client. And I think that’s one of like … I love the home studio, one of the reasons why. I used to intern at a $5 million studio in Virginia, and I thought what I wanted was to get one of the paid engineer positions and work my way up, and work in that environment. And I realized after six months of working there, like, “This isn’t fun. I actually have more fun at home in my apartment making music, because I’m more creative.”

Graham:
So I love the freedom of being in a home studio, but you have to treat yourself like a professional. Book your own studio time with yourself on the calendar, so you don’t … Because life is going to get in the way. I have a wife, I have kids, I want to spend time with my friends and family, and volunteer at my church. I have a life, but if you don’t put yourself on your calendar … So for all the things you said about your clients, you should do that for yourself.

Chris:
I’m taking something out of this, you know? So I’m going to treat myself as a client. That’s one of my goal-

Graham:
And you could pay yourself.

Chris: There you go.

Graham: 
You raise your rates and pay yourself.

Chris:
There you go! That’s awesome.

Graham:
The money goes right back.

Chris:
All right. Thank you,
Graham. I really appreciate it.

Graham:
Thanks for having me, man.

Chris:
Guys. Again, go check his channel if you didn’t already. I’m going to leave all the links below. Likes, share, if you think that it was helpful. And again, if you’re new here on the channel, subscribe, and click the notification bell. Until next time, they care, and see you.